📚 My Year in Books 2023

Posted: Dec 20, 2023 in Book Reviews
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Top 5 reads which made the biggest impact:

1. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow is the state in which you are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that you will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Using prioritisation and WIP limits to determine what you focus on – doing more with less, having the discipline and courage to tackle the hard but valuable problems to solve. Working smarter.

3. The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef

Putting biases aside to get to the truth, being curious and having the courage to surface the most important things to focus on.

4. Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Comprehensive overview of how you can give effective feedback by avoiding being too nice or brutally honest, and instead having the right balance of just being candid.

5. Product Direction by Nacho Bassino

A well-balanced, accurate, and modern data-driven approach to product strategy and roadmapping.

Thanks to all of the authors for sharing their wisdom and to my connections for sharing their book recommendations.

Hope everyone has a nice festive break and a great learning experience next year!

Beyond the Handoff Culture: How To Collaborate in a Post-Pandemic World

Posted: Jun 15, 2023 in Business, Leadership, Product Management
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Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean

Posted: May 17, 2023 in Book Reviews, Leadership
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A good book that gives a comprehensive overview of how you can give effective feedback by avoiding being too nice or brutally honest, and instead having the right balance of just being candid.

“The good news is that many companies large and small are now taking active measures to shift to a culture in which caring personally and challenging directly go hand in hand.”

Product Direction: How to build successful products at scale with Strategy, Roadmaps, and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

Posted: Apr 16, 2023 in Book Reviews, Data, Leadership, Product Management
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A well-balanced, accurate, and modern data-driven approach to Product Strategy and Roadmapping. Nacho Bassino’s hands-on product experience came through as he tackled all of the controversial points raised across the industry with product strategies and especially product roadmaps – now, next, future vs. dates. There wasn’t anything I disagreed with, everything was spot on, and this book is a testament to how far the industry has come over the past decade.

“By going everywhere, we were going nowhere. We didn’t have a problem with resources; we had a problem with focus.”

“Obtaining data about the user, business, market, competitors, macroeconomic conditions, and so on should be an ongoing process for an empowered product team.”

“Your product roadmap is the prototype for your strategy.” – Todd Lombardo

“We don’t hire smart people to tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs

“Outcome-orientation is the single most crucial transformation a product organisation can make, and the strategic roadmap can be a keystone artifact to achieve it.”

Sprint: How to Solve Big Business Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

Posted: Apr 10, 2023 in Book Reviews, Business, Guides, Product Management
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Since the book publication in 2016, the Design Sprint process has become a familiar approach to efficiently solving big business problems/validating hypothesis that involve high amounts of complexity/uncertainty/risk, and Jake gives the background as to how Design Sprints originated along with an in-depth account of how they went through the process to test some ideas at Google Ventures.

Covering a variety of different experiments which they ran/problems they addressed made it a good read, including Slack (finding the best way to explain Slack to non-tech customers), Savioke Hotels (how hotel guests would react to a robot with personality, by experimenting through a robot delivering a toothbrush to a guests room), Flatiron Health (dealing with the complexities of getting cancer patients into clinical trials), and Blue Bottle Coffee (getting their value proposition clear on a new digital experience).

Design Spint Process

The book is practical, so if you’re new to Design Sprints, you’ll find it easy to create a plan which you can apply across your product as well as understand the key ingredients needed, so whilst tools have evolved to make it easier more than ever to validate a hypothesis in a remote world for digital products using the likes of Figma, Miro, UserTesting… the fundamentals haven’t changed in that you need to:

  • Collaborate with people throughout the sprint
  • Have a decision maker (normally Product Manager)
  • Identify a high priority problem to solve
  • Ideate and create prototype/s
  • Get feedback from potential customers

“When you get into a regular rhythm of listening to customers, it can remind you why you’re working so hard in the first place.”

Leading Beyond Change: A Practical Guide to Evolving Business Agility

Posted: Apr 6, 2023 in Book Reviews, Business, Leadership, Psychology
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I absolutely loved this book. Sahota provides a practical guide on how you can evolve your leadership skills to influence change within a business by developing others, focusing on the people, and having a growth mindset. Every single page is golden, and I found myself glued to the content and context behind the credible approaches, which are focused around the concept of Evolutionary Leadership.

