It is vital to anticipate success in business and work, regardless of what it is; but it isn’t always easy to do so. It is also a reality that the constant level of communication with multiple people, now just a click away, requires communication and emotional intelligence skills more than ever. This is where product management books can help.
Clearmove’s Product Manager, Myroslav Gavryshchuk, is well adapted to this world as he has a great set of hard and soft skills. That allows him to be a mediator, a negotiator, a presenter, and a manager at the same time. As this kind of position requires constant development and learning, it is important to be up-to-date with the best-related literature, particularly addressing the topics of negotiations and management. Today Myroslav shares his favorite books on these topics.
Product management and marketing books
1. “Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” by Marty Cagan
The majority of the most successful tech companies in the world, such as Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, etc, do something very different from other tech companies because their customers love their products. What is it? And will it work for any kind of business? With sections on assembling the right people and skillsets, readers can learn the information and immediately leverage it within their own organizations. The book will take you and your product to a new level of customer engagement, consistent innovation, and business success.
2. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” by Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler
One more product management book describes a revolutionary approach to creating a “position” in a prospective customer’s mind. Despite the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, the authors explain how to make and position an industry leader, position a follower so that it can occupy a niche not claimed by the leader, and avoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one. The book’s authors reveal many valuable cases of some of the most phenomenal successes and failures in advertising history, with detailed analyses.
Startups tend to fail quite often, However, in the majority of cases, failures can be preventable. This book is a new approach changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. This approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Entrepreneurs in companies of all sizes are encouraged to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. The author provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to be innovative more than ever.
4. The Lean Design Solution by Bart Huthwaite Sr.
Product design is the primary driver of success and today’s leaders recognize that. They are making it their main aim in their challenge for delivering customers more value at less cost. The author is a founder of the Institute for Lean Design and also he is recognized as America’s Lean Design Coach, he has published lots of books and articles on this topic and coached a thousand product teams over the past few decades. In this book, he shows us step-by-step how to create lean products and services from the start. He reveals secrets of success and a road map for integrating lean design with six sigma designs for powerful results.
From three design partners at Google Ventures. While working at Google, designer Jake Knapp created a five-day process to help companies answer crucial questions. These ‘sprints’ were used on everything from Google Search to Chrome and Google X. Later he joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky, people who worked on products like YouTube and Gmail. Together they have run over 100 sprints with their portfolio companies. Future authors have seen how sprints can overcome challenges in all kinds of companies, whether it’s healthcare or fitness, retailers, or finance. This practical guide will answer business questions and will be useful for small startups to Fortune 100s.
Management
Every business leader should read this book if they’re searching for proven and honest management advice. At first glance, it may look like a collection of blogs, loosely strung together. However, united in their varied perspectives on start-ups, it gives an insider’s perspective on what it’s like to lead and scale a startup, more than any other business book. The author’s imagination is compelling, for example, he introduces to the reader peacetime and wartime CEOs: the former always have a contingency plan, whereas the latter know that sometimes you gotta roll a hard six. Fair enough, the book is all about the hard things in the first place. This book was also recommended by Clearmove’s CEO, Haitham Al-Khatib, as a useful read for those who work in startups.
Leaders of all companies and industries are always looking for innovative ways to get things done quickly and efficiently. They also need reliable trustworthy employees to protect the interests of the company. Steven Haines offers a practitioner’s guide to help you with both while adapting and thriving in any business landscape or setting. It can assist with creating great working relationships, understanding essential team structures, establishing a game plan for financial planning, leveraging processes to improve efficiency, analyze and utilize data and so much more. If you want to be cognizant of changing market demands, strategize, and plan for a company’s future success and perfectly manage your business career, this book is definitely for you.
As a manager, you always face hard decisions, and if you believe that everything you do should be done 100% ideal then take a look at this book. Maybe sometimes another way is more efficient.
3. The 80/20 Principle by RICHARD KOCH
This book does an excellent job explaining the importance of focusing on what gets the most results in any outcome-driven system. From the initial work of Pareto, we see that in most things 20% of actions lead to 80% of results. This principle has become popularized in the last years. Richard shows that there is a far cry from actually “living” life the 80/20 way, which demands that you make tough decisions and learn to prioritize better. You have to take this idea very seriously and apply it to more than one area of your life if you want to reach success.
Negotiating
Myroslav says that for a product manager it is very important to negotiate. Therefore, he recommends reading books about this vital skill:
Being published nearly thirty years ago, this book has helped millions of people learn a better way to negotiate. It is based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project and offers a proven, step-by-step strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict. Readers get a straight- forward, universally applicable method for negotiating all kinds of disputes, personal and professional, without getting angry. It is a highly readable and practical primer on the fundamentals of negotiation.
A new field-tested approach is offered to high-stakes negotiations by a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI. Sounds already exciting, right? The book takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into the author’s head, showing the skills that helped him save lives. Learn nine effective principles, that you can use in both your professional and personal life. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, the book gives you a competitive edge in any discussion.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these recommendations were useful for those who are planning to manage teams or becoming a great negotiator for other types of activities. Regardless of your profession, management and negotiation skills are vital in today’s world. As we become more connected, we will be communicating increasingly, and simultaneously, around the world. It is, consequently, important to understand each other properly and be more emotionally intelligent. These are the skills most companies want to see. This advice will apply to anyone reading this with an eye towards the future. Ultimately, it’s never too late to start learning and improving yourself.
Would you like to work together with Myroslav to solve complex problems that will change global mobility forever?