8 game changing product books for pre-PMF startups

Reading the wrong resources on product will kill your startup. When you're a product person at a pre-Product-Market Fit startup, time is your most limited resource. Wasting that time on reading and applying the wrong product method is suicide. Last week I shared a list of 10 great product books for pre-PMF startups. Many of you commented with extra resources 🙏 so I figured out there was more to be shared! Here are 8 extra game changing product books for pre-PMF startups! 🗺 1. Prepare for the entrepreneurial journey: “The Messy Middle” (Scott Belsky) This book tells you the reality of a startup pre-PMF. Getting discouraged and tired, or burning out before getting results is a real risk! 🧰 2. Build a pretotype - ”The Right It” (Alberto Savoia) A prototype serves to prove that you can turn an idea into a product. A pretotype serves to check if the product idea makes market and/or economic sense in the first place. It serves to do a reality check of your assumptions. It comes with examples such as Youtube or Mechanical Turk. 🧱 3. Be clear with the problem you solve: “Clayton Christensen on job to be done (JTBD)” (Youtube) JTBD explains how humans “hire” solutions to solve their problems (the “job”). It’s an amazing framework to frame and focus on a problem until you nail it. It helps making sure you don’t fall in love with your solution, but the problem instead. 💜 4. Keep meeting customers: “Continuous Discovery Habits” (Teresa Torres) In early stage, product people often end up not talking to users because they lack of time. This book shows you how to collect users #feedback on auto-pilot, and make them compound. 🤯 5. Uncover insight: “Interviewing Users” chapter 4 (Steve Portigal) This book teaches how to conduct user research study. It shares methods that enhance your interviews, including artifacts uncover insights. ✏️ 6. Design innovative solutions: “Well Designed” (Jon Kolko) Great companies build innovative solutions to existing problems thanks to Design Thinking. This book teaches the basics and how to bring it into Product Management. 🔊 7. Product marketing 101 - “The 1-Page Marketing Plan” Chapter 1 & 2 (Allan Dib) Selecting your target market ensures your marketing message resonates better. Crafting a compelling message will grabs the attention of that target market. These are the basis of marketing that any product person should know. 😥 8. Hard work matter - “Build” (Tony Fadell) Humans learn through productive struggle. You can get guidance and advice. You can choose a path by following someone else’s example. But you won’t really learn until you start walking down that path yourself and seeing where it takes you. Any resource I'm missing? Please drop them in comments =)