All the books we have recommended on The PM Library ever (129 books)
From essentials to inspirational books about product management, AI, leadership, design and collaboration.
Latest update 18. February 2019

Our overview of all the books we have recommended in The PM Library ever

Blitzscaling
The lightning-fast path to building massively valuable companies
by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh.
Why read?
In this book, the LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffmann and Chris Yeh share their secret of how to build a market-leading company with a growing business while outdoing competitors. They call it “Blitzscaling” — prioritizing speed over efficiency in the development of a company even in the face of uncertainty.
336 pages, Currency 2018

Escaping the Build Trap
How effective product management creates value
by Melissa Perri.
Why read?
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 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 organisations work.
200 pages, O’Reilly Media 2018

Creative Confidence
Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
Why read?
Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types.” But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every one of us is creative.
“The Kelley brothers offer simple but effective tools for the “I’m not creative” set — business leaders and professionals seeking the confidence to innovate.”
— JOHN MAEDA
304 pages, Currency 2013

The Decision Book
Fifty models for strategic thinking
by Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler
Why read?
Every day, we face the same questions: How do I make the right decision? How can I work more efficiently? And, on a more personal level, what do I want? This international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used that will help you tackle these important questions.
176 pages, W. W. Norton & Company 2018

Talk like TED
The 9 public speaking secrets of the world’s top minds
by Carmine Gallo
Why read?
Ideas are the true currency of the 21st century, and Talk Like TED gives you a way to create presentations around the ideas that matter most to you, presentations that will energize your audience to spread those ideas, launch new initiatives, and reach your highest goals.
288 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin 2015

Tribe of Mentors
Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
by Tim Ferriss
Why read?
This is the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book — a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world’s top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer life’s most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.
624 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017

Lateral Thinking
A Textbook of Creativity
by Edward de Bono
Why read?
Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways. Soon you will be looking at problems from a variety of angles and offering up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. You will become much more productive and a formidable thinker in your own right.
272 pages, Penguin Life 2016

What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School
by Mark McCormack
My opinion
I bought this book at Heathrow Airport and fortunately, my flight was delayed because I was really surprised by this book from page one. The story of how McCormack founded one of the greatest sports marketing agencies in the world and the rules of his negotiation strategy were inspiring and insightful.
238 pages, Profile Books 2014

Influence
How to Raise Your Profile, Manage Your Reputation and Get Noticed
by Warren Cass
My opinion
I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn how to manage to become more visible in their work and community environment, without losing their authenticity and accountability.
270, Capstone 2017

The Tyranny of the Butterfly
by Frank Schätzing
My opinion
In this new thriller by the German author Frank Schätzing, he outlines the scenario of a technology that will radically change our lives, with the potential to dramatically improve it — or destroy us all: artificial intelligence.
736 pages, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2018

Decode and Conquer
Answers to Product Management Interviews
by Lewis C. Lin
Why read?
Get Decode and Conquer, the world’s first book on preparing you for the product management (PM) interview. Author and professional interview coach, Lewis C. Lin provides you with an industry insider’s perspective on how to conquer the most difficult PM interview questions.
206 pages, Impact Interview 2013

Inspired (2nd edition)
How to create tech products customers love
by Marty Cagan
Why read?
How do today’s most successful tech companies — Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla — design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world?
368 pages, John Wiley & Sons 2018

Atomic habits
An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
by James Clear
Why read?
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving — every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results.
320 pages, Avery 2018

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
Why read?
Fried and Heinemeier Hansson have returned with a new strategy for the ideal company culture — what they call “the calm company”. It is a direct attack on the chaos, anxiety and stress that plagues millions of workplaces and billions of people working their day jobs.
234 pages, Harper Collins Publ. UK 2018

Make time
How to focus on what matters every day
by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Why read?
Productivity experts Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky have created a four-step framework that anyone can use, packed with more than 80 tactics to help you design your day around the things that matter.
304 pages, Bantam Press 2018
A newsletter about making time for what matters, from Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

