An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management


Will Larson - 2019
    Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions of complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams, and, ultimately, the success or failure of companies. Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management--from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning--and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Will Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management that leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes can apply. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype


Jay Baer - 2013
    You're not competing for attention only against other similar products. You're competing against your customers' friends and family and viral videos and cute puppies. To win attention these days you must ask a different question: "How can we help?"Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new approach that cuts through the clut­ter: marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.

Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service


Walt Disney Company - 2001
    Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

On Becoming a Leader


Warren Bennis - 1989
    Today's environment is similarly chaotic, turbulent, and uncertain. On Becoming a Leader has served for nearly fifteen years as a beacon of insight, delving into the qualities that define leadership, the people who exemplify it, and the strategies that anyone can apply to become an effective leader. This new edition features a provocative introduction on the challenges and opportunities facing leaders today, with additional updates and current references throughout.

Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value


Thomas Lockwood - 2009
    This anthology is organized into three sections that focus on the use of design for innovation and brand-building, the emerging role of service design, and the design of meaningful customer experiences. This book provides readers with the strategies necessary to encourage the creative thought process in their companies, which will ultimately help to cultivate innovation, and therefore boost business. Experienced design leaders share their personal stories and give specific examples of their companies’ forward-thinking creations. This unique approach helps the reader learn how to build a solid brand foundation, solve problems with simplified thinking, anticipate and capitalize on trends, figure out what consumers want before they do, and align mission, vision, and strategy with a corporate brand. A sense of the content within Design Thinking can be gained from the titles of some of the key essays: “Building Leadership Brands,” “The Designful Company,” “Brand Building by Service Design,” “Service Design Via the Global Web,” “Customer Loyalty,” and “Driving Brand Loyalty on the Web”.

Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods


Shel Israel - 2009
    On Twitter, word can spread faster than wildfire. Companies no longer have the option of ignoring the conversation. Unlike other hot social media spaces, "Twitterville" is dominated by professionals, not students. And despite its size, it still feels like a small town. Twitter allows people to interact much the way they do face-to-face, honestly and authentically. One minute, you re com- plaining about the weather with local friends, the next, you re talking shop with a colleague based halfway across the globe. No matter where you re from or what you do for a living, you will find conversations on Twitter that are valuable. Despite the millions of people joining the site, you ll quickly find the ones who can make a difference to you. Social media writer Shel Israel shares revealing stories of "Twitterville" residents, from CEOs to the student who became the first to report the devastation of the Szechuan earthquake; from visionaries trying to raise money for a cause to citizen journalists who outshine traditional media companies. Israel introduces you to trailblazers such as: . Frank Eliason, who used Twitter to reverse Comcast s blemished customer service reputation . Bill Fergus, who was on the team at Henry Ford Medical Center during the first live tweeted surgery . Scott Monty, social media officer for Ford, who held off a mob of misinformed Ranger fans and averted a PR crisis . Connie Reece, who used Twitter to raise tens of thousands of dollars for cancer patients in need . The Coffee Groundz, a Houston-area coffee shop that uses Twitter to pack the tables (and fight off Starbucks) "Twitterville" features many true stories as dramatic as these. But it also recounts those of ordinary businesspeople who use Twitter to get closer to their customers. And it explains how global neighborhoods will make geography increasingly irrelevant. It even explains why people sometimes really do care what you had for lunch."

Secrets of Power Negotiating: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator


Roger Dawson - 1988
    Covers every aspect of the negotiating process with practical, proven advice: from beginning steps to critical final moves.

The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager


Product School - 2017
    Think about a company. Engineers build the product. Designers make sure it has a great user experience and looks good. Marketing makes sure customers know about the product. Sales get potential customers to open their wallets to buy the product. What more does a company need? What does a product manager do? Based upon Product School’s curriculum, which has helped thousands of students become great product managers, The Product Book answers that question. Filled with practical advice, best practices, and expert tips, this book is here to help you succeed! Product School offers product management classes taught by real-world product managers, working at renowned tech companies like Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Airbnb, LinkedIn, PayPal, Netflix and more. The classes are designed to fit into your work schedule, and the campuses are conveniently located in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day


Todd Henry - 2013
    But sooner or later all of our tomorrows will run out. Each day that you postpone the hard work and succumb to the clutter that chokes creativity, discipline, and innovation will result in a net deficit to the world, to your company, and to yourself. Die Empty is a tool for individuals and companies that aren't willing to put off their best work. Todd Henry explains the forces that keep people in stagnation and introduces a three-part process for tapping into your passion: Excavate: Find the bedrock of your work to discover what drives you. Cultivate: Learn how to develop the curiosity, humility, and persistence that save you from getting stuck in ruts. Resonate: Learn how your unique brilliance can inspire others. Henry shows how to find and sustain your passion and curiosity, even in tough times.

