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Build to Sell: The Lean Secret to Crafting Irresistible Products
“BUILD TO SELL is a powerful exploration of lean principles applied to product creation.”
Jeff Gothelf, Author of Lean UX
“I love this book – I wish I had written it!”
Michael Ballé, Author of The Lean Strategy
THERE IS NO GREATER WASTE THAN A PRODUCT THAT DOESN’T SELL.
Are you trying to bring a new product concept to life, find Product Market Fit for your brilliant idea, scale up your company, or pivot? Then you will need a Chief Product Engineer.
Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Linus Torvalds, Coco Chanel, and Stan Lee all embody the Chief Product Engineer mindset. They are visionary leaders who combine technical expertise with strategic and financial insight.
We think genius is not a birthright and can be developed. This is why we wrote BUILD TO SELL, to combine our decades of experience in the tech industry in a colorful handbook brimming with visuals and tools that serves as a practical guide for current and future Chief Product Engineers. This book is the ideal starting point for entrepreneurs, CEOs, product, tech and data leaders, and all the ambitious innovators at heart.
We blend examples from big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Netflix, Meta, Google, Salesforce, Snapchat, OpenAI, and Uber with stories from Chief Product Engineers in real-world businesses across various industries. You will meet Surya as she courageously leads the team through a new product concept that leverages legacy core tech. You’ll wonder with JB what emotions a digital insurance product can evoke. You will also discover how three CEOs manage to scale by keeping a razor-sharp focus on their product.
And you will meet my favorite mug... It’s more interesting than it seems, I promise.
We applied our product techniques to the book itself, revealed in Chapter 15. Along the way, you will find...
...How to avoid the 3 main causes of product failures
...A framework to align your product strategy with your innovation strategy
...The most important product practice to uncover a customer problem truly worth solving, free from bias
...The definitive tools to understand why customers should choose your product over your competitors'
...How to pose an enthusiastic challenge that gets buy-in from engineers and designers
...Our method for achieving emotion-centric design that dives deep into user emotions
...How performance-based product thinking helps you avoid getting trapped in feature frenzy mode
...The 5-step Design To Cost method to design for profitability from the start and avoid the cash wall trap
...A model to identify what needs to change and what doesn’t at each product iteration
...How to articulate a bold vision in a concept paper
...The Product Manifesto to communicate your bold vision and win the hearts of stakeholders and investors
Ready? Let’s make you a true Chief Product Engineer!
BUILD TO SELL is exceptionally insightful and perfectly aligned with our product philosophy. The book offers invaluable insights and practical guidance that resonate with our approach to creating compelling digital products. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to craft their product strategy.
Jonathan Widawski, Co-Founder & CEO at Maze, San Francisco
“There are many books that try to explain the success of Silicon Valley companies.
Jeff Gothelf, Author of Lean UX
“I love this book – I wish I had written it!”
Michael Ballé, Author of The Lean Strategy
THERE IS NO GREATER WASTE THAN A PRODUCT THAT DOESN’T SELL.
Are you trying to bring a new product concept to life, find Product Market Fit for your brilliant idea, scale up your company, or pivot? Then you will need a Chief Product Engineer.
Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Linus Torvalds, Coco Chanel, and Stan Lee all embody the Chief Product Engineer mindset. They are visionary leaders who combine technical expertise with strategic and financial insight.
We think genius is not a birthright and can be developed. This is why we wrote BUILD TO SELL, to combine our decades of experience in the tech industry in a colorful handbook brimming with visuals and tools that serves as a practical guide for current and future Chief Product Engineers. This book is the ideal starting point for entrepreneurs, CEOs, product, tech and data leaders, and all the ambitious innovators at heart.
We blend examples from big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Netflix, Meta, Google, Salesforce, Snapchat, OpenAI, and Uber with stories from Chief Product Engineers in real-world businesses across various industries. You will meet Surya as she courageously leads the team through a new product concept that leverages legacy core tech. You’ll wonder with JB what emotions a digital insurance product can evoke. You will also discover how three CEOs manage to scale by keeping a razor-sharp focus on their product.
And you will meet my favorite mug... It’s more interesting than it seems, I promise.
We applied our product techniques to the book itself, revealed in Chapter 15. Along the way, you will find...
...How to avoid the 3 main causes of product failures
...A framework to align your product strategy with your innovation strategy
...The most important product practice to uncover a customer problem truly worth solving, free from bias
...The definitive tools to understand why customers should choose your product over your competitors'
...How to pose an enthusiastic challenge that gets buy-in from engineers and designers
...Our method for achieving emotion-centric design that dives deep into user emotions
...How performance-based product thinking helps you avoid getting trapped in feature frenzy mode
...The 5-step Design To Cost method to design for profitability from the start and avoid the cash wall trap
...A model to identify what needs to change and what doesn’t at each product iteration
...How to articulate a bold vision in a concept paper
...The Product Manifesto to communicate your bold vision and win the hearts of stakeholders and investors
Ready? Let’s make you a true Chief Product Engineer!
BUILD TO SELL is exceptionally insightful and perfectly aligned with our product philosophy. The book offers invaluable insights and practical guidance that resonate with our approach to creating compelling digital products. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to craft their product strategy.
Jonathan Widawski, Co-Founder & CEO at Maze, San Francisco
“There are many books that try to explain the success of Silicon Valley companies.
- GenresBusiness
380 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 20, 2024
7 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Sandrine Olivencia
5 books1 followerSandrine is a lean strategy expert and cofounder at Taktique. She’s the main author of Build To Sell and co-author of The Lean Sensei. With a strong focus on sustainable business scaling, product design and a thorough background in lean strategy, she empowers CEOs and teams worldwide.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2025
Build to sell goes beyond agile and lean practices for product mindset.
As a tech and product leader, I appreciated the structure and thesis.
It sets a high bar and introduces the concept and definition of Chief Product Engineer.
I will reuse some of the practical tools provided to clarify product vision, strategy, and operations.
As a tech and product leader, I appreciated the structure and thesis.
It sets a high bar and introduces the concept and definition of Chief Product Engineer.
I will reuse some of the practical tools provided to clarify product vision, strategy, and operations.
September 8, 2024
It's rare to read about lean engineering in the tech industry and I think it needs it!
It is cheap to fail and rebuild software but not cheap enough not to try hard to build best in class products first time. The book provides techniques and examples to truly understand your clients and build products they will want to buy.
It is cheap to fail and rebuild software but not cheap enough not to try hard to build best in class products first time. The book provides techniques and examples to truly understand your clients and build products they will want to buy.
January 3, 2026
cant decide if this was ai written, transcribed from a poor lecturer or actually useful. drones on and on at times for no reason.
some good buts of info here and there but nowhere near the 5 stars people give it
some good buts of info here and there but nowhere near the 5 stars people give it
June 25, 2024
A great translation of state-of-the-art product engineering to tech
I loved Designing the Future from Jim Morgan and Jeffrey Liker. And they even made the effort to give examples o their Lean Product Development approach not just in manufacturing but also in tech environments.
But if you are in tech and don’t have time to read all the books, it’s great to have the synthesis directly applicable to your context. That’s what Build to Sell is. It’s the book I will recommend people in tech from now on.
I loved Designing the Future from Jim Morgan and Jeffrey Liker. And they even made the effort to give examples o their Lean Product Development approach not just in manufacturing but also in tech environments.
But if you are in tech and don’t have time to read all the books, it’s great to have the synthesis directly applicable to your context. That’s what Build to Sell is. It’s the book I will recommend people in tech from now on.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews