Be it if you’re on your daily commute, looking to sharpen your skills, or just plain bored, books are always there for you. Here are some great books to not just keep you busy during these tough times, but to take you to the next level.
1. Sprint (Okay, the usual suspect first)
Sprint by GV is a fundamental book every designer should read regardless of the process used at their agencies. This book by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky at Google speak about implementing the Sprint method developed at GV.
Sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping and testing ideas with customers. You will learn how to produce a prototype for your product in just 5 days. No more months of design thinking for one feature.
We recently did a rethinking of our sprint process at Thiken to match our needs, and I highly recommend it for you as well.
2. Hacking Growth
This awesome read by Sean Ellis highlights the effects of applying non-traditional marketing methods to massively increase growth in startups and big companies alike. As a product designer, this book will definitely come in handy while conducting user research and building a business model.
The most interesting part about Hacking Growth is its use alongside the Sprint Book we talked about earlier. At AJ&Smart (the biggest design sprint agency in the world, probably) they use a hybrid of the two books for their sprint process. They call this Growth Design.
In this process, you focus on 3 main growth techniques from the book; Acquisition, Activation, and Retention and how to use it hand in hand with the design sprint process.
3. Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
Okay, this is a marketing book. Story Brand explains how to tell a story to your users in order to drive sales by teaching listeners the seven universal story points all humans respond to.
This book will introduce us to the concept of the hero’s journey that you might have heard of. How you treat the customer or user as the hero and your product as the guide in his journey.
A story brand style brandscript can help in your sprint to understand the product and its customers better. PurpleBunny talks about how the brandscript became helpful when they redesigned Feedly’s homepage.
4. 100 things every designer needs to know about people
Another read to add to a designer’s fundamental must-reads. 100 Things (I don’t wanna type the entire thing every time) talks about the science behind creating apps, websites, print, and almost anything that matches the way people think, work, and play.
What grabs the attention of the users? How can you predict the type of errors they might make? Why are some fonts better than others? Find answers to these questions and many more from this brilliant book by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.
5. Steal like an artist
Alright. I’m gonna get straight with you on this. This book does not have a vast amount of knowledge. It’s doesn’t have 300 pages of content. But what it does have is some great tips on how to discover your artistic side and ignite your creativity. Oh, and it has pictures.
According to Austin Kleon, nothing is original. It’s all about getting inspiration and learning from the works of others to reimagine your own path.
It has only 133 pages to be exact and took me about 4 hours to finish. Yes, just 4 hours. So the next time you grab a flight, take this book with you. Trust me, you’re gonna thank me by the end of it.
6. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
This is a book by David Kelly and Tom Kelly. Yes, the founders of IDEO. It explains the principles and strategies that help us to tap into our creative potential in our work and personal lives.
IDEO is one of the leading design and consulting firms in the world. They helped establish the concept of Design Thinking. David and Tom Kelly are well respected in the industry and their new book was highly acclaimed.
Referring to case studies from both IDEO and other leading companies in the world, the Kelly brothers talk about how we can discover our creative and innovative side.
7. Power of Moments
And at last but not at least, this book by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Switch and Made to Stick, explains how certain moments in our lives change us.
In this best-selling book, the authors get into the details about how creative individuals have changed their businesses and lives around by creating “moments of magic” for their customers.
The book uses practical examples of these moments to showcase how the most ordinary of events can leave a lasting impact on you or your business.
