Sprint

I will preface this review by saying I rarely enjoy or learn something new and perspective-changing from business books, and often won't recommend them even to colleagues, so my 5-star rating system as I've defined it is not kind to the genre. Generally speaking, this was a fine book. I think the concept is interesting, and it's been recommended at every product management workshop I've attended. It's broken up into a logical, day-by-day structure that explains exactly how to attack a 5-day sprint to test a prototype and “fail fast” with little consequence. It's illustrated and peppered with helpful real-life examples. But to actually get the time and resource to do this for a prototype is something I can't champion (at least, not at my huge company, and not at my level/experience), and given the book is more or less a step-by-step how-to... it's not especially helpful for me. Who knows, though. Maybe down the line — and then I'll be appreciative I have a copy of this book.

Hands-on, useful mix of various approaches to prototype and gather feedback over the course of a week. Team-based, structured and with checklists, it's great for those who have the ability to follow steps exactly — I understand why they didn't want to build “spin off” options, which I'm sure their website might capture, but would have liked to see some nonetheless.