The Growth Handbook
by Intercom
Why read?
Growth isn’t a game of silver bullets or one size fits all solutions. It’s about connecting more people to the value of your product, so they become loyal, long-term, paying customers, who share it with others. The Growth Handbook features industry-tested advice for doing just that.
79 pages, Intercom 2018

Solving Product Design Exercises
Questions & Answers
by Artiom Dashinsky
Why read?
Learn how to solve and present exercises, that top startups use to interview designers for product design and UI/UX roles.
More design-related books

Prediction Machines
The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans & Avi Goldfarb
Why read?
Artificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life — driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many analysts either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future.
250 pages, Ingram Publisher Services 2018

The Book of Why
The New Science of Cause and Effect
by Judea Pearl & Dana Mackenzie
Why read?
“Correlation is not causation.” This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality — the study of cause and effect — on a firm scientific basis.
432 pages, Basic Books 2018

The Culture Code
The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
by Daniel Coyle
Why read?
Coyle unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture.
304 pages, Bantam 2018
More books about team development
More books about leadership

Measure what matters
How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
by John Doerr & Larry Page
Why read?
Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth — and how it can help any organization thrive.
320 pages, Portfolio 2018

Zero to One
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters
Why read?
Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation.
224 pages, Currency 2014

Sense and Respond
How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously
by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
Why read?
This engaging and practical book provides the crucial new operational and management model to help you and your organization win in a world of continuous change.
272 pages, Harvard Business Review Press 2017

The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
by Ben Horowitz
Why read?
A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one.
304 pages, HarperBusiness 2014

Meaningful
The Story of Ideas That Fly
by Bernadette Jiwa
Why read?
A must read for any entrepreneur or marketer. It’s full of lots of “aha” moments with a concrete tool that you can implement immediately.
176 pages, Perceptive Press 2015

Product Leadership
How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams
by Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson & Nate Walkingshaw
Why read?
In this book, you get insights from 50 interviews of the world’s top product managers how to launch great products and build successful product teams.
248 pages, O’Reilly Media 2017

The Mythical Man-Month
Essays on Software Engineering
by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Why read?
With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects.
336 pages, Addison-Wesley Professional 1995

Intercom on Product Management
by Des Traynor & John Collins
Why read?
This book by the team at Intercom is designed to help those working in the ever-evolving field of product management.
88 pages, Intercom 2015

Hooked
How to Build Habit-Forming Products
by Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover
Why read?
Do you wish your users couldn’t live without your product? Through a simple but powerful how-to guide Nir Eyal shows how to convert users that engage with a product into users who’ll return to it again and again. If you want to get a glimpse into the mind of users you should read this book.
256 pages, Portfolio 2014

Radical Candor
Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
by Kim Scott
Why read?
“Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives.” (Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook)
272 pages, St. Martin’s Press 2017

The Laws of Simplicity
Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
by John Maeda
Why read?
Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.
117 pages, The MIT Press 2006

User Story Mapping
Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
by Jeff Patton & Peter Economy
Who Should Read This Book?
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.
328 pages, O’Reilly Media 2014

Sprint
How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days
by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz
Why read?
New York Times bestseller Sprint takes you behind the scenes with some of America’s most fascinating startups.
288 pages, Simon & Schuster 2016

Product Management Essentials
Tools and Techniques for Becoming an Effective Technical Product Manager
by Aswin Pranam
This book is for
Individuals who are eyeing a transition into a PM role or have just entered a PM role at a new organization for the first time. They currently hold positions as a software engineer, marketing manager, UX designer, or data analyst and want to move away from a feature-focused view to a high-level strategic view of the product vision.
174 pages, Apress 2017

Cracking the PM Interview
How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology
by Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro
Why read?
This book will teach you how to answer questions like “How many pizzas are delivered in Manhattan?” or “How do you design an alarm clock for the blind?” and more.
364 pages, CareerCup 2013

The Design of Everyday Things
Revised and Expanded Edition
by Don Norman
Why read?
The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how — and why — some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
368 pages, Basic Book 2013

Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
Why read?
In this bestseller, Daniel Kahneman gives practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.
512 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2011

The Lean Startup
How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
by Eric Ries
Why read?
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
338 pages, Currency 2011

