Book Sips #17 — ‘Escaping the Build Trap’ by Melissa Perri
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Melissa Perri’s first book has the potential to become a real classic. In Escaping the Build Trap she focuses on the most common pitfalls Product Managers and companies fall into when releasing feature by feature instead of focusing on the customer’s needs.
In five parts, this book explores:
- Why organizations ship features rather than cultivate the value those features represent
- How to set up a product organization that scales
- How product strategy connects a company’s vision and economic outcomes back to the product activities
- How to identify and pursue the right opportunities to produce value through an iterative product framework
- How to build a culture focused on successful outcomes over outputs
A sip:
‘Strategy — Many companies do not have a strategy that supports good product management and allows product managers to be effective. They think strategy is a plan to execute on a bunch of features, or a laundry list of requirements that they just have to check off. But good strategy, stemming from a clear vision and mission, is essential for product management teams because it helps them to navigate the uncertainty of product development, and promotes alignment throughout the organisation.’
More content around the book
Melissa Perri’s book recommendation on the PM Library
Talk at the Productized Conference (2019)
Talk at the Mind the Product Conference (2017)
Escaping the Build Trap
How effective product management creates value
by Melissa Perri
Why read?
In this book, Melissa — CEO of Product Labs and founder of the Product Institute — helps you to identify whether you are caught in the “build trap” and more importantly, gives you practical advice how to escape it. She brings together her year-long experience of building products and deep knowledge of how product-lead organizations work.
200 pages, O’Reilly Media 2018
Get this book
(amazon.com) (amazon.de)
