Holistic Product Discovery
Last week I received a signed copy of Holistic Product Discovery from Marcus Castenfors and Martin Christensen. Receiving signed copies from authors is becoming a trend for me at the moment as I have established relationships with other product coaches, trainers, experts and thought leaders. I’ve also been the beta reader for many books over the last few years. I guess I should go back and do reviews for them at some point!
First impressions
I like to start by looking at the print quality, layout and design. I know it’s not the most important aspect - the content is - but its part of your first impression and as a self-published book it is often something that falls short. I have to say this book is great on that front. It’s on nice paper, clean fonts and visuals. Heck the visuals are in colour, something many self-pub books skip for cost! It’s not as visually impressive as some books out there (like the Strategzyer ones) but it’s on a par with many of the best in the product space in the last few years so I feel it fits in nicely.
It’s not too thick a book at about 1cm / 140 pages so you can get through it quite quickly, which is nice as it’s not wasting time telling you the same thing 100x as many books do to up the page count and justify the value. For me, the value is that it is condensed and concise, so I can consume and take action quickly!
The scope
The table of content is as follows:
Introduction
Building the wrong product
Building the right product
Holistic Product Discovery Framework
Product Discovery playbooks
Strategic Product Discover - an example
Discovery and Delivery sitting in a tree
How to get started
Conclusions
Frequently asked questions
This book covers a lot of ground. It provides an overarching framework that can be used to structure your discovery practice. It overlays on models you probably already know, like the double diamond and risk taxonomies, like desirability, value and feasibility. It’s interesting to see because I have a similar structure that I haven’t codified quite so much (yet!).
It references off to other tools and techniques that can be used within different zones of the framework. I’m glad that Marcus and Martin didn’t then try to teach the details of those tools. Instead, they put them in context - that worked very well. Some of those tools are illustrated and provide examples of working through the framework - seeing them in action is also useful.
Looks can be deceiving
The framework presented looks very simple, and on the face of it, it is! But each time I look at it and each chapter you read peels back another layer showing how it works to help you structure your approach - it’s quite ingenious really!
So far, I’ve done a front-to-back read-through quickly. I’d recommend that you do the same. You need to get the whole picture of how things join together. But after that, I recommend that you leave it for a few weeks and then go back to dive into a specific section and apply. Only through that will the power of the deceptively simple (on the surface) framework really be revealed. It feels a bit like the first time I saw the Business Model Canvas, it’s so simple and obvious when you see it, you think, “how can that be useful” and then as you use it, you have “aha” moment after “aha” moment.
Critical thoughts
If I’m being critical, there are a few places where I found the way things were phrased a little awkward as a native speaker. There are places where the examples felt a little too superficial. Also, there were opportunities to connect some of the sections to each other a little better (I felt like there were a few “jumps”). But this is me being super critical.
The book is not a beginner’s “primer”. It assumes that you are already aware of quite a few things. That’s not a criticism for me but could cause problems for some readers. I personally found it to be a strength, I wasn’t forced to wade through pages of things I already know deeply. If you are new to the subject, though, you might find that you hit things and need to dive off to read around to be able to understand what is being said truly. For example, there is mention of the Cynefin framework, which I find many people have never heard of. It’s a powerful model but not one you will understand from just the two pages where it comes up in the book.
Final thoughts
“So how do we build effective products and services?
We do it by addressing risks. By eliminating biases. By taking a holistic view including business, user and organization. By working together in a diverse team and following sound principles. By changing the mindset of our organization to a learning one.”
I’d give the book 4.5 / 5. The principles are awesome and the model is great too. The quote shown that I extracted from the Conclusions section sums up the thrust of the book perfectly to me.
It feels like a book where the understanding will grow on the second read-through and when applied to a real situation - and I am looking forward to both! Frankly, if it was easy to grasp fully on the first read, it probably won’t be that valuable to experienced practitioners anyway because it would be too obvious and wouldn’t need a book!
As the title says, it approaches discovery holistically, giving a framework for so many other tools and techniques that are often taught in isolation so it adds a much-needed layer to help guide overall discovery practice.
It got a bonus mention in my top 5 discovery books and might be a good reason for me to list my top 10 now!
Check out the website for the book here and grab yourself a copy!
