An essential book that unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides readers with a toolkit for building a cohesive, innovative culture, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code

    Step-by-step strategy of how to successfully organize sales, marketing and business development for a new product or company. The book offers insight into what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture. Packed with concrete examples, the book will leave you with new skills to organize sales, marketing and your business for success.

    Creating high-quality software for the enterprise involves a much different set of challenges. In this practical book, two expert product managers provide straightforward guidance for people looking to join the thriving enterprise market.Authors Blair Reeves and Benjamin Gaines explain critical differences between enterprise and consumer products, and deliver strategies for overcoming challenges when building for the enterprise. You'll learn how to cultivate knowledge of your organization, the products you build, and the industry you serve.Explore why:Identifying customer vs user problems is an enterprise project manager's main challengeEffective collaboration requires in-depth knowledge of the organizationAnalyzing data is key to understanding why users buy and retain your productHaving experience in the industry you're building products for is valuableProduct longevity depends on knowing where the industry is headed

    The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities.This book introduces the idea of design thinking‚ the collaborative process by which the designer′s sensibilities and methods are employed to match people′s needs not only with what is technically feasible and a viable business strategy. In short‚ design thinking converts need into demand. It′s a human−centered approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and more creative.Design thinking is not just applicable to so−called creative industries or people who work in the design field. It′s a methodology that has been used by organizations such as Kaiser Permanente to icnrease the quality of patient care by re−examining the ways that their nurses manage shift change‚ or Kraft to rethink supply chain management. This is not a book by designers for designers; this is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization‚ product‚ or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.

    It shows you how to use the Value Proposition Canvas, a practical business tool to design, test, create, and manage products and services customers want. It compliments and perfectly integrates with the Business Model Canvasfrom "Business Model Generation" so you can succeed with great value propositions embedded in scalable and profitable business models.Practical exercises, process illustrations, and workshop suggestions help you immediately apply the tools in the book to your daily work. The book includes an online access to Strategyzer.com to complete and assess exercises interactively, learn from peers, and download pdfs, checklists, and more.You'll love "Value Proposition Design" if you've been overwhelmed by the task of true customer value creation, frustrated by unproductive product meetings and misaligned teams, involved in bold shiny projects that blew up, or simply disappointed by the failure of a good idea."Value Proposition Design" will help you successfully understand the patterns of value creation, leverage the experience and skills of your team, avoid wasting time with ideas that won't work, and guide you through the design and test of products and services that customers want.

    Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't is the first major revision of this business classic. In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. This book is written so everyone -- from frontline employees to senior executives -- can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. There's no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully -- many to $1 billion and beyond. Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride.

