A batch of the best highlights from what Felicity's read, .
MAXIMUM VIRTUAL PRODUCT When a minimum viable product approach isn’t possible, try a “maximum virtual product”—a hyperrealistic, exquisitely detailed model like those that Frank Gehry made for the Guggenheim Bilbao and all his buildings since and those that Pixar makes for each of its feature films before shooting.
How Big Things Get Done
Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
At Pearson, the life cycle has six phases instead of three, but the fundamental concepts are similar. Early-stage ideas are funded with small investments and are expected to return learning rather than financial results. In other words, teams are asked to validate their business ideas and not to return a profit. Once an idea has been validated, the product council will invest additional funds and will expect more-traditional returns.
Sense and Respond
Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
Many companies like to describe themselves as winning through operational effectiveness or customer intimacy. These sound like good ideas, but if they don’t translate into a genuinely lower cost structure or higher prices from customers, they aren’t really strategies worth having.
Playing to Win
A. G. Lafley, Roger Martin, A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin