Category: Book Reviews
-
“Working Backwards” (Book Review)
It feels like a lifetime ago when I first wrote about product management practices at Amazon. Nine years ago I write a post about product management at Amazon. Since then I’ve come across a number of valuable practices that have out of Amazon, and the thinking behind them. Reading “Working Backwards” by Colin Bryar and…
-
“Beyond Command and Control” (Book Review)
“It is the system that governs the behaviour” John Seddon et al, “Beyond Command and Control” “Beyond Command and Control” starts off with clarifying the two main words in the book title. ‘Command’ means that managers make all the decisions and workers do as they’re told. The authors – John Seddon, Ibrar Hussain, Toby Rubbra…
-
“Thinking in Systems” (Book Review)
“Thinking in Systems” is a short but pretty dense book about systems thinking. Its author, the late Donella H. Meadows, was an environmental scientist who back in the Seventies started applying the then relatively new tools of system thinking to global problems. In “Thinking in Systems” Meadows covers the three aspects of any system in…
-
“When They Win, You Win” (Book Review)
Russ Laraway is a military commander turned people leader, currently working as Chief People Officer at Goodwater Capital. I recently heard Laraway talk about his first book “When They Win, You Win” on Jason Knight’s great “One Knight in Product” podcast and it prompted me to read Laraway’s book. Laraway’s frustration with a lack of…
-
“KPI Checklists” (Book Review)
How do you measure the performance of your business unit or product? How do you know that you’re measuring the right thing? How do the different metrics that you measure ladder up? These are just some of the questions that we need to grapple with to ensure that our efforts are making an impact, and…
As I learn ... 