Reading List: Fall 2015

Various books and articles are keeping me busy with useful ideas and perspectives this Fall, such as the following:

• Articles on Product Management: I must admit I’ve had some rather poor experiences with Product Managers lately, so I’ve been digging deep into what it means to be leading the product function of an organization. What are their goals, drivers, criteria for success? Indeed, these articles have provided quite a bit of insight, and even promoted just a little bit of empathy for those performing that role ;-) See below. 

Let’s talk about Product Management (Greylock Perspectives) by Josh Elman

What I learned at Slack (a multi-part series) by Kenneth Berger 

How make a firehose of feedback useful (via Kenneth Berger)

The role of a Product Manager by Michael Siliski

Steven Sinofsky’s response to that article

How to hire a Product Manager by Ken Norton

PM at Microsoft by Steven Sinofsky 

Any and all articles by Marty Cagan :-)  

 

• Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever — A good basic collection of wisdom and lessons which provide on how to effectively argue, defend, rationalize design decisions of tactical to strategic value, to a variety of specific stakeholders (engineering, business, clients, etc.) // Amazon link //

• Design Sprint by Banfield/Lombardo/Wax — Excellent survey of the formal “design sprint” methodology derived from Google Ventures sprint model, and explained as a cookbook-style format for usage in your work context with Devs and PMs to achieve maximum impact. Lotsa great stories, examples, and photos. I got this book after hearing the authors’ webcast via O’Reilly recently. // Amazon link //

• Designing Business by Clement Mok — An oldie, but a goodie! This was I believe my very first design book purchase at a Waldenbooks (remember them?) in Ann Arbor in 1996. While it is almost 20 years old, the concepts and terminology written from the fresh-eyed view of “new digital media” still bears relevance as the profession morphs with more complexity and tools. Definitely worth re-reading. // Amazon link //