The BPMA Holiday Gift Guide

Regardless of what holiday(s) you celebrate, November and December are generally a time of appreciation and often gift-giving for loved ones. This year, we polled the BPMA members for their favorite Product Management and Product Marketing gifts. We’ve compiled their responses below, along with a few favorites of our own.

NOTE: We have no interests or commercial connections with any of the below products – whether you buy them (and from where) are entirely up to you. We’ve linked to Amazon for simplicity, but are using no referral codes and have nothing to gain from it.

Enjoy and happy holidays! Without further ado…

The Official 2022 BPMA Holiday Gift Guide

Books

"Inspired" by Marty Cagan
This received several up-votes and has earned its place at the top of the list. For inspiration about how to engage your customers in discovering and then creating products that they will love, look no further. This is a classic about product discovery, prototyping and creation.

Product Manager's Survival Guide (2nd Edition) by Steven Haines (2nd edition)
This is a quick and engaging read (and great reference) for anyone new to product management, or anyone who isn’t new but wants to round out their skills. It includes an attribute self-assessment, and then walks you through all of the elements of Product Management. An enormous amount of breadth in under 300 pages, and now in its second edition.

“Rocket Surgery Made Easy” by Steve Krug
This is a great guide to practical, do-it-yourself usability testing for any product. Krug provides examples throughout and even provides online links to videos of him demonstrating the methods he describes. For a down-to-earth introduction to the practice of usability testing, look no further.
Also check out Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” for more of a web-specific focus.

“Building A Story Brand” by Donald Miller
This book is fantastic for anyone responsible for creating the messaging or story around a product, company or campaign. Miller offers a universal process to crafting powerful stories to which humans will respond and act, a critical facet of engaging your audience.

“Getting to Yes” by Fisher and Ury
Though not specifically about Product Management or Marketing, this book addresses a facet which is certainly an element of these roles: managing conflict. “Getting To Yes” provides a strategy for negotiating any conflict to a mutually-acceptable outcome. And what Product Managers or Marketers don’t experience some form of conflict in their day-to-day jobs?

“The Product Manager Interview” by Lewis Lin
More a textbook than a cover-to-cover reader, this is a definitive guide on interview preparation for a product management role. It contains over 150 practice questions and suggested solutions on topics ranging from product design to KPIs and metrics to pricing. A must-have for anyone interviewing for a position in this field.

Desktop Items

"I Survived Another Meeting That Should Have Been An Email" Mug
Who can’t identify with the issue of meetings that could been avoided and sent via an email? This is a great (and useful) gift for anyone that spends much of their work life and meetings and enjoys hot beverages.

Moleskin Notebook
Every Product Manager or Product Marketer needs a place to keep their notes — whether for meeting minutes, planning or just stray thoughts throughout the day. Handwritten note-taking has many cognitive benefits, and there is nothing like writing in a beautiful, solid notebook in which to do it. Plus, these notebooks look so stylish that your coworkers will be envious!

Newsletters and Services

Blinkist Subscription
Blinkist is service that condenses books and podcasts into 15-minute episodes. Great for gleaning to key points of a book without plowing through the whole thing – or for sampling an author or topic before diving in for the full book. Annual plans are $100, or you can pay monthly at $15.99. And there’s a 7-day free trial.

Lenny’s Newsletter Subscription
Lenny’s Newsletter (authored by Lenny Rachitsky) is a great all-around guide for all sorts of work-related topics, including product, career growth, roadmapping, strategy, metrics, marketing and more. A free newsletter and podcast is available, but a subscription (ranging from $150-$300/year) gets you additional newsletter issues, access to a private Slack community, and curated content. Plus, it supports Lenny’s work.

Education and Memberships

Pragmatic Institute Courses
They are the de-facto PdM training organization and have been for years. There is lots of free content online, but they also have excellent courses -- they aren't exactly cheap ($1295), but they are fantastic. We’d recommend starting with Foundations, but even reading their blogs and newsletters is a wealth of information.

Mind The Product Membership
This is an amazing source of content – articles, forums, videos, a newsletter and “Ask Me Anything” events with product experts. A free edition provides access to guest-authored blogs and certain videos, but a basic paid membership with access to much more content is $250 annually.

Boston Product Management Association Membership
And of course, no Boston Product professional should be without their annual BPMA subscription. Yes, this is a shameless plug and chances are that if you are reading this, you are already a member. But if someone you know isn’t, give them the gift of access to this wonderful community.



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Adam Shulman is a Product Manager with extensive experience in software/hardware systems and a passion for music and audio technology. He currently leads the Installed Systems business at Bose Professional and has been a member of the BPMA since 2016.

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