The Product Manager Interview
164 Actual Questions and Answers
by Lewis C. Lin & Teng Lu
Why read?
The book contains fully solved solutions so readers can learn, improve and do their best at the PM interview.
300 pages, Impact Interview 2017

Help the Helper
Building a Culture of Extreme Teamwork
by Kevin Pritchard, John Eliot
Why read?
Help the Helper will show you how to put a certain level of teamwork to work in your business, to build a culture that recognizes and rewards those who help the helper — even when they don’t have sexy statistics.
256 pages, Portfolio 2012

Tribal Leadership
Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
by Dave Logan, John King & Halee Fischer-Wright
What’s this book about?
This book gives an amazingly insightful perspective on how people interact and succeed.
320 pages, HarperBusiness 2011

The Wisdom of Teams
Creating the High-Performance Organization
by Jon R. Katzenbach
Why read?
Comprehensive and proven effective, The Wisdom of Teams is the classic primer on making teams a powerful tool for success in today’s global marketplace.
352 pages, HarperBusiness 2006

Debugging Teams
Better Productivity through Collaboration
by Brian W. Fitzpatrick & Ben Collins-Sussman
What’s this book about?
The goal of this book is to help programmers become more effective and efficient at creating software by improving their ability to understand, communicate with, and collaborate with other people
190 pages, O’Reilly Media 2015

Clear Leadership
Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work
by Gervase Bushe
Who is the author?
In 2016 Gervase was added to HR Magazine’s (UK) list of the 30 Most Influential Thinkers in people strategy in the world.
228 pages, Nicholas Brealey 2010

Team of Teams
New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
by Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman & Chris Fussell
Why this book might be interesting for you…
What if you could combine the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization?
304 pages, Portfolio 2015

Team Turnarounds
A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams
by Joe Frontiera & Daniel Leidl
Why read?
Learn how any manager can turn a struggling team into business champs.
272 pages, Jossey-Bass 2012

Peopleware
Productive Projects and Teams
by Tom DeMarco & Tim Lister
Why read?
Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as Peopleware.
272 pages, Addison-Wesley Professional 2013

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
Embrace Them and Empower Your Team
by John C. Maxwell
Learn how…
…the Law of High Morale inspired a 50-year-old man who couldn’t even swim to train for the toughest triathlon in the world.
288 pages, Thomas Nelson 2013

Agile Retrospectives
Making Good Teams Great
by Esther Derby & Diana Larsen
Why read?
Derby and Larsen show you the tools, tricks, and tips you need to fix the problems you face on a software development project on an on-going basis.
178 pages, Pragmatic Bookshelf 2006

The Coaching Habit
Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
by Michael Bungay Stanier
Why this book might be interesting for you…
Coaching is an essential skill for leaders. But for most busy, overworked managers, coaching employees is done badly, or not at all. They’re just too busy, and it’s too hard to change.
But what if managers could coach their people in 10 minutes or less?
227 pages, Bertrams Print on Demand 2006

Leadership is an Art
by Max Depree
Why read?
In what has become a bible for the business world, the successful former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., explores how executives and managers can learn the leadership skills that build a better, more profitable organization.
176 pages, Crown Business 2004

Death by Meeting
A Leadership Fable — About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
by Patrick Lencioni
Why read?
Death by Meeting is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams and create environments of engagement and passion.
272 pages, Jossey-Bass 2004

The Manager’s Path
A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
by Camille Fournier
Why read?
Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal — especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager.
244 pages, O’Reilly Media 2017

Lean In
Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
by Sheryl Sandberg
Why read?
The #1 international best seller: In this book, Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, reignited the conversation around women in the workplace.
240 pages, Knopf 2013

How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge
Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority
by Clay Scroggins & Andy Stanley
Why read?
One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Because every road of leadership forks at the intersection of authority and influence, learning to cultivate influence without authority is foundational to navigate culture today.
240 pages, Zondervan 2017

The Captain Class
The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams
by Sam Walker
Why read?
Because this might be one of THE business books of 2018. From the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal’s sports section comes a bold new theory of leadership drawn from the elite captains who inspired their teams to achieve extraordinary success.
368 pages, Random House Trade Paperbacks 2018

