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

by Roman Pichler

This book will help you become a better product leader. Benefitting from Roman Pichler’s extensive experience, you’ll 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 • 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

Genres: Nonfiction, Leadership, Business, Management, Audiobook

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2020

Reviews

[Esin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another insightful practical book from Roman Pichler!

I have read Roman's books many times and found practical things that enabled me to level up my product management skills. Having moved to product leadership, I realised that soft skills become so much important and there is not much practical advice on product leadership. Roman's great experience combined with practical aspects on leading is filling this gap. Product management is a combination of hard and soft skills and you really need to improve yourself all the time to be a great lead. The practical aspects in this book will make it easier in daily challenges of product leads and product managers. It is inspiring and equipping you to be a better version of yourself as well. Must read for anyone that wants to improve their leading skills.

[Scythe Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein interessantes Buch, auch, wenn die Tipps stellenweise allgemein genug waren, um für alle Teamleitungen zu gelten und nicht nur für die Produktleitenden.

[Wolfgang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend that any Product Manager and or Scrum Product Owner aspiring to get more out of their work with agile teams to deliver higher customer value via better products or services should read Roman's new book
"How to Lead in Product Management: Practices to Align Stakeholders, Guide Development Teams, and Create Value Together".

Roman describes many specific techniques and helpful practices, e.g. how to interview users, create an effective product strategy and an actionable product roadmap, and prioritize the product backlog.
Besides this specific guidance Roman provides a wealth of conceptual explanations as well as a valuable guidance for leadership challenges and opportunities. This is particularly valuable for agile product managers and Scrum product owners that have to leverage other means to influence their teams and stakeholders than direct reporting line responsibilities, annual performance reviews etc. As an agile product leader, you can only benefit from the advantages of the agile way of working if you are fully embracing and acting consistently with and respect the agile practices and principles in the way you work and lead.
The insights that Roman offers in his book are most useful for product leaders. Beyond that, I see great value in reading his book for any agile leader that wants to better understand how to help their teams get more value out of the agile journey.

[Rory Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm finding it hard to summarise this book. It's written effectively a series of essays, intended to be consumed on an ad hoc basis. I didn't read it like that, I sat down and read it end to end with the intention that I could come back to particular sections when I was ready, already kind of knowing what was in them. While aimed at Product People, it deals well with any role in which you lack transactional power (or would rather not flex it!)

I found it a good mix of theoretical and practical advice, something many books miss the balance of. There were more than a few explicit scripts about more ephemeral concepts that were discussed (which I both appreciate and will probably being using in the future.)

I'll definitely be coming back to this book to reference it in the future.

[Marius Ramanauskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is similar to other Roman's books. It contains lots of tips and is really down to earth.
I would not say that it brings lots of new ideas. Rather emphasizes ones more what qualities and skills leaders should have. Adding on top some PMish flavor.

[Wilson Gov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that teaches how to become a better product person

This is one of the great product management books I have read, not because it teaches practical techniques but because it teaches what it takes to become a product manager as a person, the traits and the soft skills required for succeeding in the role

[Dominic Bouffard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book on product management covers topics that I have not seen in detail in other books on the same subject. The author goes into depth on soft skills such as how to build trust, set goals, resolve conflict, communicate effectively with your team, set up and plan your decision-making process, and apply self-leadership.

[Mohammed Al-taweel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book, General Approach, Not Product-Focused

This book touches on good aspects of leadership with very simple examples about products. However, if the product context was removed, it wouldn't significantly impact the book's content. Therefore, I believe that product managers may not find this book as beneficial as expected.

[Miloš Belčević · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded down due to the book going wide, but at times not deep, especially in case you're a more experienced PO and want some more thorough, substantial stuff. Many useful tips though and a great reference for further reading.

[Tiffany McCrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally enjoy and find value in Roman’s blog posts and general industry contributions. But I personally didn’t find much in this book that was new. I think it also leaned a little bit more towards theory than application than I’d prefer in book about how to lead.

[JUHA LEHTOMAKI · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for all product people to read through, just to remind that the people management is an essential part of the product management. However, the book does not bring much new enlightenment or ideas for the profession.

[Outdoors Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blown away by this . A much needed and unique addition to the trove of PM literature.

Sage advice and guidance on leading in this complex and challenging role. This will teach you the interpersonal skills, techniques, psychology, philosophy and mindsets you need to succeed as a PM.

[Vicente Mondaca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice recap for product managers

If you are new to product management this book is great, because it covers all the important aspects of product management.
If you are mote experienced, it's definitively a valuable reminder of good practices.

