The Influential Product Manager

Introduction

What being influential means for you, and how to use this book.

Why “The Influential Product Manager”?

When I started working in consumer internet businesses (for a company called LookSmart), the role of product manager was largely undefined. I was labeled a “business analyst,” charged with tracking and understanding product performance and gathering market insights. Over time I gradually assumed more and more of the responsibilities we would now expect of a product manager—defining and prioritizing features; designing, building, and launching the product with the user experience and development teams; and ultimately managing the full product lifecycle.

Product managers learned by doing. So in a startup environment, through trial ...