All successful people in the world suggest forming a habit of reading as it makes you more receptive to different thoughts and viewpoints. That is especially true when trying to develop your professional skills further and develop new ideas.

Just as the human body requires frequent activity for its proper functioning, the brain also calls for systematic exercises, such as reading, to enhance your knowledge of the industry and new trends.

We have asked Anna Beisenbaeva, BrainRocket's Product Owner, to select the five best books that have helped advance her career and to point out why those particular books are so remarkable. Her recommendations are listed below.

1. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by R. Rumelt - A must-read for anyone who wants to establish a brilliant strategy. The book demonstrates how to use strategy management solutions at work, which is probably one of the most demanding tasks in the field.

2. Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove - Andrew Grove has guided Intel through some of its most challenging moments. In this book, he reveals how he surmounted a crisis and how the success of every business revolves around the ability of managers to act in such emergencies. The book will help you understand everyone has critical moments, and the fundamental thing is how to get out of such a situation properly.

3. When Coffee & Kale Compete by Alan Klement - When coffee and sprouts are rivals. The book will help you learn the entire essence of true competition. Learn about the forces affecting the customer before and after the purchase, as well as why the customer chose and continues to choose you.

4. Lean Startup by Eric Ries - A handy book for fresh product managers. It gives a basic understanding of Lean Startup basis for quick testing of ideas and business model selection, MVP concepts, Build-Measure-Learn structure, and experimentation.

5. User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton - The book answers the "why'' and "how" questions of having a specific approach to requirements and helps you find what you need to start with. It also assists with building the convenient analytical chains and the right scenarios, besides understanding what you are doing with your product and how it will serve your client.


Hopefully, this book compilation for Product Owners will help you select your next book to read depending on how you want to deep-dive and pick up more information while developing your professional knowledge. Happy reading!