Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products

What made Sprint by Jake Knapp et al so valuable was presenting a validated sequence of design exercises to let a team research customer needs, then conceive, create, and validate a prototype. Laura Klein’s Build Better Products does the same for product management: It presents a sequence of steps in the life cycle of a product, and design exercises for how to accomplish goals for each step. With little more than sticky notes and a whiteboard (or the virtual equivalent), teams can find the core of ideas, unearth risky assumptions, and more. While building and improving products takes more than the week that a design sprint does, Build Better Products explains when and how to do the exercises.I couldn’t put this book down and was taking notes on how to apply the exercises to products I work on. Whether you’re coming up with an idea for a new product or improving an established one, this book gives you simple and incisive hands-on ways to…build better products. Plus it’s a funny read!Bonus: Even if you don’t build products, but do work on a cross-functional team and want a better model for collaborating, check out the last chapter, “Build a Better Team”, for the heist team (Oceans 11) model.

I highly recommend the book to anyone building software, especially entrepreneurs. Examples are from Laura's real experience. Advices are practical and actionable. Here is how exactly it has impacted me:I am an engineer and I tend to build. Currently, I am working on a new software. After reading just the first chapter, I realized I could have further clarified my goals. So I stopped building and went back to the drawing board. Everything I do now has an explicit goal now. It feels so right to know my efforts won't be wasted.

If you are interested in learning the right way to build a product, this book is the perfect companion to help you in every step along the way. New product managers can use this book to start their careers off on the right foot. Experienced product managers can use this book to learn new exercises to help improve their process. Finally, CEOs and others in a company should read this book to understand how much effort it takes to build great product the right way.

This book provides a great overview to designing and developing better products. I appreciate the structure and flow of the book. Especially the section on Empathy and ways to better understand your customers.

This book is solid. Great frameworks and usable content. The hypothesis tracker is genius. Also, the illustration of people falling off the funnel at various stages is a super effective diagram. I used it to quantify how much business our company was losing at each stage and the senior leadership team were stunned. Great book for product managers, entrepreneurs, or anyone looking to build better products.

I was a bit surprised this was such a introductory approach to the topic. I guess I expected that a bit, but it never really got beyond beginner level.

This book is a treasure every startup, product and UX oriented people must read. Comprehensive and cohesive guide that helps me shift my mind and focus on really important stuff, while delivering values to customers.

This is by far the most comprehensive UX book I've read to date. It brings together so many concepts into one place that I can see it being my new reference guide for process, activities, and overall standards on creating products of value.

It took almost a month to deliver the product, I was almost going to cancel the product when it arrived and let me tell you it's worth the wait. The content in this book is unparalleled. It talks about all the important topics in detail. a practical approach to building great products.Even the condition of the book is great. All in all really happy to get it finally!!

Laura Klein is my UX spirit animal. She doesn't show you stuff that works great in theory but aren't possible to do in real contexts.I bought her first book UX for Lean Startups and this one Build Better Products and I can tell you: this is years of experience knowledge speaking through the pages. She breathes UX and isn't afraid to speak up against unuseful practices in some contexts. You get amazing insights and knowledge to even push the tools yourself.I love her approach to UX and how she cares as much for business goals & users. I work in a startup as a - I do everything designer - and I can tell you whenever I am caught in the action of the moment and I feel I can do better in a particular situation this book is a great reminder for stepping back and taking the right tool to get in the right direction.

I bought this book after reading the sample. I really liked the interactive activities to encourage collaborative engagement from colleagues and align everyone to collective product visions and processes.

This is by far the best book I have read about building a product. It focuses on every aspect of product design outside of the visual design itself. It's a great tool for all aspiring and existing product designers. It includes comments from several industry-leaders, as well as numerous exercises you can use internally or with clients to build something great.I have recommended this book to everyone at work and peers in the industry.

Another must read!