Books

I read 30+ books each year (read my process) and often get asked for book recommendations. This page is a continual work in progress to share some of my top recommended books by topic.

Last Updated: 1/14/2024

Business

Culture / Organizational Health

Culture is one of my most passionate topics. I learned a lot about building a healthy culture as a Co-Founder of ORIS Intelligence, and I continuously learn and try to stay focused on an intentional culture.

Leadership / Coaching / Management

    • Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
      by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle | Buy on Amazon
      Bill Campbell was a legendary coach and business executive who played an instrumental role in the growth of Google, Apple Inuit, and many other companies in Silicon Valley. This book is based on interviews with over 80 people who were coached by Bill and shares his principles for creating fast-moving cultures, teams, and companies. 

    • How to Be a Great Boss
      by Gino Wickman and René Boer | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
      Written by the author of Traction, this book gives a framework for being a good boss, which consists of Leadership, Management, and Accountability (LMA)

    • The Effective Manager, 2nd Edition
      by Mark Horstman | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
      Based on the Manager Tools podcast, the book explains how to do one-on-ones, give feedback, coach, and delegate.

    Product Management

    • Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, 2nd Edition
      By Marty Cagan | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning | Inspired Book Club Template
      This is one of the best overviews of product management that gives lessons learned from top tech companies, including how to structure product teams and formalize the product process. I re-read it yearly and have taken my product teams through the book as a development tool.

    • Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products That Create Customer Value and Business Value
      By Teresa Torres  | Buy on Amazon
      This is one of the most practical books in product management and where most teams should start. Use the product trio (Product Manager, Product Designer, and Software Engineer) to talk to customers and discover outcome-based opportunities that provide value to your customer and your business.  

    • Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success
      By Josh Seiden | Buy on Amazon
      A quick read (the audiobook is 80 minutes) that helps product roles think about outcomes. It defines an outcome as a change in human behavior that drives business results.

    • Build What Matters: Delivering Key Outcomes with Vision-Led Product Management
      By Ben Foster and Rajesh Nerlikar | Buy on Amazon
      The book outlines the steps for vision-led product management through defining outcomes, crafting a customer journey vision, creating a product strategy and milestones, and allocating the roadmap around innovation, iteration & operation.

    • Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty
      by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy,  Evan Ryan, and Michael Connors | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
      This book teaches product managers how to create effective outcome-based product roadmaps and use the roadmap to align stakeholders and prioritize ideas and requests.

    • Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
      By Melissa Perri | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
      The build trap is when organizations focus more on shipping and developing features than on the value those things produce. Perri outlines what it takes to become a product-led organization that focuses on outcomes over output and focuses on the product manager's role, strategy, product process, and company organization that will allow Product to thrive.

    Product & Tech Leadership

        • Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
          By Marty Cagan | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
          Building on Inspired, this is one of the best books for product leaders (anyone in Product, Design, or Engineering) and the executive team. It gives insights into building a strong product organization, including coaching, staffing, and developing a product vision and strategy that support the business's objectives.

        • Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
          By Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning
          This is a practical, step-by-step guide on how to build the best technical team organization for your specific goals, culture, and needs. 


        This page is a work in progress, so more to come!  

        Other Book Lists 


        Comments

        1. UnknownJuly 16, 2021 at 10:02 AM

          Awesome list! Will be working through this. Thanks again Justin!

          ReplyDelete

        Post a Comment

        Popular posts from this blog

        My Journey Accepting ADHD

        Image
        October is ADHD Awareness Month, and I want to share my journey accepting ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) in hopes that it can help someone else on their journey.  
        Read more

        Book Club Templates for Teams and Communities of Practice

        Image
        As a product leader and infinite learner, I've discovered that learning is not just reading a book (10%) but also learning from others (20%) and implementing those insights (70%). Reading a book together allows you to read, learn from each other, and be accountable for applying what you have learned. This can help upskill the whole team or community of practice (CoP) and establish a common vernacular. Here are some recommendations for starting a book club with your team or community of practice.
        Read more

        Row in the Same Direction

        Image
        One of my favorite quotes is from the introduction of Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team : "If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time." I didn't fully understand or appreciate that saying until my daughters started rowing in high school. Just like rowing, for an organization to be successful, it takes hard work, teamwork, and communication.
        Read more