PML Team Wrap: 6 Book Highlights in 2020 and 6 Books We Plan on Reading in 2021
2020 has been the year where we - the PML team - have read the most books ever. In this special collection, each PML team member wraps up 2020 by sharing their favorite book of this year with you. In the second part, we give you an outlook on what each one of us is planning to read first in 2021. 2021 will be big year for PM Library. Stay tuned - we will launch our new platform in the beginning of the year. This is also a perfect opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you all so much for your support! Josh, Fadeelah, Shane, Steffi, Alex and Lena
Seeing What Others Don't
Why read?
Insights – like Darwin’s understanding of the way evolution actually works, and Watson and Crick’s breakthrough discoveries about the structure of DNA – can change the world. We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed – or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don’t, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery
304 pages, 2015
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Why read?
This book clears out the mumbo jumbo and muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world
322 pages, 2017
Liminal Thinking
Why read?
Why do some people succeed at change while others fail? It’s the way they think! Liminal thinking is a way to create change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs. What beliefs are stopping you right now? You have a choice. You can create the world you want to live in, or live in a world created by others. If you are ready to start making changes, read this book.
184 pages, 2016
Radical Candor
Why read?
Radical Candor has been embraced around the world by leaders of every stripe at companies of all sizes. Now a cultural touchstone, the concept has come to be applied to a wide range of human relationships. The idea is simple: You don’t have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor―avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy―you can be kind and clear at the same time. Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership and co-founded the Radical Candor executive education company, which helps companies put the book’s philosophy into practice.
272 pages, 2017
Obviously Awesome
Why read?
Talking about positioning sounds soooooo 90’s, but this doesn’t mean it’s less important today than it was back then. There’s a lot of confusion around the term. Isn’t positioning a product all about being there in the perfect moment at the perfect time? Short answer: no.
April Dunford in her Obviously Awesome shows us that what we need is to follow a 10 step process and put the outcomes of this into practice in order to achieve a suitable product-market fit. On her website you can also find a handful of templates to help you do that.
204 pages, 2019
The Future We Choose
Why read?
In The Future We Choose, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac - who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015 - have written a cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity. The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a carbon neutral, regenerative world. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us what governments, corporations, and each of us can and must do to fend off disaster.
219 pages, 2020
The Soul of A New Machine
Why read?
Tracy Kidder’s “riveting” (Washington Post) story of one company’s efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has become essential reading for understanding the history of the American tech industry. Computers have changed since 1981, when The Soul of a New Machine first examined the culture of the computer revolution. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century.
320 pages, 2000
The Pyramid Principle
Why read?
How many times have you written an email at work, read it back and found that it didn’t make as much sense as you’d hoped? or worse, someone else has told you that they can’t follow it. The Pyramid Principle will show you how to communicate your ideas clearly and succinctly.
192 pages, 2009
Traction
Why read?
Most startups don’t fail because they can’t build a product. Most startups fail because they can’t get traction. Building a successful company is hard. Smart entrepreneurs know that the key to success isn’t the originality of your offering, the brilliance of your team, or how much money you raise. It’s how consistently you can grow and acquire new customers. Traction will teach you the nineteen channels you can use to build a customer base, and offers a three-step framework to figure out which ones will work best for your business
240 pages, 2015
Empowered
Why read?
What is it about the top tech product companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and Tesla that enables their record of consistent innovation? Most people think it’s because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products. As legendary Silicon Valley coach - and coach to the founders of several of today’s leading tech companies - Bill Campbell said, “Leadership is about recognizing that there’s a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge.”
432 pages, 2020
Strong
Why read?
Are you a product leader looking for advice on how to be certain that every product manager on your team lives up to their full potential? Do you want to make sure your product people are competent, empowered, and inspired, and would you like to know how you can best help them on this journey? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this book is for you! By the end of this book, you will understand: • Why you need to focus on the personal development of every product manager—and of the team as a whole—to unlock their full potential. • Why coaching is an important part of your job, and how to do it in the most effective way. • How you can define what a good product manager looks like. • How you can accurately assess product managers and provide them with valuable, actionable, and helpful feedback on their current performance that will help them perform even better. • Which methods/frameworks you can use to make sure product managers learn what they need to know to be more effective—enhancing their people skills. And you will be able to: • Reflect on your own coaching personality and define your own areas for development. • Efficiently prepare and use one-on-ones as your main coaching tool.
392 pages, 2020
Think Like a Rocket Scientist
Why read?
In this accessible and practical book, Ozan Varol reveals nine simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life - whether it’s landing your dream job, accelerating your business, learning a new skill, or creating the next breakthrough product. Today, thinking like a rocket scientist is a necessity. We all encounter complex and unfamiliar problems in our lives. Those who can tackle these problems – without clear guidelines and with the clock ticking - enjoy an extraordinary advantage.
Think Like a Rocket Scientist will inspire you to take your own moonshot and enable you to achieve liftoff.
368 pages, 2020