# Design / Product Leadership Book Recs **URL:** \ **Category:** Growing your career\ **Created:** [July 31, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147 "2025-07-31T18:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nathaliesmith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.zurb.com/nathaliesmith/32/443_2.png) [@nathaliesmith](https://forum.zurb.com/u/nathaliesmith)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/1 "2025-07-31T18:02:15Z")
Hey Team, we have some really cool wheel turning over here… 📚 It got me thinking about how valuable good ol’ fashioned books are and WILL ALWAYS BE! I’ve done some research across the interwebz and these books kept coming up as highly recommended reads. Thought I’d curate a place to share! They all have 4.5 stars or higher ⭐ AND hit that ~ $20 mark. If you need one more book to add to your summer reading list, here check em’ out: 1. **[Org Design for Design Orgs](https://www.amazon.com/Org-Design-Orgs-Building-House/dp/1491938404) – [Peter Merholz](https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/) & [Kristin Skinner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andgsd/)** A playbook for structuring design teams, career paths, and collaborative ways of working at scale. 2. **[Managing Right for the First Time](https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Right-First-David-Baker/dp/1605440027) – [David C. Baker](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcb/)** Essential reading for first-time managers learning how to lead people and make confident decisions. 3. **[The Design of Everyday Things](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654) – [Don Norman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnorman/)** Classic guide to usability, user behavior, and designing products that align with how people think. 4. **[Design Leadership](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Leadership-Leaders-Successful-Organizations/dp/1491929200) by, [Richard Banfield](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbanfield/)** Practical insights from design execs on building and scaling design teams, systems, and culture. 5. **[The Lean Product Playbook](https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/B0D931CHQ3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SVES9ACEWQME&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.u-eYPDh7wno-xcOVVP8p8SH_aogCUMtRqrWlkAS74vIMjxHsr8VvLOdcoCrGxRraHzPIxf_VRWjcuxol31A91VttY7YSy9YqOEBqGA2iQaCHoHHC70WXGGbg8_Hwnz_WxUQ20vZmaLg3wQER0XBLIQ.0DID-4AF-bCCroBPP-KPqzo1QuUcyESERSnPFPoj9PA&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+lean+product+playbook+by+dan+olsen&qid=1753984177&sprefix=the+lean+product%252Caps%252C636&sr=8-1) –[Dan Olsen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danolsen98/)** A step-by-step guide for achieving product-market fit through lean experimentation and UX principles. 6. **[Product Leadership](https://www.amazon.com/Product-Leadership-Managers-Products-Successful/dp/1491960604) – [Richard Banfield](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbanfield/), [Martin Eriksson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martineriksson/), [Nate Walkingshaw](https://www.linkedin.com/in/natewalkingshaw/)** Interviews with 100+ product leaders on how they build products, teams, and strategy. 7. **[Inspired](https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers/dp/1119387507) – [Marty Cagan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan/)** Essential for understanding how top tech companies build lovable products with strong discovery practices. 8. **[The Innovator’s Dilemma](https://www.christenseninstitute.org/book/the-innovators-dilemma/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22404177831&gbraid=0AAAAADsapT_w_JgUlMX72GXeFwoKe6671&gclid=CjwKCAjwqKzEBhANEiwAeQaPVX6q4k8tcPxPyZrS9FFlyi906Bs_FpJ3X6GMSOgy3TgWJpsQsq3kZBoCOEEQAvD_BwE) – Clayton Christensen** Explores how successful companies can fail by ignoring disruptive innovation, and how to avoid it. Thought these covered a wide net of touch points! Curious what others might be valuable? @Bryan @EricZ @Jake_Johnson @sheckern_glaIq @Helge @Kevin_Schumacher @ben Let me know if you guys have any reads to add! ---
**Author:** ![ben](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.zurb.com/ben/32/442_2.png) [@ben](https://forum.zurb.com/u/ben)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/2 "2025-07-31T18:16:25Z")
Maybe not a product leadership book, but suuuuuper relevant to product and asking the right questions: [https://www.momtestbook.com](https://www.momtestbook.com) Also, another honorable mention that I’ve read recently: [Start With Why Book | Simon Sinek - Simon Sinek](https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/) I also have his [Find Your Why](https://simonsinek.com/books/find-your-why/) book in my bookshelf, need to read it here soon! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.zurb.com/bryan/32/448_2.png) [@Bryan](https://forum.zurb.com/u/Bryan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/3 "2025-07-31T18:54:47Z")
Ok, I’m quoted in Design Leadership, so I’m a bit biased on that one. I sat down with Richard for a good chat. ---
**Author:** ![Helge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea666f/32.png) [@Helge](https://forum.zurb.com/u/Helge)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/4 "2025-08-03T16:13:50Z")
Great list @nathaliesmith 🤩 I find myself recommending ‘Look’ by Christian Madsbjerg a lot. On the art of observation. I liked it a lot. I can also recommend “when you wonder you’re learning” by Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski which was gifted to me and i found delightful. they are not org. design books, but observation and learning are foundational to everything 🙂 On org. design I liked Humanocracy when it came out five years ago and it’s authors Hamel and Zanini are publishing an update to it this August (I think). ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Doug\_Curtis](https://forum.zurb.com/u/Doug_Curtis)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/5 "2025-08-05T01:31:43Z")
hey everyone! I’m new here. But my go-to product books are: Bob Moesta - Learning to Build and Demand Side Sales 101. Both books are phenomenal in understanding how to start from user problems and work backwards, dig into the psychology of what makes people adopt something new. Ryan Singer - Shape Up ([Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters](https://basecamp.com/shapeup)). The approach they took at Basecamp completely resonates with me from my experience building products. It’s a pragmatic approach to define the business opportunity, set the appetite to solve the problem which unlocks design and engineering to know how to set constraints to build a solution without drowning in process/documentation. ---
**Author:** ![nathaliesmith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.zurb.com/nathaliesmith/32/443_2.png) [@nathaliesmith](https://forum.zurb.com/u/nathaliesmith)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://forum.zurb.com/t/design-product-leadership-book-recs/147/6 "2025-08-05T02:40:50Z")
Doug! Thanks for jumping in, so nice to meet you & welcome to the party 🎉 Will totally check these out. I know Basecamp absolutely crushes it, so anything inspired by that wheelhouse, I’d totally love to look into. Thanks for sharing, these are rad.