30 product management thought leaders to follow
Product management is an ever-evolving discipline, and there’s always something new to learn. But how do you keep on top of the latest trends, ideas, and strategies? One way is to follow the pioneers behind them.
In this article, we’ll reveal the leading product managers to follow on social, chosen by our very own Product Excellence Consultant, Scott Baldwin.
1. Sachin Rekhi – @sachinrekhi
Sachin is the founder and CEO of Notejoy, a collaborative note-taking app. Follow him on Twitter for interesting opinions and ideas about product management and startup life. I would also recommend checking out his website, sachinrekhi.com, for in-depth articles covering a wide range of product-related topics.
2. Hiten Shah – @hnshah
The founder of three SaaS companies, Hiten knows a thing or two about building great digital products. In addition to his huge Twitter follower, he produces a value-packed weekly newsletter and maintains an active blog on his website, hitenism.com.
3. C. Todd Lombardo – @iamctodd
The author of some excellent product management-related books, including Product Roadmaps Relaunched (the go-to book for all things roadmap) and the recently published Product Research Rules, C Todd is a self-proclaimed product fanatic and an active working product manager. He’s also very active on the conference circuit, and you can find links to all his talks on his website, ctodd.com.
4. Teresa Torres – @ttorres
As a teacher and product discovery coach, Teresa helps product teams adopt best practices around continuous product discovery. Her Twitter profile is full of snippets of wisdom and insights relating to this topic, and her Product Talk blog is a fantastic resource for any PM wanting to improve the way they do discovery. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for Teresa’s new book coming out soon.
5. Nir Eyal – @nireyal
Nir is a serial startup founder and the bestselling author of Hooked, a fascinating book designed to help teams build products that users keep coming back to, and the more recent Indistractable, about how to wrestle back control of your attention in an increasingly distracted world. You can also visit his website for all his latest news and views.
6. Melissa Perri – @lissijean
Melissa is the founder of Produx Labs and Product Institute, a senior lecturer on product management at Harvard, and the author of Escaping The Build Trap. She has a vast amount of experience and insights around the challenges that teams must overcome to build great products.
7. Dan Olsen – @danolsen
Dan has a ton of experience helping product leaders build excellent products. He’s a renowned product teacher, consultant, advisor, and author of The Lean Product Playbook. He also runs the Lean Product & Lean UX Silicon Valley meetup. Check out his Twitter and website for all info on his latest news, content, and speaking engagements.
8. Mina Radhakrishnan – @minarad
The co-founder of property management company Different, a former Head of Product at Uber, and a current advisor at Airtasker and Antler, Mina is passionate about helping startups build better products. Follow her on Twitter and check out her website for valuable insights into startups, entrepreneurship, and product leadership.
9. Ellen Chisa – @ellenchisa
The founder of Dark and Boldstart Ventures and a former VP Product at Lola, Ellen “likes building experiences and interfaces.” She also shares her wisdom and experience on these topics via her website blog and Twitter.
10. Jason Fried – @jasonfried
Jason is the founder of Basecamp, the bestselling author of books such as Rework, and a Ted Talk speaker. He’s also very active on Twitter and runs an interesting blog on his website, where you’ll find a ton of interesting content around product, entrepreneurship, and the world of work.
11. Scott Belsky – @scottbelsky
Scott is the Chief Product Officer at Adobe as well as the CEO and founder of Behance. His book The Messy Middle is about navigating the maze that is growing a startup, helping companies set themselves up for long-term success. He also writes a great newsletter covering tech, product, and design and shares a ton of wisdom on product and content about running a high-growth company.
12. John Cutler – @johncutlefish
John is an excellent source of product wisdom. He’s the Head of Product Education at Amplitude, where he writes for the company’s fantastic blog, and he also has his own Medium publication. Check out his Twitter and articles for fresh insights and deep dives into all things product management.
13. Hope Gurion – @hopegrrr
We’ve had Hope on as a podcast guest several times because she’s just so full of great product ideas. A former SVP Product, Hope is the founder of Fearless Product, where she coaches and advises leaders and teams on product management best practices. She also runs one of my favorite product podcasts and actively shares her thoughts and experience on Medium.
14. April Underwood – @aunder
With a career spanning product and engineering leadership roles at Google, Twitter, and Slack, and now in her role as founder and CEO at e-commerce company Nearby, April has been there and done it in the digital product world. As well as product management, she talks a lot about product marketing and go-to-market strategies.
