Testing Business Ideas


David J. Bland - 2019
    Testing Business Ideas aims to reverse that statistic. In the tradition of Alex Osterwalder's global bestseller Business Model Generation, this practical guide contains a library of hands-on techniques for rapidly testing new business ideas.Testing Business Ideas explains how systematically testing business ideas dramatically reduces the risk and increases the likelihood of success for any new venture or business project. It builds on the internationally popular Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas by integrating Assumptions Mapping and other powerful lean startup-style experiments.Testing Business Ideas uses an engaging 4-color format to:Increase the success of any venture and decrease the risk of wasting time, money, and resources on bad ideas Close the knowledge gap between strategy and experimentation/validation Identify and test your key business assumptions with the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas A definitive field guide to business model testing, this book features practical tips for making major decisions that are not based on intuition and guesses. Testing Business Ideas shows leaders how to encourage an experimentation mindset within their organization and make experimentation a continuous, repeatable process.

The User's Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love


Donna Lichaw - 2016
    The User’s Journey will show you how, when, and why to use narrative structure, technique, and principles to ideate, craft, and test a cohesive vision for an engaging outcome. See how a “story first” approach can transform your product, feature, landing page, flow, campaign, content, or product strategy.

Creative People Must Be Stopped: 6 Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying)


David A. Owens - 2011
    It shows that the antidote to this self-defeating behavior is to identify which of the six major types of constraints are hindering innovation: individual, group, organizational, industry-wide, societal, or technological. Once innovators and other leaders understand exactly which constraints are working against them and how to overcome them, they can create conditions that foster innovation instead of stopping it in its tracks.The author's model of constraints on innovation integrates insights from the vast literature on innovation with his own observations of hundreds of organizations. The book is filled with assessments, tools, and real-world examples.The author's research has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Guardian and San Jose Mercury News, as well as on Fox News and on NPR's MarketplaceIncludes illustrative examples from leading organizations Offers a practical guide for bringing new ideas to fruition even within a previously rigid organizational culture This book gives people in organizations the conceptual framework and practical information they need to innovate successfully.

Strategic Writing for UX: Drive Engagement, Conversion, and Retention with Every Word


Torrey Podmajersky - 2019
    But how do you choose the right words? And how do you know if they work? With this practical book, you'll learn how to write strategically for UX, using tools to build foundational pieces for UI text and UX voice strategy.UX content strategist Torrey Podmajersky provides strategies for converting, engaging, supporting, and re-attracting users. You'll use frameworks and patterns for content, methods to measure the content's effectiveness, and processes to create the collaboration necessary for success. You'll also structure your voice throughout so that the brand is easily recognizable to its audience.Learn how UX content works with the software development lifecycleUse a framework to align the UX content with product principlesExplore content-first design to root UX text in conversationLearn how UX text patterns work with different voicesProduce text that's purposeful, concise, conversational, and clear

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products


Nir Eyal - 2013
    Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.Eyal provides readers with:• Practical insights to create user habits that stick.• Actionable steps for building products people love.• Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

Competing Against Luck


Clayton M. Christensen - 2016
    A generation ago, Christensen revolutionized business with his groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation. Now, he goes further, offering powerful new insights.After years of research, Christensen has come to one critical conclusion: our long held maxim—that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation—is wrong. Customers don’t buy products or services; they "hire" them to do a job. Understanding customers does not drive innovation success, he argues. Understanding customer jobs does. The "Jobs to Be Done" approach can be seen in some of the world’s most respected companies and fast-growing startups, including Amazon, Intuit, Uber, Airbnb, and Chobani yogurt, to name just a few. But this book is not about celebrating these successes—it’s about predicting new ones.Christensen contends that by understanding what causes customers to "hire" a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they’ll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts.This book carefully lays down Christensen’s provocative framework, providing a comprehensive explanation of the theory and why it is predictive, how to use it in the real world—and, most importantly, how not to squander the insights it provides.

Prioritizing Web Usability


Jakob Nielsen - 2006
    Many applauded. A few jeered. But everyone listened. The best-selling usability guru is back and has revisited his classic guide, joined forces with Web usability consultant Hoa Loranger, and created an updated companion book that covers the essential changes to the Web and usability today. "Prioritizing Web Usability" is the guide for anyone who wants to take their Web site(s) to next level and make usability a priority! Through the authors' wisdom, experience, and hundreds of real-world user tests and contemporary Web site critiques, you'll learn about site design, user experience and usability testing, navigation and search capabilities, old guidelines and prioritizing usability issues, page design and layout, content design, and more!

Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business


Harley Manning - 2012
    Customer experience is, quite simply, how your customers perceive their every interaction with your company. It’s a fundamental business driver. Here’s proof: over a recent five-year period during which the S&P 500 was flat, a stock portfolio of customer experience leaders grew twenty-two percent. In an age when customers have access to vast amounts of data about your company and its competitors, customer experience is the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. But how to excel at it? Based on fourteen years of research by the customer experience leaders at Forrester Research, Outside In offers a complete roadmap to attaining the experience advantage. It starts with the concept of the Customer Experience Ecosystem—proof that the roots of customer experience problems lie not just with customer-facing employees like your sales staff, but with behind-the-scenes employees like accountants, lawyers, and programmers, as well as the policies, processes, and technologies that all your employees use every day. Identifying and solving these problems has the potential to dramatically increase sales and decrease costs.

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses


Jesse Schell - 2008
    The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses—one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer—and will understand how to do it.

The Design Method: A Philosophy and Process for Functional Visual Communication


Eric Karjaluoto - 2013
    It’s not a lofty book. It’s an affordable resource that feels like a sit-down with someone who has real answers to share.

Pencil Me in: The Business Drawing Book for People Who Can't Draw


Christina WodtkeSunni Brown - 2017
    There’s no faster, cheaper prototype in the world than a sketch on a sheet of paper. What’s unclear in words is suddenly crystal clear in a sketch, and you—and your team—can tackle problems in entirely new ways. Play around with ideas. Document your process. Think on paper. Visual thinking brings a whole new power to work.Think you can’t draw? Don’t worry! The simplest sketches are the most effective at communication and problem solving, so you can begin drawing in less time than your average coffee break. Pictures and visual communication harken back to the stone age for good reason--they’re natural, they’re quick, and they work. And they’ll work for you.If you’re looking for the next tool to help you solve your hardest (and most interesting) challenges at work, try a paper and pencil. This book teaches you how to use them well--and have a bit of fun along the way.With contributions from Amelie Sarrazin, Aleksandra Micek, Taylor Reese, Dan Brown, Daniel Cook, Kate Rutter, Eva-Lotta Lamm, Matthew Magain, Sunni Brown, Cristina Negrut, Daryl Meier Fahrni, Marc Bourguignon, Laura Klein, David Gray, Melissa Kim, Mike Rohde, Brian Gulassa, Andrew Reid, Rolf Faste, Raph Koster, Stone Librande, Robin Hunicke, Alicia Loring, Erin Malone, Stephen P. Anderson, Giorgia Lupi, Alex Osterwalder, Noelle Stransky, James Young, and Dan Roam.

Digital Adaptation


Paul Boag - 2014
    That's why we created Digital Adaptation, a new practical book on how to help senior management understand the Web and adapt the business, culture, teams and workflows accordingly. No fluff, no theory — just techniques and strategies that worked in practice, and showed results. The book will help traditional businesses and organizations to overcome their legacy, and help you plant the seeds of change with very little power. If you do want to finally see changes happening, this is the book to grab. Written by Paul Boag. Designed by Veerle Pieters. 176 pages. YOU'LL LEARN TO: • Tackle bureaucracy and overcome legacy culture, • Develop a flexible and effective digital strategy, • Use responsibility matrix to minimize delays and costs, • Adopt a digital culture and become digital by default, • Apply techniques from mid-sized and large organizations, • Avoid toxic working practices and improve internal processes, • Organize teams and boost their efficiency, • Embrace social media and use them effectively, • Understand the value of a digital team and invest in them, • Break down the walls and nourish collaboration, ownership and innovation.

The Five Dysfunctions of a team Summarized for Busy People


Patrick Lencioni - 2014
    This summary explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics and team failure.

The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth


David Silverstein - 2008
    It presents fundamental tools and concepts for innovation and includes methods and strategies for improving products and service or creating new ones. You'll master a four-step innovation methodology that takes you through problem identification, into ideal generation, to idea selection, and finally implementation. This one-of-a-kind guide presents an effective plan for achieving constant innovation for business success.

Pricing Design


Dan Mall - 2016
    Dan Mall explains how to earn more, by understanding what goes into a price (and why hourly rates don’t work) and what your clients really want—and are willing to pay for. Learn the right questions to ask and when, and ways to turn client requirements into numbers, with a real-world example from Dan’s agency. Whether you’re running a shop or going solo, this is a book you can’t afford to miss.