On My Shelf with James Safford — Product Lead at 11:FS (London, UK)
About me
I’m a Product Lead at a UK FinTech consultancy firm and media company 11:FS. I’ve been building a user testing platform for the finance space for the past year or so, amongst a few other bits and bobs. I run a product management video show for 11:FS called Homescreen, where I speak to some of the best FinTech PMs about their process.
On my shelf
Shape Up
Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters
by Ryan Singer
My opinion
I think we can get a little bogged down by the format of our two-week sprints etc., and I was looking for another way of thinking about how to ship products efficiently, so this book came about at just the right time. It helped me to understand what I should be doing for my team (figuring out scope), how I should be getting out of their way to solve particular problems, and what chunks of time can be used. A nice freshener for anyone stuck in the two week rut!
176 pages, Basecamp 2019
Predictable Revenue
Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com
by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler
My opinion
It’s easy to get stuck in a hole of product thinking (yes, I know that’s what you’re paid to do), but when a friend pointed out to me that he’d been struggling to balance product priorities with sales thinking (we have a high touch sales process at my company), I wanted to understand a bit more about how SaaS salespeople think, and how I could bake that into my product thinking. This book charts how Salesforce built their sales process, and helped me to understand how I could connect product progress with increased revenue demands (something every PM must wrestle with - I’m sure!).
213 pages, PebbleStorm 2011
Crossing the Chasm
Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers
by Geoffrey A. Moore
My opinion
This is a classic, so I’m sure a lot of people will have come across this book, but it was quite prescient for me when thinking back to the early stages of product development that me and the team did, and on some side projects. Who are the customers you need to put this product in front of to get the right information you need to grow? Where do you focus your resources at certain parts of the product’s life? This book is a great introduction to marketing and customer segmentation for product people.
288 pages, Harper Business 2014
Lean UX
Designing Great Products with Agile Teams
by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
My opinion
One of our designers at 11:FS got me into this book when we were looking for a way to escape the dreaded waterfall discovery–development cycle. Applying lean principles to both design and development has been super important for us; to getting the whole team involved (from designers and developers to customer support and sales) to helping us scope out viability early on in the process. I feel we’ve become more proactive in the work we do, and spend less time working on stuff that’s not going to be impactful.
208 pages, O’Reilly Media 2016
Hacking Growth
How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success
by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown
My opinion
Again, one for thinking about how to get the right customers at the right time for your product. I love the work of Sean Ellis and the essays of Andrew Chen on growth, and I’ve learned a lot about how to approach data analysis, user cohorting etc through the product manager’s lens. Perfect for anyone wanting to learn how to efficiently grow their products and communities.
320 pages, Currency 2017
Our series “On my shelf” features product people from all over the world who are passionate about reading and sharing their best book recommendations with the community. If you want to join the movement and share your reading list with others send us a message. Let’s get better together 📚.