Evolutionary Leadership is the choice to evolve oneself and develop the capabilities needed to evolve an organisation.

It’s common to hear in the business world that it’s leadership’s fault for specific problems, but the book focuses on how you can instead use that energy to focus on improving your own skills and behaviour to drive the necessary changes by taking responsibility, setting a good example, having courage, low ego, and ultimately influencing throughout the business which as a side effect drives change.

During my career in business, one of the most impactful leadership behaviours I’ve experienced is having the courage to do the right thing even if it’s hard and to set a good example, which proves to be one of the quickest ways to driving positive change and a healthy culture, so it’s been thoroughly enjoyable and thought  provoking reading a whole book about it.

“The most valuable learning is unlearning-replacing low-fidelity models of reality with more accurate ones.”

“The person who can reform themselves, can reform the world.”

“Anyone in the organisation can be leader-not just management. The only requirement is the choice to evolve oneself and have passion for success.”

“Understanding reality is a critical key ingredient for success.”

“All we can do to really learn the truth of reality is to constantly test our models and seek new ones.”

“The production capability will only evolve to the extent that organisational learning takes place.”

“Evolve people to evolve the organisation.”

Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products

Posted: Mar 5, 2023 in Book Reviews, Marketing
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Another book by the SVPG made this a must-buy for me and it’s the only book that goes into detail about the new discipline of Product Marketing.

Product Marketing’s purpose is to drive product adoption by shaping marketing perception through strategic marketing activities that meet business goals, and this book gives a comprehensive overview of how product marketing fits within an organisation alongside other marketing roles and product management, as well having practical canvases and guides to help product marketing managers define a credible GTM strategy and execute on it.

For me since I’ve had a career in marketing previously, I didn’t find the book that interesting, but if someone’s a product marketer or wants to find out more about the role, this is a must-buy!

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader

Posted: Feb 12, 2023 in Book Reviews, Leadership, Product Management
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The majority of leadership books talk about what leadership is and what a good leader looks like, but I liked Herminia’s fresh and practical approach that the best way to learn is by doing and therefore the book focuses on how you can take practical steps to improve your leadership skills (worth noting that before you can act, you need the courage to be vulnerable first).

“Action-changing how you do your job, how you build and use your network, and how you express yourself-gives you outsight, the fresh, external perspective you need to understand more deeply what is involved in the work of leadership and to motivate yourself to do it.”

What it means to act like a leader:

  • Bridging across diverse people and groups.
  • Envisioning new possibilities.
  • Engaging people in the change process.
  • Embodying the change.

The five things you can do to begin to make your job a platform for expanding your leadership:

  1. Develop your situation sensors.
  2. Get involved in projects outside your area.
  3. Participate in extracurricular activities.
  4. Communicate your personal “why.”
  5. Create slack in your schedule.

“The fastest way to change yourself is to spend time with people who are already the way you want to be.”

“Sometimes we so fully internalize what other people think is right for us that we don’t ever become what Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan calls ‘self-authoring’.”

“The idea of a learning economy is compelling, and where years ago many leaders would have said that the company is ‘as good as its people’, they would now say that an organisation is as good as its people’s ability to learn, develop, innovate and adapt.”

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Posted: Jan 28, 2023 in Book Reviews, Leadership, Psychology
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Brene Brown combines stories from her personal journey with years of research which reveals the benefits of swapping feelings of not being good enough, shame, and the need for armour with having the courage to be vulnerable which will lead to a more purposeful life.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and short-coming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…” -Theodore Roosevelt

The Daring Greatly Leadership Manifesto by Brene Brown

To the CEOs and teachers. To the principals and the managers. To the politicians, community leaders, and decision-makers:

  1. We want to show up, we want to learn, and we want to inspire.
  2. We are hardwired for connection, curiosity, and engagement.
  3. We crave purpose, and we have a deep desire to create and contribute.
  4. We want to take risks, embrace our vulnerabilities, and be courageous.
  5. When learning and working are dehumanized-when you no longer see us and no longer encourage our daring, or when you only see what we produce or how we perform-we disengage and turn away from the very things that the world needs from us: our talent, our ideas, and our passion.
  6. What we ask is that you engage with us, show up beside us, and learn from us.
  7. Feedback is a function of respect; when you don’t have honest conversations with us about our strengths and our opportunities for growth, we question our contributions and your commitment.
  8. Above all else, we ask that you show up, let yourself be seen, and be courageous. Dare Greatly with us.

