Click: How to Make What People Want: Start Big Projects Fast, Find the Right Strategy, and Prove It Before You Build It

by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky (contributor)

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Sprint, a guide for starting big projects the smart way—based on firsthand experience with more than three hundred new products and businesses.

Every big project—whether it’s technology, sneakers, or a neighborhood café—requires a big investment to get off the ground. Unfortunately, most big projects flop with customers. Too many teams waste time, money, and opportunity because they follow the wrong strategy and lose sight of what really Do people want what you’re making? Does your solution click with customers?

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky—two brilliant product designers who spent years at Google Ventures and elsewhere before founding a venture capital firm together—have helped hundreds of teams bring new products and services into the world. As designers and investors, they have a front-row seat to some of the world’s most successful startups. Click is the practical guidebook based on their experience—a proven system for starting projects the right way, to make better decisions and move quickly toward a solution that clicks with customers.

Inside are twelve important lessons, a step-by-step playbook, and memorable stories from Nike, Microsoft, Google, Slack, and the frontiers of artificial intelligence research. Building on their bestselling book Sprint, Knapp and Zeratsky introduce new recipes that teams can use to quickly and confidently start new projects. For anyone who has ever had a good idea but didn’t know how to start, this book is for you.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design, Startup, Entrepreneurship

1 pages, Audio CD

Published April 22, 2025

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, tiny book (3 hours in the audio-book form) - if you've read "Sprint" before (by the same author), you know what to expect:
- it's not a book to change your mindset - it's not one of those philosophical discourses
- it doesn't bring ground-breaking insights
- it ain't filled with tons of practical examples - war-stories from the industry that reveal "secrets of the kitchen"

It's a prescription to use. Copy'n'paste. For folks who lack discipline and/or can't operate with a clear framework to follow. This prescription is in fact very simple, and also with a very clear goal in mind: how to test/validate/prototype the absolutely minimal version of a product to make sure it does indeed have a unique value proposition (or using the author's words: "it clicks").

So in the end, if you expect the book to be full of heuristics for all kinds of occasions - no, this is not what you can find here. Just an algorithm, a mental model, and some guidance on how to execute. That makes this book very "American", but also easy to apply - if you enjoy that ways of working. Frankly, I didn't find anything truly revealing here. BUT on the other hand, I don't see why this framework would not be an improvement for someone who's struggling with the earliest stages of product development.

[Isha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick practical read with a lot of foundational guidance. Probably nothing new if you’re experienced with this kind of stuff but if not, it provides a very helpful structure for getting started!

[nas jab · Rating 5 out of 5]

If are a founder. Read this book and do it. That’s how I pivoted from my current MENA based venture

[Britt Meier · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a quick read and had some good formats for effective and efficient collaboration to speed up ideation. Nothing was revolutionary and this could have been shorter, but I liked the visuals and may try some of these ideas.

[Rich B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the previous book, Sprint, which outlined a process to run innovation workshops using a lot of methodology from agile.

This one covers a process you can use as a precursor to that process to get the basics right of your idea / offer. It does a perfectly decent job at doing that, but no more than that, and overall, I was a bit underwhelmed by it.

It's a quick, OK read with a decent process, some OK examples and a few interesting tips, but it has some clear flaws as an overall reading experience.

First, their basic template, which they called a Foundation Hypothesis, is basically a brand positioning statement and map given a makeover. No real problem with that, other than they keep implying this is some sort of groundbreaking new way of doing this, when in fact anyone who's worked in marketing or at an ad agency in the last 20 years will find all the elements very familiar.

If you're completely new to the topic, they do a mostly good job at explaining it, but if you've done positioning before, there aren't that many new ideas in here.
It also often oversimplifies how the process works, and when they do acknowledge that things might not always go to their plan, their basic response is - try it again, and trust us, we've done this hundreds of times. Not that helpful.

Overall, it also feels very padded out. There's a lot of repetition and a lot of images of their templates filled out with their examples, plus not especially helpful anecdotes about their childhood and their time at Google (they mention their time at Google a lot by the way).

It feels like they had an OK idea to start, but realised they didn't have a book's worth of content from it, so stretched it as far as they could to make it feel more substantial than it is.

I got this on a Kindle deal and got some value out of it, but I'd have felt short-changed if I'd paid full-price for it, as it's quite lightweight and beginner-level in terms of what it covers. A passable read, but no more than that.

[bookyoushouldreadasap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka „KLIK! Twórz to, czego ludzie naprawdę pragną” autorstwa Jake’a Knappa i Johna Zeratsky’ego to esencjonalny przewodnik dla każdego, kto marzy o stworzeniu produktu trafiającego w dziesiątkę. Twórcy legendarnej metody Sprint tym razem cofają się do fundamentów i skupiają na kluczowym momencie, w którym oferta idealnie zazębia się z potrzebami rynku, co obrazują sugestywną metaforą pasujących do siebie klocków LEGO. Publikacja wyróżnia się niezwykle przystępnym, niemal gawędziarskim stylem, w którym teoretyczne koncepcje biznesowe zostają zastąpione żywymi historiami inżynierów i analizą realnych sukcesów gigantów takich jak Google, Slack czy Airbnb. Autorzy prowadzą czytelnika przez proces identyfikacji problemów, wykorzystywania unikalnych atutów oraz bezlitosnej weryfikacji hipotez, kładąc szczególny nacisk na to, by nie budować skomplikowanych rozwiązań w oparciu o błędne założenia. Dzięki praktycznym listom kontrolnym, krótkim i konkretnym rozdziałom oraz nastawieniu na szybkie eksperymenty, „KLIK!” przestaje być tylko kolejną książką o marketingu, a staje się podręcznikiem przetrwania w nowoczesnej gospodarce. To lektura obowiązkowa dla założycieli startupów, projektantów i menedżerów, która w brutalnie szczery, ale inspirujący sposób uczy, jak przestać marnować czas na projekty skazane na porażkę i zacząć tworzyć rozwiązania, których ludzie faktycznie pożądają. Jeśli szukasz konkretnej mapy drogowej od pomysłu do rynkowego sukcesu, ta pozycja jest obecnie jednym z najlepszych wyborów na rynku.

