I was late to the world of tech & product compared to my peers; I didn't gain interest until I was halfway through grad school.

So I felt like I had to play catchup, I dove in, reading books and taking courses.

As I got in the real world I found myself discouraged... what I had been learning didn't match up with what I was seeing day to day.

My first thought was that I had been wrong and tech was not for me. More recently I discovered the issue was that I was getting my information from the wrong sources.

In tech and product everyone would have you believe they are an expert. But from what I've seen so far a lot of "experts" are trying to sell you marketing hype or fluff that hasn't actually been tested in the real world.

What has really changed my mind lately has been finding a cohort of product people who have had real world success and know how to get things done.

Studying them has refocused me on improving myself and building my skills.

Below are my list of essential product follows:

Marty Cagan (Theory, strategy and team building)

Ibrahim Bashir (Execution)

Eric Weber (Data as Product)

Jeff Patton (Product Thinking)

I'll keep refreshing this list as I come across more practitioners whose advice doesn't just look good on paper but works in the real world.