Leading Product Management

Monthly Book Review

Leading product management organizations is incredibly difficult. First, organizations all see product management differently. Second, product management is inherently difficult as it intersects almost everything. Finally, changing old habits is challenging—often taking years at an organizational level.

This month we’re reviewing Leading Product Management by Steven Haines. In this book, Haines attempts to tackle many of the issues that face product leaders.

For me, this book reads a lot like a user manual, which is good and bad. User manuals are full of useful information and are valuable references. But they aren’t riveting reading. And Leading Product Management isn’t riveting. For leaders, it covers a lot of familiar ground, especially if you’ve been in product management for a while. It also introduces many frameworks and lists, which we’ll see can be very helpful if you need some standardization.

Overview

As I said above, Leading Product Management is a practical guide aimed at helping product leaders become more strategic, structured, and effective in their roles, especially through the use of various frameworks. Haines views the product leader not just as a manager of products, but as someone who acts like the “CEO of the product”—responsible for aligning product strategies with business goals, developing high-performing teams, and building an organizational structure that supports long-term product success. I know we’ve long debated the “CEO of the product” concept, but it is, and continues to be, a useful way to frame the work.

So let’s dive into a few key ideas from the book.

Key Takeaways

Strategic Focus

Product managers and product leaders aren’t just contributors, they are critical in aligning the overall business strategy with the execution. This means working across the organization to drive success. With that in mind, anyone working in product needs to have a strategic mindset.

At too many companies, product managers and product leaders get bogged down in the operational details or the day-to-day. This is a mistake, since product managers need to be focused on the strategic aspects of their product or product portfolio.