We all love a list. Top songs, movies, takeaways, holiday destinations — we consume several lists every day. We’re numerical creatures, and I’ve come across a tonne (or ton, for my US readers) of lists of the best product content out there – whether it’s video, audio or the written word, there’s already a list for it.
However, the challenge with many of these is that they can be overwhelming. There might be people out there that can consume 50 recommendations and then follow through on all of them, but if there are, they’re the few.
I’ve decided to write a series of posts covering my top recommendations across podcasts, books, blogs, newsletters and even Miro templates.
Podcasts
In this post, let’s talk about those things that came back with a vengeance around 2014, a decade after they originally hit the scene. Podcasts.
The challenge here is that everyone has a podcast these days. I don’t like to use the word literally when I mean figuratively but I was tempted here.
My list presumes that you’re planning to also get knowledge and content from other sources as well, so you don’t want or need to overload yourself with people ranting about North Star Metrics and funding rounds in your ear.
My list also presumes you don’t want to replace personal interests with professional ones. For instance, I am not going to stop listening to my sports, history, comedy and current affairs podcasts and only listen to product ones. I would lose my mind!
So here we go, here are the best 3 podcasts to help you become an expert product manager. I’ve included links directly to their own websites, but I listen to them all on Spotify.
Lenny’s Podcast
This is my favourite product-centred podcast in what is now a highly competitive space. It’s great for insight from product leaders on the why, what, how and when of their careers and how it translates to yours and so despite having existed for only 10 months at the time of writing, it’s jumped straight to number 1 on my list.
I like Lenny’s demeanour, conversational style and genuine enthusiasm for the topic that his guests cover. The guests are highly experienced with impressive resumes, yet accessible.
There are a couple of episodes a week, usually posted on Monday and Thursday, and they range from 1 hour to 90 minutes.
I find it difficult to find time for both, so I tend to pick one per week depending on my schedule and how much the topic or guest piques my interest.
Lenny also has a newsletter (which is what he was originally known for and has over 400k subscribers), but the drawback is it operates a freemium model so you’ll see paywalls. One for a future post, perhaps.
Your favourites will be down to personal preference but a few of mine to get you started are:
Ravi Mehta — Co-Founder & CEO @ Outpace on building your product strategy stack
I’ve been a fan of Ravi’s insight for a number of years, so I jumped at the chance to hear what he had to say on a topic that I really enjoy — product strategy.
In this episode, Ravi discusses the product strategy stack, which he defines as being a framework for making informed decisions around product development, taking you on the journey from setting an initial (and crystal clear!) vision through to delivery, balancing short and long-term goals and staying flexible to adapt to market trends.
If you’re interested in learning more from Ravi, I recommend checking out his website, especially the Product Competency Toolkit.
Lauryn Isford — Head of Growth @ Airtable* on mastering onboarding
Lauryn discusses how to effectively onboard new users, including how to create a strong first impression, use data to inform decision making and personalise the experience through messaging and segmentation.
With onboarding being crucial to any product experience, especially in the SaaS world, and at only 49 minutes long, this podcast is a must-listen.
Mastering onboarding | Lauryn Isford (Head of Growth at Airtable)
Lauryn Isford (00:00:00): An activation rate that falls in a lower percentage range, maybe for most companies five to…www.lennyspodcast.com
*Since the podcast was recorded, she’s moved on to Notion, also as Head of (Product) Growth.
Christina Wodke— Lecturer @ Stanford on the ultimate guide to OKRs
There’s no shortage of content out there about OKRs, but it’s easy to get lost in the noise of the arbitrary debate about them versus their arch-nemesis, the KPI.
Christina distils it down to a clear explanation of the differences between Objectives and Key Results, the importance of alignment across teams, and provides some top tips to avoid the most common traps that companies fall into when defining OKRs.
Ultimately she provides a fantastic overview of how to use OKRs to drive an organisation towards its vision.
The Intelligence Podcast
Most of the lists I’ve seen focus purely on podcasts that talk about product management. I would argue that you get diminishing returns pretty quickly when it comes to purely product pods (say that 10x, really fast).
Being a great product manager requires so much more than understanding product management fundamentals, Agile software development and analysing quantitative data. To be a great product manager, I believe strongly that you need a broad worldview.
My go-to for this is called The Intelligence, a 20-minute current-affairs podcast from The Economist that’s published every weekday.
To give you an example of directly relevant topics, in recent weeks they’ve discussed chatbots, tech redundancies and the SVB bailout.
More indirectly, you’ll hear insight from around the world covering the economy, politics, social issues and the environment that will expand your worldview and may drive you to explore some of the topics in more detail.
The Intelligence… provides a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.
I listen to it every morning as I go for a stroll round the block, and it has made me a more informed person and allowed me to form and work effectively in diverse, inclusive high-performing teams.
The Intelligence | The Economist daily podcast
The Intelligence is a current-affairs podcast, published every weekday by Economist Radio, that provides a fresh…theintelligence.economist.com
Of the 9 Economist podcasts, these 3 especially are well worth a listen to help you become a better product manager.
The High Performance Podcast
I wanted to choose a podcast with more of a business focus and I spent a long time debating between A16Z, How I Built This and Masters of Scale… then decided not to pick any of them.
They’re fantastic podcasts with a direct link to product management, but given that I’ve assumed you’ll get plenty of product insight from other sources, why not pick another tangential but hugely beneficial podcast?
Enter, the High Performance podcast, hosted by Jake Humphrey and Professor Damian Hughes.
Each episode has one guest that’s at the top of their game in sports, the arts or the world of business. Past guests include Serena Williams, Tim Peake and Marcus Wareing.
As they’re nearing their 200th episode, here are a few of my favourites to get you started.
Ben Francis
Having recently been named the UK’s youngest billionaire, it feels like a good time to revisit Ben’s appearance on the pod from back in July 2021.
In this episode, Ben talks about his own insecurities and the ‘ego death’ he had when he was given feedback, as well as how he embraces pressure. It’s well worth a listen to understand how one of the UK’s greatest young Entrepreneurs went from making workout gear in his parents’ garage in 2012, to owning a Unicorn by 2020 (privately owned company worth over $1bn).
BEN FRANCIS – High Performance
Ben Francis is the Founder and ambitious entrepreneur behind leading UK fitness brand, Gymshark. Ben founded Gymshark…www.thehighperformancepodcast.com
Rachel Botsman
Trust is crucial to establish a high-performance culture in product development teams, and Rachel is an expert in this space that I’ve been following for a few years now.
In this episode, Rachel discusses how trust has had to evolve in the digital era and gives tips on how to build and maintain trust in the workplace, including explaining her 3 Ds of distrust of defensiveness, disengagement and disenchantment.
Toto Wolff
I’m A big Toto fan, so I had to have his episode on this list. He is Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and oversaw 8 consecutive constructors championships from 2014–2021 and 7 consecutive drivers champions, from 2014–2020.
His pragmatic leadership style and focus on building a safe, inclusive and high-performance culture transcends F1, so this is well worth a listen even if you haven’t got a clue what DRS is.
Toto Wolff – High Performance
Toto Wolff: Empathy over engineering Toto Wolff is Team Principal & CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. After…www.thehighperformancepodcast.com
That’s it. There are the best 3 podcasts for you to become an expert product manager. If you enjoyed it, claps and follows are much appreciated and I’d love to know what you think in the comments!
And if you enjoyed this post, why not check out some of the best product writers to follow?
Happy Listening 🎧
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