Want to know what books Marty Cagan recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Marty Cagan's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
How do you build a product that delights users? You must first know who your users are and how they plan to use what you're building. With this practical book, you'll explore the often-misunderstood practice of user story mapping, and learn how it can help keep your team stay focused on users and their experience throughout the development process.
You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications, but a way to organize and have better conversations. This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having, when to... more How do you build a product that delights users? You must first know who your users are and how they plan to use what you're building. With this practical book, you'll explore the often-misunderstood practice of user story mapping, and learn how it can help keep your team stay focused on users and their experience throughout the development process.
You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications, but a way to organize and have better conversations. This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having, when to have them, and what to keep track of when you do.Learn the key concepts used to create a great story mapUnderstand how user stories really work, and how to make good use of them in agile and lean projectsExamine the nuts and bolts of managing stories through the development cycleUse strategies that help you continue to learn before and after the product's release to customers and users
"User Story Mapping" is ideal for agile and lean software development team members, product managers and UX practitioners in commercial product companies, and business analysts and project managers in IT organizations--whether you're new to this approach or want to understand more about it. less See more recommendations for this book...
2
The basic premise of Inspired is that the best tech companies create products in a manner very different from how most companies create products. The goal of the book is to share the techniques of the best companies. This book is aimed primarily at Product Managers working on technology-powered products. That includes the hundreds of "tech companies" like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and the like, as well as the thousands of companies moving to leverage technology (financial companies, media companies, retailers, manufacturers, nearly every industry). Inspired covers... more The basic premise of Inspired is that the best tech companies create products in a manner very different from how most companies create products. The goal of the book is to share the techniques of the best companies. This book is aimed primarily at Product Managers working on technology-powered products. That includes the hundreds of "tech companies" like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and the like, as well as the thousands of companies moving to leverage technology (financial companies, media companies, retailers, manufacturers, nearly every industry). Inspired covers companies from early stage start-ups to large, established companies. The products might be consumer products or devices, business services for small businesses to enterprises, internal tools, and developer platforms.
Inspired is secondarily aimed at the designers, engineers, user researchers and data scientists that work closely with the product managers on product teams at these same companies. less See more recommendations for this book...
3
Whether you’re a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest challenge is creating a product people actually want. Lean Analytics steers you in the right direction.
This book shows you how to validate your initial idea, find the right customers, decide what to build, how to monetize your business, and how to spread the word. Packed with more than thirty case studies and insights from over a hundred business experts, Lean Analytics provides you with hard-won, real-world information no entrepreneur... more Whether you’re a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest challenge is creating a product people actually want. Lean Analytics steers you in the right direction.
This book shows you how to validate your initial idea, find the right customers, decide what to build, how to monetize your business, and how to spread the word. Packed with more than thirty case studies and insights from over a hundred business experts, Lean Analytics provides you with hard-won, real-world information no entrepreneur can afford to go without.
Understand Lean Startup, analytics fundamentals, and the data-driven mindset
Look at six sample business models and how they map to new ventures of all sizes
Find the One Metric That Matters to you
Learn how to draw a line in the sand, so you’ll know it’s time to move forward
Apply Lean Analytics principles to large enterprises and established products less 
Ola OlusogaLike Charlie Munger once said: “I’ve long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems most people use [to understand the world]. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually fit together in a way that enhances cognition. Just as multiple factors shape every system,... (Source)
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4
Dobre pomysły nie przychodzą same. Co więcej, droga między dobrym pomysłem a sukcesem koncepcji bywa usiana niepewnością i trudnymi chwilami. Mnożą się wątpliwości. Nie wiadomo, jak zacząć i na czym należy się skupić przede wszystkim. Czy lepiej zaangażować pojedynczą osobę, czy zespół? Jak rozpoznać odpowiednie rozwiązanie? Jak zyskać pewność, że właśnie ten pomysł odniesie sukces w prawdziwym życiu? I jak dowiedzieć się o tym wszystkim szybko — bez nieskutecznych burz mózgów i niekończących się dyskusji? Innymi słowy, jak podejmować dobre decyzje biznesowe?
