Episode · Lenny's Podcast · 2023-11-16
Lenny Rachitsky, Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles: books mentioned on Lenny's Podcast
The ultimate guide to product operations | Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles
Melissa Perri is the CEO of Produx Labs, a product management training organization; author of the seminal PM book The Build Trap; and a former Harvard Business School professor of product management.
Melissa Perri discussed Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri and Product Operations by Melissa Perri and others. Denise Tilles recommended Traffic by Ben Smith and The Art of Action by Stephen Bungay. Lenny Rachitsky recommended Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Escaping the Build Trap
Discussed“And I know when I wrote my first book, Escaping the Build Trap, in 2018, I mentioned it in there cuz we had just started doing it at Athenahealth. And I saw this as like a really big issue”
Where to get it
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Product Operations
Discussed“The way we think about it is is kind of structured around the three pillars that we talk about in the book. So, business and data insights more of the quantitative side, making sure that the product manager has, you know, all of these sort of engagement and revenue inputs to make smart decisions.”
Where to get it
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Traffic
Recommended“I can add to that. Another one that I recommend is called Traffic. It came out this year by Ben Smith. Kind of around the the uh the growth and invention and growth of um HuffPo and Gawker and whatnot.”
Where to get it
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The Art of Action
Recommended“The Art of Action, I think is a fantastic book on strategy, and I always I always recommend this to people. And it's kind of like out of the realm. There's a lot of great product management books out there, too. But I like this one cuz it's like a sleeper hit”
Where to get it
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Continuous Discovery Habits
Recommended“So, that's my favorite book to recommend to people. I love Teresa Torres's Continuous Discovery Habits. Fantastic book, as well, just to give a shout-out in the product world, too.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (10) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Product Operations
“Melissa and Denise are authors of an awesome new book called Product Operations: How Successful Companies Build Better Products at Scale.”
Passing Escaping the Build Trap
“She's the author of the foundational PM book, Escaping the Build Trap. She runs a product management training organization called Products Labs, teaches product management at Harvard, and has worked with hundreds of companies on their product management function.”
Plugged Product Operations
“And you two have a new book out, which I have right here. It's called Product Operations: How Successful Companies Build Better Products at Scale.”
Plugged Product Operations
“And that's what got us to start writing this book. And since then I've seen a lot more companies coming out and either making more mature product operations teams that started probably before that or actually introducing them now.”
Plugged Product Operations
“We say to like like get started with one person. Like we we we describe these three pillars and, you know, repeatedly through the book we're like, "Hone in on what's the most important part for you that's going to help you right now that we talked through."”
Plugged Product Operations
“And by the way, if you buy your book at the end there, there's this like really beautiful little guy. There you go. I think you can see it on the camera of just like a little yellow brick road of all the steps that it takes to roll it out.”
Plugged Product Operations
“They actually kept the product ops team. So, now Tim Davenport oversees product ops team. He was a chief of staff for the chief product officer at the time and he's been building it again, uh you know, taking it taking the stuff that worked and then building on to it and they're actually one of our key studies in”
Plugged Escaping the Build Trap
“What are two or three books you've recommended most to other people? I'll take that. Uh of course, Escaping the Build Trap.”
Plugged Product Operations
“You two are awesome. For folks listening, make sure to grab their book Product Operations. You can find it on Amazon, I imagine. Share where else people can find it, but two final questions.”
Plugged Product Operations
“So, definitely reach out and let us know about it. Also, you can help us by buying the book and leaving us an Amazon review if you do read it cuz that does help authors. And we self-published this one, too”