How to Lead in Product Management: Practices to Align Stakeholders, Guide Development Teams, and Create Value Together

Roman Pichler

Mar 2020 · Pichler Consulting

About this ebook

This book will help you become a better product leader. Benefitting from Roman Pichler's extensive experience, you will learn how to align stakeholders and guide development teams even in challenging circumstances, avoid common leadership mistakes, and grow as a leader.

Written in an engaging and easily accessible style, How to Lead in Product Management offers a wealth of practical tips and strategies. Through helpful examples, the book illustrates how you can directly apply the techniques to your work.

Coverage includes:

* Choosing the right leadership style

* Cultivating empathy, building trust, and influencing others

* Increasing your authority and empowering others

* Directing stakeholders and development teams through common goals

* Making decisions that people will support and follow through

* Successfully resolving disputes and conflicts even with senior stakeholders

* Listening deeply to discover and address hidden needs and interests

* Practising mindfulness and embracing a growth mindset to develop as a leader

Praise for How to Lead in Product Management:

"Roman has done it again, delivering a practical book for the product management community that appeals to both heart and mind. How to Lead in Product Management is packed with concise, direct, and practical advice that addresses the deeper, personal aspects of the product leadership. Roman's book shares wisdom on topics including goals, healthy interactions with stakeholders, handling conflict, effective conversations, decision-making, having a growth mindset, and self-care. It is a must read for both new and experienced product people."

~Ellen Gottesdiener, Product Coach at EBG Consulting

"Being a great product manager is tough. It requires domain knowledge, industry knowledge, technical skills, but also the skills to lead and inspire a team. Roman Pichler's How to Lead in Product Management is the best book I've read for equipping product managers to lead their teams." 

~Mike Cohn, Author of Succeeding with Agile, Agile Estimating and Planning, and User Stories Applied

"This is the book that has been missing for product people. Roman has created another masterpiece, a fast read with lots of value. It's a must read for every aspiring product manager." 

~Magnus Billgren, CEO of Tolpagorni Product Management

"How Lead in Product Management is for everyone who manages a product or drives important business decisions. Roman lays out the key challenges of product leadership and shows us ways of thoughtfully working with team members, stakeholders, partners, and the inevitable conflicts." 

~Rich Mironov, CEO of Mironov Consulting and "Smokejumper" Head of Product

Ratings and reviews

In this book, Roman Pichler provides an insightful description of the key skills needed to be successful in Product Management. He does this by succinctly describing both nuts-and-bolts techniques needed to guide stakeholders and product development teams, whilst also diving into the more interpersonal and introspective skills needed to effectively apply those techniques. The result is a rare guide to Product Leadership that equips you with the tools of the trade, while revealing the deeper factors that impact your ability to successfully use those tools. The book is also well written, relatively short and punchy, and has an easily accessible style. I particularly enjoyed short, focused sections that are easy to digest by themselves if you need some inspiration, but can be read back-to-back to give you a deeper grounding. Highly recommended!

About the author

Roman Pichler is a product management expert specialised in digital products. He advises product leaders, teaches product managers and product owners, and helps companies build successful product management organisations.

Roman is the author of "How to Lead in Product Management", "Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age" and "Agile Product Management with Scrum". He he writes a popular blog for product people at www.romanpichler.com/blog, hosts his own product management podcast, and offers a range of free product management tools.

You can find out more about Roman's work at www.romanpichler.com.