8 Product Planning Books That Elevate Your Strategy and Execution

The research was clear: traditional product roadmaps often failed to adapt to uncertainty, which led C. Todd Lombardo and his co-authors to rethink the approach. Drawing on their extensive experience in product management and strategy, they present a framework that helps you craft a living roadmap that aligns stakeholders and prioritizes initiatives with a customer-centric focus. You’ll explore chapters that cover articulating product vision, scientific prioritization methods, and tactics to keep sales and development teams in sync. This book suits product managers, owners, and anyone involved in guiding product direction, especially where flexibility and alignment are critical.

Jonathan M. Cagan leverages decades of engineering and innovation experience at Carnegie Mellon University to transform how you approach product development. This book takes you beyond lucky guesses, offering structured processes that guide you from initial concept through program approval, emphasizing methods that foster truly disruptive products. You'll explore frameworks for integrating customer insights, design thinking, and strategic planning, with detailed chapters unpacking the transition from ideation to execution. If you're involved in product innovation and want to consistently deliver breakthroughs rather than incremental updates, this book provides the tools and mindset essential for that journey.

This tailored book explores the art and science of product planning through a lens that matches your background and ambitions. It examines core principles such as roadmap development, prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and adaptive planning while focusing on your specific industry and product challenges. The content reveals ways to navigate uncertainty and balance innovation with practical execution, all crafted to your unique learning goals. By synthesizing collective expert knowledge into a personalized narrative, it offers clear pathways and insights directly relevant to your needs, making complex product planning topics accessible and actionable.

After years immersed in software analysis and the frustrations of waterfall processes, Riccardo Barbieri found his calling as a Product Owner, which inspired this focused exploration of agile product management. The book offers concrete guidance on creating visionary roadmaps, mastering prioritization, and managing change to align product development with strategic goals. You'll learn how to lead with clear vision, foster stakeholder trust, and adapt dynamically to evolving market needs. This is particularly helpful if you’re transitioning into agile roles or aiming to deepen your strategic impact within product teams.

After decades of teaching and writing on business topics, Linda Gorchels offers a focused exploration of product strategy and roadmaps that shifts your perspective from day-to-day operations to strategic thinking. You’ll gain clarity on foundational concepts like vision statements and growth arenas, and practical frameworks for building product family roadmaps and evaluating when to prioritize first-mover advantages. Chapters break down complex decisions such as balancing effort across growth opportunities and leveraging customer research to improve foresight. This book suits product managers and strategists eager to refine their planning skills without getting lost in jargon or overly broad theory.

Dominic J. Frúges brings decades of strategic and executive experience to this focused guide on navigating product launches in today's fast-paced markets. Drawing on his work with 13 launches across high-tech, software, and consumer brands, he breaks down how to evaluate market conditions, develop compelling value propositions, and refine messaging that resonates. You’ll find practical frameworks for assessing strengths and weaknesses in your approach, as well as insights into aligning features with customer benefits. This book suits entrepreneurs, product managers, and marketing professionals looking to sharpen their launch process with a clear checklist approach rather than vague generalities.

This tailored book explores a focused 90-day timeline for product planning designed to accelerate your path from concept to execution. It examines key phases, decision points, and practical actions mapped specifically to your background and goals, helping you avoid overwhelm and stay on track. The content reveals how to prioritize tasks, manage risks, and align stakeholders effectively, all within a rapid planning cycle. By tailoring the guidance to your product type and experience, this book offers a personalized roadmap that matches your specific interests and learning needs. It bridges established expert knowledge with your unique context, creating an engaging learning experience centered on fast, actionable progress in product planning.

Simon Pittman's extensive background in software development and entrepreneurship fuels this candid exploration of what it truly takes to bring a new software product to market. You learn to navigate beyond the coding phase, addressing the initial spark of an idea, the detailed planning stages, and the inevitable hurdles in product creation and release. The book offers concrete insights into the realities of launching a product, including managing expectations and practical steps for making a product available to users. If you're involved in software or product development and want a grounded perspective that dispels common myths, this book will serve you well.

Jawad Akhtar draws on over 20 years of experience with SAP systems to guide you through the complexities of SAP S/4HANA for production planning. He explains how to leverage both standard manufacturing processes and innovative planning tools within the software, focusing on a four-step approach: configuration, master data, transactions, and reporting analysis. You’ll gain clear insights into aligning SAP functionalities with actual business needs, illustrated through detailed examples of system workflows and reporting capabilities. If you’re involved in SAP logistics or supply chain management and want a deep understanding of how to optimize production planning with S/4HANA, this book offers a thorough technical foundation without unnecessary jargon.

Jawad Akhtar draws on nearly two decades of SAP expertise to guide you through mastering SAP ERP Production Planning for different manufacturing types—discrete, process, and repetitive. You’ll learn how to configure critical components like BOM status, master data, and work centers, alongside managing workflows such as S&OP, MRP, and demand management. The book dives deep into optimizing production via capacity planning and the Early Warning System, offering practical insights into configuring and monitoring your system effectively. If you’re involved in SAP implementations or production management, this detailed manual equips you with the knowledge to run your SAP PP system efficiently and confidently.