Acknowledgments

If this book has taught you anything, I hope it’s that good products are created when the creators infuse their process with continuous feedback. That was especially true for this book.

The content in this book was developed and honed over the past seven years as I helped hundreds of product trios adopt continuous discovery habits. This book would not have been possible without those teams’ curiosity, enthusiasm, and engagement. They asked insightful questions that pushed me to find better answers. They made it clear when an activity simply wasn’t useful or sustainable. They persevered in the face of tough organizational challenges, helping me identify where the methods needed to get simpler. Every team that I have worked with has influenced this book in some way. So, to each of you, thank you! I love what we have created together.

I’ve been fortunate to have two collaborators who have pushed my thinking and kept me honest. I want to thank Hope Gurion and Jeff Merrell for their major contributions to the development of the ideas in this book.

Hope Gurion has been a client, a partner, and a friend. As a client, her feedback helped me see what I could uniquely offer to the world. As a partner, she’s helped me expand Product Talk’s coaching capacity and has made invaluable contributions to the curriculum. As a friend, she was a sounding board when this book was just a half-baked idea, supported me throughout its writing, and provided valuable feedback as a reviewer.

Jeff Merrell, my co-instructor at Northwestern, has been an amazing thought partner as we’ve worked to bring this curriculum to HR practitioners and organizational-change agents through the Masters in Learning and Organizational Change program. Translating these ideas for a broader business audience and getting a non-product person’s perspective from Jeff has helped me develop and hone the ideas in this book. Not to mention his thoughtfulness, kindness, and unwavering support have been invaluable.

I want to thank Marty Cagan for his kind words in the Foreword, for his enthusiasm for my work, for the many referrals he has sent my way, for the critical feedback he provided when reviewing this book, and for the inspiring role he has played in developing the practice of product management. Marty, the product world is better for you. Thank you.

Martin Eriksson has been an incredible supporter of my work over the years, giving me several opportunities to speak at Mind the Product events, and was one of my trusted reviewers as I put the finishing touches on this book. Martin, your enthusiasm for the product community is infectious, and your feedback was invaluable. Thank you.

Petra Wille, who released an excellent book a few months before me, has been an incredible guide. She helped me navigate the self-publishing process, answered a million questions, and cheered me on as I finalized this book. Petra, I am so glad that we managed to write our books during the tumultuous year that was 2020 and that it brought us together. Your generosity has been bountiful. Thank you.

Melissa Suzuno, my blog editor and all-around content-marketing consultant, has been invaluable in making this book a reality. She edited and re-edited again and again. She highlighted where I needed examples or where my language wasn’t clear. She taught me when to spell out numbers versus when to use numerals (even if I still get it wrong most of the time). And in a pivotal moment, she encouraged me to stay true to the book that I wanted to write. She was also instrumental in helping me to collect, write, and edit many of the customer stories that appear both in this book and in our “Product in Practice” series on Product Talk. Melissa, thank you for all of your support as this book came to fruition.

I wrote this book over the course of 2020. For the last 7 months of that year and into the first quarter of 2021, 58 product people have given me feedback through my Early Readers program as I wrote each chapter. They helped me understand what was working, what needed more work, and, most importantly, reminded me who I was writing this book for. Adam Cox, Alastair Lee, Alex Jacquet, Aneesha Govil, Anthony Sullivan, Cara Gaynor, Carl Harris, Cedric Constant, Chitraleka Creta, Chris Holmes, Chris Mercuri (who also wrote the opening Foreword), Cormac McLoughlin, Daria Fenske, Dominique Jost, Doug Simpson, Eirik Somerville, Eliane Pohl, Emily Tate, Flavio H.C. Freitas, Frank Lagendijk, Gale Robins, Gisela Souto Nogueira, Gustavo Goldenberg, Hana Vojáková, Jeremy Saenz, Kacy Schwartz, Karthik Natarajan, Kathy Bruder, Lars Böhnke, Lars Haßler, Lauren Nham, Lisa Orr, Matt LeMay, Maureen Eibeler, Megan Bruce, Michal Voják, Mustafa Al-Qinneh, Nandita Gokhale, Nik Laufer-Edel, Oliver Winter, Pat Boonyarittipong, Pete Anderson, Philipp Krehl, Reza Shirazi, Richard Hiscutt, Ruth Guthoff-Recknagel, Samantha Jacobs, Sarah Crispin, Shalini Kadaveru, Shobhit Chugh, Simon Diegmann, Sonja Alberdina Martin, Stephanie May, Sumi Thaiveettil, Tom Kazer, Tom Kerwin, Vikas Sah, Yelena Cope, thank you for all of your feedback and support as I wrote this book.

And finally, I want to thank Rick Gaudette, my partner in life, who learned way more about continuous discovery than he ever thought he would. As I wrote this book, he rode alongside me on the daily rollercoaster that is writing a book and supported me every step of the way.