Really Great Books for B2B Product People
- 11 Curations
- May 23, 2022
- twitter.com
The Mom Test: the bible (in my opinion) of how to understand what customers want and avoid the biases that nearly everyone in B2B falls prey to. This is among the books I recommend the most to B2B founders and senior product people.
Amp It Up: an informative & actionable account of the operations & principles behind Snowflake’s success. Lots to understand & learn about how to build & scale modern B2B tech companies.
The Secrets of Consulting: written for “consultants” but very useful for B2B product folks, marketers, and sales folks to understand customer expectations & biases that play out when customers dealing with outsiders. Bonus: very witty in some places
Competing Against Luck: for understanding the real Job To Be Done, conceiving products & solutions that resonate with customers, and appreciating the role of creativity in product success
Demand-side Sales: a practical guide for putting the JTBD theory in practice. The title says “sales” and it is definitely about sales, but it is also about customer interviews, customer empathy, and product discovery in general
Obviously Awesome: a practical guide on positioning your product. Includes the importance of positioning, identifying your core value propositions, articulating your positioning in ways it is actionable for your team and clear for your customers
Inspired: the first book you should read on Product Management, with practical advice on what it means to “create tech products that customers live”. Especially recommended for B2B companies that want to become more product-focused
Understanding Michael Porter: the first book you should read on strategy, esp. if you’re in B2B. A fabulous, accessible summary of Michael Porter’s timeless strategy frameworks. Another book I recommend very often to B2B founders and product leaders
7 Powers: excellent book that describes the 7 strategic powers that create differentiation and lasting business success: scale economies, network effects, counter-positioning (my favorite), switching costs, branding, cornered resource, process power
Crossing the Chasm: a high tech marketing classic, introduces Technology Adoption Lifecycle & the “chasm” you have to cross to grow your product’s adoption from “early adopters” to the “early majority” group (some examples are dated, but still good)
There are only 3 hard problems in SaaS:
1) self-serve pricing
2) enterprise pricing, and
3) re-pricing every 9 months
🙂
Bonus reco:
That’s why you need to read Monetizing Innovation: an intentional, strategic approach for pricing your product
10 really great books: (for B2B product people)