Entries Tagged 'Book Review' ↓
April 25th, 2010 — Book Review
OK, maybe I was a decade late for this one.
I just finished reading Management Challenges for the 21st Century by Peter F. Drucker. For a book that was only 196 pages, it took me a little longer to get through this than I wanted.
There are some great lessons in here that I am able to apply to my daily work schedule. The first chapter talks a lot about new management paradigms and organization structures, how to management people and how technology will continue to shape how business is done today.
There was an interesting section on strategy, but it was a little high-level discussing some certainties (like collapsing birthrates affecting business) that you should be aware of. The section on global competitive was the most relevant. Another section dealt with how to live in a world of constant change.
Perhaps my favourite section was the topic that contrasted the knowledge worker versus the manual worker. I found this interesting because so many of us are building products for the knowledge worker, but we continue to measure it as if we are building products for the manual worker. It requires a completely different approach.
The last section discussed managing oneself and this is always relevant. Brace yourself for this one, the first question is “What are my Strengths?” There were some interesting stories on whether you are a reading or listening learner.
If you have not read it already, I recommend it as a light, quick read.
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April 2nd, 2010 — Book Review, Innovation, Product Management
I have maintained all along that innovation is easy. Successful innovation is hard. Anyone can invent something new and by definition is that innovation. The challenge is building something new that people want and will pay for. (Poses a related question of whether free products are innovative?)
This is why I love quotes like this:
The test of an innovation is that it creates value.
Is this not the same test for great product management?
Quote Reference: Management Challenges for the 21st Century by Peter F. Drucker (p.86)
More on this book later.
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November 2nd, 2009 — Book Review, Product Management, User Stories
by Jason Brett
As a <type of user> I want <some goal> so that <some reason>.
Whether you are new to story-driven software development or have been managing products or development with user stories for a decade, “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” (Mike Cohn) is a great read.
I’m personally new to writing user stories, so I dove into Cohn’s book from a relatively fresh perspective, and found the entire book highly digestible. Mr. Cohn makes no assumptions about the readers level of expertise or familiarity with Agile methods. At the same time, he writes in a way that gives the reader credit for being intelligent and purposeful.
The book is broken into 3 parts:
Part 1 covers the basics of user stories and so much more. Cohn goes into a well paced discussion of the roles of each member of the agile team at each step of the process. Not only does he dissect the stories themselves, commenting on size and scope of stories, but Cohn pays a great deal of attention to cataloging and working with an appropriate variety of user roles, working with user proxies, acceptance tests, and an exceedingly valuable chapter discussing guidelines of good stories.
Part 2 continues the examination of the user story from the perspective of estimating and planning, stepping deftly from release to iteration, taking care to discuss monitoring and measurement of the release and iteration’s progress.
Finally, in Part 3, the Cohn ties everything together with an in-depth example and a well organized discussion of a variety of topics that naturally emerge in a business environment when applying user stories to an agile development framework. He spends a chapter specifically on user stories with Scrum, and another excellent chapter on “A Catalog of Story Smells.” This chapter provides a great reality check for anyone trying to detect and deal with potential team challenges when user stories may seem to be at the center of the discussion.
What stands out to me most about “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” is not only it’s apparent status as the definitive work on User Stories, but it’s effective introduction to Agile software development from the Product Management perspective. This is a book that I think exceeds its purpose in that regard.
I read this book as an experienced product manager who is new to Agile and Scrum. It has been an invaluable resource to me in that role. What I appreciate even more about Cohn’s work is that after reviewing the table of contents for this review, I can see myself re-reading the book annually (for at least for the next couple of years) and gleaning new insights to help strengthen my process and products.
No matter what your role in an Agile organization, be it product manager, product owner, scrum master or marketing manager, I suspect this book will provide significant insights into your company’s development process that can do nothing but serve you well.
Jason Brett is a Product Manager at Silverpop Systems, Inc, Founder of ProductCamp Atlanta, and currently sits on the board of the TAG Product Management Society. Jason should blog at his own website http://www.jasonbrett.me, but rarely does. You can, however, follow him at http://www.twitter.com/jbrett. Be sure and leave an @ reply to say hi!
