Inside the Box
Mastering Internal Product Management
Inside the Box is a helpful and illustrative resource for internal product managers looking to leverage commonsense advice for specialized success.
Ilana J. Sprongl’s compact business guide Inside the Box includes clearheaded guidance for implementing successful internal product management programs.
Turning the focus on a company’s product management life cycle to its internal customers, the book names anecdote-backed strategies for launching internal products or tools intended to improve employee efficiency in the workplace. Geared to product managers, it addresses topics like knowing the internal customer and stakeholders, notes details of the full product management life cycle, and suggests ways to measure success using relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. It also names ways for product managers to master their roles.
The book’s focus on internal product management is esoteric, but it draws from traditional business concepts for support. For example, it highlights parallels between external customer product management and its model early on to differentiate between product manager roles. Elsewhere, specific factors for developing internal tools are covered. As a key tool, the book encourages managers to stay knowledgeable when it comes to company goals, department employee requirements, and pain points that impact efficiency. Encouragements to master soft skills also factor in with nods to sound communication, transparency, and flexibility. For example, when navigating company politics, the book notes that having a comprehensive understanding of one’s organizational objectives and being flexible better prepare a product manager for resistance.
Organized into succinct chapters, the book builds out the notion of the continuum of beginning, middle, and end necessary for internal products. Graphics and tables are present to clarify key concepts, as with the clear image of a product life cycle and with a table listing product metrics types embellished by short descriptions and pithy highlights.
Likening the product life cycle to conducting a symphony where “each note and each instrument plays in harmony,” the text merges its specialized terminology with lucid and accessible prose. It balances business concepts with lighthearted anecdotes that enliven its advice. And while the text speaks in generalized terms without adhering to one industry, it includes examples across the finance, health care, and technology sectors. Its straightforward evaluation of product management steps and its coherent analysis of internal tools versus prebuilt solutions make it useful, as do its brief assessments to help individual product managers make informed decisions based on their situation.
Inside the Box is a smart business guide for mastering effective product management.
Reviewed by
Katy Keffer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
