On My Shelf with Alexander Hipp — Senior Product Manager at N26
About me
Hi, my name is Alex, and I’m currently based in Barcelona, working as a Senior Product Manager at N26, building the first global mobile bank the world loves to use. I believe that reading is one of the best ways to improve yourself and learn about Product Management. I co-founded the PM Library to help the tech community out there to explore new books and content.
On my shelf
Sapiens
A Brief History of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari
My opinion
Our world is full of processes and believes but how did these get established in the first place? Why do we believe in concepts like money or law? The book gives very good insights into those concepts and can certainly encourage us to rethink existing structures and how and if we can approach things in a different way.
464 pages, Harper Perennial 2018
Get this book (amazon.com), (amazon.de)
Escaping the Build Trap
How effective product management creates value
by Melissa Perri
My opinion
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
Get this book (amazon.com) (amazon.de)
Trillion Dollar Coach
The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell
by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle
My opinion
This book was my favourite read in 2019. It thought me so much about leadership and building a team. Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders throughout the USA, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.
240 pages, Harper Business 2019
Get this book (amazon.com) (amazon.de)
Creativity Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
My opinion
This book is a joy from the first page to the last. I think I learned so much by reading about the life of Ed Catmull and how he founded and led Pixar. Since I’m a big Disney and movie fan I was also super interested in how they not only shot new animated pictures but also how he and his team disrupted an entire industry. I find it really interesting how close making a movie and building a digital product in the end are and how the so-called “brain-trust” meeting can be adapted for the digital space to build better products.
368 pages, Random House 2014
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The Captain Class
The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams
by Sam Walker
My opinion
Since I’m a huge sports enthusiast, I had to read this book. Sam Walker gives excellent insights into how the sixteen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain — a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. As a product manager and lateral leader of your team, you can apply so much from this book to your daily behaviour. Great to open the tech-defined horizon.
“The book taught me that there’s no cookie-cutter way to lead. Leading is not just what Hollywood tells you. It’s not the big pregame speech. It’s how you carry yourself every day, how you treat the people around you, who you are as a person.”
— Mitchell Trubisky, quarterback, Chicago Bears
368 pages, Random House Trade Paperbacks 2018
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Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
The Difference and Why It Matters
by Richard P. Rumelt
My opinion
This book is a real eye-opener. After reading it you will see examples of bad strategy everywhere. You will learn what it takes to build a good strategy and what pieces you need to not only come up with goals but also how to outline a plan on how to reach these goals. Every product person should read this book in my opinion.
336 pages, Currency 2011
Get this book (amazon.com), (amazon.de)
