I like reading, and I bet you do too if you’re here 📚. As I read books and other blogs that influence me that I want to share, I will add them as recommendations here.

Must Reads (Any Medium)

Title	Synopsis
Steve Yegge’s Google Platforms Rant	This is a must-read about all the ways in which Amazon is wrong, but does one thing right (and it’s the only thing that matters). By comparison, Google does all the things right that Amazon does wrong, but misses on the one and only thing that matters: platforms built out of service oriented architecture (SOA).
Netflix’s Culture Deck	Read the original deck. And if it’s been a year or more, reread it. It explains so much that is “normal” in the tech industry that is actually insane. This is my go-to helpful reminder whenever the insanity gets to me (and it gets to me often).

Blog Recommendations

Blog	Synopsis
https://martinfowler.com	Martin’s Two Hard Things post is one of my most favorite and referenced posts of all time.
https://lethain.com and https://infraeng.dev/	The author of Staff Engineer has two blogs that are my favorite in the industry.
https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com	A former engineer, Gergely writes with an inspiring frequency and depth about the tech industry. While his post about TPMs conflicts with mine, I still believe Gergely’s blog is a great one.
https://www.mariogerard.com	You can’t talk about TPM and not reference Mario’s awesome blog.
https://vadimkravcenko.com/newsletter/	Vadim’s blog is another great one from the perspective of a CTO.
https://longform.asmartbear.com/	I found a new favorite blog in late 2023, and this is it.
Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG)	Marty’s alternative to product managers post is highly aligned with this blog.

Book Recommendations

Book	Synopsis
Mythical Man Month	“The Bible of Software Engineering”, because “everybody quotes it, some people read it, and a few people go by it”. A must-read for anyone in the software industry. TL;DR: The fastest way to slow down a project is to add more people to it.
Measure What Matters	If you want to use OKRs, this book is a must-read as the founding book that brought this framework to the masses.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy	A super fun read to help invalidate 90%+ of your LinkedIn feed and what folk mistakenly call “strategy.”
Unicorn Project	A fictional story about overcoming the pitfalls that large companies can fall into when process starts to overtake the importance of people (against the Agile Manifesto).
Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value	I have a love/hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, it defines Product Management as Technical Product Management, and we are strongly aligned. On the other, it makes assumptions about how Technical Product Managers must be managed that I disagree with. However, ignoring these tactical implementation details, this is a great read and I recommend it to PMs of any variant.