When it comes to product management, there’s always something new to learn. To advance as a product manager, you need to keep up with what’s going on in your field. This will help you stay current and relevant in your role, while also giving you the edge when it comes time to develop a new product or take your existing one to the next level. One of the best ways is by learning from industry leaders and their experiences via blogs, books, and conferences. The experiences and ideas they provide on their own accounts and blogs are significant. Following these thought leaders has several advantages, but one crucial advantage is that they continually remain ahead of current and predicted trends, constantly innovating within the product management sector.
In this blog, we will list product management thought leaders to whom you can subscribe to remain up to date and get unique perspectives on the product field.
Marty Cagan
Marty Cagan is a Silicon Valley-based product leader with over 20 years of experience at Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, and eBay. Marty started his career as a software developer at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, where he conducted software technology research and built various software products for other software developers. After HP, Marty joined the then-young Netscape Communications Corporation as vice president. He most recently served as eBay’s senior vice president of product and design, in charge of developing products and services for the company’s worldwide e-commerce trading site.
Marty has personally performed and managed most of the roles of a modern software product organization, including product management, software development, product marketing, user experience design, software testing, engineering management, and general management.
He founded the Silicon Valley Product Group in 2001 to pursue his love of assisting others in creating great products via blogging, speaking, and coaching. He has been dubbed “the most important person in the product sector.” Marty is also the author of “Inspired: How to Create Tech Products That Customers Want” and “EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.” He has spoken at major conferences and top firms worldwide about empowering product teams, product leadership, and product management, among other topics.
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Julie Zhuo
Julie Zhuo is a prominent player in the digital technology business, having spent over 14 years of her career with the social media behemoth Facebook. Julie was responsible for designing the famous Facebook app while working her way through the organization from Product Designer to Manager of Product Design and finally V.P. of Product Design. She’s worked on Facebook’s newsfeed, like button, and user profiles, as well as supervising the design of many of Facebook’s fundamental user experiences – and a staff of over 250 individuals. Julie released her book, “The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You,” during her last years at Facebook, in which she discusses subjects such as how to tell a great manager from an average one, how to create trust, and where to seek when you lose confidence as a manager. Her book was a Wall Street Journal best-seller and one of Amazon’s Best Business and Leadership Books of 2019.
Julie departed Facebook in early 2020 to become an Advisor for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She also co-founded Inspirit, a consulting business to help establish and expand internet firms while creating beautiful products that people would enjoy. She is also the Chief of Creator Stories at PicsArt Inc, an Inspirit partner firm, and has served as a Board Member of National Novel Writing Month since 2019. She co-founded Sundial in 2021, where they use creative methods to automate insights and help companies to make better choices.
Julie writes on design and technology on her famous blog “The Year of the Looking Glass,” as well as in publications such as Fast Company, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post.
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Roman Pichler
Roman Pichler is a certified scrum trainer and leading product management expert specializing in product strategy, leadership, and agility. He has spent the last 15 years teaching product managers and product owners, advising product leaders, and assisting firms in building effective product management organizations. After working for Intel Corp. and Siemens AG, he founded his firm in 2006, specializing in agile product management and product ownership. Roman was one of the first Scrum practitioners at Siemens, and he used that knowledge to contribute to the product community. He offered fresh perspectives to the Scrum Product Owner position, bridging the gap between the business and delivery sides of product development.
Roman spearheaded the Scrum Alliance initiative to provide the first Certified Scrum Product Owner training. He founded the London Scrum User Group and is an active part of the product management community in London.
Roman offers his skills via his famous blog, podcast, presentations, and product management tools such as the Product Vision Board, Go Product Roadmap, Roman’s Product Management Framework, Decision Making Chart, Persona Template, Product Canvas, and Sprint Goal Template. He has written many books, including “How to Lead in Product Management,” “Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age,” and “Agile Product Management with Scrum.”
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Sachin Rekhi
Sachin is the Founder and C.E.O. of Notejoy, a collaborative notes app. His product career started at Microsoft, where he was the Product Manager for the Visual Studio Team System. He conducted extensive consumer research, oversaw marketing, and developed sales tools that resulted in customers preferring their products over rivals. He started Anywhere.FM in 2007 and was promoted to Senior Product Manager when the firm was bought and relaunched by imeem in 2008. He has also worked as the Head of Product at LinkedIn. He began directing their connections team, based on the business he created in 2011, Connected H.Q., and two additional acquisitions. He was also the driving force behind the addition of LinkedIn to OS X Mavericks.
Sachin is also a product management and entrepreneurial thought leader, writer, and speaker. He has given product management talks at Wharton, Stanford, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, P&G, and other universities. As an advisor and consultant, he has counseled 20+ businesses on product strategy, including Beeloo, Accord, People.ai, DarwinAI, Bonafide. co, and many more. On his website, he has produced 150+ articles with over 2 million views, sharing lessons acquired as a product manager and business founder in Silicon Valley.
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Mina Radhakrishnan
Mina Radhakrishnan is a product manager and entrepreneur who co-founded :Different. She previously worked as an entrepreneur in residence at Redpoint Ventures, as a special consultant to Cowboy Ventures, and as Uber’s first product manager, where she shared the patent for Uber’s 2013 surge pricing verification system. She started working as a Goldman Sachs business analyst after graduating from Cornell University with computer science and cognitive science degrees. She then worked at Google as an associate product manager and ModCloth as one of their first product managers. She led the product team as Uber’s first product manager and 20th employee, overseeing efforts such as new driver onboarding and the inclusion of various kinds of vehicle services. Mina co-founded and secured a second round of funding for Different, an Australian property-tech business specializing in property management, in 2019.
She has given talks at TwilioCon and #ProductSF conferences and was interviewed by C.B.S. News. Her official website offers excellent insights on startups, entrepreneurship, and product leadership. Women’s Agenda named her one of the women helping Australia’s startup ecosystem develop. Radhakrishnan’s vision for the local tech economy earned her a position on the new Technology Council of Australia’s board of directors in August 2021, with Afterpay C.E.O. Anthony Eisen, Atlassian Co-CEO Scott Farquhar and Canva co-founder Cliff Albrecht.
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Conclusion
Learning from the best has gotten simpler in the area of product management, thanks to these product thought leaders who use the virtual realm to offer their experiences, knowledge, and newest trends. If you are an ambitious product manager, you do not want to miss out on these leaders’ insights.
In addition to following the aforementioned product leaders, you can also learn more by visiting our Product Management blog, which has roadmapping exercises with real-world examples, in-depth articles on industry trends, and resources for both new and experienced product managers.