The Amazon Way
14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company
by John Rossman
Why read?
If you are interested in innovating and creating a customer-focused culture like Amazon? Read this book!
172 pages, Clyde Hill Publishing 2016

Disruptive Leadership
Apple and the Technology of Caring Deeply — Nine Keys to Organizational Excellence and Global Impact
by Rich Kao
Why read?
In this highly engaging book, Rich Kao proposes a disruptive leadership framework in which caring deeply is placed at the centre of the model. Kao, therefore, uses practical examples of disruptive leadership practised at big players around the world.
190 pages, Productivity Press 2017

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
A Leadership Fable
by Patrick Lencioni
Why read?
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.
229 pages, Jossey-Bass 2002

Yes to the Mess
Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz
by Frank J. Barrett
When should I read this book?
… when you want to know what Duke Ellington and Miles Davis can teach us about leadership and when you want to learn how to cope when you are faced with complexity and constant change at work. In this insightful book, Frank J. Barrett gives you a seminar on collaboration and complexity and on how to improvise.
240 pages, Harvard Business Review Press 2012

Leadership BS
Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time
by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Why read?
The author of Power, Stanford business school professor, and a leading management thinker offers a hard-hitting dissection of the leadership industry and ways to make workplaces and careers work better.
272 pages, HarperBusiness 2015

Becoming Steve Jobs
The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
by Brent Schlender, Rick Tetzeli
Why read?
The #1 New York Times bestselling biography of how Steve Jobs became the most visionary CEO in history.
465 pages, Sceptre 2015

Work Rules!
Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead
by Laszlo Bock
Why this book is a must-read
From the visionary head of Google’s innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work-and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed.
416 pages, Twelve 2015

The Outsiders
Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
by William N. Thorndike
What’s this book about?
What makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: “a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise.” Others might point to the qualities of today’s so-called celebrity CEOs — charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance? Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term.
272 pages, Harvard Business Review Press 2012

Start with Why
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
by Simon Sinek
Why read?
Simon Sinek shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
256 pages, Portfolio 2011

Good Strategy Bad Strategy
The Difference and Why It Matters
by Richard Rumelt
Why read?
This book clears out the mumbo jumbo and muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world
322 pages, Profile Books 2017

Leaders Eat Last
Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
by Simon Sinek
Why read?
In this book, the renowned leadership expert Simon Sinek is continuing his bold move to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.
368 pages, Portfolio 2017

Redesigning Leadership
Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
by John Maeda & Rebecca J Bermont
What’s this book about?
Lessons for a new generation of leaders on teamwork, meetings, conversations, free food, social media, apologizing, and other topics.
80 pages, MIT University Press Group Ltd 2011

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
A Guide for Students
by Marcy Levy Shankman, Scott J. Allen & Paige Haber-Curran
Why read?
…because this is an excellent book for students which explores the connection between emotional intelligence and effective leadership
288 pages, Jossey-Bass 2015

Principles
Life and Work
by Ray Dalio
What makes this book special?
Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business — and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.
592 pages, Simon & Schuster 2017

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
by Herminia Ibarra
Why read?
You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you’re busy executing on today’s demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it’s easy to let immediate problems and old mindsets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra — an expert on professional leadership and development and a renowned professor at INSEAD, a leading international business school — show how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves.
200 pages, Harvard Business Review Press 2015

Permission to Screw Up
How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong
by Kristen Hadeed & Simon Sinek
Why read?
The inspiring, unlikely, laugh-out-loud story of how one woman learned to lead–and how she ultimately succeeded, not despite her many mistakes, but because of them.
272 pages, Portfolio 2017

Radical Focus
Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results
by Christina Wodtke
Why read?
Ready to move your team in the right direction? Read this book together, and learn Wodtke’s powerful system of decision making to create your focus and find success.
166 pages, Cucina Media LLC 2016

Alibaba
The House That Jack Ma Built
by Duncan Clark
Why read?
Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before.
304 pages, Ecco 2016

