On My Shelf with Florian Gansemer — Managing Director at Lunchzeit
About me
Florian Gansemer is a product guy with a very strong entrepreneurial mindset. He founded an HR tech startup and is currently also leading another IT company. You found him in Hamburg and Berlin. If not in the office, he may be in the yoga studio.
On my shelf
Lateral Leadership
A Practical Guide for Agile Product Managers
by Tim Herbig
My opinion
I had the pleasure to work with Tim in the same company and I already learned so much from him. He’s now focussing more on lateral leadership, IMHO the most important skill for product leaders. His book is a short but sweet read about this discipline. I like that it’s super practical and full of concrete tips for daily usage.
68 pages, Sense & Respond Press 2018
Running lean
Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works
by Ash Maurya
My opinion
Everyone is talking about the book „Lean Startup“ which of course started this trend. I like the version of Ash Maurya better because it’s more practical and gives you step-by-step information about HOW you actually start and validate your business. It’s full of case studies and tools on how you ensure you’re actually solving a real existing problem and how to validate that you’re on the right way to solve it.
240 pages, O’Reilly Media 2012
Reinventing organizations
by Frederic Laloux
My opinion
The basic idea in this book is treating companies not as machines but as living beings which grow and evolve by themselves. What maybe sounds like anarchy and chaos is actually an interesting and modern approach on how to built and manage your organizations. In my opinion also a bit too long and sometimes weird.
378 pages, Nelson Parker 2014
Extreme ownership
How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
My opinion
Written by two former Navy SEALS and therefore quite hardcore. But you get a good idea of how the SEALS work and how you can transfer some of their principles into your organization. Very simple and clear lessons you can try to embrace your leadership style. A lot of stories about the real battlefield.
“One of the best books on leadership I’ve ever read and a tremendous war story book as well.”
―Marc Andreessen
384 pages, St. Martin’s Press 2017
The PM Library series “On my shelf” features Product Leaders from all over the world who are passionate about reading and sharing with the community. If you want to join the movement and share your reading list with others send us a message or fill out the following form. Let’s get better together 📚.
