11 Must-Read Newsletters for Product Managers

Finding good newsletters used to be a significant challenge. Now, with so many great newsletters being published, the challenge isn’t finding good newsletters — it’s finding the time to read them all.

Spanning multiple creative and analytical disciplines, product management is a rapidly evolving field, which is why good newsletters are so valuable to product managers at every stage of their careers.

In this post, we’ve compiled a list of 11 must-read newsletters that every product manager, from junior product wranglers to seasoned veterans, should be reading. All you have to do is carve out enough time to read them all.

Product Buff

The first newsletter in this round-up is Product Buff, Pedram Dara’s fascinating product management newsletter.

What makes Product Buff so valuable to product managers is the fact that Product Buff spans every aspect of the product management process. Readers will find plenty of topics to get their teeth into, from defining product-market fit to developing social media strategies to supporting major product launches.

Featuring guest interviews with key product thought leaders and influencers, Product Buff should definitely be in your inbox every week.

Prioritised: The Product Management Newsletter

Prioritised: The Product Management Newsletter is a weekly newsletter produced by Mind the Product, one of the best product management resources on the web.

Like many of the newsletters in this round-up, Prioritised covers a wide range of product management-related topics, from how to manage diverse product teams to the pros and cons of specific product business models. The content is as varied as the topics covered, alternating between high-level conceptual topics to highly actionable how-tos and guides.

Sign up right now to start getting insightful, hands-on product management content and take your career to the next level.

Ray Sensenbach

Ray Sensenbach has been working in product and design for over a decade and brings his considerable experience to bear in his weekly newsletter.

While some of the newsletters in this round-up focus on a broad range of topics, Sensenbach’s newsletters focus almost exclusively on product design, with particular emphasis on UX design and its impact on wider product management work.

Sensenbach often backs up his assertions and observations with detailed case studies based on real products made by real companies, making it a valuable resource for product managers seeking to reverse-engineer the success of products in their industry. Essential reading for product managers and designers alike.

Bringing the Donuts

Ken Norton’s Bringing the Donuts is one of the most widely read product newsletters out there.

Bringing the Donuts is essential reading for product managers hoping to up their game. Norton’s writing style is accessible, and he frequently offers the kind of career development advice that will benefit any aspiring product manager.

Readers will find immensely helpful reading on fascinating topics such as the potential impact of machine-learning technology on product management workflows and how corporate culture affects team management. And, for voracious readers, catching up with Bringing the Donuts’ considerable archive is the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Tim Herbig

Author and speaker Tim Herbig knows a thing or two about product, having worked in senior product management roles at several leading technology companies including entrepreneurial consultancy ORBIT and European career social media platform XING. As such, Herbig’s newsletter is packed with firsthand insights into the challenges facing product managers today.

In addition to Herbig’s personal observations about product, his newsletter contains further reading from around the web, which is invaluable for busy product managers who need a curated list of recommended reading.

Get on Herbig’s mailing list right now and start learning how the best product managers help their users and build better products.

Product Management Insider

The Product Management Insider newsletter might not be the most frequent digest in this round-up, but what it lacks in publishing frequency it makes up for in the quality of its content.

Many of the topics covered by the Product Management Insider newsletter are neatly categorized into specialized subtopics, such as validation, roadmapping, and team leadership. Helpfully, most of the articles featured in Product Management Insider are also published on the newsletter’s Medium page.

280 Group

The product management consultancy 280 Group’s newsletter is a treasure-trove of resources for hungry product managers who want to dive into the most pressing topics facing product professionals.

Although some of the articles included in the 280 Group’s newsletter focus on broader, high-level concepts, most of the content subscribers will receive is highly actionable — think reusable templates, downloadable guides, case studies, white papers, and more. This makes this newsletter ideal reading for product managers seeking to replicate successful product workflows or learn more about specific approaches to common product problems.

Product Psychology

Nir Eyal is one of the most respected and widely read experts working in product design. Eyal’s book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, is considered a bible for product designers and managers alike, and Eyal’s Product Psychology email course is similarly essential reading.

Eyal’s Product Psychology is unique in that it isn’t a true newsletter as such but rather a serialized, self-paced email course on how to design more compelling products. Every week, subscribers receive a new lesson module covering the psychology of product design, each of which expands and builds upon previously covered topics.

Read this once you’ve devoured Hooked — you’ll never look at products in quite the same way again.

Product Manager HQ

Next up in our round-up of essential product management newsletters is Product Manager HQ.

What makes Product Manager HQ worth reading is that much of the content subscribers receive connects product management directly to sales. Any product manager could tell you that working with sales reps is an essential part of product management, but despite its importance, far too few sites and publications take the time to connect the products we make (and how we make them) to the way we sell them.

Product Manager HQ is a fascinating newsletter and well worth checking out if you want to gain a greater understanding of how product and sales teams can work in concert.

Product Habits

Serial entrepreneur Hiten Shah has been sharing his insights about product development for years, and his Product Habits newsletter and blog are essential reading for ambitious product managers.

Shah’s concise, no-nonsense writing style is engaging, accessible, and entertaining. Shah’s approach to product is unique in that it focuses on cultivating new ways of working that result in stronger products — the “product habits” after which Shah’s blog takes its name. This framework-style approach is a great way to not only think about product differently but increase your productivity and develop new ways of thinking and working.

Silicon Valley Product Group

Last but by no means least is the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) newsletter, published by the eponymous organization.

If you’ve been working in product for a while, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard about SVPG and maybe even read some of its excellent content. That’s because Marty Cagan, author of Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, is a founding member of SVPG.

SVPG’s newsletter is essential reading, not least because of the caliber of product experts who regularly contribute to the newsletter and its blog. In addition to insights from Marty Cagan, readers can expect to read fascinating articles from SVPG’s other experienced product professionals and founding members, including Christopher Jones, Martina Lauchengco, and Lea Hickman, all of whom bring years of hands-on product management experience to the SVPG newsletter.

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