Former PM here. The Product & Project management jobs vary tremendously by company, and even within a company. Your best bet is to reach out to people who've had similar jobs in the same company and ask them for advice.

That said, I highly recommend The Innovator's Dilemma[0] and Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love[1]

[0]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Ma... [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov...

In the forward of my copy of Design of Everyday Things, the author points out that he could have used computers and mobile devices as but the examples he provides gave me a much deeper understanding of design. That being said, i still plan on buying the new edition because of the new chapters, brand new examples and ideas on implementation that may be more helpful to a dev-signer like yourself.

Other useful resources

http://robertlenne.com/requiredreading/

Universal Design Princples http://www.amazon.ca/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lid...

Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love (great for teams) http://www.amazon.ca/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Love...

I read this one: http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov...

Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

It's short, well written and covers several visions (product, engineering, etc).

I'll answer this, but, honestly, there are a lot of ways. Here's two paths.

//-- //

1. The traditional path

Product management is generally a role that you should take after you have some professional development under you belt. The best product managers I've met were at one time in the engineering/development pit.

That said, the simplest way is to get a job doing design/programming and make sure your employer knows that you'd like to move in that direction and agree that you'll be there in X years. Shadow and work with the PM's at the company.

If they don't move you in to a PM in the time, you can look elsewhere and with a few years of development under your belt you'd have a better chance of getting the management hire.

The key is that you make sure whatever you do, you show leadership and the fact that you're a self-starter.

//--//

2. The startup path

Go work (found) a startup and basically act as the project manager. If the org grows (which is a big if) you'll slowly become that role and hire people around you. If not, you'll have to try again. It's more risky but potentially could get you to a PM role faster.

In the end, I'd recommend you pick up Marty Cagan's "Inspired" http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov... -- it discusses product management in much more detail.

To add a few that span outside entrepreneurship, but are of course very valuable to entrepreneurs:

Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love (http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov...) - The best if not only required reading for product management

Peopleware (http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-S...) - Great read on managing and understanding people as it relates to organizations

Managing Humans (http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engi...) - Obviously on management, you can read much on this http://randsinrepose.com/, though the book does a great job of consolidating it

You should check out Inspired - How to create products customer love by Marty Cagan. I found it extremely concise and useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Lov...