Hi, my name is Ken Norton.
I’m an executive coach, speaker, and writer.
Before becoming a full-time executive coach, I spent more than fourteen years as a product leader at Google where I worked on products that today are used by more than three billion people worldwide.
Ken Norton on Lenny’s Podcast
Making the shift from reactive to creative leadership
How to Hire a Product Manager: the Classic Essay
The classic essay that defined the product manager role
10x Not 10%: Bold Product Strategy and Vision
Product management by orders of magnitude
Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable: Jazz and PMs
What product managers can learn from jazz musicians
![Best Books for Product Managers [Updated for 2023]](/generated/img/books/pm-bookshelf-800-a79329386.jpg)
Best Books for Product Managers [Updated for 2023]
Essential product management reading
Ants & Aliens: Long-Term Product Vision & Strategy
Why you need a thirty-year product vision (yes, thirty)
Building Products at Stripe
Go deep, move fast, and build multi-decade abstractions
The Art of Product Management
Why and How to Develop the Essential Human Skills
Ken Norton on the Product Thinking Podcast
Leading with vision and purpose
Preparing to Have a Difficult Conversation
What to do when it’s time for some tough talk
CEOs and Product Leaders
A relationship built on communication, candor, and trust
Reflecting on a Career in Product Management
What I wished I’d known back when I started
Building Products at Slack
Behind the scenes with the team that launched Slack Huddles
Are You a Rabbit or a Kangaroo?
What dual ladders for product managers could look like in practice
It’s Time to Fight for a Dual Product Management Career Path
Companies should embrace multitrack job ladders for product managers who prefer product leadership to people management
Product Management Was Born in 1931 (Maybe, Sort Of)
The McElroy Brand Management Memo is ninety years old
Building Products at Airbnb
Snow White, storytelling, and a relentless focus on experiences
Product Managers: The Tools Don't Matter
Why are product managers so obsessed with tools?
Stay Out of the Wind and Away From the Back
How should PMs pick projects at big tech companies?
From One to Infinity and Beyond: Avoiding Second Product Syndrome
Launching a second product is hard. Plus: the early days at Amazon, CNET, and Microsoft
What Makes A Strong Product Culture?
How a company's view of technology, product leadership, and empowerment contribute to product success
How Product Managers Can Learn to Say No
How product managers can learn to gently push back
How Product Managers Can Predict the Future
Mother of all markets or a pipe dream driven by greed?
Becoming a Great Product Leader
Three outstanding new books
Foreword to the book Product Leadership
My foreword to Product Leadership, by Banfield, Eriksson and Walkingshaw
The Ideal Ratio of Engineers to Product Managers
What's the ideal number of engineers for every PM?
How I Read More Books
I read 61 books last year and it was easier than I thought
Product Managers: Judgment Over Outcomes
Why judgment matters more then outcomes
Dual-Track Product Manager Job Ladders
Product vs. managerial career paths
Product Manager Career: Impact vs. Seniority
Balancing product impact and seniority in a PM career
Machine Learning for Product Managers
How do you get started with machine learning?
Product Managers: One-On-Ones Are Essential
How do you make the most of one-on-ones?
The Authenticity Gap
Is “being authentic” easier said than done?
Advice for Early Career Product Managers in 2021
How do you launch a product management career?
The Future Was Already Here
How fast does technology move?
Being Your True Self
Does authenticity matter in the workplace?
Can You Change Your Company’s Product Culture?
Can you change your company’s culture?
Blameless Post Mortems
How do you respond when things go wrong?
To Invent You Have to Experiment
On successful failure
Task Management for Product Managers
How do you accomplish the most important tasks?
How I Manage My Inbox
How do you keep your email under control?
Product Managers: Don’t Ship the Org Chart, Part 2
How do you organize engineering around use cases?
How to Help a New Product Manager Succeed
How do you make sure your new PM is successful?
The Design Sprint
How to build and test an idea in 40 hours
Product Managers and CEOs: the Mind Meld
How do you keep the CEO and PM on the same page?
Product Managers: Don’t Ship the Org Chart, Part 1
How do you divide ownership between PMs?
PM Zero: When to Hire the First Product Manager?
When should you hire your first PM?
How Technical Do Product Managers Need to Be?
Should product managers have a computer science degree?
Empathy and Product Management
How important is empathy in product management?
Meetings That Don’t Suck
Break free from the tyranny of the conference room
Product Managers: What to Do in the First 30 Days
Tips for how product managers should approach their first month
Product Managers: How to Work With Software Engineers
My ten-step plan for working with engineers
Product Feature Prioritization & Babe Ruth
Why prioritized feature lists can be poisonous
Leading Cross-Functional Teams as Product Manager
Always bring the donuts
Looking Back: 10 Years of How to Hire a PM
Looking back on ten years of How to Hire a Product Manager
Product Roadmaps: Climbing Mount Enterprise
Google's first enterprise PM can teach us about product roadmaps
The Time I Flew on the Enron Jet
I flew to Houston to meet Jeffrey Skilling and this is my story
End Software Patents
Why our current patent system harms innovation
Product Managers: How to Listen to Customers
How do you hone in on what users really need?