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.

• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
  by Patrick Lencioni | Buy on Amazon | O'Reilly Learning | Publisher's Resources
  Lencioni is one of my favorite authors. Most of his books are three-quarters fable, and the last quarter is about how to apply the principles to your business. This book is not a fable but takes the principles from all of his books and outlines how to build a cohesive leadership team and then create, over-communicate, and reinforce clarity. Lencioni is one of my favorite authors, and I recommend all of his books, especially:
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
  A business fable that covers the Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.
• The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues
  A business fable that helps you identify team players who are hungry, humble, and smart. Also, see the free Ideal Team Player Hiring Guide for interview questions.
  
  
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
  by Gino Wickman | Buy on Amazon
  Wickman covers similar principles from The Advantage and simplifies them into a process he calls the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®). It outlines the Six Key Components™ of your business: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process & Traction. These books are good companions:
• Get A Grip: How to Get Everything You Want from Your Entrepreneurial Business
  This business fable gives an example of how EOS is implemented.
• What the Heck Is EOS?: A Complete Guide for Employees in Companies Running on EOS
  Have your employees read this after you have implemented EOS.

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 

• My Bookshelves on Goodreads
• Amazon Charts
• David Lim's 37 Books to Better Your Mindset and Personal & Professional Practices
• Bill Gates's GatesNotes Book Reviews