The Making of Product Managers: 20 Stories of Real Product Managers Who Broke Into Product Management From Different Fields

by Lena Sesardic, Imed Zitouni (Illustrator)

There is no beaten path to becoming a Product Manager. But learning about how others have broken into Product Management can help inspire and spark ideas for what opportunities to pursue. This eBook contains 20 stories of real Product Managers who broke into Product Management from a large variety of different fields like Marketing, Software Engineering, Technical Support, Industrial Manufacturing and many more. The final chapter, Takeaways, contains eight valuable insights based on the patterns observed in the stories.

171 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2020

Reviews

[Excalibur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read the book The Making of Product Managers, written by Lena Sesardic. Product management is an organizational function within a company that guides all steps of a new product development lifecycle by focusing on the product and its customers.
The eBook contains 20 stories told by practicing product managers who reveal how some specific circumstances, opportunities, and actions led them to the field of product management. What I particularly like in this book is that each story includes an estimated reading time so I can read each story when I have a spare 10-20min.
I highly recommend this book to all aspiring product managers and also to all others who are exploring some new professional opportunities.

[Kislay Chandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the name suggests, this book is about the journey of twenty individuals into Product Management, including the author herself. Each chapter is a story of one individual's path to Product management, and typically includes advice on how one can enter the field. I have come across a number of Product Management books, and usually the focus of the book is on the practice rather than the practitioners. Lena's work, through the stories of these twenty individuals, including her and my own, really shows how varied the paths could be but they all lead to the same. I also loved the boxed sections in each chapter wherein she expounds upon a topic that might not be familiar to the reader. And the eight key takeaways at the end of the book is like a proverbial cherry on the top, distilling the essence of the 20 stories the reader went through. 

This book should be an essential read for anyone who is looking into a career in Product Management. Moreover, I would also recommend it to fellow Product Managers because it was not only educational but also uplifting to learn from and identify with the challenges and experiences of each of the product manager's in the book. It might be an exaggeration on my part, but I don't think there is a similar book out there on Product Management. Kudos to Lena Sesardic.