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August 30th, 2009 — Book Review, Leadership, Strategy
 I recently finished reading Winning. I was looking for something on leadership and poked Art Petty for a suggestion. Thanks Art, this was a classic read.
There were so many good lessons in here with respect to leadership and strategy it was almost overwhelming. One of my favourite topics was the chapter about candor; a truly powerful skill for the old mental toolset. Although I understand the power of this, I am aware of how this could be truly damaging to your career if not used properly.
can•dor (kndr) n. Frankness or sincerity of expression; openness.
Despite the book having leadership undertones throughout, there was a great chapter on leadership where Jack discussed eight things leaders do. This list includes team evaluation, coaching, articulating the vision, making decisions, probing and pushing with curiosity and inspiring risk taking.
lead•er•ship (lē-dər-ˌship n. The act or an instance of leading.
Lastly, he wrote a chapter on strategy. Given my interest in what strategy is and how people perceive, it was refreshing to see him try to simplify it. I loved this quote:
… strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.
After reading that, there is no wonder the first chapter was all about mission and values. His definition of strategy is:
Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.
I cannot disagree with that.
He then broke down five questions to make your strategy real:
- What the playing field looks like now?
- What the competition has been up to?
- What you’ve been up to?
- What’s around the corner?
- What’s your winning move?
I could go on with lessons learned from this book, but like Made to Stick I highly recommend that you read this book.
Image Source: HarperCollins Publishers |
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August 30th, 2009 — Book Review, Product Management
This is a repost of a post that I did on the Product Management View.
Just finished the book, Tuned In (by Phil Myers, Craig Stull, and David Meerman Scott), and I must say. Well done! The book, by simply stating, outlines the following steps: find unresolved problems, understand buyer personas, quantify the impact, create breakthrough experiences, articulate powerful ideas, establish authentic connections to create a resonator. A resonator is the perfect solution to a specific problem. It is a product or service so powerful that it sells itself, an offering that connects to what your market values most and an idea people immediately understand has value to them. I grabbed this content from their blog, Get Tuned In which is a great resource as well. I like the emphasis on problem statements and the potential buyer. So much time is spent today by Product Management on the post-sales Buyer.
Tuned In is one of those books that you will be entertained by, amazed by, not be able to put down and be inspired to change the way you approach product management. Most importantly, you will want your Executives to read it.
Here are some other bits of wisdom from the crowd on Tuned In.
Buy the book here: Amazon, Chapters.ca
Image Source: Get Tuned In |
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August 5th, 2009 — Book Review, Product Management, Strategy
 I just finished reading Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, as part of our Smarter Product Managers book club. You’ll probably see a bunch of reviews pop-up as it seems everyone really enjoyed it. Here is one from Product Management Zen.
Without trying to oversell, this is a MUST READ for product management.
An ‘idea‘ is a funny concept. It can be concrete or it can be abstract and for a lot people the vagueness of an idea may be translated into many different things including ideas as new products or ideas as new features for existing products. The relevancy of this book for product managers is that they live in a world of ideas and they need some to stick and some to slip away. (Note: The principles will help make sure the right ones stick and the wrong ones slip away.) They also need to communicate a variety of messages including problem statements, vision statements and strategies all of which can be parsed through the principles of this book. This book provided an excellent framework to help you successfully disseminate those ideas.
The authors explain the six qualities of an idea that will stick:
- Simplicity: This is perhaps my favourite quality because too often I see too much content and part way through the description people’s eyes start to glaze over. Every idea has a core message and it important for your idea to draw attention to that core message. Focus on the core and keep it simple.
- Unexpectedness: The concept here is that people remember what they weren’t expecting to hear, something out of the ordinary. I think the key for product management is being able to articulate your idea in such a way that makes the impact stand out. You will want people to walk away remembering the impact and feeling compassion for people who are dealing with the impact of the idea every day.
- Concreteness: How do you make it real? The book gave a classic product management example (read: customer visits) of an employee of General Mills who poured through reams of data only to try a novel approach of going into the homes of actual customers and observing them. Imagine that?!?! Needless to say the observations were not only concrete but some were even unexpected.
