12-Month MBA for Product Managers (better than any $127K course)
Hey, Paweł here. Welcome to the free edition of The Product Compass.
Every week, I share actionable tips to boost your PM career.
So, in today’s newsletter:
12-Month MBA for Product Managers
PM Diagrams and Articles to Download
New Product Management Resources
Continuous Product Discovery Certification, 2nd Edition
Our Community Keeps Growing!
1. 12-Month MBA for Product Managers
Many people ask me about formal education for Product Managers. One of the questions is taking an MBA course.
Most MBA courses will teach you how to:
Make detailed plans
Avoid failures and expect predictability
Lead with control and act like “the boss”
But that’s the opposite of what the product leader should know. They might leave you with many bad habits you must unlearn at work. For more information, see MBA Pathology by Marty Cagan.
I created an alternative program based on books, related videos, and free resources. The product managers’ community has repeatedly validated and tested it on LinkedIn.
12-Month MBA for Product Managers
Month 1:
Introduction: Inspired by Marty Cagan
Leadership: Empowered by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
Startups: The Right It by Alberto Savoia
Month 2:
Product Discovery: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
Interviews: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Product-Market Fit: The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
Month 3:
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder and others
Testing Business Ideas by Alexander Osterwalder and David Bland
Month 4:
Setting goals: Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke
Leading with context: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings
Teams: Team Topologies by Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton
Month 5:
PLG: Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush
Retention: Hooked by Nir Eyal
Product-led Certification Course by Pendo with our dedicated 100% discount code not available elsewhere (I’m not an affiliate)
Month 6:
Marketing: This is Marketing by Seth Godin
Marketing for tech startups: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Product Growth: Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
Month 7:
Public speaking: Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo
Copywriting: The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert W. Bly
Negotiating: Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
Month 8:
Making decisions: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Effectiveness: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen M. R. Covey
Networking: Superconnector by Ryan Paugh and Scott Gerber
Month 9:
Leadership: The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
Financial Intelligence: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Accounting: Accounting for Non-Accountants by Wayne A. Label
Month 10:
Product Analytics: Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and
A free North Star Framework Compendium: Premium post or Free PDF
Product Analytics Certification course by Pendo with our 100% discount code not available elsewhere (I’m not an affiliate)
Month 11:
JTBD: Jobs-to-be-Done by Tony Ulwick
What to build: Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri
Building products: Build by Tony Fadell
Month 12:
Strategy: Playing to Win by Roger Martin
Business portfolio: The Invincible Company by Frederic Etiemble, Alan Smith, Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
Bonus (recommended):
Career: The Ultimate Guide to Getting a PM Job by
Learning from the best: Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
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Theoretical knowledge is not enough, but it’s a solid foundation. It equips you with a set of thinking tools you can apply to the challenges you might face at work.
All it takes is to read or listen to audiobooks for 45-60 min/day.
You can start networking on LinkedIn or in our Slack community.
2. Product Management Diagrams and Articles to Download
Premium subscribers can now access high-resolution graphics and articles in our Google Drive. I’ll be adding new resources regularly.
3. New Product Management Resources
I reviewed and reorganized our free PM resources:
Recommended books by role.
Free PM templates in the Notion collection.
Free PM courses (refreshed and migrated to Substack, no paywall)
The updated links are also available in the top navigation.
👨👦 PM People
Resources available here on Substack (no paywall):
4. Continuous Product Discovery Masterclass, 2nd Edition
Continuous Product Discovery Masterclass, 2nd edition, is now available.
Everyone who enrolled before has been upgraded for free 🎁
More information and how to enroll:
About 30% of people who enrolled have never logged in. You can't enroll for the second time, but you can reset your password here.
I’d love to get a short testimonial from you if you took the course: https://testimonial.to/pawe%C5%82-huryn
5. Our Community Keeps Growing
Last week, our community grew to over 50,000+ members (today, 50,518).
A year ago, I could only dream about making it by the end of 2024/2025.
The newsletter would be worthless without subscribers. So, thank you all for joining and supporting the community 💖
The best is yet to come!
And here’s what you might have recently missed:
Thanks for reading The Product Compass
It’s incredible to learn and grow together.
Have a fantastic weekend and a productive week ahead.
Take care, Paweł
Great list of books!
One suggestion is on the finance side. This one would be a good starter:
How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Finance-Works-Thinking-Numbers/dp/1633696707
Oh, and in case you didn’t have, this is a must read:
Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy by Cindy Alvarez
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!