Inspired Book Club Template
I created this post to share resources and my experience of taking product teams through Inspired.
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan is an excellent book for product teams to learn about product management principles. The publisher describes it as “a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love―and that will work for your business.”
It’s a book I have read every year since 2016 and has had a significant impact on my career. I have read it as a group with my product teams and have recently created a few resources to take our current technology team through the book.
12-Week Reading Plan
The 12-week reading plan is designed to take teams through the book in one business quarter. Each week averages about 40 minutes of listening to the audiobook at 1X speed.
Weekly Discussion
Teams meet weekly to spend 5-10 minutes summarizing the key concepts and 20 minutes of discussion. In each discussion, the team captures key takeaways and product principles to apply.
If you have a larger group, I’d suggest breaking into small groups of 5-6 to discuss. Much larger than that, and it is difficult for everyone to get a chance to talk.
We had a large group of 26, our entire technology organization, including product managers, engineers, and leadership. The product managers discussed earlier in the week to facilitate the group breakouts with their product team. After the breakouts, we’d come back as a larger group, and each product team would share highlights from their discussion. We started meeting weekly for 30 minutes but moved to 45 minutes to have more discussion time.
Book Club Worksheet
The Inspired Book Club Worksheet has the following tabs to track key concepts and takeaways to customize for your teams.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I will update this post as I get suggestions and feedback from teams.
Originally published on justinmeats.com
Product Management Leader @ Intermountain | Ex Adobe | Building world-class teams and software that deliver results
10moNice template! I'd be curious to know how syncing up weekly works out for the team (and in particular how consistent attendance is, especially for anyone who might be attending the book club as "optional"). When we did a book club on this in the past we met once per month and covered 1/3 of the book each time. Each meeting was for 1 hour (not enough time to go in depth on all concepts, but still enough to have some great dialog and actionable items). It's been a few years since we did the first book club, but we still frequently reference back to the book in other meetings as we apply the principles. I like the idea of weekly syncs. Almost makes it more like a class than just a book club. More of a commitment so you really need to be dedicated to the book, but this book would be 100% worth it.
Sr. Program Manager @ Expedia Group | Certified Scrum Master, AWS
2yVery cool! This is a book that we're going to launch an internal book club and the template and plan that you shared along with tips is fantastic! Thank you!
Engineering and Product Leader
3yThis is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thanks! I’ll provide feedback.
Senior PM | B2B SaaS & Healthcare | Customer Obsessed | Health Empowered
3yWyatt Thompson Carol Matthews-Nicoli Cool template and format for book club content
Director of Information Technology at Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois
3yI am also currently reading this book based on your recommendation. I am really enjoying it.