Bookshelf
The books I credit for shaping how I think about product, systems, and building. Not a reading list — a working bibliography.
On my desk right now
Inspired
Reading
Marty Cagan
The source text for how empowered product teams actually work. Re-reading with the Aarchid project as the case study in my head.
Thinking in Systems
Reading
Donella Meadows
Feedback loops, leverage points, and why most 'metrics that matter' are the wrong metric. Keeps me honest when defining retention metrics.
Books that shaped me
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
A PM's tolerance for ambiguity comes from reading founders who lived inside it. This is the best example of the genre.
Good Strategy / Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
'Strategy is the application of strength against weakness.' I still use the diagnosis → guiding policy → coherent actions frame in my PRDs.
Measure What Matters
John Doerr
OKRs done right. The 'how' of turning strategy into a ship-able quarter.
High Output Management
Andrew Grove
The operations manual for anyone who ships things through other people.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
Not a PM book — but the single best source for reasoning about the systems my products actually run on.
The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick
How to do customer research without flattering yourself. Short, sharp, and I come back to it often.
Next up
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar & Bill Carr
Amazon's PR-FAQ in primary sources.
The Scout Mindset
Julia Galef
Calibration and updating beliefs — core PM meta-skill.
AI Engineering
Chip Huyen
For the AI PM playbooks I'm writing.
Think I'm missing one? Tell me — reading recommendations are welcome currency.