    Find out how the Swedish police combined XP, Scrum, and Kanban in a 60-person project. From start to finish, you'll see how to deliver a successful product using Lean principles. We start with an organization in desperate need of a new way of doing things and finish with a group of sixty, all working in sync to develop a scalable, complex system. You'll walk through the project step by step, from customer engagement, to the daily "cocktail party," version control, bug tracking, and release. In this honest look at what works--and what doesn't--you'll find out how to: Make quality everyone's business, not just the testers. Keep everyone moving in the same direction without micromanagement. Use simple and powerful metrics to aid in planning and process improvement. Balance between low-level feature focus and high-level system focus. You'll be ready to jump into the trenches and streamline your own development process.ContentsForewordPrefacePART I: HOW WE WORK1. About the Project1.1 Timeline 51.2 How We Sliced the Elephant 61.3 How We Involved the Customer 72. Structuring the Teams3. Attending the Daily Cocktail Party3.1 First Tier: Feature Team Daily Stand-up3.2 Second Tier: Sync Meetings per Specialty3.3 Third Tier: Project Sync Meeting4. The Project Board4.1 Our Cadences4.2 How We Handle Urgent Issues and Impediments5. Scaling the Kanban Boards6. Tracking the High-Level Goal7. Defining Ready and Done7.1 Ready for Development7.2 Ready for System Test7.3 How This Improved Collaboration 8. Handling Tech Stories8.1 Example 1: System Test Bottleneck8.2 Example 2: Day Before the Release8.3 Example 3: The 7-Meter Class9. Handling Bugs9.1 Continuous System Test9.2 Fix the Bugs Immediately9.3 Why We Limit the Number of Bugs in the Bug Tracker9.4 Visualizing Bugs9.5 Preventing Recurring Bugs10. Continuously Improving the Process10.1 Team Retrospectives10.2 Process Improvement Workshops10.3 Managing the Rate of Change11. Managing Work in Progress11.1 Using WIP Limits11.2 Why WIP Limits Apply Only to Features12. Capturing and Using Process Metrics12.1 Velocity (Features per Week)12.2 Why We Don’t Use Story Points12.3 Cycle Time (Weeks per Feature)12.4 Cumulative Flow12.5 Process Cycle Efficiency13. Planning the Sprint and Release13.1 Backlog Grooming13.2 Selecting the Top Ten Features13.3 Why We Moved Backlog Grooming Out of the Sprint Planning Meeting13.4 Planning the Release14. How We Do Version Control14.1 No Junk on the Trunk14.2 Team Branches14.3 System Test Branch15. Why We Use Only Physical Kanban Boards16. What We Learned16.1 Know Your Goal16.2 Experiment16.3 Embrace Failure16.4 Solve Real Problems16.5 Have Dedicated Change Agents16.6 Involve PeoplePART II: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TECHNIQUES 17. Agile and Lean in a Nutshell17.1 Agile in a Nutshell17.2 Lean in a Nutshell17.3 Scrum in a Nutshell17.4 XP in a Nutshell17.5 Kanban in a Nutshell18. Reducing the Test Automation Backlog18.1 What to Do About It18.2 How to Improve Test Coverage a Little Bit Each Iteration18.3 Step 1: List Your Test Cases18.4 Step 2: Classify Each Test18.5 Step 3: Sort the List in Priority Order18.6 Step 4: Automate a Few Tests Each Iteration18.7 Does This Solve the Problem?19. Sizing the Backlog with Planning Poker19.1 Estimating Without Planning Poker19.2 Estimating with Planning Poker19.3 Special Cards20. Cause-Effect Diagrams20.1 Solve Problems, Not Symptoms20.2 The Lean Problem-Solving Approach: A3 Thinking20.3 How to Use Cause-Effect Diagrams20.4 Example 1: Long Release Cycle20.5 Example 2: Defects Released to Production20.6 Example 3: Lack of Pair Programming20.7 Example 4: Lots of Problems20.8 Practical Issues: How to Create and Maintain the Diagrams20.9 Pitfalls20.10 Why Use Cause-Effect Diagrams?21. Final WordsA1. Glossary: How We Avoid Buzzword BingoIndex

    At under 200 pages it's quick reading too. Makes a great airplane book.

    But creating an environment for creative thinking and innovation can be a daunting challenge. How can you make it happen at your company? The answer may surprise you: gamestorming.This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. The authors have identified tools and techniques from some of the world's most innovative professionals, whose teams collaborate and make great things happen. This book is the result: a unique collection of games that encourage engagement and creativity while bringing more structure and clarity to the workplace. Find out why -- and how -- with Gamestorming.Overcome conflict and increase engagement with team-oriented gamesImprove collaboration and communication in cross-disciplinary teams with visual-thinking techniquesImprove understanding by role-playing customer and user experiencesGenerate better ideas and more of them, faster than ever beforeShorten meetings and make them more productiveSimulate and explore complex systems, interactions, and dynamicsIdentify a problem's root cause, and find the paths that point toward a solution

    Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

    It's possible to see the results of great management, but it's not easy to see how managers achieve those results. Great management happens in one-on-one meetings and with other managers---all in private. It's hard to learn management by example when you can't see it.You can learn to be a better manager---even a great manager---with this guide. You'll follow along as Sam, a manager just brought on board, learns the ropes and deals with his new team over the course of his first eight weeks on the job. From scheduling and managing resources to helping team members grow and prosper, you'll be there as Sam makes it happen. You'll find powerful tips covering:Delegating effectively Using feedback and goal-setting Developing influence Handling one-on-one meetings Coaching and mentoring Deciding what work to do---and what not to do ...and more. Full of tips and practical advice on the most important aspects of management, this is one of those books that can make a lasting and immediate impact on your career.

