The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The book that started a movement. My main takeaway was the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept: concentrate on the critical pieces of your product/experience, execute, learn and iterate.

Running Lean by Ash Maurya

While The Lean Startup seemed a bit theoretical/conceptual to me, I found Running Lean quite the opposite: it offered simple, practical advice that you could execute on right away. Highly recommended.

Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf

What’s a book about UX doing here? Lean UX is a book about Lean product development. The book illustrates how to create Lean UX teams and provides a framework on how they should operate so that they can be effective in their primary goal: creating and iterating on a product that makes sense.

Undercover User Experience Design by Cennydd Bowles and James Box

If you’re part of a project that has a tight timeline or you’re in an organization that doesn’t see the value of UX, but you do, then this book is your best friend. This book will give you quick, tactical UX tips to help you produce wireframes/designs that work…all undercover.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

The classic. A staple of almost every design course. You’ll learn how to make design useful and effective. Get it.

Introduction to Human Factors Engineering by Christopher Wickens

The main text of my Human Factors Engineering class. Although the text was written for primarily hardware interfaces and primitive computer UIs, it’s lessons a fully applicable to today’s more advanced user interfaces. You’ll learn how people process information, what sort of cues and affordances to provide, and how to use color and sound effectively.

Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

In my opinion, this is the de facto best book out there on Influence (or manipulation…if you’re evil).

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Believe it or not, habits define who we are. Some we have inherited from our ancestors and the culture we live in, but some we develop without realizing. Your need for coffee to get going in the morning: a habit. Your overeating compulsion: a habit. A great read for understanding how to make and replace/break habits.

Contagious by Jonah Berger

A great book for marketers because you learn about a number of great strategies of getting your product in your customers’ minds, and highly recommended for product designers since you can design some of the strategies directly into your product to enhance its contagiousness.

The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

This is a true University social psychology book, so it’s not as entertaining as the other books in this section, but if you’re interested in human behavior and how people interact with each other, a very deep, thorough book to guide you through topics from why people conform (intentionally and not intentionally) to how we justify/defend our actions even though they may be wrong.

Psychology by David G. Myers

This textbook was the main text for my Psych101 class, and the only textbook I read cover to cover even though we never had to! I found this textbook very engaging and it gives you a good understanding of every topic in psychology with topics on the history of the field, child development, memory and how we learn, motivation and psychological disorders. Thanks to this one book, I now more understanding of people with Schizophrenia and other psychological disorders, very mind-opening.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Convey firmly believes before you can be an effective team player and leader, you must first gain control of your decisions and your life, meaning you must develop a strong character before others can rely on you. Definitely a book for all (future) leaders to read.

Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden

John Wooden is, without a doubt, the most successful college basketball coach. He won ten NCAA national championships in a 12 years, 7 of those wins were consecutive, and somehow managed to win 88 games in a row! Incredible…

So we can definitely say the man knows something about building teams and leadership. In his book, he defines the Pyramid of Success, which consist of 15 areas that you must develop to be great. Read it!

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Hopefully, you’re not surprised to see this on the list. I read this book to understand how this one man’s journey through life redefined how to look and interact with technology. His passion for strive for simplicity, elegance and excellence is something I hope I never forget.

Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan

A good read that will take you through the world of economics in plain ol’ English! What else do I need to say?!

The Elements of Style by William Strunk & E. B. White

A compulsory read if you write in English as you’ll learn all the key details needed to write strong, effective prose.