Product people know that keeping up with product trends is an important—and sometimes overwhelming—task in their day-to-day. What’s the easiest way a PM can keep up with the most useful and insightful content? Newsletters, of course.
There’s a ton of amazing, non-spammy, well-curated newsletters that offer links, personal musings and lessons on product management, product design, UX and more. If you work in product, you probably know or follow a few of the popular ones like Prioritised, Product Manager HQ and Under10 Consulting.
If you’re here, it’s because you’re looking for more of those daily/weekly briefings to bring you only the sharpest nuggets of wisdom and actionable product management resources.
Here are some of our favourite product management newsletters that we love getting in our inbox.
1. Work in Progress by Rick Pastoor
Work in Progress was once called DailyPM; a newsletter that didn’t just do the same old thing. Instead of publishing on a weekly or biweekly schedule, he aimed for a more frequent (and ambitious) clip: daily. Each morning, subscribers would receive a brief, thought-provoking message.
In the new iteration of Daily PM, now called Work in Progress, Pastoor’s focus is productivity and self-improvement—but that doesn’t mean his ideas aren’t actionable. Some of the issues that are most relevant to PMs include:
- Communicating about your work is part of the job
- How your strategy – not productivity – sets you apart
Sign up for Work in Progress
2. Weekly Thoughts of Tim Herbig
In this newsletter, Hamburg-based product manager and self-proclaimed coffee snob Tim Herbig curates a weekly compendium of his own blog posts, articles, resources and stray thoughts.
Herbig writes regularly and thoughtfully on a pretty wide range of topics: from getting started as a product manager, to holding effective 30-minute meetings, to his favourite apps. But the newsletter doesn't just link Herbig’s own website. Subscribers to also get access to quick, savvy musings on whatever topic happens to cross his mind that week.
Sign up for Tim Herbig's Weekly Thoughts
3. Lenny Rachitsky
What started as a fun side project for former Airbnb PM Lenny Rachitsky has now become a popular source of information beloved by many product and technology professionals.
Each week (or once a month if you stick to the unpaid plan), subscribers get a deep dive into a product management topic or process. The best part? The topics are chosen based on reader questions he receives on topics ranging from growth, working with humans, and “anything else that’s stressing you out at the office.”
Some notable entries in the archive:
Sign up for Lenny Rachitsky's newsletter
4. Oleg Yakubenkov’s Go Practice!
Oleg is a self-proclaimed “data guy” with a track record of successes building and growing products at scale. His newsletter, a dispatch of the in-depth essays on his blog, is a great way to see the behind the scenes of how an expert product manager approaches data and growth product management challenges.
He also created an amazing course on how to use data to build and grow products. It’s a hands-on, product management simulator complete with mock Amplitude dashboards, real data and numbers that students can use to make their own calculations, and scenarios drawn from real life examples.
Sign up for Oleg Yakubenkov’s Go Practice!
5. Elezea by Rian van der Merwe
The mission of Ryan’s newsletter is simple: a curation of resources and commentary to help you create better products, and understand the impact technology has on work and life. Every Wednesday, Rian shares practical advice for product managers to improve their craft, the future of work and industry tools, and relevant tech news that have an impact on product management and development.
Currently, the newsletter is on hiatus (“I hope that I’ll eventually get back to product stuff. But that time is not now.”) but we suggest subscribing anyway to keep track of the day he returns with more insights.
Notable issues:
- Issue 27: Don’t just look for problems to solve, why navigation apps make traffic worse, how warehouses for personal junk became a huge industry
- Issue 22: How Strava helps athletes to be their best, a research guide for startups, how technology sabotages public safety
Sign up for Rian van der Merwe's newsletter
6. Itamar Gilad’s High-Impact Product Management
Ex-Google product manager Itamar Gilad has always been at the forefront of product management thought leadership. His adapted approach to GIST planning at Google—immortalized in this Medium article—is a must-read for strategists and product leaders.
Needless to say, his monthly newsletter is a product manager’s must-read. Through the lens of his 20 years of experience working at companies like Youtube and Microsoft, Itamar shares great articles, resources and earth-shattering learnings.
Sign up for Itamar Gilad’s High-Impact Product Management newsletter
7. Reforge’s newsletter
Brian Balfour’s Reforge was one of the first organizations to respond quickly to the needs of product leaders around COVID-19, delivering a helpful multi-part video and written series on Growth in Turbulent Times alongside Patrick Campbell, CEO and co-founder of Profitwell.
You can subscribe to their newsletter to receive an update when an essay is posted. If you’re a product manager, or anyone leading a team at a product org, you’ll get value from these essays that include contributions from PMs at companies like Drift, Slack and Credit Karma.
To get a taste of what the writing is like, start with this issue:
Sign up for the Reforge newsletter
8. Mike Cohn’s Mountain Goat Software newsletter
Mike’s digest is the go-to for all things agile and scrum. Are you a product owner or just a product person interested in keeping up with the best practices in agile? Then you’ll get a ton of value out of this newsletter. He tackles questions like “Should a team work on more than one project in one sprint?”, “When is agile a bad idea?” and “The best way to pay off technical debt”
Sign up for Mike Cohn’s Mountain Goat Software newsletter
9. Morning Brew’s Emerging Tech Brew
For the automation nerds, this newsletter covers the latest in drones, automation and AI. It’s written with a fun, engaging tone, with a message focused on how these news will affect the future of business and technology.
- Check out the latest issue here.
Sign up for the Emerging Tech Brew newsletter
10. Ben Evans’ Weekly newsletter
Benedict Evans, former partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, sends out a weekly newsletter full of the most timely and relevant tech news and trends, complete with his commentary. It also includes links to his latest essays (like his Ways to Predict Tech) that offer a unique perspective on topics like AI ethics, big tech and mobile development.
- Peruse the archive here.
Sign up for Ben Evans' weekly newsletter
Notable mentions
Product management is an intersection of business, design and development. Because of that, product managers might find it beneficial to subscribe to newsletters that delve into the latest trends in those topics.
Here are some of our favorites:
Seedtable: A weekly analysis of European tech. Sign up here.
Andreessen Horowitz’s newsletters: An inside view of what’s next in tech, business, and VC, and analyses of the latest trends reshaping B2B and enterprise tech. Sign up here.
SaaStr: More like a weekly blog digest of their own content. Topics include culture, customer success and growth. Sign up here.
Ben Thompson’s Stratechery (Paid): A powerhouse staple newsletter that you’ve probably already heard of. On top of sharing news about tech and business, Ben also includes smart analyses of what those news mean to the general landscape of society. Sign up here.
Sari Azout’s Check Your Pulse: Sari’s writing and perspectives on tech trends, statistics and leadership bring a personable and human touch that’s much needed when talking about the significance of these stories. Sign up here.
TLDR: Bite sized news for busy tech professionals who just want the cliffsnotes on the most relevant stories of the week. Sign up here.