Industry Reviews
"Top 11 Books to Watch for Q4." -- 250 Words (250words.com) A "Best Book of the year" pick." ... worthy reading for anyone looking to launch a new product or tweak an existing one." -- SUCCESS magazine "... a welcome reminder that respecting customers' emotional needs should be your top product-development priority--no matter what you're designing." -- Inc. "If consumers engage with a product to the point of modifying their own behavior--hello iPad!--the marketing is a done deal. It's all about identifying the opportunities then designing products that connect." -- Qantas - The Australia Way "Well-Designed provides a refreshing approach to the way we view successful services, policies, strategies and business models." -- Engineering and Technology Magazine, The Institution of Engineering and Technology ADVANCE PRAISE for Well-Designed: Richard Florida, professor, University of Toronto and New York University; author, The Rise of the Creative Class-- "Steve Jobs's creativity as a designer was the key to his entrepreneurial genius. But can Jobs's style of 'design thinking' be scaled? Jon Kolko shows that it can be--step by step, through a set of processes that are iterative, collaborative, and, best of all, easily learned. Well-Designed is bracingly practical and deeply inspiring." John Maeda, design partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; author, The Laws of Simplicity and Redesigning Leadership-- "Great companies are made through great products, and increasingly, great products are made through design. Kolko demonstrates that product managers must learn to think like designers; they need to embrace intuition, emotion, and most importantly, empathy. This insightful book is a must-read." Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA, the professional association for design-- "Jon Kolko illuminates the intuitive skills of the designer with such clarity, truly describing 'how' instead of just 'what.' Two millennia ago, Vitruvius's manifesto on great design exhorted, 'utilitas, firmitas, e venustas.' Well-Designed expands on this: make things useful, usable, and delightful--and here's how." Liz Danzico, cofounder and Chair, MFA Interaction Design Program, School of Visual Arts; Creative Director, NPR-- "There are books about design, and there are books about leadership. By uniting practical processes and insightful ideas and interviews, Jon Kolko gives us both: an essential playbook comprising advice, research, and methods for engaged product design leadership." Robert Fabricant, cofounder and Principal, Design Impact Group, Dalberg Global Development Advisors-- "Product managers are the most important link between great ideas and great products. Jon Kolko speaks directly to this critical audience, providing the practical know-how to make design fit within their day-to-day decision making. Well-Designed is the essential guide to design that all product managers will learn from and love." Don Norman, Director, Design Lab, University of California, San Diego; author, Design of Everyday Things-- "Well-Designed presents a unique, powerful, human-centered way to design a product and then, how to master the important and oft-neglected task of guiding it through the complexities of development and delivery. This unique, easy to read, and powerful book is essential for anyone involved with product management."