The Art of Resilience: Strategies for an Unbreakable Mind and Body

Posted: Jan 22, 2023 in Book Reviews, Psychology
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Ross swam around the whole of Great Britain in 157 days and gives a step-by-step account of how he achieved such a remarkable feat, breaking down his story into 22 lessons.

I didn’t expect this book to have this story, but it was a pleasant surprise! Edgley went into grave detail about the body and mind, how even after being stung multiple times by jellyfish, swimming with sharks, and whales, with cuts, scars, bruising and bleeding, he never missed a day’s swimming or even a single tide, this is because he built up a resilient body and mind with a bulletproof immune system using his understanding of a nutrient-dense diet.

A truly remarkable story.

The Joy of Work: 30 Ways to Fix Your Work Culture and Fall in Love with Your Job Again

Posted: Jan 15, 2023 in Book Reviews, Business, Leadership, Psychology
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Our satisfaction at work comes from having autonomy, mastery, purpose, and a voice. Daisley provides 30 ways and a summary at the end of each chapter to help you refocus on these areas, create actions to make work more enjoyable, make teams closer, and some secrets of energised teams.

This book not only has tips on how you can fall in love with your job again, but it’s also for leaders to help them create a culture where people can thrive, love their job, and be happy, where people can stimulate their intrinsic motivation – making those nerve cells tingle, rather than throwing unhelpful and destructive rewards into their motivation systems.

Whilst there’s a lot of talk across the business world around inclusiveness and collaboration, there’s generally not a lot of talk about the inefficiencies of having too many people involved in projects, multiple teams, or big teams. Daisley looked at studies covering 3,800 different projects which showed that when you allow for complexities of teams, discussions, presentations, status chats, emails and reviews, he discovered, the time spent on a badly organised project seemed to increase exponentially. In one study it took the bigger team 2,000 weeks to get done, yet the small team one week with both reaching the same quality of outcome.

“Learned helplessness pervades the modern workplace. We’re overwhelmed with demands and expectations placed on us by others, but we have come to accept it all because we assume that that’s the way it is and has to be.”

“Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.”

“It’s certainly hard to reach the Buzz state, but when a firm can achieve the combination of psychological safety and positive affect the results are breathtaking.”

Flow: The Psychology of Happiness

Posted: Jan 2, 2023 in Book Reviews, Psychology
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With so many extrinsic factors and your unconscious mind trying to pull you into tasks that don’t align with your purpose or goals, it can be easy to give into temptation, but Mihaly provides a fascinating overview of how you can take back control of your mind and what life is like when you liberate yourself by living a life in flow.

Flow is the state in which you are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that you will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

This book is a great companion to Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman which I’d recommend reading before Flow, since your mind is unconscious when thinking fast and conscious when thinking slowly, so it’s beneficial to have a good base understanding before reading Flow.

“In normal life, we keep interrupting what we do with doubts and questions…but in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic.”

“People who learn to enjoy their work, who do not waste their free time, end up feeling that their lives as a whole have become much more worthwhile.”

“The control of consciousness determines the quality of life-has been known for a long time; in fact, for as long as human records exist.”

“Once the fruit is plucked from the tree of knowledge, the way back to Eden is barred forever.”

Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to go beyond culture and skills

Posted: Dec 29, 2022 in Book Reviews, Guides, Product Management, Recruitment
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This is the shortest book I’ve read at under 80 pages, but it didn’t need to be more as Kate got the key points and advice across perfectly-telling a story of how a new product director struggled at first by just focusing on the practical elements of product management, but then they turned the product org around by doubling down on Product EQ skills which had a knock-on effect to the culture in a positive way.

