Toolbox

Here’s a collection of curated & created tools to help you clarify the next step, whether you’re developing products, developing teams, or developing yourself.

See something here that sparks your interest, but could use some hands-on help? Reach out! I’ve got lots of practice with everything here and would love to help you get quick utility out of these.

Favorite tools:

• Lean Canvas: A great tool for quickly framing up new business ideas, as well as your own personal goals.
• Lean Hypothesis: A handy tool to frame up a hypothesis you have about a solution to a problem, and how you’ll know if you’ve solved it
• Lean Experiment template: What will you actually do to solve the problem; what’s the first experiment you’ll run? Use this template to clarify.
• Ikigai: A framework for clarifying your purpose and path. There are dozens of templates out there, and a good practical book by Tim Tamashiro, but here’s a neat interactive tool.
• First 90 Day Toolkit: Tools you can use to make the most of your first 90 days in a role.

Reading & Listening:

• Radical Candor: A must-read for any new manager. If you’re not a new manager, read it again! Kim Scott.
• Quiet Leadership: If you admire those leaders who listen, say few words, and have so much influence & impact, this one’s for you. By David Rock.
• Don’t Make Me Think: A fun & incredibly useful read for anyone designing anything. From Steve Krug.
• Running Lean: An incredibly practical guide for how to de-risk what you’re building, and avoid building the wrong thing. From Ash Maurya.
• Accelerate: A manual for anyone wanting to take a data/evidence-based approach to improving their system for delivering high value software to the world. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim.
• Continuous Discovery Habits: This book really breaks down, step by step, how to sort out the right solutions to invest in developing, and/or the right actions to take, now (vs the ones to table). From Teresa Torres.
• Empowered: For product leaders, and the people they lead (so they can coach up!). From SVPG.
• Setting the Table: Learn the heart of hospitality from the best (Danny Meyer)– incredibly applicable to work, because it’s all about relationship.
• Value Proposition Design: A beautiful book, first of all, and so useful to people trying to articulate value proposition– for a business or, again, for yourself. From the Strategyzer folks.
• Measure What Matters: Great book about OKRs by John Doerr, and if you like audio books, this is a great one– you’ll hear the case studies Doerr shares from the leaders of these organizations, themselves.
• Farther, Faster, and Far Less Drama: Make all of the impact, without the stress! Learn what’s worked for some of the experts (Janice & Jason Fraser).
• Lenny’s Podcast: A must-listen for anyone in product. Lenny Ratchitsky.