Ask HN: What are the best books on talking to users?
Hi HN!
With AI making it easier than ever to create software, it feels more important than ever to understand how to speak to users
That said, I feel like there's a ton of content online on how to build, but far fewer recommendations on how to figure out what users want and what to build that avoids confirmation bias, false signals, etc.
I'm looking for recommendations on insightful books (or other resources) that others have personally found helpful for developing user interviewing skills, framing good questions, and generally becoming better at interacting with real-world users.
What has helped you bridge that gap between the code/AI/product creation side, and actually communicating with users?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! :)
There are three main subproblems to your questions:
1. Find out what users wants. The answer to that is research and the only book I have is Just Enough Research by Erika Hall. I also found Essentials of Business Research Methods by Joe Hair Jr. et al.
2. Build the thing that the user wants. That's mostly the real of Software Requirements and I have two candidates for you:
- Mastering the Requirements Process: Getting Requirements Right by Suzanne and James Robertson
- Software Requirements by Karl Wiegers and Joy Beatty.
3. Build something that the user likes and that he can use. That's UX and I have three candidates this time:
- Observing the User Experience, 2nd Edition by E. Goodman and M. Kunlavsky
- Understanding Your Users, 2nd Edition by K. Baxter et al.
- The UX Book by R. Hartson and P. S. Pyla
All of those just emphasize having an objective view of what you want to bring to the users and a rational execution strategy. I haven't read all so I can't judge them, but I believe they will give you enough starting points for you to devise your own method.
Love your breakdown and suggested books!
Do you have 1 book out of these you suggest above all else? (just wondering where to start :))
Continuous discovery habits by Teresa Torres
https://www.producttalk.org/2021/05/continuous-discovery-hab...
And
The mom test
Are the ones I’ve used the most as a product manager trying to talk to customers every week.
Continuous discovery habits sounds interesting, any takeaways from the book you found particularly interesting?
I like the framing around discovery being an ongoing 'habit' as opposed to something that's one and done
About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, Christopher Noessel, with Jason Csizmadi and Doug LeMoine extensively covers how to talk with users.
"what customers want" Anthony W. Ulwick
https://a.co/d/5UHzfNK (amazon link)
Looks interesting - downloading the sample!
Any interesting tidbits from the book you'd like to share?
- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
- Deploy Empathy by Michele Hansen
- Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra
Downloading the Kindle samples for these now!
Do you have a favorite out of the 3?
Thanks for the recommendations!
I think The Mom Test stands out as a favorite just because it really made me realize I had no idea what I was doing.
Making Users Awesome guided me towards the mindset shift needed to build product better, and Deploy Empathy gave me the exact questions to ask in customer interviews when I was stuck.
Great, super helpful hearing your takeaways from each book
Thank you
'Design of Everyday Things' to first have sympathy with the users.
This book is always at the top of Amazon charts, but have never read it
Always have thought it was more around design rather than talking to users but I think sympathizing is the first step
Thanks for the rec!
“The mom test” maybe?
2nd mom test. Such a classic
Have heard so many good things about the mom test
Definitely will give it a read! :)
The Geek Leader's Handbook: Essential Leadership Insight for People with Technical Backgrounds
Is this more for management/leadership as opposed to talking to users?
Seems like a good book overall! :)
It reads like it’s focused on either dealing with internal stakeholders, representatives of the users (Product managers) or consulting. But either way dealing with non technical people.
Sounds cool!
Downloading the sample
[flagged]
Everyone's talking about the Mom Test so I should definitely give it a read!
Someone else recommended Deploy Empathy which I've never heard of
Feels like that would help in life generally!