11 books written by speakers of this year’s Mind The Product conference
We are excited to join this year’s digital version of Mind the Product conference. As usual, it is packed with exciting talks by great product leaders and experts in our craft. In this week’s collection, we feature 11 books written by speakers of this year’s MTP.
Agile for Everybody
Creating Fast, Flexible, and Customer-First Organizations
by Matt LeMay
Why read?
The Agile movement provides real, actionable answers to the question that keeps many company leaders awake at night: How do we stay successful in a fast-changing and unpredictable world? Agile has already transformed how modern companies build and deliver software. This practical book demonstrates how entire organizations — from product managers and engineers to marketers and executives — can put Agile to work.
Author Matt LeMay explains Agile in clear, jargon-free terms and provides concrete and actionable steps to help any team put its values and principles into practice. Examples from a wide variety of organizations, including small nonprofits and global financial enterprises, bring to life the on-the-ground realities of Agile across industries and functions.
162 pages, O’Reilly Media 2018
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Obviously Awesome
How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
by April Dunford
Why read?
You know your product is awesome — but does anybody else? Forget everything you thought you knew about positioning. Successfully connecting your product with consumers isn’t a matter of following trends, comparing yourself to the competition or trying to attract the widest customer base.
So what is it? April Dunford, positioning guru and tech exec, will enlighten you.
Her new book, Obviously Awesome, shows you how to find your product’s “secret sauce” — and then sell that sauce to those who crave it. Having spent years as a startup executive (with 16 product launches under her belt) and a consultant (who’s worked on dozens more), Dunford speaks with authority about breaking through the noise of a crowded market.
202 pages, Ambient Press 2019
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Forever Employable
How to Stop Looking for Work and Let Your Next Job Find You
by Jeff Gothelf
Why read?
In this practical book, Jeff Gothelf shares the tips, tricks, techniques, and learnings that helped him build his own personal brand, and become forever employable.
Using the timeline from his own career and anecdotes, stories, and case studies from other successful recognized experts, Jeff provides a step-by-step guide to building a foundation based on your current expertise, ensuring that no matter what happens in your industry you’ll remain forever employable.
77 pages, Gothelf Corp 2020
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
The Team That Managed Itself
A Story of Leadership
by Christina Wodtke
Why read?
In The Team That Managed Itself, Christina Wodtke teaches leaders how to build and lead high performing teams based on her long career in the trenches in Silicon Valley. Her book is engaging, actionable — and built around a story you’ll want to read.
Learn to lead the team along with Allie as she tackles one challenge after another while the clock ticks down. How do you build the right team and choose the goals to pull them to greatness, even if you’re dealing with a toxic environment? How do you keep your people moving in the right direction without burning out or burning it all down? As Allie finds out, even in the face of overwhelming pressure it’s about setting expectations, giving good feedback, checking in against goals, and learning as a team…
268 pages, Cucina Media, LLC 2019
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
User Story Mapping
Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
by Jeff Patton & Peter Economy
Why read?
Product managers and user experience practitioners in commercial product companies should read this book to help them bridge the gap between thinking about whole products and user experience.
User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features.
Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you’re attempting to build and why.
328 pages, O’Reilly Media 2014
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Product Roadmaps Relaunched
How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty
by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan & Michael Connors
Why read?
This book is written for product people. If you’re wondering if that’s you, we’re referring to the individual or individuals responsible for developing, prioritizing, and rallying support for the development of a product or service. This role has been compared to a mini CEO, but we think that overstates the level of control most product people have.
272 pages, O’Reilly Media 2017
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries
User Research War Stories
by Steve Portigal
Why read?
User research war stories are personal accounts of the challenges researchers encounter out in the field, where mishaps are inevitable, yet incredibly instructive. Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries is a diverse compilation of war stories that range from comically bizarre to astonishingly tragic, tied together with valuable lessons from expert user researcher Steve Portigal.
248 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2016
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Psychology for Designers
How to apply psychology to web design and the design process
by Joe Leech
Why read?
In this book, Joe Leech shows how you how psychological theory can be applied to design. It won’t demand you read every single research study. In fact, it contains very little in the way of theory. What this book will show you are the benefits of taking a psychological approach, as well as how to find and apply relevant ideas, and advocate your design decisions based on sound psychological reasoning, making your designs — and the way you talk about them — better.
91 pages, mrjoe press 2017
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Banish Your Inner Critic
Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt to Unleash Your Creativity and Do Your Best Work (A Gift for Artists to Combat Self-doubt and Listen to Their Inner Voice)
by Denise Jacobs
Why read?
Are you ready to boost your personal productivity — minus the fear and loathing? Are you ready to Banish Your Inner Critic and unleash your creative ideas and personal productivity within? Help is on the way!
Blocking your great creative ideas: Everybody has an inner critic telling you that others have more talent, you’re just faking it, and that you’ll never have those great creative ideas that seem just out of reach. This inner critic is a subconscious deterrent that stands between the seeds of great creative ideas and the fruits of achievement. It afflicts us with a mental block as deadlines approach; makes us so afraid of being judged that we hold ourselves back and don’t share our expertise; forces us to question our ability to learn ideas and technologies quickly; and makes us doubt, discount, and kill our ideas before they see the light of day.
352 pages, Mango 2017
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Inclusive Design for Organisations
Including your missing 20% by embedding web and mobile accessibility
by Jonathan Hassell
Why read?
n this book, award-winning international accessibility thought-leader Jonathan Hassell shows you how to transform your organisation to consistently and cost-efficiently create websites, mobile apps and other digital products that are usable for all of your customers. Inclusive Design for Organisations gives you a clear, strategic business-aligned framework how to embed accessibility policies and processes consistently throughout your organisation, and how to measure the return on your investment. With insights from leading worldwide accessibility experts who have implemented these processes in their organisations, this book comes with a free library of downloadable support tools, templates, podcasts and videos to help you on your journey to accessibility maturity.
234 pages, Rethink Press 2019
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.es)
Strong
A step by step guide on how to help every PM on your team grow
by Petra Wille
You’re a product leader looking for advice on how to be certain that every product manager on your team is living up to their full potential? You want to make sure your product people are competent, empowered and inspired, and would like to know how you can best help them on this journey? Then this book is for you! The release date is scheduled for autumn 2020.
