Books that influenced me the most on building digital products

A few weeks ago I had a great time with some teammates discussing product development, processes, and the specifics of a given initiative we were working on at the time.

It was a very fruitful conversation that made me reflect on how I built the product mindset I have today.

A few days later, (I believe) I finally got an answer.

I put together a list of the books that have influenced me the most over the past 10+ years in building digital products. It’s no coincidence that many of them were mentioned repeatedly during that conversation! 😄

And here they are :

• The Lean Startup (2011) - Some parts are probably a bit outdated now, but its core idea of the build, measure, learn cycle remains super valuable. A must read for anyone working on a startup-like environment
• Getting Real (2006) - From an era where mobile apps were just a dream, the mindset behind it still resonates on me. It helps us focus on building real things instead of building stuff that “represents” real
• Shape Up (2019) - Introduces a different take on being agile. Instead of setting a scope and estimate a time-box for it, the idea behind this book proposes the opposite: set an appetite (time-box) and do what is possible within it, based on a pre-shaped scope (which is probably the most important part of the process)
• Extreme Programming (1999) - Old, but gold. I'm pretty sure that if we applied all the values, principles, and practices described in this book, exactly as they were set in 1999, we would have a far stronger product/engineering culture in our industry
• Continuous Delivery Pipelines (2021) - The book that completely change the way I build and deliver digital products. It clearly defines how every single piece of software should be released and why shortening the feedback loop is crucial for product development
• Accelerate (2018) - This is a great starting point to set a common understanding about continuous delivery, testing in production, team organisation, and the (four) key metrics we should be accountable for
• Continuous Discovery Habits (2021) - The book that introduces the Opportunity Solution Tree framework. Super interesting for learning how to build products customers love (and companies need), based on a looooot of user research
• Modern Software Engineering (2021) - True engineering is core on building reliable, scalable, and secure products. This book summarises how a modern software engineering company (and professionals) should behave and work

This isn’t meant to be a to‑do reading list. One could add a few books or remove others, but the goal is simply to illustrate how I’ve shaped my perspective on building software that both works and people enjoy using :)