Book Review: The Startup Playbook
Book Review: The Startup Playbook: Founder-to-Founder Advice From Two Startup Veterans by Rajat Bhargava and Will Herman
I was sent a complimentary copy of The Startup Playbook to read and review. It’s a good introduction to product thinking for both founders and product managers. The issues in product management are quite similar to the issues for company founders. After all, strategic product managers often define new ideas in addition to managing the growth of an existing product.
Strategic product managers will really enjoy Chapter 4, How Do I Know If My Idea Is Good. Embracing the latest Lean Startup and MVP techniques, this section has practical advice for anyone creating products.
If you’ve ever thought about going out on your own, The Startup Playbook offers good, tangible advice. The book is in three parts: 1) Starting A Company, 2) Getting Off The Ground, 3) Funding The Company, and 4) Running The Company.
The writing style is very comfortable and you can tell the authors have real-world experience—with both successes and failures—that apply to both startups and products. You’ll find lots of good application notes and advice on every page.
About Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson is a product management process coach, author, speaker, and advisor. His approach is based on the belief that minimal process and simple templates result in a nimble product marketing and management team. Before founding Under10, Steve was a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for over 15 years and personally trained thousands of product managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams. Learn more at www.under10playbook.com
In his spare time, Steve enjoys making music, and has an album available on iTunes. Check out Steve’s music at notExactlySteve.com