“What are your top recommended Experimentation culture books?”
I am happy to receive this question often lately (even though it is a pretty broad topic).
Over the years, I have read many books and articles. I happily use them in my work, courses, and LinkedIn blog posts. There are many useful books available. These ten books on experimentation and change management have contributed the most to me while writing this.
Experimentation culture books
Experimentation Works by Stephen Thomke
This book gives an excellent general overview of experimentation. It is easy and entertaining to read, making it the ideal book to read for you and give as a X-mas present to your CEO. 😉
It walks you through the best practices in business experimentation, demonstrates how these techniques operate at top businesses and provide basic clarifications. What characteristics define a successful experiment? How are tests conducted in both online and offline businesses? Both B2C and B2B? How may a culture of experimenting be created? Best practice also entails doing a lot of experiments.
Growing Happy Clients by Daphne Tideman
I highly recommend this book for consultants and freelancers who want to make an impact. But many chapters are also very beneficial for in-house CRO specialists.
You can go beyond the “Happily Ever After” of every growth hacking book with Growing Happy Clients. You’ve got your client and your skills, but now you need the ability to deal with messy situations and internal challenges. Growing Happy Clients teaches you all the “soft skills” that set a successful growth hacker apart from the competition, taking you from project kickoff to project reflection.
Besides it being a very well-structured book, Daphne is a fantastic person. When you get the chance to see her on stage or hear her on a podcast, do check it out.
Switch by the Heath brothers
My favorite book on change management for over 12 years now. It is beneficial for both organizational change and personal growth.
Change is difficult, as we are all aware. It’s unnerving, it takes time, and far too frequently, we give up at the first indication of a difficulty.
But why do we insist on focusing on the challenges rather than the objective? Best-selling authors Chip and Dan Heath address this issue in their gripping and enlightening book. They contend that to find shortcuts to behavioral switches. We merely need to understand how our minds work.
The brothers Heath demonstrate how seemingly basic techniques can produce spectacular results by citing scientific research and inspiring real-life turnarounds, such as how to successfully counsel couples or how a pile of gloves may completely change a company’s financial situation.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
My favorite book on habit building. This book is often cited, and habit creation is essential for you to understand if you want to change the habits of your colleagues.
People believe you need to think large when trying to transform your life. But James Clear, a famous specialist on habits, has found an alternative. He is aware that true change results from accumulating many small actions, such as performing two push-ups per day, rising five minutes earlier, or making a brief phone call. He refers to them as “atomic habits.”
In this groundbreaking work, Clears describes just how these tiny adjustments can develop into results that can be so drastically life-altering.
Change the culture, Change the game by Roger Connors
A great book on how to change the culture within organizations. Two-time New York Times bestselling authors Roger Connors and Tom Smith show how leaders can achieve record-breaking results by quickly and effectively shaping their organizational culture to capitalize on their greatest asset-their people.
Continuous discovery habits by Teresa Torres
This book gives insights into outcome-driven product development. I often see it cited in product development courses.
The book will teach you a method for continuous discovery that is structured, sustainable, and will help you respond to each of these questions. This method will give you the courage to take action while preparing you for failure. You’ll discover how to strike a balance between action and skepticism so that you may begin without being caught off guard by your mistakes.
Break the Cycle by Arend Ardon
Very straightforward book to understand your influence on the change process. It is not well-known, but I highly recommend it. It is a short book and easy to read.
Arend Ardon, a social psychologist and management consultant, clearly describes how managers block change and then suggests do-it-yourself fixes to restart the necessary transformation.
The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay
A very important book to learn to ask questions instead of advising to find better solutions. Sometimes we must give advice when someone asks how to do a pre-test analysis, for instance. However, I see many specialists provide too much advice where they should ask questions.
The Science of Organizational Change by Paul Gibbons
This book is hard to read, but it has some valuable content on organizational change. It takes a lot from science and does not shy away from showing the lack of evidence in some other famous models.
The Corporate Tribe by Danielle Braun
Not well-known, but this book shows a great perspective on company culture based on anthropology. The book is fun to read as it is filled with stories and nice comparisons.
Am I missing a great book?
I would love to hear your suggestions. Am I missing an Experimentation culture book or several books? I’ll be very happy to hear about it.
If you want to get your organization to a culture of experimentation, then check out my Udemy course, ‘Change Management: from CRO to an Experimentation Culture.’
But for now, have a lot of fun reading 🙂