- Credibility: To be honest, I think this is one that most product managers will suffer from the most (easily correctable, read concreteness again). A lot of your credibility will come from the supporting data you have collected, but also your leadership skills will play here. Be mindful of how you play the credibility card in this situation as just throwing out names or titles can instantly kill credibility.
- Emotional: The interesting line from this section was: “For people to take action, they have to care.” As you start to champion your idea, think about the factors that will encourage people to take action.
- Stories: Great section on how to complement your idea with stories. Again, I direct you to refer to the concreteness section for inspiration in developing stories. The right story will also draw on the emotional and credible aspect of your idea.
The overarching concept through the book that plagues the stickiness of ideas is what the authors call the “Curse of Knowledge.” They define this as a common tendency people have that reduces their ability to create ideas that stick. People tend to communicate ideas in a way that is constrained by the fact that they already know what they are talking about and find it hard to imagine what it was like to not know. The authors offer that the best way to beat the curse is to apply the six principles and transform your ideas. The other tip for beating the Curse of Knowledge is to ask why as many times as necessary for a truer understanding of the problem (and therefore idea).
This is book is officially going my “must-read” list for product managers. It’ll shape the way you write and communicate your ideas in way that will hopefully make them stick.
P.S. I found this, the The Stickiness Aptitude Test, for you to validate whether your idea is sticky. Enjoy!
Image Source: MadetoStick.com |
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July 27th, 2009 — Book Review, Product Management
 Last month we finished reading Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, as part of our Smarter Product Managers book club.
Jeff defines (link) crowdsourcing as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.
Interesting.
I thought about whether I would try to do a review on it for this blog and I was not sure if I found it relevant to the scope of the blog. If product management is involved in crowdsourcing, then it is mostly definitely a tactic in helping to achieve a strategy and if managed properly, with the proper expectations I would support a crowdsourcing initiative for you as a roadmap supporting activity. Not that you need my support or approval.
That being said, as product managers (or all associated types) start hearing the word “crowdsourcing” being used (or consider using it themselves), I highly recommend reading the book so that you can understand really what it means. I suspect most people think of it as a way to outsource a role or worse that crowdsourcing just magically manages itself.
I know what you are thinking. Jeff’s definition says, “taking a job … and outsourcing”, but I don’t read this as a job job I read this more as a outsourcing tasks.
I think crowdsourcing can be a successful tactic and as more people execute successful crowdsourcing projects you will hear more about it. My advice is be prepared.
Image Source: Random House, Inc. |
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May 25th, 2009 — Book Review, Marketing
 I was fortunate to receive a copy of World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott at ProductCamp RTP. It ended up being a book I could not put down. I am a big believer in change, and buyer targeted activities needs a change and this book is one answer to that change. The world is connected now, people expect to freely receive and share ideas. This book is one that you should read and then pass it to your CEO and hope that they pass it to everyone else. Interestingly enough, I had the exact same reaction to reading Tuned In.
A world wide rave: What the heck is that?
A World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products. Whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík, it’s when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.
This book challenges you, with highly effective examples, to think about the ways you engage your buyers. By using blogs, e-books, videos, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts and any other online medium you are able to connect with your buyers in ways that weren’t possible before, but more importantly using the tools that they are using today. The evidence shows that if you understand their problems, tell them stories, and enable them to share those stories people will choose to do business with you.
There are six rules to creating a ‘world wide rave’ and they are:
- Nobody cares about your products (except you)
- No coercion required
- Lose Control
- Put Down Roots
- Create Triggers to Encourage People to Share
- Point the World to your Virtual Doorstep
I highly recommend you read the book to learn more about these six rules, but the gist of them is to stop talking about you, be open, freely share, have an online profile, be prepared to fail and have an online home.
One final point, Scott makes a great case that creating a ‘world wide rave’ will not happen overnight. You have to submerse yourself in understanding your buyer persona, their problems and start sharing. As product managers we already know that, but it is always nice to read additional reasons to reinforce that.
Now the challenge is adding at least two new activities, either starting a blog (targeted towards your buyers) or writing an e-book to your roadmap.
About the Author
David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and the author of five books including World Wide Rave, The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Tuned In (with Craig Stull and Phil Myers). Check out his blog Web Ink Now and follow him on Twitter @dmscott.
Image source: worldwiderave.com |
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