[Marc Bless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr gute Übersicht wichtiger Leadership-Praktiken für die Führung agiler Teams und deren Stakeholder. Ein Stern weniger, weil es eben nur eine Übersicht ist. Details zu allen beschriebenen Praktiken und Prinzipien finden sich dann in 30-50 anderen Büchern 😉

[Brodie Gron]

DNF

[Malvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focused on the people side of product management, on how a product manager should lead, interact and behave in order to create an optimal culture for the product team to be successful. A short read with under 160 pages of content covering topics like building trusts, setting goals, listening deeply, managing conflicts, making decisions and encouraging self-leadership, the book highlights the importance of aligning with stakeholders and the product team, arguably a more difficult aspect of product management, as opposed to the technical skills required to capture feedback and market requirements, plan and deliver while ensuring the commercial viability of the product - all of which are absolutely key ingredients to being successful in product management.

[Jb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great guidance on the most shapeless, complex critical soft skills Product Management requires. Wish I had read this earlier.

[Udaykiran Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good!

[Ivor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent soft skills playbook for product managers. It never hurts to review these, this book provides a good opportunity for reflection.

[Nacho Bassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book compiling the many aspects of interaction, collaboration, and influence involved in product management activities.

[Dayiris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good recap on how to become a great product manager, my favorite chapter was the last one, the one related to mindfulness

[Enrique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es muy espeso y se basa en la parte humana de alinear, equipo y conflicto

[Martin Hudymač · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read review on my blog

Value for money
6/10

Year, Price, Pages, Cover design
2020 by Pichler Consulting; EUR 24,10; 158 pages; Paperback
Cover design by Ole H. Størksen. Cover image neutral. Good quality paper.

5 sentences about the book
While reading, I felt like the book consists of two parts. The content of the first part (how to set up goals and interactions with Scrum master, Development team or Stakeholders) you have already met in Pilchner’s previous books (Strategize, Agile Product Management with Scrum). I really enjoyed the second part, Conversations (listening and speaking), Conflict, Decision-Making and Negotiation and Self-leadership. Referring to his predecessors like Covey, Sofer, Lencioni, Rosenberg — Pilcher brings these topics to the product management context and boils it all down to the essence. Practical examples of how to react in particular situations will guide in the day-to-day.

What did I learn?
- “Listen and speak” practical pieces of advice. The author reminds me again how important active listening is and how difficult it is to learn. Speaking is also a trick-thing, I’ve learnt the flipping and framing technique (77)
- A handy summary of conversation techniques (83)
- Structured brainstorming — practical guide on how to take the decision-making process in the group (126)
- Tips for negotiating successfully — A case study “Sophie, Head of Sales” — the author explains very well, that negotiation is not manipulation. A very practical guide on how to work with the tough manager in a corporate environment and create a culture of trust and understanding
- As the main benefit, I consider the last chapter about Self-leadership and mindfulness. I will give meditation a second chance.

What was missing?
- Content from chapters “Goals” and “Interaction” duplicates from previous Pichler’s books
- Pilcher’s writing is at a dead end now: how to write the next books and do not steal the content of the previous ones? How to deliver value without giving the reader a feeling that he is not paying for the same content twice?

Favourite quotes
“When I am not mindful, not aware of my mental state, I get lost in the experience.” 142

“Mindfulness, therefore, is not about suppressing or getting rid of thoughts and feelings, particularly unpleasant one like envy, anger, fear, or doubt. It is not about reaching blissful or special mental states, judging or fixing things, or being super productive and amazingly successful. It simply means paying attention to what’s happening in our inner world so that we become more aware of our feelings and thoughts.” 142

“In whatever way the week unfolded, honestly reflect on what happened, how you felt, and what you can learn from it.” 145

“Be willing to set boundaries, say no, and let go: You can’t do everything without either neglecting your core responsibilities or sacrificing your health, neither of which is desirable” 158

[Asier Marqués · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buen libro que te da una guía inicial para introducirte a la parte de liderazgo de un equipo, enfocándose en aspectos de ese liderazgo relacionados con el rol de product management que también pueden ser de utilidad a otros roles.
Sin embargo, en algunos aspectos hay opiniones fuertes con respecto a expectativas de roles que pueden no existir o ser entendidos igual en algunos contextos, lo cual puede confundir a personas sin experiencia.

Esperaba conceptos más avanzados y más concreción en aspectos clave, pero como guía puede ser útil.