42 Rules of Product Management™

Learn the Rules of Product Management from Leading Experts Around the World!

42 Rules of Product Management is a collection of product management wisdom from forty experts from around the world. With over five hundred years of combined hands-on product management and product marketing experience, the authors each shares one rule that they think is critical to know to succeed in product management.  Whether you are a seasoned and experienced product manager or are just starting out, ’42 Rules of Product Management‘ will help you lead with greater effectiveness and influence.

Packed with pearls of product management wisdom, this book has something for everyone. Best of all, it was written with the busy product manager in mind.  Each rule is kept to two pages and designed to stand-on its own. They can be read in any order.  In less than five minutes a day, you can learn from forty of the best product managers in the world.

Introduction (from the book)

Back when I started my career as a product manager, things were quite different than they are today. There were no books or training courses. There were no product management associations, blogs, or newsletters. Email was just in its infancy and the World Wide Web was merely an experiment being conducted by a small group of elite technologists. The only way that you learned chow to be a great product manager was by trial and (often painful) error. Occasionally, if you were lucky, you would have a manager who could teach
you the subtleties and mentor you (I had several and they made a huge difference in my career).

My, how things have changed. There are all kinds of resources available to help you learn the profession of product management. Product management has grown up; companies are recognizing what a key role it plays in the success or failure of their products and their overall results. And along with all of this, there are many product management experts who have emerged that are enthusiastic about sharing what they have learned about the profession.

The goal of this book is to expose you to the wisdom and knowledge from a group of the world’s leading product management experts. Among the contributors, there are leading authors, professors, CEOs and vice presidents, bloggers, consultants, trainers, and even a few salespeople and engineers. In total, there are over five centuries of collected wisdom represented here.

To put the book together, we reached out to a large number of people throughout the world. (If you were not included, please don’t be offended. Email us and let us know so we can include you in future projects like this.) The rules were submitted over a two-month period. Each rule stands on its own, and they are not in any particular order in the book.

It is our sincere hope that the rules in this book will help make your product management career more enjoyable and more successful. And equally important, we hope that it will lead to you shipping products that your customers love and that are wildly successful and highly profitable.

Includes links to a library of free Product Management white papers and templates.

List of Rules & Authors

1. ‘Rules Are Meant To Be Broken‘ by Greg Cohen, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
2. ‘Work on Products You Are Passionate About’ by Brian Lawley, CEO and Founder, 280 Group
3. ‘Beware the Requirements Death Spiral’ by Greg Cohen, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
4. ‘Think Like an Entrepreneur’ by Linda Gorchels, Director of Executive Marketing Education, Wisconsin School of Business and author of The Product Manager’s Handbook
5. ‘Learn to Say “No” to Customers’ by Ivan Chalif, Blogger, The Productologist
6. ‘Product Management is Inherently Political’ by Rich Mironov, Author, The Art of Product Management
7. ‘There Is a Fine Line Between Knowing It All and Being a Know-It-All’ by Alyssa Dver, CEO, Mint Green Marketing
8. ‘Market Research Must Be Actionable’ by Luke Hohman, Founder and CEO, The Innovationn Games Company
9. ‘The Two-Week Rule’ by Marty Cagan, Author, Inspired
10. ‘Focus on the Needs of Your Market, Not Just Individual Requests from Individual Customers’ by Jeff Lash, Blogger, How to Be a Good Product Manager
11. ‘No Surprises’ by Jim Reekes, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
12. ‘Be Data-Driven by the Consumers of Your Product’ by Kevin Epstein, Author, Marketing Made Easy
13. ’90-360-3‘ by Dan Torres, Senior Director of Global Product Management, Kensington Computer Products
14. ‘Open Up More Possibilities by Bringing Creativity into Your Role as a Product Manager‘ by Natalie Yan-Chatonsky, Product Management Consultant, brainmates pty ltd
15. ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’ by John Cook, VP of Consumer PC Marketing, Hewlett Packard Company
16. ‘Get Out of the Office’ by Paula Gray, Applied Cultural Anthropologist, AIPMM
17. ‘You Do Not Own Your Product’ by Linda Merrick, Founder, Pivotal PM
18. ‘Carve Out “Think” Time’ by Adrienne Tan, Director, brainmates pty ltd
19. ‘Get the Market Segmentation Right!’ by David Fradin, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
20. ‘Clarify Your Product Positioning before Your Next Important Decision‘ by Fritz Mueller, Senior Director of Product Management, i365
21. ‘Clearly Define and Align Your Roles and Responsibilities’ by Tom Evans, Principal Consultant, Lucrum Marketing
22. ‘Write It Down!’ by Sarah Rosenbaum Gaeta, Senior Director of Content Product Management & Sales Enablement, Plastic Logic
23. ‘Make Sure You Have Clear Priorities’ by Dan Olsen, Co-Founder and CEO, YourVersion
24. ‘Salespeople Don’t Just Want to Make Lots of Money’ by Dave Dersh, VP of Consulting and Training, 280 Group
25. ‘Create a Culture of Openness‘ by Erick Krock, Chief Marketing Officer, Voximate
26. ‘Align Your Product Strategy with the Company Strategy–Then Sell It!’ by Mara Kreips, Founder, Pivotal PM
27. ‘Short, Standardized Cycle Times Drive Predictability’ by James Moorehead, VP of Product Management, Support.com
28. ‘Find Market Problems Worth Solving’ by Nick Coster, Director, brainmates pty ltd
29. ‘A Business Is Not a Democracy‘ by Phil Burton, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
30. ‘Agility Is Key to Product Management Success‘ by Matthew Bookspan, Director of Product Management, Voxeo
31. ‘Tap Into Your Customers‘ by Jen Berkley, Founder, The Insight Advantage
32. ‘Determine Your Marketing Approach Early–and Wisely’ by Barbara Rice, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
33. ‘Let the Customer End the Debate’ by Noel Adams, President, Clearworks
34. ‘Differentiation Isn’t Enough, You Have to Be Better‘ by Paul Alexander Gray, Consultant, brainmates pty ltd
35. ‘Act Like a Child’ by Michaela Zwinakis, VP of Solution Management, Governance Risk, and Compliance Solutions, SAP
36. ‘Decide What You Are Going to–and Not Do’ by Mike Freier, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group
37. ‘Establish Trust and Leadership’ by Developing Good Relationships with Team Members and Fostering Communication across Functions by Howard Rosenfield, Founder and Principal Consultant, Matanzas Creek Consulting, LLC
38. ‘Great Execution Trumps a Great Product Idea’ by Janet George, Director of Research Engineering, Yahoo! Research
39. ‘Be All You Can Be’ by Reena Kapoor, Founder and Chief Strategist, Conifer Consulting
40. ‘I Can See Clearly Now: The Transformational Power of Transparency’ by Christine Crandell, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, Accept Software
41. ‘Always Be Learning‘ by Therese Padilla, Co-Founder and President, AIPMM
42. ‘These Are Our Rules. What Are Yours?‘ by Greg Cohen, Senior Principal Consultant, 280 Group