I'm often asked which books—besides The PRFAQ Framework—I recommend for founders, product leaders, or executives. I've read hundreds of books over the years. Given a topic, I can tell which book to read and what to watch out for—in terms of what the book might have got wrong.
The list below is an elaboration of a response to someone who asked me to recommend them a book.
I divided these books into three sections: product strategy, innovation, and product discovery. If you are the type of person who likes to learn from a foundation’s perspective, I recommend you read them top-to-bottom. If you are the person who prefers to learn by doing, I recommend you read them bottom to the top.
Product Strategy
#1 Good Strategy / Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
Rumelt's book has influenced countless other books and the teaching of strategy itself. It presents strategy through a clear lens, and it provides nuggets of wisdom throughout. It dispels many assumptions that people make about what is and what isn't strategy.
My critique: I'm not a fan of war, sports, or government policy strategy as analogies for business or product strategy. I don't think they translate well and this book is full of it.
#2 Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin
This book nails the idea of strategy as a series of choices. More importantly, it speaks about integrated choices. That fits incredibly well with the PRFAQ Framework and the idea of creating coherent narratives.
My critique: This book has a big company / academic vibe to it. It might feel a tad too detached from the realities of many product strategy decisions, particularly in startups.
#3 The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
This is a surprise appearance here because Dan's book is not about product strategy per se. However, it does a superb job of integrating the elements of building a tech product, including strategy. This is the book I recommend the most to early-career product managers—so they learn the basics—and to senior product managers, so they connect the dots of what they know already and fill some gaps.
My critique: I don't have any major concerns about this book, except that it doesn't go deep enough into many topics and it doesn't have any mention of PRFAQ.
Innovation
#4 Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
This book, more than any other book, has kept my “innovation brain” going over the years. Johnson provides insightful views on how great ideas come to life. It presents simple to understand, yet powerful concepts such as adjacent possible, slow hunches, and serendipitous collisions.
My critique: The book is light on advice or frameworks for people to apply the observations into their work.
#5 The Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen
Although Tony Ulwick came up with the concept of Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) and Outcome-Driven Innovation, Christensen create an approachable language and system for people to think about their innovation.
My critique: It's also a book that's a tad academic and big company oriented.
#6 Testing Business Ideas by David J. Bland & Alex Osterwalder
The scientist Linus Pauling once said, “the best way to have a good is to have a lot of ideas”—which goes hand-in-hand with Where Good Ideas Come From. David provides a system to validate business and product ideas quickly.
My critique: It's easier said than done, and people might focus too much on the output and forget the outcome goals.
Product Discovery
#7 The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
This is the book I recommend the most to founders. Rob presents an easy to use system to interview customers through better questions. The biggest problem with customer interviews is that we inject our bias into the question and when hearing the answer. This book helps you reduce that problem.
My critique: I don't have any major critique of this book because it doesn't promise anything that's not. However, remember that listening to customers is not as powerful as observing them in the “wild” and what people say can be wildly divergent from what they think, feel, and do.
#8 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Eric's book changed how startups (and products) get built forever. Terms like Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Pivot, or Build-Measure-Learn loop came from that book. The value of the book comes from thinking of startups and new products as experiments that need iteration and validation until they work (i.e., it meets the needs of the customers).
My critique: There are some issues with the book and many people have criticized one part or another. In the PRFAQ Framework, I expand on what I consider being an important problem with the Build-Measure-Learn loop—spoiler: it's a costly approach in practice.
#9 Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
The book by Teresa offers a super practical approach not only to discover customer problems, needs, and desires, but it also guides you how to make it part of our product lifecycle hygiene.
My critique: It's a brilliant book, but it's primarily focused on the tactical aspects of discovery without a strong strategy discovery base to back it up.
Honorable mentions
It's really hard to distill so many great books into a list of nine (I have a bigger list). If you read those and are looking for more, I strongly recommend the following as well: Empowered and Inspired by Marty Cagan, What Customers Want by Tony Ulwick, Sprint by Jake Knapp, Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Peri.