In our Sisyphean quest to read more books, we are gathering book recommendations from the talented employees across each department of Sharethrough and asking them to focus on books that helped propel their careers or books they suggest for anyone in the advertising world. With countless things to learn and endless books to read, this is the beginning of our new book recommendation series aiming at distilling worthwhile readings.
The Product Team
Who better to start with than the Product team who, in order to be technical and innovative, needs to have a deep understanding of many aspects of the advertising industry. Each coming from different professional and personal backgrounds, they shared their favorite books that helped them advance their careers. Whether you want to learn for yourself or need a gift idea for someone (the holidays are approaching, fast), here is our product team’s list of must-reads:
Book Titles/Review
1. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
“As a Dev moving to Product this book was fundamental to understand the similarities, and the differences, between scoping a specific problem to automate its solution with code, vs developing an entire product that fits its market.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book outlines the lean startup process, which is the cornerstone of how our Product and Engineering teams work at Sharethrough. This is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the Product Development process, and is especially relevant for Sharethrough.” - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
2. The Startup Way - Eric Ries
Sequel to The Lean Startup
“The Startup Way shows how even large companies can enable 'startup'-style teams to innovate. This helps me think of better ways that STX can continue to move quickly and address customer needs, even though our main features have already achieved product-market-fit” - Michael Foster, Senior Product Manager
3. The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
“This makes you see the world in a new light, and reframes how you think about challenges you and others have in interacting with the world as failures of design, not failures of the user's ability.” - Curt Larson, CPO
4. Becoming - Michelle Obama
“Michelle Obama is a female role model for me. The book is inspirational without trying to be. While not directly related to my line of work, she teaches how to accomplish things as a female leader in the workforce with grace and confidence.” - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
5. Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - Marty Cagan
“Fantastic resource on how to successfully build products, and structure product teams. It's definitely PM-centric - I read this early on in my transition to a product manager role and reference it every so often in my day-to-day.” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
6. Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey A. Moore
“This book defines the process of how a company (or a product) can transcend a niche group of early adopters, to become marketable to a much wider audience. There is a lot of relevance for our teams, in that anytime we are releasing something new to the market there are valuable lessons we can use to ensure we are successfully ‘crossing the chasm’. - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
7. How to Measure Anything - Douglas W. Hubbard
“I read this book 2 weeks after being introduced to OKRs and what they can do for a company. Helped a lot to understand the importance of measuring success the right way, and how the measurement itself can affect the results.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
8. Dare to Lead - Brené Brown
“This book will change how you interact with people in your life, especially at work, by changing your idea of what being kind and supportive actually means.” - Curt Larson, CPO
9. Cracking the PM Interview - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
“This book helped me interview and explore opportunities when first getting into Product Management. It really helped me better understand the role coming from a business background.“ - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
10. Cracking the PM Career - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
Sequel to Cracking the PM Interview
“I'm working through this now - it's a helpful resource to keep track of my development on the PM career path. Basically a how-to guide for ‘what makes a good PM’” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
11. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J Dubner
“Oh, where to start - besides being a compendium of interesting topics, Freakonomics is a master class in how incentives can yield unexpected and counterintuitive results” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book encourages you to always question surface metrics - numbers can so easily lead to the wrong conclusions about causation.” - Curt Larson, CPO
In our Sisyphean quest to read more books, we are gathering book recommendations from the talented employees across each department of Sharethrough and asking them to focus on books that helped propel their careers or books they suggest for anyone in the advertising world. With countless things to learn and endless books to read, this is the beginning of our new book recommendation series aiming at distilling worthwhile readings.