[Periplus Bookshop]

Ketika banyak proyek besar gagal karena salah menebak kebutuhan pelanggan, muncul sebuah kerangka sederhana untuk memastikan ide Anda benar-benar “klik” sejak hari pertama. Metodenya memperkenalkan Foundation Sprint—proses dua hari yang membantu tim memulai proyek secara tepat, mengambil keputusan lebih cepat, dan bergerak sigap menuju solusi. Berangkat dari pengalaman para penulis mendampingi ratusan peluncuran produk dan bisnis, buku ini mengajari tim untuk fokus pada pertanyaan inti: apakah orang sungguh menginginkan yang Anda buat?Ditulis oleh Jake Knapp bersama John Zeratsky (duo penulis di balik Sprint), isinya merangkum sepuluh pelajaran kunci, playbook langkah-demi-langkah, dan kisah nyata dari Nike, Google, Slack, hingga frontier riset AI. Pendekatannya sangat praktis: hari pertama memetakan masalah pelanggan dan diferensiasi; hari kedua memperbaiki solusi lewat kritik terarah serta uji cepat dengan pengguna. Hasil akhirnya adalah panduan ringkas untuk menemukan product-market fit dari hulu—sebelum waktu dan anggaran terbuang sia-sia. Click ini cocok untuk pendiri perusahaan rintisan, manajer produk, pemasar startup, product manager, marketer, desainer UX/UI, pemilik UMKM, intrapreneur di perusahaan besar, fasilitator design sprint, hingga mahasiswa bisnis dan teknologi yang mencari cara cepat dan teruji untuk memulai proyek penting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ljeo...

[Noureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great and easy read for me. I gave it a solid 4 stars because it was written by people at Google and really resonated with my own work experience (nothing new per say but still nice to read). I liked how short and to the point it was. I loved all the examples they gave, which kept the concepts simple and easy to understand. It's not going to replace a full on startup or sprint structuring book, but it's a quick read with a lot of simple, useful reminders.

I thought of it like a little guide to remind you to use these techniques at work. If you're looking to start a startup and want to learn all the nitty gritty details, I would recommend starting with books like The Hard Thing About Hard Things or Zero to One instead. This one is more of a useful reminder book than an instructional one.

[Eduardo Ayala · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 4 out of 5
“Click” by Jake Knapp is a fun, fast, and practical read. I haven’t read “Sprint” yet, but this book definitely convinced me to pick it up next. The framework Jake presents is simple and accessible — anyone can apply it, whether you’re in a startup or just testing new ideas. What stood out most to me were the illustrations and visuals; they really helped bring the concepts to life and made the reading experience more enjoyable. It only took me about three hours to finish, and it left me feeling inspired and ready to take action. Highly recommended for anyone looking to launch projects with clarity and speed.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe there’s nothing groundbreaking in this book - but it’s actually really fun to read - I love all the examples, storytelling and illustrations. It’s basically a workshop format, and it gives (again, like in Sprint) a solid foundation equipped with a framework, schedule, checklist and a Miro template to work with. It opens perspectives and emphasizes why foundational work is important, and it can be used for founders and startups but also smaller projects in larger companies. If you don’t have a buy-in you can still use the exercises in smaller meetings.

[madsvid · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a way to develop a new product

I purchased the book read straight through it without stopping at a random place and putting it on a shelf for 6-months before continuing.

Admittedly, I am currently in development with a "few" projects, and have already started using the lessons learned here.

Should add that parts of the workflow used in this book, can be used as a technique for conducting sprints in other ways.

"Positive Emergency" is a nice way of telling others that you are busy.

[Vijay Rajendran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this engaging way to rethink why and how we build new products, services, and businesses. It brings the best of human-centered design and hypothesis-driven business experimentation. Highly recommend.

[Nicholas Pokorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic how-to guide on knowing your audience and getting them to pay attention to your message. As a media student, I learned a few things from it.

[Agney Menon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short breezy read about creating a foundational hypothesis for your product.

[Matthew Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was fine but often refers to external material too often. I've read the author's other book Sprint and it's much better.

[Tom Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas that i can apply to sales and marketing plans What and how can i sell something that clicks ?

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book. Unique ideas, too. Just save it for if you are really thinking of making a new product or in the early stages of product development.

[VLeighIsMe · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book gave a step to step guide on how to validate a product idea. A must read for all startup founders.

[Amelia Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and practical. Offers some good practices and business/prod design mental models

[Raluca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is short and concise. It describes the method along some examples, and gives instructions on how to run the Foundation Sprint.

[Ellie Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immediately implemented. Raving success. Highly recommend.