Top 9 Product Discovery Books
Product Discovery can limit waste and rework by 50%* Nine books that will teach you everything you need to know.
*According to Marty Cagan, at least half of your product ideas will not work:
„The first truth is that at least half of your ideas are just not going to work (…) good teams assume that at least three quarters of their ideas won’t perform as they hope.” — Marty Cagan, Inspired.
While Agile frameworks focus primarily on Delivering Software and “learning by delivering”, the goal of Product Discovery is discovering what to build. We do it by exploring the problem space and running small experiments in a front-of-funnel to validate ideas in the cheapest and fastest possible way before selecting them for implementation. Product Discovery results in a validated Product Backlog.
7 books that will teach you everything you need to know:
1. Inspired by Marty Cagan
Lessons:
At least half of your ideas are not going to work.
Product Discovery results in a validated product backlog.
PM, Designer, and Engineer must work together. The best ideas often come from engineers.
Tip: This is simply the number one book for all Product Managers.
2. Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
Lessons:
A structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery and opportunity mapping.
It's essential to interview your customers regularly (at least weekly).
3. The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Lessons:
You shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea because she loves you and will lie to you.
The ultimate guide for interviewing your customers.
4. Jobs to be Done by Tony Ulwick
Lessons:
People don't buy products. They "hire" them to do jobs.
How to define and prioritize customer needs.
Tip: Free audiobook is available on Tony Ulwick's website.
5. Sprint by Jake Knapp
Lessons:
Describes a specific Product Discovery technique invented in Google.
How to solve complex problems and test ideas in just 5 days.
Tip: I recommend comparing it with Teresa Torres's approach. In particular, you may want to interview your customers before ideating. In that case, you can interview customers before the Sprint.
6. The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
Lessons:
The complete Lean Product Process - discovering and creating products while minimizing waste and rework.
Customer Discovery, Business Model, Value Proposition, MVP, Product-Market Fit, Prototypes, UX, Key Metrics, and more.
Tip: I could recommend The Lean Startup, but this book is, in my opinion, much more comprehensive.
7. Testing Business Ideas by Alexander Osterwalder and David Bland
Lessons:
Start from an idea, then use the design loop to improve it.
Use discovery experiments to examine your assumptions.
Dozens of tools and techniques anyone can easily apply.
8. Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke
Lessons:
Select only one OKR. Their goal is to create focus on what's not urgent yet critical for the long-term growth of the business (strategy).
Do not incentivize OKRs.
Tip: OKRs work perfectly with the Opportunity Solution Tree as defined by Teresa Torres. Your business outcome can be expressed as OKR.
9. Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri
Lessons:
Why organizations cultivate a feature-factory mindset and how to change it.
Focus on outcomes, not outputs.
How to avoid the Product Death Cycle trap.