STRONG: A How to Guide for Getting the Most out of the Book
Have you heard the news? My book, STRONG: A Complete Guide to Developing Great Product Managers, is now available. Want to grab a copy? You can do so here.
In my previous post, I answered some of the common questions about the book: who it’s for, why it’s important, and what you can expect to learn from it. Get the answers to all those questions here.
But for today’s post, I’d like to take a slightly different approach. I’d like to talk about how to read the book.
Not your typical “read it front to back” kind of book
Now, you may be thinking, “Petra, I know how to read a book. I pick it up and open it to the first page. I read it. Then I flip to the second page and read it. And on and on until I get to the final page.”
But STRONG is not a “read it front to back” kind of book. At least not for most readers.
Who you are determines how you should read
I envision a few main audiences for my book, which I covered in my last post. Here’s a quick recap:
Product leaders who are hoping to improve their skills
Product managers who aspire to one day become product leaders
UX/design and engineering leads who work closely with product people
Other people who are invested in the development of product people, like Agile coaches and HR managers
If you fall into the first few categories—you already have experience working in or with product—then I recommend you think of this book as your personal travel guide. Instead of starting at the beginning and reading cover to cover, you can skip around.
Just like you might flip to the most relevant section of a travel guide to better understand one destination, you can take the same approach with my book. You can go to the table of contents and choose a specific topic that interests you—like onboarding new PMs—and head directly to that section. Learn all about that topic. Then head back to the table of contents to choose your next “destination.”
You can do this a few times, then add the book to your reference shelf and come back to it anytime you’d like to revisit the concepts or brush up on product people development skills.
You might also skim through the book to see if any destination (or topic) catches your eye. You might find that my templates and frameworks help you see the same old problems in a new light. If that happens, feel free to dig into that chapter, or just grab the template and take it for a test drive.
There are a few exceptions to this choose-your-own-adventure approach: If you work as a product leader but you don’t currently have a written “definition of good” for your product managers, I recommend starting with Part One and doing the “homework” that’s assigned in that chapter. Once you’ve done that, you can approach the rest of the book as I’m suggesting here.
And if you’ve never worked as a product manager and you don’t have much experience in this field, then it might make sense for you to read the book in its entirety and later use it as a workbook.
A quick note about what not to expect
I also want to mention that STRONG does not contain every single topic that you need to know to be an ace Head of Product. For example, I don’t provide advice on how to handle your CEO, or how you can nail stakeholder management, or how to best prepare for a board presentation. STRONG focuses on the people part of a Head of Product’s job—the things you need to do to help your PMs develop and succeed in their careers.
Now that you know what STRONG is all about and how to read it, are you ready to grab your own copy? If so, click here to buy the book.