What a product practitioner at any level should be working toward is the ability to balance technical skills with human skills and as the story progresses Kate explains the 7S framework and how the seven elements of an org changes, pulls, or pushes on one element will create change in all others: Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Skills, Style, Staff.

I specifically liked how Kate split out the product practice into technical skills (what work is done) and human skills (how the work is done) using example skills in a table.

“Product people select from a variety of tools that live in our virtual toolbox to solve a problem. Given that the technologies we’re working with are often new, there’s no sure way to solve that problem, so there’s a lot of experimentation and trial and error. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t-but teams of product people won’t know for sure until they try.”

“It takes a lot of practice, and it takes a special set of skills to be that person who can continually experiment in times of stress and pressure. It also requires a unique type of leadership and culture to empower teams to do just that.”

“Organisations with greater levels of both inherent and acquired diversity were 45 percent more likely to report an increase in market share over the previous year and were 70 percent more likely to capture a new market.”

“Deliberate reflection points-like retros-are key to organisational learning, and that individuals can perform up to 23 percent better after consistently reflecting on their work than they are by doing more work.”

Product Management’s Sacred Seven

Posted: Dec 26, 2022 in Book Reviews, Product Management
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Neel, Parth, and Aditya spoke to 67 product leaders from 52 companies to find out what knowledge separates interview candidates they hire from those that don’t, as well as what hard skills help Product Managers move up in their careers the fastest at their companies.

The outcome of the study is that seven areas were common across the board – Product Management’s Sacred Seven:

  1. Product Design
  2. Economics
  3. Psychology
  4. User Experience
  5. Data Science
  6. Law & Policy
  7. Marketing & Growth

The authors describe these areas comprehensively in over 600 pages, with an engaging structure to every chapter – a plethora of images and diagrams to help visualise the key points they make throughout the book.

Since the authors have worked within the FAANG network, the majority of stories told to help explain practices are from this network of digital products and their competitors making the stories relatable and easy to digest.

“Creating simple, easy-to-use products that account for humans’ shortcomings is a great way to make products that people will love.”

“So while we’ve talked at length about the importance of quantitative metrics, you can’t put on your blinders and ignore everything else. The qualitative side matters, especially for the long term.”

What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

Posted: Dec 21, 2022 in Book Reviews, Business, Leadership
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Culture begins with deciding what you value most. Then you must help everyone in your organisation practice behaviours that reflect those virtues. When your culture turns out to lack crucial elements, you have to add them. This is what it means to be a leader.

In this book, Horowitz tells fascinating and inspiring stories of how businesses have thrived and revolutions came about by creating the right culture, using examples including the slavery revolution (Toussaint Louverure), the samurai code (The Way of the Warrior), and Genghis Khan, as well as Netflix, LoudCloud, and Silicon Valley.

Whilst culture is unique to a business, this book gives a comprehensive overview of things to keep in mind when creating your culture along with a culture checklist.

“Coaching, and not direction, is the first quality of leadership now. Get the barriers out of the way to let people do the things they do well.”

“For a culture to stick, it must reflect the leader’s actual values, not just those he thinks sound inspiring. Because a leader creates culture chiefly by his actions-by example.”

“Brains can absorb new information several times faster and more effectively by reading information versus listening to it.”

“Wilderotter build intense loyalty among Frontier’s employees and freed them to do their best work. Her approach earned her the nickname of the CEO of the people.”

“Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say at an all-hands. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. It’s what you do. What you do is who you are!”

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Posted: Dec 19, 2022 in Book Reviews, Leadership, Psychology
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Brene’s leadership approach is focused on authenticity and vulnerability – less robot/command and control, more leadership from the heart, having tough conversations and creating a safe environment for people to feel confident that they can bring their authentic selves to work.

In this book, Brene shares the impact of leading with a body of armour and the benefits of stripping it and sharing your authentic self, full of courage, confidence, curiosity, empathy, and value-driven.

It’s common to think that Brene’s approach to leadership is a weakness in a leader, but Brene exposes these myths beautifully. Daring Leadership is ultimately about serving other people, not ourselves. That’s why we choose courage.

“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers, and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.”