I Can See You Naked


Ron Hoff - 1988
    In this revised edition of "I Can See You Naked" - a delightful guide to presentations of all kinds - Ron Hoff begins by dismissing the technique. "Never talk to a naked audience," is his advice. It's too distracting. "I Can See You Naked" is the first book on making presentations that doesn't read like a textbook. The first book to sound like a presentation, look like a presentation, and "play" like a presentation. It is, in fact, a funny, irreverent, entertaining, and highly effective presentation on presentations. And it is a publishing success story - the first edition went back to press seven times and sold well over 100,000 copies. It has been a selection of sixteen book clubs. After four years of success, "I Can See You Naked" is now even better. This fearless new edition of the national bestseller on making great presentations has been extensively revised by author Ron Hoff, making it 25 percent larger than the first edition. It features 16 emphatic new chapters, new illustrations by Barrie Maguire, new photographs, new sidebars and panels, new nuggets to treasure, and scores of ideas ready for use in your next presentation. Why a revised edition? Because a lot has happened to presentations in four years. New to this edition are dynamic new chapters including "The Deadly Game" - how to win competitive presentations; Stand or sit? What's a presenter to do?; "How do you create excitement if you're not Madonna, Prince, or Zig Ziglar?"; "Great props don't have to be proper"; How to make a speech in a strange hotel; Questions that often float through the minds of audiences; Ten points to pin to the wall before your next one-on-one and a guide to "relationships" - the hot, new word in making presentations. Packed with insightful case studies, and personal anecdotes, "I Can See You Naked" clearly and succinctly addresses a Ann

The Florence Prescription: From Accountability To Ownership


Joe Tye - 2009
    In helping Memorial Medical Center build a culture of ownership, Carol Jean Hawtrey with the help of Florence Nightingale create a roadmap that every hospital can follow to create a more positive and productive workplace and a build a sustainable source of competitive advantage. In the form of a business parable, the story shows readers why the invisible architecture of core values, corporate culture, and emotional climate is more important than bricks and mortar for creating patient, physician and employee loyalty, and describes eight essential characteristics of a culture of ownership. Dozens of practical strategies for fostering a more positive and productive organization are woven into the story.

Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy


Parth Detroja - 2017
    But have you ever wondered how Google makes billions of dollars while providing search, email, and maps for free? How do they figure out which ads perfectly capture your interests? And how do they search the entire internet so quickly, anyway?By answering real-world questions like this, Swipe to Unlock gives you a peek under the hood of the technology you use every day, decodes technologists' weirdest buzzwords, and shows you how technology is changing the society we live in for better or for worse. Unlock the answers you need to become a better-educated consumer, digital citizen, or technology professional.

Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business


Erik Qualman - 2009
    You've heard the term, even if you don't use the tools. But just how big has social media become? Social media has officially surpassed pornography as the top activity on the Internet. People would rather give up their e-mail than their social network. It is so powerful that it is causing a macro shift in the way we live and conduct business. Socialnomics charts this shift from the forefront.Brands can now be strengthened or destroyed by the use of social media. Online networking sites are being used as giant, free focus groups. Advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than the opinions of their peers. If you aren't using social media in your business strategy, you are already behind your competition.Explores how the concept of "Socialnomics" is changing the way businesses produce, market, and sell, eliminating inefficient marketing and middlemen, and making products easier and cheaper for consumers to obtain Learn how successful businesses are connecting with consumers like never before via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites A must-read for anyone wanting to learn about, and harness the power of social media, rather than be squashed by it Author Erik Qualman is a former online marketer for several Top 100 brands and the current Global Vice President of Online Marketing for the world's largest private education firm Socialnomics is an essential book for anyone who wants to understand the implications of social media, and how businesses can tap the power of social media to increase their sales, cut their marketing costs, and reach consumers directly.

Lateral Thinking


Edward de Bono - 1970
    This works well in simple situations - but we are at a loss when this approach fails. What then?Lateral thinking is all about freeing up your imagination. Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways.Soon you will be looking at problems from a variety of angles and offering up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. You will become much more productive and a formidable thinker in your own right.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future


Chris Guillebeau - 2012
      Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck.  Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.    There are many others like Chris – those who’ve found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful.  Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do.  You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you're sure it's successful.   In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies.  In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.   Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment.  It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such -- and what other people will pay for.  You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees.  All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.   Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick.  Among Chris’s key principles: if you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish – sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins.   In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold.  Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives.  And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs.  This remarkable book will start you on your way.