    

    This practical book demonstrates how entire organizations—from product managers and engineers to marketers and executives—can put Agile to work. Author Matt LeMay explains Agile in clear, jargon-free terms and provides concrete and actionable steps to help any team put its values and principles into practice. Examples from a wide variety of organizations, including small nonprofits and global financial enterprises, bring to life the on-the-ground realities of Agile across industries and functions. Understand exactly what Agile is and why it matters Use Agile to address your organization’s specific needs and goals Take customer centricity from theory into practice Stop wasting time in "report and critique" meetings and start making better decisions Create a harmonious cycle of learning, collaborating, and delivering Learn from Agile experts at companies like IBM, Spotify, and Coca-Cola

    It is written in a conversational tone, doesn't take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff."- Eric Ries, Author & Creator of the Lean Startup methodology"Get the CustDev book to dive deep into customer interviews and understand how your product can be developed to meet your customers' needs."- Dan Martell, Founder of Flowtown, angel investorCustomer Development is a four-step framework for helping startups discover and validate their customers, product, and go-to-market strategy, developed by Steve Blank and an integral part of Eric Ries' Lean Startup methodology. Focused on the Customer Discovery step, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development is an easy to follow guide for finding early adopters, building a Minimum Viable Product, finding Product-Market fit, and establishing a sales and marketing roadmap.Deemed a "must-read" by Steve Blank and Eric Ries, inside you will find detailed customer development and lean startup concept definitions, a step-by-step approach to best practices, a business model analysis guide, case studies, rich graphics, as well as worksheets and exercises. No matter the stage of your business, you will return often to this guide to learn how to build a product people want;"get out of the building;" foster strong customer relationships; test business model risk; reach out to early adopters; conduct startup marketing; create a customer funnel based on buyers' process; and prepare your startup to scale up.The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A Cheat Sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany, affectionately known as the "CustDev book," serves as course text for classes at Stanford University, University of Chicago, Boston University, DePaul University, University of Minnesota and University of Norway."Our UCL (University College London) students love The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development. Thanks to Brant & Patrick for writing this helpful book. "- Dave Chapman, Deputy Head of the Department of Management Science and Innovation at UCL (University College London)"Love it! Required reading for all NYU entrepreneurs."- Frank Rimalovski, Managing Director of NYU Innovation Venture FundThis book is both an introduction for those unfamiliar with lean concepts and highly actionable for lean practitioners. It is a user friendly guide, written to be accessible to marketing professionals, Engineers startup founders and entrepreneurs, VCs, angels, and anyone else involved in building scalable startups.Existing companies will benefit to from applying Customer Development principles described in detail herein: for example, startups struggling to achieve market traction, or well established companies seeking to spark new innovation.This is a business book for startups like no other. No fluff, but rather sound principles and concrete steps to take to build your business. Get up to speed on Customer Development now.

    In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.Leaders at Google for over a decade, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle experienced firsthand how the man fondly known as Coach Bill built trusting relationships, fostered personal growth—even in those at the pinnacle of their careers—inspired courage, and identified and resolved simmering tensions that inevitably arise in fast-moving environments. To honor their mentor and inspire and teach future generations, they have codified his wisdom in this essential guide.Based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell, Trillion Dollar Coach explains the Coach’s principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked. The result is a blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create higher performing and faster moving cultures, teams, and companies.