Product Management in Practice

A Practical, Tactical Guide for Your First Day and Every Day After, 2nd Edition

By: Matt LeMay

Narrated by: Matt LeMay, Sara Powell

Product management has become a critical function for modern organizations, from small startups to corporate enterprises. And yet, the day-to-day work of product management remains largely misunderstood. In theory, product managers are high-flying visionaries who build products that people love. In practice, they're hard-working facilitators who bring clarity and focus to their teams.

In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition, Matt LeMay provides real-world guidance for current and aspiring product managers. Updated for the era of remote and hybrid work, this book provides actionable answers to product management's most persistent and confounding questions, starting with: What exactly am I supposed to do all day?

With this book, you'll learn what the day-to-day work of product management entails—and how to excel at it; why no job title or description will resolve the ambiguity of your role; how to bridge the false dichotomy between "strategy" and "execution"; why the temptation to focus on decks and documentation can be bad for your team (and for you); and how to prioritize your time and pick your battles.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Matt LeMay LLC (P)2023 Ascent Audio

A different, critical focus than other Product books

The wisdom and practical knowledge in this book can accelerate your ascendancy as a great PM and help you avoid pitfalls—basically you can learn the easy way about real world navigation of challenges PMs live with. If you internalize this and then books with practical product thinking frameworks like Continuous Discovery Habits, you have a good foundation to thrive in this field.

Fantastic wisdom

So much food for thought here if you're a working PM. I definitely felt both seen and called out throughout the course of the book and feel this has helped me recenter my attitude and approach to my work. This book is not about laying out processes and "how to" advice. Instead, it is chock full of universally useful wisdom concerning day-to-day scenarios in the life of a PM.

The narration is well-delivered and clear. I listened at 1.5x speed with no difficulty at all. Editor could have taken the breaths down a bit, but that's my complaint as an audio engineer rather than a casual listener.

Helpful!

Different stories from various PMs were really helpful. Definitely made a note to revisit Chapters 13 + 14 because they were so useful.

Only critique was that many of the leadership struggle accounts and corresponding advice felt specific to the author’s own personality. While other stories did help round this out, I often found myself wondering if I would similarly struggle or if this book would address my own personality pitfalls.

I always enjoy when an author can narrate their own book and this was no exception.

Really helpful book.