Recently, I launched a new YouTube channel called The Modern Product Manager. The channel features content for Product Managers, startup people, and anyone interested in Tech.
I’ve started my channel by making videos of some of my most viewed, shared, and discussed Medium posts.
→ If you’re interested, check out my channel here (I’d love a subscribe too!): The Modern Product Manager Channel
As part of my channel set up, I watched A LOT of YouTube videos on Product Management. This post features the videos I’ve found most helpful and think Product Managers of all levels (including aspiring PMs) would learn a lot from too.
So please check these videos out below and level up as a PM (or find your path into the career).
Top Videos For PMs (Of All Levels)
1. How to Shift Into Product Management
Why I Like It: If you’re looking to make a move into Product Management, this video from The Product School featuring a Google PM is a great one to watch!
In the almost 1 hour video, you’ll gain many insights from Manjot Pahwa including my favorite: the importance of continuous learning!
2. My Journey to Product Management
Why I Like It: Another Product School video! They create a lot of great content for PMs, you’ll see them a couple of more times in this list 🙂 I like this video because it shows how you can break into Product Management in many different ways.
3. Product Management in Startups
Why I Like It: This video gets right into the tactics of the Product Manager.
I like the simple straightforward approach that Slidebean takes to walk through the Product Development Lifecycle at a high level. If you’re just starting to learn about Product Management, this is a great video to begin with.
4. 5 Product Management Personas and How to Hire Them
Why I Like It: I’ve written in the past about the many different personas of Product Managers and how it takes the right mix of PM personas for the right company type to drive success:
While my 5 “Types” of PMs are different from Jason Shen’s 5 “PM Personas”, I enjoyed his “character” focused approach.
This video and my above blog post will help open your mind to the fact that there isn’t just 1 successful Product Manager skillset. Many different paths and strengths can succeed in Product!
5. Your First 90 Days
Why I Like It: The first 90 days for a Product Manager are incredibly critical. I’ve also devoted a blog post to this topic as well and I really enjoyed how Kevolve fits so much rich content into less than 5 minutes!
Also, I completely agree with their assertion about the need to deliver early wins through the first 90 days. This is critical for PMs who want a fast start on a path to future growth and promotions.
Want to learn more about what you should do in the first 90 days? Check out my post here:
Thanks for reading so far! If you’re enjoying this post, I know you would enjoy my course on Product Management: How to Succeed as a Product Manager
Whether you’re an aspiring Product Manager or looking to level up, I know you’ll learn a LOT from the >50 hours of course content I’ve assembled.
I’m also offering a very limited time discount to my readers: use promo code: 25PCTOFFMPM
If you prefer books, I think you’d also enjoy Disrupting Yourself (How to Succeed in the New Economy) and Building Digital Products (Handbook for PMs of All Levels).
6. 8 Steps to a PM Interview
Why I Like It: PM Interviews are very popular topics for Product Management YouTube videos and for good reason. The Product Management career is growing incredibly fast and candidates are looking for every edge they can to stand out from the crowd, especially as they apply to FAANG companies.
If you’re preparing for a PM interview (FAANG or not), watch this video for 8 steps to help guide your preparation. Also, check out these PM interview posts I wrote recently to help people in your exact position:
7. What Skills Are Needed To Become an Effective Product Manager?
Why I Like It: While many of the videos on this list are one person talking to a camera or presenting on stage, this video is a panel featuring 3 Product experts: Johanna Wright, Craig Walker, and Adam Nash and moderated by Josh Elman.
You’ll definitely enjoy the insights and humor!
8. How to Survive the Hardest Part of Product Management
Why I Like It: What is the “Hardest Part of Product Management?”
Well, you’ll have to watch this video to find out! And by the way, I agree with Janna Bastow’s assessment of the hardest part of the job…
9. The Art of Product Management
Why I Like It: Sachin Rekhi dives deep in this hour-long video into what he sees as great Product Management in Tech.
I especially enjoyed Rekhi’s Slack case study and his explanation of Product-Market Fit Hypotheses. Learn from a PM who’s done it before at several hypergrowth companies about the “art” that goes with the execution of Product Management.
10. What is the Product Manager Career Path?
Why I Like It: Alright, so you’re a Product Manager, now what?
ProductPlan dives deep into Associate Product Managers, Product Managers, Senior Product Managers, Product Directors, VP of Product, and Chief Product Officers.
What does each role do?
What don’t they do?
You’ll learn those answers and more in this quick run-through of the most common Product roles you’ll find in the market.
11. How to Break Into Product Management
Why I Like It: Alex Rechevskiy brings high energy tips in this video on how to break into Product Management.