Behind the Cloud
The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry
by Marc Benioff & Carlye Adler
You get insights about…
…how salesforce.com did grow from a startup in a rented apartment into the world’s fastest growing software company in less than a decade?
304 pages, Wiley-Blackwell 2009

Onward
How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul
by Howard Schultz & Joanne Gordon
Why read?
The CEO of Starbucks recounts the story and leadership lessons behind the global coffee company’s comeback and continued success.
368 pages, Rodale Books 2012

Shoe Dog
A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
by Phil Knight
Why read?
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight share the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
400 pages, Scribner 2016

Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
What you will learn
Steve Jobs story is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
656 pages, Simon & Schuster 2011

Elon Musk
Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
by Ashlee Vance
Why read?
Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.
416 pages, Ecco 2017

Intercom on Starting Up
by Des Traynor & Eoghan McCabe
Why read?
This book is Intercom’s honest, opinionated take on what they’ve learned building Intercom over the past 6 years.
120 pages, Intercom 2017

Bill & Dave
How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company
by Michael S. Malone
Why read?
This is a fantastic biography, management guidebook, and business history, all in one.
352 pages, Portfolio Hardcover 2007

The Intel Trinity
How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World’s Most Important Company
by Michael S. Malone
Why read?
The Intel Trinity is not just the story of Intel’s legendary past; it also offers an analysis of the formidable challenges that lie ahead as the company struggles to maintain its dominance, its culture, and its legacy.
560 pages, HarperBusiness 2014

The Upstarts
How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World
by Brad Stone
Why read?
The Upstarts is the definitive story of two new titans of business and a dawning age of tenacity, conflict and wealth. In Brad Stone’s riveting account of the most radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, you discover how it all happened and what it took to change the world.
384 pages, Little, Brown and Company 2017

Move fast and break things
How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy
by Jonathan Taplin
Why read?
A stinging polemic that traces the destructive monopolization of the internet by Google, Facebook and Amazon, and that proposes a new future for musicians, journalists, authors and filmmakers in the digital age.
320 pages, Little, Brown and Company 2017

The Airbnb Story
How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy
by Leigh Gallagher
Why read?
This is the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of the creation and growth of Airbnb, the online lodging platform that has become, in under a decade, the largest provider of accommodations in the world.
256 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017

Wild Ride
Inside Uber’s Quest for World Domination
by Adam Lashinsky
Why read?
This book is the untold story of Uber’s meteoric rise, and the massive ambitions of its larger-than-life founder and CEO.
240 pages, Portfolio 2017

Masters of Doom
How two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture
by David Kushner
What’s so special?
Terrifically told… The storytelling is so fluid, so addictive, that your twitching thumbs keep working the pages.
352 pages, Piatkus Books 2012

Netflixed
The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs
by Gina Keating
Why read?
The inside story of Netflix’s incredible rise and uncertain future as master of the video universe.
304 pages, Portfolio 2013

Cousins Maine Lobster
How One Food Truck Became a Multimillion-Dollar Business
by Jim Tselikis & Sabin Lomac
What you will learn
This business book from the co-founders of the smash hit Cousins Maine Lobster food trucks reveals to new entrepreneurs how the authors built their brand through integrity and authenticity.
288 pages, St. Martin’s Press 2018

Delivering Happiness
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hsieh
Why read?
In “Delivering Happiness”, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh shares the different lessons he has learned in business and life, from starting a worm farm to running a pizza business, through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more.
272 pages, Grand Central Publishing 2013

Becoming Facebook
The 10 Challenges That Defined the Company That’s Disrupting the World
by Mike Hoefflinger
Why read?
Intimate, fast-paced, and deeply informative, Becoming Facebook shares the true story of how Zuckerberg joined the ranks of iconic CEOs like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Jeff Bezos-as Facebook grows up, overcomes setbacks, and works to connect the world.
256 pages, AMACOM 2017

#Girlboss
by Sophia Amoruso
Why read?
In the New York Times bestseller that the Washington Post called “Lean In for misfits,” Sophia Amoruso shares how she went from dumpster diving to found one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world.
256 pages, Portfolio 2015

