Build
Why It Matters
Fadell built the iPod and Nest, and this book reads like a manual for people who actually want to ship products. Not theory, not inspiration -- practical advice about what it takes to make something real. The builder's bible.
If you've ever built anything – a product, a team, a company – this book will make you better at it. No fluff, all substance.
Fadell built the iPod and then built Nest, and this book is the distilled wisdom of someone who has actually shipped products that changed the world. What separates Build from every other product book is that Fadell is brutally honest about what goes wrong. The politics, the compromises, the moments where you have to kill something you love because it doesn't work. The section on the difference between data and opinion in product decisions should be tattooed on every product manager's arm. Fadell's argument is that data tells you what happened, but only opinion -- informed, experienced, taste-driven opinion -- tells you what to do next. That's the argument for taste in product development, and it's one that most tech companies get wrong. As someone who builds products without a technical background, this book was validating. Fadell's core message is that the best products come from people who care obsessively about the experience, not the technology. Technology is the enabler. Taste is the differentiator. That's the lesson I take into every project.
Your focus, your passion, trickles down. If you don't give a shit about marketing, you'll get shitty marketing. If you don't care about design, you'll get designers who don't care, either.