I completely agree with Alex that diving in and starting to build is the most essential thing you can do to break into Product!
Learn about how else you can get started and how you can position yourself to be a great Product candidate with Alex’s help!
12. How to Land a Product Manager Offer in 30 Days
Why I Like It: Alright, so this video’s title is a little bit aggressive.
Having come off a recent Product job search myself, I know that 30 days is incredibly short during a pandemic to land a new role, especially a great one.
However, despite the video’s title, you’ll learn a few tips on how to jumpstart and/or accelerate your Product position search from Product Gym’s co-founder, Rich.
13. The Product Development Journey
**Self-Promotion Alert! — The writer of this blog is the speaker in this video**
Why I Like It: In 15 minutes, Alex Mitchell (me!) walks through a real-life Product build out from idea to launch, covering all the twists-and-turns along the way. Watch this video to see how it all turned out!
14. What Are the Basics of a Product Manager Role by Google PM
Why I Like It: This video is a very accessible walk-through by Ankit Prasad of the day-to-day life of a Google Product Manager.
I enjoyed how Prasad compared and contrasted the different components of the PM role with the different sizes of the companies he has worked for. He explained well how much difference there can be for PMs across different industries, companies, and team structures.
15. 20 Years of Product Management in 25 Minutes
Why I Like It: This is a very entertaining keynote-style talk by Dave Wascha that covers all of the ways the field of Product Management has evolved over the past 20 years.
Some things change and some stay the same.
16. How to Be a Great *Remote* Product Manager
**Self-Promotion Alert! — The writer of this blog post also produced this video**
Why I Like It: Being a great remote Product Manager doesn’t come easily. In fact, it’s probably very unnatural, even for the most seasoned of PMs.
Learn in this video how you can become a great remote PM, especially during the fully remote culture that most of us are living in right now!
17. What Do Product Managers Actually Do?
Why I Like It: Easy and digestible 5-minute overview of the PM career by an Atlassian PM who’s seen his team grow from 10 to over 150 PMs! I love his simplification of many of the key responsibilities of the PM role.
18. What I Look For When I Hire a PM
Why I Like It: Airbnb’s Product Lead for Trust and Safety, Angeli Jain, walks through the core skillsets she looks for when hiring a PM.
While some of the skills PM hiring managers look for vary company to company, many are very consistent including strong communication (a cornerstone of the PM role), prioritization, storytelling, and organizational skills.
19. Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell
Why I Like It: Get a 15-minute crash course in Agile development from Henrik Kniberg, a coach at Crisp. Although this video is close to 8 years old, it still is valuable today because it dramatically simplifies what could be a day-long course into something much easier to grasp!
20. 10 Lessons I Learned – Slack’s First Product Manager
Why I Like It: Focus, focus, focus. I really enjoyed Kenneth Berger’s walkthrough of some of the key decisions he and his team made early on at Slack, especially his commitment to building a few great features instead of many good ones.
21. The 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Product Manager
**Self-Promotion Alert! — The writer of this blog post also produced this video**
Why I Like It: Over the past 7 years, I’ve worked with dozens of different Product Managers across 4 companies and met 100’s.
While PMs may come from different backgrounds and have different specialties, I’ve seen 7 Habits that correlate highly with the most Highly Effective PMs.
22. Product Manager vs. Project Manager
Why I Like It: There is still a ton of confusion between the definition of Product Manager vs. Project Manager. So much so that I recently wrote a post about it!
I like how Shelby highlights some of the key differences including the PM’s responsibility for the vision, collecting customer feedback, broader stakeholder management, and their success being driven more by outcomes than outputs.
23. PM Role in Big Companies vs. Startups
Why I Like It: The PM role and your PM responsibilities can be very different based on the size of your company.
Shaun Seo’s experience as a PM at Google, a startup he founded, GoDaddy, and Dresr is extremely helpful to highlight the specific differences you can expect as a PM at a big company vs. a startup.
24. Empowered Product Teams by Marty Cagan
Why I Like It: Empowering your teams is so important as a Product Manager. Empowered teams achieve more, are more creative, move faster, and will ultimately lead to more company success.
25. Justify Your Product Decisions and get Stakeholder Buy-in by Teresa Torres
Why I Like It: Communication is HUGE for Product Managers. Teresa Torres covers how you can justify your Product Decisions and get buy-in from all of the stakeholders you need in this great conference talk. This video is perfect for Product Managers looking to level up and build stronger connections across their organizations.
Honorable Mentions
The Product of You and The Build Trap by Melissa Perri
Top 10 Books for PMs
The Right Way to Prepare for a PM Interview
What Great Product Videos Did I Miss?
Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @amitch5903!