Hatching Twitter
A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
by Nick Bilton
Why read?
The dramatic, unlikely story behind the founding of Twitter, by New York Times bestselling author and Vanity Fair special correspondent
320 pages, Portfolio 2014

The Everything Store
Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
by Brad Stone
What is it about?
The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos.
386 pages, Little, Brown and Company 2013

Designing Connected Content
Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow
by Carrie Hane & Mike Atherton
What you will learn
An end-to-end process for building a structured content framework and how to plan and design interfaces for mobile, desktop, voice, and beyond.
240 pages, New Riders 2017

Make It So
Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction
by Nathan Shedroff & Christopher Noessel
Love science fiction?
Readers who love science fiction (and don’t we all?) will go bananas over this informative book on how interaction design in sci-fi movies informs interaction design in the real world.
347 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2012

Microinteractions
Designing with Details
by Dan Saffer
Why read?
This book teaches you how to design effective micro interactions: the small details that exist inside and around features.
170 pages, O’Reilly Media 2013

The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
by IDEO.org
Why read?
The Field Guide is the latest in IDEO.org’s suite of teaching tools and a step forward in sharing the practice and promise of human-centered design with the social sector.
192 pages, IDEO.org / Design Kit 2015

Book of Ideas
A Journal of Creative Direction and Graphic Design
by Radim Malinic
What’s inside?
It’s about how the world outside influences the creativity inside; and how it inspires us, teaches us and makes us create better work.
254 pages, Brand Nu Limited 2016

Build Better Products
A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products
by Laura Klein & Kate Rutter
Why read?
This book is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that helps teams incorporate strategy, empathy, design, and analytics into their development process.
368 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2016

UX for Lean Startups
Faster, Smarter User Experience Research and Design
by Laura Klein
What the author says
I hope that everybody who reads the book will be able to learn from their customers and turn that information into products that people will actually buy. I want startups to stop building things people don’t want and can’t use.
240 pages, O’Reilly Media 2013

Usability Matters
Practical UX for Developers and other Accidental Designers
by Matt Lacey
Interesting for app developers
Often, developers find UX intimidating and don’t know where to begin. This book gives practical advice and guidance on how to improve the UX of mobile apps on any platform.
325 pages, Manning Publications 2018

Never Use Futura
by Douglas Thomas & Ellen Lupton
Why read?
This fascinating book explores the cultural history and uses of a face that’s so common you might not notice until you start looking, and then you can’t escape it.
208 pages, Princeton Architectural Press 2017

The Shape of Design
by Frank Chimero
Why read?
You’ll learn about the creative process and the intersection of storytelling, craft and improvisation.
131 pages, Frank Chimero 2012

Designing Products People Love
How Great Designers Create Successful Products
by Scott Hurff
Why read?
Written for designers, product managers, and others who want to communicate better with designers, this book is essential reading for anyone who contributes to the product creation process.
324 pages, O’Reilly Media 2016

The Brand Gap
How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
by Marty Neumeier
Why read?
This book shows how the creative and strategic ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand” — a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives.
208 pages, New Riders 2005

Emotional Design
Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
by Don Norman
Read this book when…
you ever wondered why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses?
272 pages, Basic Books 2005

The Non-Designer’s Design Book
by Robin Williams
Why read?
Whether you’re a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice, or an aspiring graphic designer, you will find the instruction and inspiration to approach any design project with confidence.
240 pages, Peachpit Press 2014

Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
What you will learn
Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on Web design and usability.
216 pages, New Riders 2014

Speculative Everything
Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming
by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
Why read?
This book offers you a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches.
240 pages, The MIT Press 2013

About Face
The Essentials of Interaction Design
by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann & Christopher Noessel
Why read?
This book that brought interaction design out of the research labs and into the everyday lexicon and the updated Fourth Edition continues to lead the way with ideas and methods relevant to today’s design practitioners and developers.
720 pages, Wiley 2014

Lean UX
Designing Great Products with Agile Teams
by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
Why read?
You’ll learn how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user.
208 pages, O’Reilly Media 2016

