Weekend Reading: Experimenting, Deliberate Practice, the Rise of Paperbacks, And Much More

This weekly roundup by Teresa Torres curates readings on building better products, grouped around experimentation, skill development, and influence. Her central point is that experiments only produce value when they are anchored in a long-term vision that narrows which experiments are worth running. She also argues that skill growth requires deliberate practice rather than simply accumulating hours, and that business history such as the shift to paperbacks reveals recurring patterns of market opening and distribution power. Finally, she highlights influence without authority as a core PM challenge, since product managers rarely manage the engineers who build their products. The piece is a short, dated reading list, but its framing remains useful for product work.

01Key takeaways

• Run experiments in service of a long-term vision so you can narrow which experiments to pursue.
• Stop experiments that do not work and double down on those that do.
• Treat skill development as deliberate practice, not just time spent doing the work.
• Watch for distribution and incumbent resistance when evaluating market shifts.
• Focus on customers rather than competitors when deciding what to build.
• Build influence through listening and relationships, since most PM work is cross-functional.

02Key sections

Experimenting within a vision

Torres highlights Brad Feld's argument that successful businesses are continuous small experiments guided by a long-term vision. She notes that the vision is what keeps experimentation from becoming aimless.

Deliberate practice for PM skills

She points out that the 10,000-hour idea only works if the hours are deliberate practice, and suggests applying this when planning how to develop new product management skills.

Market shifts and distribution

The history of paperbacks illustrates how new markets open, how distribution gives power, and how incumbents resist change, patterns she sees repeated across industries.

Competition and customer focus

A quote from Jeff Bezos reinforces her view that product teams should pay attention to customers rather than fixating on competitors.

Influence and selling

She recommends pieces on influencing without authority and on Daniel Pink's book, arguing that much of product management is sales and persuasion.

03From the post

“Each week, I read dozens of blogs, countless articles from my Twitter stream, and one or two books. In Weekend Reading, I highlight the best, as it applies to developing great products. The $100,000 Experiment | Brad Feld in The Wall Street Journal "A long time ago, I realized that”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.