Cracking the PM Career: The Skills, Frameworks, and Practices to Become a Great Product Manager

I started as software engineer out of college where I have great ambition but no direction in the software tech industry. Gayle McDowell's book serves as a torch guiding the unknown path for me. By reading her books i can start seeing more clearly what is around me (where i am standing) as well as a grand passage of what the journey looks like down the road and how to improve myself in order to progress forward. "Cracking the PM Career" is just an amazing resource work done by Jackie Bavaro and Gayle Laakmann McDowell I have been in industry for 15 years now (SWE converted Product Manager), while i have accumulate knowledge & scars along the way as a Product Manager Lead at Meta. I find it still incredibly helpful to read their books to fill my gaps and extend well-rounded knowledge. The latest publish shares a lot great knowledge that will help you to be a even greater product manager. I strongly recommend this book to others wether you are an aspiring PM or already a PM, or PM Leader to refine yourself throughout reading!

This book is the best Product Management book I've come across. I'm mid to late stage career. Have been co-founder or VP level at several companies. Have lead PM at several startups with successful exits. And with all those decades of experience, there was still good new stuff - to me - in here to learn, and great refreshers on other items. As I read the book, I couldn't help thinking of the cliche about "if I'd only known this starting out." I definitely could have used these insights. (Of course, some things are 'sign of the times' specific... there was no "Agile" as it exists today. But that's not so much the point as compared to just having a better starting framework for what does exist in the now; whatever those things may be.) It might be that some things don't really hit home until you have the experience, even if you got the book learning. But still, at least you have a better sense of things if you've been exposed to the concepts. This is not a full "Body of Knowledge" (BOK) type work. But it is just full of practical sensible, "this is what you may be facing" type scenarios. New or junior PMs... just get this.

This is a very comprehensive book detailing the whole arc and every dimension of the PM career with relevance for other tech roles as well. It provides clarity and insights about the PM career trajectory as well as how to build better relationships with your manager, peers, networks. So much gem in this book! Note this is more of a foundational summary book. Try other books for more specifics on the execution of daily tasks.

My recommendation for how to engage with this book most effectively: do a mock interview with a trusted PM at a level higher than you, ask for specific feedback, and read the sections most pertinent to that feedback. Reading it cover-to-cover will expose you to information that is useful enough, but often intuitive. If you're a good PM, you'll be efficient with your time.

One of the best PM books on the market. Thorough and worth the entire read. If you’re pressed for time and can’t read the entire book they guide you on which sections to skip to. Jackie and Gayle does an excellent job of describing the day to day as a PM, the tools you’ll need, methodologies to learn, and even how to understand the professionals you’ll work with every day. By the end of it you’ll feel sharpened and know exactly what to do to sharpen your game. 500+ pages later I’m still highlighting. Excellent book! 📖🤓

Great book

I transitioned from software engineer to product management role 1+ year ago. Though I had a gut feeling that I fit better in product teams as I always love to look at the product from birds eye view and plan projects for product and drive them instead of just code them, I found this book extremely helpful on the mindset that needs to be shifted, and understand the skill sets that might be needed and improved systematically. Highly recommended.

As someone who has been a Product Manager for 15 years across Google, Foursquare, and Slack, my reaction when reading Cracking the PM Career was an audible, "Finally!" Someone finally wrote the best resource for not only navigating the PM career path, but building all the necessary skills to be a great product leader at every stage of one's career. I'm often asked for recommendations on what's the best single thing to read as a resource for developing into a world-class PM, and now I finally have the perfect answer.

I have been considering transitioning to Product Management from my Finance field and had been researching materials I could read to help with this transition. I got some recommendations about this book and so got it. I have found the content helpful as a good start. If you are like me trying to transition, you will find this helpful. I believe it could be helpful as a refresher for those already in the field!

Best

Very interesting book

Recomendado para Program manager

I am so glad that Jackie and Gayle published this book after the great success of "cracking the pm interview". This new book is amazingly pragmatic, super hands on and translatable into every day life. What I really love is that they cover skills concerning 1) product, 2) execution, 3) strategy, 4) leadership, 5) people management. Followed by chapters around career and a product leader Q&A. They really work out how the skills of chapter 1-3 evolve with a PMs career path. The book has over 500 pages packed with insights, with aha moments and really the essence of product management. I am a pretty experienced product leader, however this centres me and takes me out of habits and back to growth trajectory. This book can be read and is valuable to PMs of all career stages.