20 Must-Read Product Management Blog Posts
The best product management writing rarely reads like sanitized “thought leadership.” It feels lived‑in: experiments that worked (or didn’t), roadmaps that changed mid‑flight, growth curves that hit invisible ceilings, hiring bets that paid off. Below is a curated list of 20 personal blog posts—no company blogs—that PMs return to again and again. Each entry includes a short synopsis, why it matters, and a direct link.
How this list was chosen. I prioritized: (1) first‑hand examples from building/scaling products, (2) practical frameworks with evidence or data, (3) enduring value (posts people still cite years later).
1) Ken Norton — How to Hire a Product Manager
Synopsis. The classic field guide founders, heads of product, and PMs use to calibrate what “great” looks like and how to interview for it. Norton draws on his years building products (JotSpot → Google) to define the craft and the traits that predict success.
Why it matters. Defines PM role clarity and a practical hiring bar—useful whether you’re opening req #1 or #101.
Link. https://www.bringthedonuts.com/essays/productmanager.html
2) Ken Norton — Product Managers: Don’t Ship the Org Chart (Part 1)
Synopsis. Organize PM domains around customer experiences, not your codebase. “Organize your product managers around customers, not code repositories.” (quote)
Why it matters. A structure anchored in journeys reduces seams for customers and politics for teams.
Link. https://www.bringthedonuts.com/newsletter/dont-ship-the-org-chart-part-1.html
3) Andrew Chen — The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs
Synopsis. Acquisition channels decay—measurably—over time. As Chen writes: “Over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty clickthrough rates.” He cites data like HotWired 1994 CTR: 78% vs Facebook 2011 CTR: ~0.05%.
Why it matters. PMs must design for changing channels and build products whose network effects and engagement loops outlast any one tactic.
Link. https://andrewchen.com/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs/
4) Casey Winters — Casey’s Guide to Finding Product/Market Fit
Synopsis. Winters (Grubhub, Pinterest, Eventbrite) makes PMF measurable: “A flattened retention curve plus growth in new users every month is true product/market fit.” (quote, edited for length)
Why it matters. This is the cleanest retention‑plus‑growth definition PMs can operationalize with cohorts and key actions.
Link. https://caseyaccidental.com/caseys-guide-to-finding-product-market-fit/
5) Brian Balfour — Why Product Market Fit Isn’t Enough (the “Four Fits” series)
Synopsis. To reach $100M+ you must align four fits: Market‑Product, Product‑Channel, Channel‑Model, and Model‑Market. As Balfour summarizes, “You need all four Fits to grow to $100M+.” (quote)
Why it matters. Strategy is alignment. This series gives PMs a growth lens that ties product to channel economics and business model reality.
Links.
https://brianbalfour.com/essays/product-market-fit-isnt-enough
https://brianbalfour.com/essays/product-channel-fit-for-growth
6) Gibson Biddle — How to Define Your Product Strategy (DHM model)
Synopsis. The former Netflix VP Product introduces DHM—Delight, Hard‑to‑copy, Margin—and shows how Netflix used strategy tests and principles to choose.
Why it matters. Clear, portable, and rooted in first‑hand decisions from one of the most product‑centric companies ever.
Link. https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/intro-to-product-strategy-60bdf72b17e3
7) Eugene Wei — Invisible Asymptotes
Synopsis. Wei names the growth ceilings you can’t see until your curve “bumps its head.” They’re lurking in logistics, UX, onboarding comprehension, or market psychology—and you must map then remove them.
Why it matters. A durable mental model for why growth stalls even with “good” retention or NPS.
Link. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2018/5/21/invisible-asymptotes
8) John Cutler — 12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory
Synopsis. A diagnostic for output‑obsessed cultures. One tell: “Success theater around ‘shipping’ with little discussion about impact.” (quote)
Why it matters. If a team can name the anti‑patterns, it can start to fix them—measuring outcomes and killing work that doesn’t move needles.
Link. https://medium.com/@johnpcutler/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2
9) Rian van der Merwe — How to make the move away from ‘feature factory’ successful
Synopsis. Pragmatic advice on shifting goals and language—“The goal… is ‘provide more value to customers and the business.’” (quote)
Why it matters. Gives PMs the org‑change footing to pivot from shipping to solving.
Link. https://elezea.com/2023/01/feature-factory-goals/
10) Dan McKinley — Choose Boring Technology
Synopsis. From Etsy’s former architect: resist shiny stack churn; spend innovation tokens where customers notice. “MySQL is boring. Postgres is boring. … Cron is boring.” (quote)
Why it matters. Product bets die under “interesting” tech debt. Boring infra lets you innovate where it counts: user value.
Link. https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
11) Lenny Rachitsky — How to Launch (and actually learn from it)
Synopsis. A comprehensive personal guide to launches: objectives, checklists, measurement, and dozens of examples drawn from Lenny’s experience (Airbnb) and interviews.
Why it matters. Launches are learning events. This is the template many PMs quietly copy.
Link.
