Best Product Management Interview Books
Product Management interviews can be tough to prepare for. We recommend practicing with a coach, but these books can also be a great foundation of knowledge to start with.
Posted July 3, 2024
Product Management is quickly becoming one of the most competitive roles in tech. Mastering the interview is super important. We have created a list of some of the best books in product management that will help you ace the interview. We are a coaching marketplace that helps people break into competitive career pathways like product management. Here are some of our best coaches in product management.
Before we dive into good interview books, Leland plus has tons of resources for acing the product management interview. Subscribe here and enjoy a library of content.
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, Second Edition
Marty Cagan's "Inspired" is a great guide for tech product managers, providing insights into building products that delight customers. This book covers everything from understanding customer needs to designing products that solve real problems. It's filled with real-world examples and insights from top tech companies, making it a valuable resource for anyone in the product development space. We like this book for people interviewing for product management roles because it gives you a very in depth taste of what product management should actually look like. This book talks less about the PM interview than the next book does but it does talk a lot about what the product management role really is.
Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology
This book is a comprehensive overview to landing a product management role in the tech industry. It covers everything from crafting a standout resume and preparing for common interview questions to understanding the nuances of the product management role. With insights from top PMs at companies like Google and Facebook, this book is a go-to resource for anyone looking to break into tech product management. This book includes several practice questions and sample answers for what you will come across in a typical product manager interview process. Obviously reading this will give you a foundation but shouldn’t replace mock interviews. Take the interview practice questions in this book and apply them in a mock interview. The PMs writing this book have extensive experience and can help you apply for associate product manager roles.
The Product Manager Interview: 164 Actual Questions and Answers
Lewis C. Lin's book is a deep dive into the interview process for product management roles, featuring 164 real questions and model answers. It covers a wide range of topics, including product design, strategy, technical skills, and behavioral questions, providing candidates with a thorough preparation toolkit. This book is designed to help you anticipate what interviewers are looking for and help you develop your product sense. This is excellent for interview prep and will serve you well if you practice interviewing out loud.
Product Management's Sacred Seven: The Skills Required to Crush Product Manager Interviews
This book breaks down the seven essential skills that every successful product manager needs: customer empathy, data analysis, vision creation, communication, execution, leadership, and domain expertise. It provides detailed guidance on how to develop these skills and demonstrates how to showcase them effectively during interviews, making it an invaluable resource for aspiring product managers.
Hacking the PM Interview: Your Shortcut Guide to Mastering Product Manager Interviews
Taylor Warfield's book is a comprehensive guide tailored specifically for aspiring product managers looking to ace their interviews. It covers a wide range of topics, including detailed frameworks for answering product design questions, market analysis, and behavioral interview techniques. Warfield provides practical tips and real-life examples to help candidates navigate the complexities of the PM interview process, ensuring they can confidently tackle any question and stand out to potential employers.
Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting
Victor Cheng's book helps you understand the case interview process used by top consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. It offers a step-by-step framework for solving case studies, including techniques for structuring your answers, analyzing problems, and presenting solutions. We know it is not all about product management, but a lot of the same principles from consulting apply to product management. In several product interviews you will be asked estimation questions that have cross over with consulting. Understanding it will only benefit you during product manager interviews.
Product Management interviewing is very hard to do without practice. These books are a great way to dive deeper into developing the product management interviewing skill. Check out coaches on this platform and they can help you with more in depth advice for interviewing at specific companies.
