3 books that every Product Owner and UX Designer should absorb to be killing it in 2022

3 books that every Product Owner and UX Designer should absorb to be killing it in 2022

Who has time for books, right? WRONG. Read these 3 books as soon as you can, and use the knowledge they provide to maximize your efficiency for the next year:

  1. The Mom Test, to know how make sure there actually is a customer need
  2. Lean UX, to known how to build for that need
  3. Articulating Design Decisions, to know how to build it the right way

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Why “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick

The Mom Test will teach you how to truly validate your ideas; you’ll learn how to find your customers, how to talk to them, what to talk to them about and what to get out of those conversations.?

It’s a no-nonsense book that can be read in less than 3 hours even if you do end up highlighting paragraphs on every other page.

Screenshot of The Mom Test from ReadingTime iOS app,  or “how I managed to stretch a 3 hour book across 9 days“
“If there isn't a clear physical or digital location at which you can find your customer segment, then it's probably still too broad. Go back up the list and slice it into finder pieces until you know where to find them. A customer segment isn't very useful if there's no way you can get in touch.”

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Why “Lean UX” by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden

Third edition came out just a couple of months ago, and besides reading like a really modern text it comes?rebuilt with experience and examples from coaching all sorts of teams into the Lean mindset.?

It will teach you how to organize your team to learn from customers, how to design for outcomes, and how to continuously improve your solution as customers grow and change. It's very analogous to TDD in software development: trains you to focus on minimum to pass the test, and helps sustain you for the long run.?

Even if you think you’ve got no power over organizing your team, or that your project is too far gone already, this book will unlock a mindset that will undoubtedly help you along every step of the way. Every business needs a market fit to survive, and Lean UX is about getting you as close to the market as it is possible.?

You’ll read this book in 5-6 hours, depending on how curious you’ll be about the illustrations and trying to deconstruct what’s in them. If you’re a UX designer, you actually can’t afford not to read it.

Screenshot of “Lean UX“ from ReadingTime iOS app
“Just because a customer is real and has the pain points you're solving for, it doesn't actually mean they'll value a new way to solve that problem. In other words, just because they eat bananas on their cereal every day and they don't like slicing bananas, it doesn't mean that they'll buy your banana slicer.”

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Why “Articulating Design Decisions” by Tom Greever

Designing that app isn’t your only job. In fact, you should also be consciously designing the process of designing it, and consciously designing all communication around the process. And just like you have to have empathy for the end user, you’re going to have to develop even more of it for stakeholders and clients if you’re going to navigate your projects well.?

This book will show you how. It’s very hands-on with real world situations and will give you tools you’ll use throughout your career.??You’ll blaze through these pages in about 6 hours the first time you read it, and I guarantee you’ll be coming back to your highlights on a regular basis.?

Screenshot of “Articulating Design Decisions” from ReadingTime iOS app
“When clients or stakeholders make suggestions about how to change your design, it's unlikely that you'll get away without at least trying it out and showing it to them. You have to first address their concerns and then show them a better way. If you only show them their idea by itself, they're likely to believe it's the right choice because there is no reference to your original proposal. They may not remember the differences. However, comparing the two side by side in the same view allows everyone to see what was changed and plainly tells a story about a which design solves the problem.”

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Where to get them

If you’re looking for alternatives to Amazon (where you can get all three, in various formats), The Mom Test is available from the?author's Gumroad store, and for the other two from the can't-praise-them-enough?Dussmann store based in Berlin.

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About this article

Written on December 28th, 2021. by Daniel Ka?aj, a UX designer who loves to read books, highlight passages, and remind himself about those passages every now and then.?And who needs to stop always reading 2 or more books in parallel.

Quotes from the books have been exported from?ReadWise?without any permission from the authors or publishers, with the sole purpose of giving you a glimpse into the books.

iPhone screenshots are from the app?Reading Time?which tells you how long until you're done with a book reading in your own tempo.?

I agree on The Mom Test! :)

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