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-launch
12) Darius Contractor — Increase Funnel Conversion with Psych
Synopsis. A first‑principles framework from Dropbox/Facebook/Airtable growth leader Darius Contractor: map every UX element’s effect on user “psych” (motivation) to find the biggest lifts. One line: “Every UX interaction increases or decreases Psych.” (quote)
Why it matters. Gives PMs/PMMs a quantitative language for motivation and friction across the journey.
Link. https://darius.com/increase-funnel-conversion-with-psych-7378d51c4caf
13) Kevin Kwok — The Arc of Collaboration
Synopsis. Why the future of collaboration bends toward domain‑specific tools (Figma/Notion/etc.) with embedded workflows—and what that means for Slack‑style messaging.
Why it matters. Helps PMs reason about product ecosystems and where their app should live in the stack.
Link. https://kwokchain.com/2019/08/16/the-arc-of-collaboration/
14) Nikhyl Singhal — The Skills PMs Need to Become a Director, VP, or CPO
Synopsis. A progression map from a Meta/Credit Karma product exec. “The skills change by level but have common traits.” (quote)
Why it matters. Calibrates expectations and skill investments for PMs eyeing senior leadership.
Link. https://nikhyl.medium.com/the-skills-product-managers-need-to-become-a-director-vp-or-cpo-9c6a4c84f50
15) Sachin Rekhi — The Art of Product Management
Synopsis. Lessons from 10+ years building at LinkedIn and startups—framed across four PM dimensions: vision, strategy, design, execution—with concrete examples and artifacts.
Why it matters. A well‑organized, actionable overview of the PM craft, with the receipts.
Link. https://www.sachinrekhi.com/the-art-of-product-management
16) Hiten Shah — The 3‑Step Startup Marketing Framework We Created to Grow KISSmetrics
Synopsis. A no‑nonsense walkthrough of the discovery→strategy→execution loop Hiten used building KISSmetrics and other products.
Why it matters. Gives PMs a repeatable pattern for testing growth directions without over‑rotating on hacks.
Link. https://hitenism.com/three-step-startup-marketing-framework-we-created-to-grow-kissmetrics/
17) Julie Zhuo — The 4 Stages of 0→1 Products
Synopsis. From Facebook’s former VP of Product Design (now founder): how early products move from explore → focus → build → grow, with war‑stories from shipping at massive scale.
Why it matters. PMs learn to adjust processes, expectations, and quality bars at each stage.
Link. https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-4-stages-of-0-1-products-6df1e58b0a2c
18) Gergely Orosz — The Product‑Minded Software Engineer
Synopsis. What “product‑minded” really looks like in daily behavior—data curiosity, business context, empathy—and how PMs can cultivate it in their engineering partners.
Why it matters. High‑leverage PMs build product‑minded teams, not just backlogs.
Link. https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-product-minded-engineer/
19) Gergely Orosz — Working with Product Managers as an Engineering Manager or Engineer
Synopsis. A tactical playbook for EM/PM partnership: aligning on pillars, clarifying decision rights, and running healthy cadences.
Why it matters. The PM/EM relationship is your team’s performance multiplier; this is the best personal write‑up on making it great.
Link.
20) Ken Norton — PM Zero: When to Hire the First Product Manager?
Synopsis. Practical criteria for moving beyond founder‑led product and setting up the first PM for success.
Why it matters. Avoids the two common anti‑patterns: hiring too early (no mandate) or too late (cleanup duty).
Link. https://www.bringthedonuts.com/newsletter/pm-zero-when-to-hire-your-first-product-manager.html
Patterns you’ll notice across these posts
Evidence beats vibes. Several posts back their claims with data or concrete observations (e.g., Chen’s channel‑decay stats; Winters’ retention‑plus‑growth PMF test; Balfour’s Four Fits tied to real case studies). These aren’t armchair frameworks; they’re abstractions born from repeated practice.
Language is leverage. “Feature factory,” “invisible asymptotes,” “choose boring tech,” “DHM,” “psych”—sticky terms that help teams spot problems and rally around solutions. Naming the thing is how you move it.
Strategy = aligned fits. From Balfour’s Four Fits to Biddle’s DHM, the thread is the same: the best product strategies reconcile user delight, defensibility, channel reality, and margin math.
A few quotes and data points to keep handy
“Over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty clickthrough rates.” — Andrew Chen. He cites CTR decay from 78% (HotWired, 1994) to 0.05% (Facebook, 2011).
“Success theater around ‘shipping’ with little discussion about impact.” — John Cutler’s sign you’re in a feature factory.
“A flattened retention curve plus growth in new users every month is true product/market fit.” — Casey Winters.
“MySQL is boring. Postgres is boring. … Cron is boring.” — Dan McKinley, on saving innovation tokens for where users feel them.
“Organize your product managers around customers, not code repositories.” — Ken Norton.
How to use this reading list with your team
Run a “terms & tests” lunch‑and‑learn. Assign 1–2 posts per teammate. Ask each person to extract the term(“invisible asymptote”), the test (how we’d measure it here), and an action to try this quarter.
Choose one framework for each tier of decision‑making. e.g., DHM for strategy → Four Fits for growth alignment → Winters’ PMF for measurement → Darius’s Psych for conversion.
Revisit after real experiments. The best use of these posts is as shared vocabulary for your retros and roadmap debates.