Impactful Product Books from 2019
The top 3 books that helped me plan my career and change my perspective on product design and management.

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
This year I was thinking that would be the next goal in my career: growing as a UX designer, become a design manager or transition to PM position. The Making of a Manager helped me make the decision.
This book is practical and easy to read guide. You can consult it anytime you need advice; It covers important parts of a job:
– who is a manager, what’s their purpose
– is management for you
– how to survive your first months as a manager
– how to give feedback / ask for feedback
– how to hire and fire people
– how to do meetings right
– and how to create a culture
I’d recommend this book to all aspiring and new managers.

Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters by Ryan Singer
This book might be interesting to people who are in a “broken” agile environment and would want to see working alternatives: six-week development cycles, no backlog clutter, remote collaboration, no micromanagement.
Ryan Singer describes the product development process at Basecamp: starting with concept od shaping requirements, setting the appetite, writing a pitch, betting on the shaped ideas and implementing them.
I’d recommend this book to people who’s job is a combination of product management, strategy and design, especially in B2B.

Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value by Melissa Perri
On an example of a fictional company Marquetly, Melissa Perri describes the main issues product teams face.
I’d recommend this book to product people who are in the position when they focus more on shipping features rather than on problems and opportunities.
The next 5 books focus on specific areas of the product building process: design systems, AI, workshop planning, mentoring and team building.

Machine Learning for Designers by Patrick Hebron
The book has two logical parts:
1. ML fundamentals (It doesn’t have many examples or design-related content).
2. Design principles and emerging best practices.
Even though it focuses more on conversational ML and chats, the principles of the book can be applied anywhere. I appreciate the chapter about prototyping the most.
I’d recommend this book to designers and PM who are starting to work with AI.

Design Systems: A practical guide to creating design languages for digital products by Alla Kholmatova
I’d recommend this book to designers who haven’t started to build their own library or just at the beginning. It has a lot of useful theory and some practical tips on building the library and less on maintaining and improving.

Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions by Bella Martin, Bruce M. Hanington
This book is a collection of methods. You may find them all on the internet or some of them you know already. The biggest benefit of the book is its navigation. The methods are classified by the design phase, purpose, quality vs quantity, communication with participants, outcomes.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who needs to prepare for a workshop, brainstorming session or stuck in a design process and need a new perspective.

Build Better Products by Laura Klein
Every chapter covers one step in the design process and includes:
– a goal (for example, do better research)
– theory
– exercises to achieve the goal.
I’d recommend this book to new designers, product managers, or anyone who is involved in building a product.
Experienced designers might find new methodologies or learn how to explain design fundamentals in an engaging and practical way.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
The book reads like a fiction or a modern-day business fairytale. I flew through it in a couple of sittings it was so engrossing.
5 dysfunctions are described through the story of a made-up startup and it’s management.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s managing a team or who isn’t satisfied with their teamwork and looking for ways to improve the way they collaborate.