This Is Service Design Thinking
Basics, Tools, Cases
by Mark Stickdorn
Unveil the buzzwords
This interdisciplinary textbook features 23 international authors to unveil the practical meaning behind Service design and design thinking.
380 pages, Bis Publishers 2012

100 Things
Every Designer Needs to Know About People
Susan Weinschenk
Why read?
This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it, you’ll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that match the way people think, work, and play.
256 pages, New Riders 2011

Design Is Storytelling
by Ellen Lupton
Why read?
This is a playbook for creative thinking, showing designers how to use storytelling techniques to create satisfying graphics, products, services and experiences.
160 pages, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2017

The User Experience Team of One
A Research and Design Survival Guide
by Leah Buley
Why read?
The User Experience Team of One prescribes a range of approaches that have a big impact and take less time and fewer resources than the standard lineup of UX deliverables.
264 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2013

User Research
A Practical Guide to Designing Better Products and Services
by Stephanie Marsh
Why read?
This book shows how to use the vast array of user research methods available. Covering all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing and many more.
288 pages, Kogan Page 2018

Own it
The Power of Women at Work
by Sallie Krawcheck
Why read?
This book is a new kind of career playbook for a new era of feminism, offering women a new set of rules for professional success: one that plays to their strengths and builds on the power they already have.
256 pages, Crown Business 2017

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers
by Lois P. Frankel
Why read?
Before you were told to “Lean in”, Dr Lois Frankel told you how to get that corner office.
384 pages, Business Plus 2014

What Works
Gender Equality by Design
by Iris Bohnet
Why read?
Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back, and de-biasing people’s minds have proven to be difficult and expensive.
400 pages, Belknap Press 2016

Girl Code
Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur
by Cara Alwill Leyba
Why read?
Women around the world have responded to Cara Alwill Leyba’s Girl Code with a resounding YES. Companies like Kate Spade and Macy’s have brought her in to teach “the Code.” Inc. magazine named Girl Code one of the “Top 9 Inspiring Books Every Female Entrepreneur Should Read” alongside Lean In, #Girlboss, and Thrive.
176 pages, Portfolio 2017

Reset
My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
by Ellen Pao
Why read?
The “necessary and incisive” (Roxane Gay) account of the discrimination case that “has blown open a conversation about the status of women” in the workplace (The New York Times)
288 pages, Soiegel & Grau 2017

A Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug
The Working Woman’s Guide to Overthrowing the Patriarchy
by Sarah Lacy
Why read?
A rallying cry for working mothers everywhere that demolishes the “distracted, emotional, weak” stereotype and definitively shows that these professionals are more focused, decisive, and stronger than any other force.
320 pages, HarperBusiness 2017

Women in Tech
Take Your Career to the Next Level with Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories
by Tarah Wheele & Esther Dyson
Why read?
Written by a female startup CEO and featuring a host of other successful contributors, this book will help dismantle the unconscious social bias against women in the tech industry.
272 pages, Sasquatch Books 2017

Brotopia
Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley
by Emily Chang
Why read?
Silicon Valley is a modern utopia where anyone can change the world. Unless you’re a woman.
320 pages, Portfolio 2018

In the Company of Women
Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs
by Grace Bonney
Emma Straub says:
I want to rip out every page of this glorious book and hang them on my wall so that I can be surrounded by these incredible women all day long.
351 pages, Artisan 2016

We Should All Be Feminists
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What does “feminism” mean today?
That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay — adapted from her much-viewed Tedx talk of the same name.
65 pages, Vintage 2014

Earning It
Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World
by Joann S. Lublin
Why read?
More than fifty trailblazing executive women who broke the corporate glass ceiling offer inspiring and surprising insights and lessons in this essential, in-the-trenches career guide from Joann S. Lublin.
304 pages, HarperBusiness 2016

Geek Girl Rising
Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech
by Heather Cabot & Samantha Parent Walravens
Learn new face
Geek Girl Rising isn’t about the famous tech trailblazers you already know, like Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. Instead, veteran journalists Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens introduce readers to new fearless female entrepreneurs and technologists.
272 pages, St. Martin’s Press 2017