The Product Team
Who better to start with than the Product team who, in order to be technical and innovative, needs to have a deep understanding of many aspects of the advertising industry. Each coming from different professional and personal backgrounds, they shared their favorite books that helped them advance their careers. Whether you want to learn for yourself or need a gift idea for someone (the holidays are approaching, fast), here is our product team’s list of must-reads:
Book Titles/Review
1. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
“As a Dev moving to Product this book was fundamental to understand the similarities, and the differences, between scoping a specific problem to automate its solution with code, vs developing an entire product that fits its market.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book outlines the lean startup process, which is the cornerstone of how our Product and Engineering teams work at Sharethrough. This is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the Product Development process, and is especially relevant for Sharethrough.” - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
2. The Startup Way - Eric Ries
Sequel to The Lean Startup
“The Startup Way shows how even large companies can enable 'startup'-style teams to innovate. This helps me think of better ways that STX can continue to move quickly and address customer needs, even though our main features have already achieved product-market-fit” - Michael Foster, Senior Product Manager
3. The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
“This makes you see the world in a new light, and reframes how you think about challenges you and others have in interacting with the world as failures of design, not failures of the user's ability.” - Curt Larson, CPO
4. Becoming - Michelle Obama
“Michelle Obama is a female role model for me. The book is inspirational without trying to be. While not directly related to my line of work, she teaches how to accomplish things as a female leader in the workforce with grace and confidence.” - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
5. Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - Marty Cagan
“Fantastic resource on how to successfully build products, and structure product teams. It's definitely PM-centric - I read this early on in my transition to a product manager role and reference it every so often in my day-to-day.” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
6. Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey A. Moore
“This book defines the process of how a company (or a product) can transcend a niche group of early adopters, to become marketable to a much wider audience. There is a lot of relevance for our teams, in that anytime we are releasing something new to the market there are valuable lessons we can use to ensure we are successfully ‘crossing the chasm’. - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
7. How to Measure Anything - Douglas W. Hubbard
“I read this book 2 weeks after being introduced to OKRs and what they can do for a company. Helped a lot to understand the importance of measuring success the right way, and how the measurement itself can affect the results.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
8. Dare to Lead - Brené Brown
“This book will change how you interact with people in your life, especially at work, by changing your idea of what being kind and supportive actually means.” - Curt Larson, CPO
9. Cracking the PM Interview - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
“This book helped me interview and explore opportunities when first getting into Product Management. It really helped me better understand the role coming from a business background.“ - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
10. Cracking the PM Career - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
Sequel to Cracking the PM Interview
“I'm working through this now - it's a helpful resource to keep track of my development on the PM career path. Basically a how-to guide for ‘what makes a good PM’” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
11. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J Dubner
“Oh, where to start - besides being a compendium of interesting topics, Freakonomics is a master class in how incentives can yield unexpected and counterintuitive results” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book encourages you to always question surface metrics - numbers can so easily lead to the wrong conclusions about causation.” - Curt Larson, CPO
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
In our Sisyphean quest to read more books, we are gathering book recommendations from the talented employees across each department of Sharethrough and asking them to focus on books that helped propel their careers or books they suggest for anyone in the advertising world. With countless things to learn and endless books to read, this is the beginning of our new book recommendation series aiming at distilling worthwhile readings.
The Product Team
Who better to start with than the Product team who, in order to be technical and innovative, needs to have a deep understanding of many aspects of the advertising industry. Each coming from different professional and personal backgrounds, they shared their favorite books that helped them advance their careers. Whether you want to learn for yourself or need a gift idea for someone (the holidays are approaching, fast), here is our product team’s list of must-reads:
Book Titles/Review
1. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
“As a Dev moving to Product this book was fundamental to understand the similarities, and the differences, between scoping a specific problem to automate its solution with code, vs developing an entire product that fits its market.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book outlines the lean startup process, which is the cornerstone of how our Product and Engineering teams work at Sharethrough. This is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the Product Development process, and is especially relevant for Sharethrough.” - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
2. The Startup Way - Eric Ries
Sequel to The Lean Startup
“The Startup Way shows how even large companies can enable 'startup'-style teams to innovate. This helps me think of better ways that STX can continue to move quickly and address customer needs, even though our main features have already achieved product-market-fit” - Michael Foster, Senior Product Manager
3. The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
“This makes you see the world in a new light, and reframes how you think about challenges you and others have in interacting with the world as failures of design, not failures of the user's ability.” - Curt Larson, CPO
4. Becoming - Michelle Obama
“Michelle Obama is a female role model for me. The book is inspirational without trying to be. While not directly related to my line of work, she teaches how to accomplish things as a female leader in the workforce with grace and confidence.” - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
5. Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love - Marty Cagan
“Fantastic resource on how to successfully build products, and structure product teams. It's definitely PM-centric - I read this early on in my transition to a product manager role and reference it every so often in my day-to-day.” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
6. Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey A. Moore
“This book defines the process of how a company (or a product) can transcend a niche group of early adopters, to become marketable to a much wider audience. There is a lot of relevance for our teams, in that anytime we are releasing something new to the market there are valuable lessons we can use to ensure we are successfully ‘crossing the chasm’. - Michael Bueti, Director of Advertiser Products
7. How to Measure Anything - Douglas W. Hubbard
“I read this book 2 weeks after being introduced to OKRs and what they can do for a company. Helped a lot to understand the importance of measuring success the right way, and how the measurement itself can affect the results.” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
8. Dare to Lead - Brené Brown
“This book will change how you interact with people in your life, especially at work, by changing your idea of what being kind and supportive actually means.” - Curt Larson, CPO
9. Cracking the PM Interview - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
“This book helped me interview and explore opportunities when first getting into Product Management. It really helped me better understand the role coming from a business background.“ - Amanda Nagode, Senior Product Manager
10. Cracking the PM Career - Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Jackie Bavaro
Sequel to Cracking the PM Interview
“I'm working through this now - it's a helpful resource to keep track of my development on the PM career path. Basically a how-to guide for ‘what makes a good PM’” - Carl Steinberg, Product Manager
11. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J Dubner
“Oh, where to start - besides being a compendium of interesting topics, Freakonomics is a master class in how incentives can yield unexpected and counterintuitive results” - Juan Martinez, Product Manager
“This book encourages you to always question surface metrics - numbers can so easily lead to the wrong conclusions about causation.” - Curt Larson, CPO
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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