You will find many books on Product Management, prescribing what a Product Manager should or shouldn't do to be a good Product Manager. There is value in these books but the real key to successful Product Management is unfortunately not what a Product Manager does but the environment in which they are asked to apply their skills. If that environment does not have an understanding of the 7 Basics then the Product Manager will spend much of their time frustrated and wading through a sea of political futility, uselessness, idleness, superfluity, waste or Muda (as defined by the Toyota Production System), while trying to validate their position, and invariably, left to defend the indefensible. The 7 Basics is a real world view of Product Management; where it can go wrong and what will help it go right.