Top 5 Product Discovery Books
Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to read. I’m always trying to learn. If you ever have a call with me you will see the big bookshelf (with an orange back) behind me; no it’s not a virtual background it is real. I’ve read (or listened to) every book on that shelf. They range from some technical books from early in my career through the textbooks from my MBA, facilitation, visualisation, general business, product management and product discovery. This subject has it’s own section because it is so foundational to modern product management.
In this post I wanted to share with you my top 5, plus some bonuses, books on the subject.
#1 - Sense and Respond
This is my absolute favourite book on discovery. It is not as practical as some of the others but sets the right mindset of focusing on understanding what customers really want and need to create value.
If a product manager only has time to read one book, then this one is it for me, controversially over even Inspired that many recommend.
#2 - Continuous Discovery Habits
By Teresa Torres, one of the leading voices in the discovery space. This is the book that introduces the Opportunity Solution Tree, one of my favourite tools for making visible the opportunities that drive towards your desired outcome. It helps you figure out the solutions that you could create to fulfil those opportunities and the experiments you would need to do to validate if they deliver or not. It is super powerful.
The book goes much further, but you will only get a real appreciation by reading it and putting it into practice.
#3 - The Mom Test
An old one but a great one. The Mom Test was the first book by Rob Fitzpatrick. It was targeted at founders and entrepreneurs and how they talk to their customers to get more reliable answers. I was lucky enough to get a free copy of the first edition from the man himself at the first Leanconf in Manchester, where he launched it.
Even though it is aimed at founders, it is perfect advice for product people who need to talk to customers and get insights. It’s a short read, so grab yourself a copy, and you will improve your interview technique in short order.
#4 - Testing Business Ideas
This is the source of experiments that you can use to validate (or invalidate) business or product ideas. It’s written in a compendium style, full of lots of different types of experiments. It takes you through the design, setup, experiments and mindset you need. There are 44 different experiments, augmented with information about when they are useful. It also suggests what experiments to combine or sequence with each other to create stronger and stronger evidence.
This is a reference everyone doing discovery should dip into regularly so that they don’t fall into the rut of always using the same approach even if it doesn’t suit the situation.
#5 - The Startup Way
A less obvious choice is the sequel to the Lean Startup. I actually prefer this book to the original as it is much more oriented towards working on things that are a little more mature. It uses case studies from companies like Intuit, which most product people will immediately be able to relate to.
The bit you might miss if you are not careful is the appendix at the back. It provides an amazing compendium of experiments that you can run to do discovery. Make sure you read all the way to the back!
BONUS - Holistic Product Discovery
This one has just come out, but I haven’t managed to get hold of a copy of it yet (last I checked it’s only on Amazon.com and some Swedish sites). I know the authors, though. They are ex-Spotify. And they are great product coaches. So I am confident it will be full of great options, concepts and approaches!
UPDATE: Check out the review here.
FREE OPTION - The Real Startup Book
Another compendium of experiments you can run. The difference is that this one is free. Trista Kromer and 51 other contributors compiled it. Tristan is an awesome Lean expert from California. He and his team, are people I listen to, and before David Bland’s book came out, this was my go-to source of experiments. So if the budget is tight, this one can still help, although I would pay for its contents happily!