Dzięki tej książce... more Dobre pomysły nie przychodzą same. Co więcej, droga między dobrym pomysłem a sukcesem koncepcji bywa usiana niepewnością i trudnymi chwilami. Mnożą się wątpliwości. Nie wiadomo, jak zacząć i na czym należy się skupić przede wszystkim. Czy lepiej zaangażować pojedynczą osobę, czy zespół? Jak rozpoznać odpowiednie rozwiązanie? Jak zyskać pewność, że właśnie ten pomysł odniesie sukces w prawdziwym życiu? I jak dowiedzieć się o tym wszystkim szybko — bez nieskutecznych burz mózgów i niekończących się dyskusji? Innymi słowy, jak podejmować dobre decyzje biznesowe?
Dzięki tej książce dowiesz się, czym są i jak przeprowadzać sprinty, aby znaleźć rozwiązania trudnych problemów. Nauczysz się dobierać idealny zespół i zyskasz wiedzę, jak najlepiej wykorzystywać potencjał poszczególnych jego członków, a także jak w praktyczny sposób organizować przebieg sprintu. Zapoznasz się z różnymi metodologiami sprintu. Jeśli masz przed sobą duże szanse, problem czy pomysł, w tej książce znajdziesz mnóstwo pomocnych wskazówek. Każda z przedstawionych metod została wypróbowana, ulepszona i przetestowana przez społeczność sprinterów. Dzięki tej książce świetnie przygotujesz swój pierwszy sprint i znajdziesz rozwiązanie... w pięć dni!
Dowiedz się, jak:
dobrać zespół, miejsce i czas,
ustalić cel i formułować właściwe pytania,
tworzyć mapy i korzystać z wiedzy ekspertów,
wybierać najlepsze rozwiązanie,
utworzyć prototyp i przetestować go,
korzystać z list kontrolnych sprintu.
Pięć dni wystarczy, by rozwiązać problem i znaleźć drogę do sukcesu!
Jake Knapp wdrażał procesy sprintu w Google Ventures. Przeprowadził ponad sto sprintów w takich firmach, jak 23andMe, Slack czy Nest. Wcześniej Jake pracował w Google, a teraz jest jednym z najlepszych projektantów świata.
John Zeratsky projektował aplikacje mobilne. Zanim dołączył do Google Ventures, pracował dla FeedBurner. Knapp często wypowiada się na temat projektowania i produktywności na łamach „Wall Street Journal”, „Fast Company” i „Wired”.
Braden Kowitz założył zespół projektowy Google Ventures. Doradzał blisko dwustu startupom. Brał udział w tworzeniu kilku produktów Google, takich jak Gmail, Google Spreadsheets i Google Trends. less 
Eric RiesA fantastic, proven formula for moving from idea to prototyping to decision making within five days, based on a process he developed while working at Google and later GV. (Source)
Cat Williams-TreloarJake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz "Sprint" - the go-to guide on how to sprint. You may not follow everything to the tee, but it's simple, clean and full of great examples of how to move fast with structure. (Source)
Javed KhatriThis book details the "sprint" process used at Google Ventures. We follow a similar process at Kustard to validate business ideas and to solve problems without wasting much time, money and energy. If you want to quickly validate an idea, this is a proven model and a must read. (Source)
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5
A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one.
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of... more A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one.
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.
His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including
demoting (or firing) a loyal friend;
whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them;
if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company;
how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you;
what to do when smart people are bad employees;
why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one;
whether you should sell your company, and how to do it.
Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures. less Larry PageBen's book is a great read - with uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship and how to lead to a company. It's also an inspiring story of a business rebirth through sheer willpower. (Source)
Mark ZuckerbergBen's experience and expertise make him one of the most important leaders not just in Silicon Valley but also in the global knowledge economy. For anyone interested in building, growing or leading a great company, this book is an incredibly valuable resource - and a funny and insightful read. (Source)
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