The first edition in Portuguese of this book is from 2015. I wrote an updated version of this book in 2017. So only two years passed since it latest version. However, learning is a continuous endeavor. I continue to learn from my daily experiences and I published what I learnt on Linkedin. Now I decided not only to translate my book into English with the help of Paulo Caroli but also to update 2017 content with my learnings.

In this changelog I’ll register what changed from 2017 edition so if you already read that book, you can go straight to the new content.

• I’m using software, product, and digital product interchangeably. For the context of this book, these terms are equivalent.
• I’ve updated statistics through the book, to keep data relevant, with comments about the data evolution.
• Paulo Caroli was kind enough to write a preface to this third edition! (=
• More examples, not only from Locaweb and ContaAzul, but also from Gympass, the 3-sided marketplace that connects fitness partners, to companies and their employees. At Gympass I’m leading a product development team, together with Rodrigo Rodrigues and Claudio Franco. We have the challenge to build a global product used by fitness partners, companies, and users from all over the world. Since we are the leaders in this category, we have the additional challenge to be the first ones to face certain problems, which is quite exciting.
• In the “What is a digital product?” chapter I describe the difference between digital and traditional companies and present the concept of the born-digital traditional companies. It’s very important for a product manager to understand what type of company and product he is dealing with, to know how to better perform her job.
• Also in the “What is a digital product?” chapter I describe a different way to categorize platforms. Besides all categorization I already presented in the 2nd edition, we can categorize platforms as either transaction platforms or innovation platforms.
• In the “Leadership tips for product managers” chapter, I’ve added more info on why it’s so important to set a context and some examples of obstacles a product manager can remove for her team.
• In the “Growth: what is a roadmap?” chapter I’ve added a whole section describing a tool, I’ve been successfully using at ContaAzul and Gympass, the 12-month rolling roadmap.
• Also in the “Growth: what is a roadmap?” chapter, I’ve added an entire section on when to use OKRs and when to use roadmaps.
• In the “Growth: how to prioritize the roadmap?” chapter I’ve added more information on how to deal with special requests, especially if you manage a B2B digital product with big customers.
• I’ve added an example section in the “What is and how to create the product vision and strategy?” chapter to illustrate different types of digital product visions including. One hypothetical product vision for a digital product from a bank, and three real-life product visions, Locaweb Email product vision, ContaAzul’s product vision, and Gympass product vision.
• In the SWOT section of the “What is and how to create the product vision and strategy?” chapter, I’ve added more techniques to help you fill out a more useful SWOT to support the design of your product strategy.
• I’ve added a new chapter entitled “Growth: Putting it all together – vision, strategy, roadmap, and OKRs” where I explain how to use together the different tools that must be used during the growth phase a digital product lifecycle – vision, strategy, roadmap, and OKRs fit together
• I’ve added a new section about the different options to expand a marketplace in “How to diversify your product portfolio?” chapter.
• In the “Focus or diversification?” chapter I’ve added a section explaining when and how to use the 4 phases lifecycle to individual features of your product.
• I’ve added two new sections to the “The IT problem” chapter. One about ThoughtWorks, a software development consulting firm well known for always being a step ahead of the software industry, suggesting that we apply product management to internal platforms. And the other about the “The fallacy of the internal customer” where I question the concept normally used in some organizations of internal customer or internal user when discussing work done between areas.
• In the chapter about Where is software product management in a company? I’ve added a section explaining how a product manager can gain more autonomy.
• In the “Conclusion” chapter I’ve added a section to explain how to make a career change to product management.

I’d like to thank Paulo Caroli for his interest in the subject to the point of motivating him to begin the translation of this book into English and for his kind words in the preface of this edition.

Cesar Carvalho, João Barbosa, Vinicius Ferriani, Claudio Franco, Livia Martini, and Benjamin Grol, from Gympass, thank you for inviting me to be part of this rocket ship, also an incredible source of continuous learning. And thank you Rodrigo Rodrigues and Claudio Franco, my partners in leading Gympass amazing and unique product development team.

Digital Product Management Book

Do you work with digital products? Do you want to know more about how to manage a digital product to increase its chances of success? Check out my book Product Management: How to increase the chances of success of your digital product, based on my almost 30 years of experience in creating and managing digital products.