15. Shreyas Doshi – @shreyas
A Product Manager at Stripe, Shreyas has previously worked at Silicon Valley giants Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He’s very active on Twitter and keeps his big following entertained with insights on product, strategy, leadership, organizational psychology, and life. What I particularly enjoy are his tweet threads on deeper product topics – a mini product course.
16. Lenny Rachitsky – @lennysan
Formerly a product leader at Airbnb and the founder and CEO of Localmind, Lenny now works for himself as a product writer and advisor. His newsletter is a great resource for product managers and those looking to build excellent products and services at scale.
17. Jackie Bavaro – @jackiebo
Jackie held product roles at Microsoft and Google before becoming Head of Product Management at Asana. She’s the co-author of two books, Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the PM Career, and she writes product-related articles on Medium.
18. Maggie Crowley – @maggiecrowley
Once an Olympic speed skater, Maggie is now Director of Product at Drift. I’m a big fan of her podcast, Build, which offers super-practical tips and tricks for PMs and features some genuinely interesting guests from across the product world.
19. Laura Klein – @lauraklein
The author of Build Better Products and UX for Lean Startups, Laura has over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, specializing in lean and agile approaches. She’s also the co-host of the What’s Wrong with UX podcast series, which, as the name suggests, aims to answer that very question.
20. Marty Cagan – @cagan
Marty Cagan’s ideas have had a significant impact on how we approach product management here at Productboard, particularly his classic book Inspired, which we give to all new-starters as a primer, and his latest, Empowered. As a founder/partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, he continues to coach product teams. Marty was formerly a product leader at eBay, Netscape, and HP. Follow him on Twitter for all his latest news and thoughts on product.
21. Petra Wille – @loomista
Petra recently published a book, Strong Product People, designed to help product leaders empower and support product managers to realize their full potential. She has a lot to say about the softer side of product management, like how to cultivate successful PMs and build great teams. She’s also a product leadership coach and has some excellent resources on her website.
22. Gibson Biddle – @gibsonbiddle
A former VP Product at Netflix and CPO at Chegg, Gibson now brings his vast experience to his role as a product speaker, teacher, and writer. He hosts regular online talks and workshops, and his weekly newsletter is one of the best. Check out his Twitter for regular updates and his website for access to all his latest content.
23. Lewis C. Lin – @Lewis_Lin
Lewis has written a ton of great product management books – check out his website for information on each one, and sign up for his newsletter while you’re there! A former product leader at Google and Microsoft, he’s now CEO at Impact Interview and viaMaven. His Twitter is full of PM insights and the odd product-related rhyme.
24. Tobi Otokiti – @TobiOtokiti
Besides being Senior Growth Product Manager at Flutterwave, Tobi is the inspirational founder of Product Dive – a community and training center for aspiring PMs in Africa. Give her a follow on Twitter to stay up to date with her latest ideas, news, podcast appearances, and more.
25. David Cancel – @dcancel
David is an entrepreneurial legend, founding multiple successful companies, including Drift, where he is currently CEO. In addition to founding and growing startups, he has a strong background in product and tech. Check out his Twitter for insights into leadership, growth, and what it takes to build great digital products. It’s also worth checking out his excellent podcast at Drift.
26. Matt Lemay – @mattlemay
The author of Product Management in Practice and Agile for Everybody, Matt is a product leader, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Sudden Compass. I’m a fan of his books, and his Twitter is a great place to keep on top of his latest insights and appearances.
27. Tanya Cordrey – @tcordrey
Formerly the Chief Digital Officer at the Guardian, Tanya is a board member at several companies and the founder of Granary Square, a product consultancy agency. Follow her on Twitter for news and views on product, tech, and innovation.
28. Peter Yang – @petergyang
Peter is Creator Product Lead at Reddit. He writes a popular newsletter about building products in the creator economy and offers an online course, Build for Creators, on the same subject. Follow him on Twitter for all his latest content and ideas.
29. Tim Casasola – @timcasasola
Tim writes an excellent newsletter called The Overlap, which he describes as being “somewhere between product and organization design.” While he doesn’t yet have the Twitter following that others on this list can boast, he shares some great content and ideas there.
30. Satish Kanwar – @skanwar
Satish is VP Product and Acceleration at Shopify. Prior to that, he co-founded Jet Cooper, a UX studio acquired by Shopify, and was named in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ – so he knows a thing or two about building great digital products. Check out his Twitter to see for yourself.
If you enjoyed this list, why not give Scott a follow @benry for all his latest thoughts on product, music, running, and life. Have a favorite product person you think we should follow on Twitter? Tweet us at @productboard.
