If you are like me, always on the lookout for book recommendations, I’ve got something for you! I asked each of my guests on Season 1 of Product Leader’s Journey which books they can’t recommend enough to others.
Here are the worthwhile titles that came up. I hope you enjoy these reads!
What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz
“This is my favorite book because it really gets deep into how you build culture.”
– Raj Yavatkar , CTO of Juniper Networks
High Output Management by Andy Grove
“The most important book for any leader, how to build organizations, how to build teams…This is a Bible for anybody who wants to be a good leader.”
– Raj Yavatkar , CTO of Juniper Networks
Dare to Lead Like a Girl by Dalia Feldheim
“What I liked about it is a different concept of how to embrace female traits for leadership and how to empower more women to become a leader and speak their truth, because often we find women trying to assimilate and that book is encouraging don’t try to assimilate…It’s not just for females, it’s really also for the entire leadership…So that’s a book that I definitely recommend.”
– Inbal Shani , CPO Twilio, xCPO GitHub
Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal
“The commander of the special ops was a matrix job, so it was interesting to see the whole point about leading and influencing, about good people helping work structure; also has a lot of great tips and techniques about being a good leader.”
– Don Weinstein , xCPTO ADP
Burn the Boats by Matt Higgins
“The whole premise behind it is the historical reference to burning the boats and how meaningful it is to success. If there’s always a plan B, the path of least resistance is often pursued. If there’s no plan B, the only way forward is through. Then you’re going to go through.”
– Stuart McClure , CEO Qwiet AI, CEO Wethos AI
Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman
“I absolutely loved it. It talks about how do you actually shoot people to the moon…Or how do you create a perpetual mobility, so the perpetual engine, what is the physics behind it? Or how do you confuse the plants to not grow upwards…I think that this book really inspired me in many ways because it fueled my curiosity about the world.”
– Natalia Baryshnikova , GM Atlassian
Where is My Flying Car? by J. Storrs Hall
“I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to think about the future of technology, because he explores why has the scientific progress slowed down since the 70s and what are the limitations of science and how do we, as humans and as who we are are the ultimate limit of science and what we value in science outcomes. It’s very fascinating.”
– Natalia Baryshnikova , GM Atlassian
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
“[Rubin] doesn’t imbue himself in the book at all. It’s really that’s how much you know he takes himself out of the picture. He’s talking about his ideas. It’s one that you can read in snippets…I have found nuggets to be very applicable to a problem I’m dealing with that week. So it’s more of a slow read because it’s sort of reflective.”
– Nadim Hossain , VP of Product Management, Databricks
Trailblazer by Marc Benioff
“It’s a little bit of a memoir but you see how he’s built a purpose-driven company.”
– Rich Fernandez , CEO of SIY Global
Onward by Howard Schultz
“…documenting Starbucks’ journey as a values-based company.”
– Rich Fernandez , CEO of SIY Global
You can listen to my conversations with each of the guests here.
On Product Leadership 