Welcome back to The Lens, my newsletter on Product Management and related topics. I am going to keep this edition light. As this is the last edition for 2020, in the spirit of looking back, here are the books I spent time on.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: by Dr. Robert Cialdini. I had come across the accolades about this book almost a decade ago. One of the classics, that I had meant to read for a long time. Subsequently, I came across its references quite far too often, and especially this video which summarizes his book. That coupled with a really boring cover of the book, made me not interested to read it. However, I picked it up this year and as an audiobook. It was an absolute pleasure to listen to the audiobook. I highly recommend this book as one of the books every person whether a marketer, consumer, a parent, or just a shopper should read. I plan to re-read it.
The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (and Why They Don't) - A fascinating short book by Sean D’Souza. It was such a delightful and easy read, but packs so much of marketing insights that I hadn’t come across so clearly in many marketing reads.
Running Lean by Ash Maurya - Part of the lean series, but very practical steps to discover a problem, use the feedback and iterate on building products. I had read Lean Startup a few years ago, but Running Lean was step by step blueprint and I enjoyed reading/listening.
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen - Similar to #2 on the list. Donald Miller is a good storyteller and makes this a very engaging read by drawing parallels to the movies and narratives. I came across a good summary on YouTube.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear A very easy to read, very practical, and full of tactics that can help one build a good habit. I had come across some of these in some contexts, and also have been applying some of the tactics without knowing they had a name (habit stacking), but overall, it is a handy guide with everything in one place.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd: It’s a great little book for anyone new to online marketing in the consumer space. I think during my MBA, I had more exposure to B2B marketing, and what little B2C marketing I learned beyond the concepts, wasn’t online-focused. This book filled that gap.
The Seven Figure Agency Roadmap: How to Build a Million Dollar Digital Marketing Agency: Very similar to #6.
The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future: This is an old book by Chris Guillebeau, and I enjoy reading stories of small businesses.
Build better products: Absolutely fantastic book on Product Management.
Currently reading: Making websites win (you get a free book through that link)
Currently reading: Blue Ocean Strategy
Skimmed:
Getting things done Did not read this classic cover to cover, but skimmed most parts of it. While reading Atomic Habits, I wanted to revisit this book which I had read years ago.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F As this book was always on the best sellers list, I checked it out. Mark is a good writer and I got the gist but didn’t read it all.
Non-fiction and currently listening:
A Promised Land - A book by Obama, is a nice combination of history and suspense amidst of course complex decision making and politics. I often use the President’s soothing voice to fall asleep, and that’s mildly amusing to me for whatever reason.
And at the beginning of the year, I finally completed reading the Harry Potter series. It was long overdue and was my new year resolution for 2020, that I did complete.
What are you reading?
PS:
I spent much more time on Podcasts and Courses, some of which I will recommend along the way.
Links are affiliate links, but they don’t mean much for emails as I recently learned affiliate links aren’t supposed to be sent through emails. It appears Amazon only wants ‘new customers’, and I am not sure if there are any that haven’t heard of or used Amazon, and even if there are, they aren’t on my list.
That’s it for now. See you next year.