“Daring Leadership has changed the way I work with my team. It’s made me a better listener and given me the tools to be brave enough to deal with the stuff that’s always easier to avoid. Choosing what’s right over what’s easy has become my mantra.”

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell

“When we have the courage to walk into our story and own it, we get to write the ending.”

“Time can wear down our memories of tough lessons until what was once difficult learning fades into ‘This is just who I am as a person.'”

“In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains but in the future they’ll be about the heart.” – Minouche Shafik, director, London School of Economics

📚 My Year in Books 2022

Posted: Dec 17, 2022 in Book Reviews
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Top 5 reads which made the biggest impact:

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Full of fascinating case studies and experiments demonstrating the difference and impact of thinking fast (unconscious (intuition)) and slow (conscious (more considered)).

2. Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt

“Today the concept of ‘servant leadership’ is in vogue and has been directly linked to stronger company performance. Bill believed and practised it well before it became popular.”

3. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

“life is growth, you grow or die”

4. Grit by Angela Duckworth

“Eighty percent of success in life is showing up.”

5. Leading Product Management by Steven Haines

The most practical book on how to lead and build a high-performing product management organisation.

Thanks to all of the authors for sharing their wisdom, and thanks to my connections for sharing their book recommendations and inspiring learning experiences throughout the year.

Hope everyone has a nice festive break and a great learning experience next year!

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Posted: Dec 10, 2022 in Book Reviews, Business, Leadership
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Written as a novel, this book by Patrick Lencioni tells a story of the damage that a dysfunctional team can have on the business and the value of prioritising time to nurture teamwork and alignment. With so much of the book relatable along with the gripping novel style of writing made it hard to put down!

The five dysfunctions of a team are:

Lencioni also provides another way to understand the model by taking the opposite approach and imagining how members of truly cohesive teams behave:

1. They trust one another.
2. They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.
3. They commit to decisions and plans of action.
4. They hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.
5. They focus on the achievement of collective results.

“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”

“If you could get all the people in an organisation rowing in the same direction  you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”

A fantastic read! I’ve added most of Lencioni’s other books to my wish list since they’re also written as a novel.

Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions

Posted: Dec 3, 2022 in Book Reviews, Psychology
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Backed up by quality research and stories, Decisive focuses on four techniques to help you and others make better decisions:

1. Widen your options – avoid a narrow frame and think outside of the box. Use the Vanishing Options Test where “You cannot choose any of the current options you’re considering. What else could you do?”

2. Reality-test your assumptions – taking a step back by zooming out and then zooming back in. Using experiments to test your assumptions.

3. Attain distance before deciding – overcome short-term emotion and focus on your core priorities/values.

4. Prepare to be wrong – consider a range of outcomes from very bad to very good, and question your own past decisions as it’s easy to be on autopilot.

This book compliments Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman very well!

Leading Product Management: How to Create a High-Performance Product Management Organisation

Posted: Nov 26, 2022 in Book Reviews, Business, Leadership, Product Management
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This is the most practical book on how to lead and build a high-performing product management organisation. It’s another classic from Haines where he rightfully refers to the importance of business acumen and how to level up in this area throughout the book.

Whilst there are plenty of product leadership books out there, there are few that focus on leading product management as an organisation and practical steps to get product teams to high maturity. The book includes plenty of visuals and charts making it easy to understand and apply learnings.

What’s covered in detail:

  • Designing an org strategy for Product Management
  • Aligning R&Rs
  • Optimising Product Management processes
  • Managing the Product Manager talent pool
  • Cultivating and shaping Product Managers with competency self-assessments and maturity scores
  • Product Mindset
  • Building a Community of Practice (CoP)
  • Cross-functional product teams
  • Sustaining Product Management
  • Product portfolio management

Whilst Haines details the full R&R of the Product Manager job, he summarises it nicely into 6 core attributes:

  1. Strategic & Critical Thinking
  2. Entrepreneurial
  3. Decision-Making
  4. Leading & Influencing
  5. Domain & Technology
  6. Data & Analytics

This book is a must-read for any product leader (head of product, director, CPO, coaches, change management).

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