Recommendations
Check out my favourite books for UX Leaders, UX Practitioners, and women in tech.
Favourite Books for UX Leaders
Empowered
Marty Cagan's second book on product leadership and building productive product teams. This is the perfect book for any leader on a product team, be it UX, Product Management or Engineering.
Conversations Worth Having
A book for every leader, and really every human who has relationships. This book helps explain the principles of Appreciative Inquiry and how to have conversations with intent and empathy.
What CEOs Need to Know About Design
While the title suggests this book is for CEOs, this book is full of great advice for any product leader and will help you, as a design leader, build successful relationships with non-design leaders.
Favourite Books for UX Practitioners
Don't Make Me Think
This book explains the principles of intuitive User Experience in plain, easy to understand language. Bonus book: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems.
Designing For Interaction
Given to me by my first UX mentor, this book explains how good Interaction Design connects people with products and services. This book made me appreciate and understand design beyond the surface.
The Design of Everyday Things
This is probably the #1 most recommended book related to User Experience. It doesn't only focus on applications, but products and services of all kinds. Warning: it will make you highly aware of all the poor design around you, but it will also make you appreciate the good design.
Favourite Books for Women in Tech
Lean In
Lean In helped me become aware of things I have always known, which lead me to take more action against my unconscious bias and beliefs. It also was a great reminder that I am not alone and I can affect change for myself and other women.
Playing Big
This book encourages women to push outside their comfort zone, and beyond the gender norm confines of what we've been taught, to seize and create opportunity. I really appreciated the practical tools to begin taking action and to be bold.
Grit
This book shows that when it really comes down to it, grit is the key trait for success. As a woman in tech, you really need grit paired with passion to navigate through the sea of unconscious bias and glass ceilings, to move forward in your career.