Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It

by Brian de Haaff

Love is the surprising emotion that company builders cannot afford to ignore. Genuine, heartfelt devotion and loyalty from customers — yes, love — is what propels a select few companies ahead. Think about the products and companies that you really care about and how they make you feel. You do not merely like those products, you adore them. Consider your own emotions and a key insight is Love is central to business. Nobody talks about it, but it is obvious in hindsight. How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It shares what Silicon Valley-based author and Aha! CEO Brian de Haaff knows from a career of founding successful technology companies and creating award-winning products. He reveals the secret to the phenomenal growth of Aha! and the engine that powers lasting customer devotion — a set of principles that he pioneered and named The Responsive Method. Lovability provides valuable lessons and actionable steps for product and company builders everywhere, • Why you should rethink everything you know about building a business • What a product really is • The magic of finding what your customer’s truly desire • How to turn business strategy and product roadmaps into customer love • Why you should chase company value, not valuation • Surveys to measure your company’s lovability Brian de Haaff has spent the last 20 years focused on business strategy, product management, and bringing disruptive technologies to market. And in preparation for writing this book, he interviewed well-known startup founders, product managers, executives, and CEOs at hundreds of name brand and agile organizations. Their experiences, along with headline-grabbing case studies (both inspiring successes and cautionary tales), will help readers discover how to build something that matters. Much has been written about how entrepreneurs build innovative products and successful businesses, but the author's message is original and refreshing. He convincingly explains that there is a better path forward — a people-first way grounded in love. In a business world that has increasingly emphasized hype over substance and get-big-at-any-cost thinking over profitable and sustainable growth, it's time for a new recipe for company success. Insightful, thought-provoking, and sometimes controversial, Lovability is the book that you turn to when you know there has to be a better way.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Management, Leadership

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2017

About the author

Brian de Haaff seeks business and wilderness adventure. He has more than 20 years of experience building breakthrough products and has founded multiple successful software companies. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aha! — one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and the world’s #1 product roadmap software. His two previous startups were acquired by well-known public companies.

Brian writes and speaks about product and company growth and the adventure of living a meaningful life. More than 200,000 people follow him on social media and he is a regular contributor to Inc., Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post. He has been named multiple times by LinkedIn as one of the world's 10 most influential management and culture writers.

He is a proud graduate of both The University of California at Berkeley and Northwestern University. Brian lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and three sons. Lovability is his first book.

Reviews

[Anton Iokov · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have been a powerful medium-sized article but somehow turned into a book full of self-repetitiveness, narcissism and plain marketing bullshit.

Most of the ideas are reasonable and inspiring but they are repeated so often that you start to despise them after the 4th chapter.

[Natz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some editor at some point should have mentioned how the repetitive use of a million different acronyms would get SO tiring. If I put this book down for a day and picked it up again, I'd have to go through the, "Huh? What did THAT acronym mean, again?" and go back to look it up because the author couldn't just make all his points without giving every strategy its own unique ~name~. Other than that, a more accurate title for this book should have been, "Lovability: How to Build a SOFTWARE Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It."

[Anton Iokov · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have been a powerful medium-sized article but somehow grown into a book full of self-repetitiveness, narcissism and plain marketing bullshit.

Most of the ideas are reasonable and even inspiring but they are repeated so often that you can't help despising them after chapter 4.

[Jonathan Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grandpa rules - grow a profitable and successful business
- Story of mine craft vs. zygna. Building something people love vs. using a psychologist to figure out how to sell more add-ones
- "Lovability - the capacity to earn genuine, heartfelt love and loyalty from customers - is the secret ingredient that propels a select few organizations ahead and leads not only to consistent growth and profitability but sustainable happiness for everyone involved[…] we do not think about 'loving' a product as being a legitimate metric of its success. Too many of us are busy obsessing over vanity numbers, from unique visitors, to trials, to product engagement. But we should put love at center stage, because what is more important to a business's long term success than customers loving and being loyal to it?" [p10]

"To us it's silly to say, 'it's not personal, it's just business.' Business has always been personal. Unfortunately, that idea is the first casualty of the valuation over value model." [p123]

10 Building Blocks of Lovability
1) Hope - FMOT
2) Satisfaction - SMOT
3) Care - Customer-focused Service. Requires values > value
4) Confidence - Reputation sustainability / Brand
5) Trust - the "lovability" line
6) Scale - new versions anticipate customer needs. "wow" factor
7) Sustainability - Financial health
8) Motivation - Customers are inspired by your product
9) Fun - Customers enjoy what they do more
10) Halo - Customers become evangelists

Customer service people are like good tour guides [p103]
- They are knowledgeable, sometimes spending years of studying their domain, and have gained deep insights.
- They are empathetic and understand that it is not always easy to immerse yourself in something new.
- They are genuine, eager to share what they know because their knowledge and experience excites them.
- They are relaxed. They have no hidden agendas and are confident in presenting diverse perspectives.
- They are dependable. They show up on time and are responsive to questions because they know curiosity is a teacher's best friend.
Follow's Aha's approach of not having traditional sales people, but customer success people who in term create evangelists among users similar to Atlassian and Dropbox: "All great guides are motivated by intrinsic rewards. It's not a profession to pursue to get rich. They want to lead because it is in their nature to help and share what they know. Their passion fuels their work. And their professional success ultimately depends on their client's success and their joy of learning. That leads to love, enthusiastic referrals, steady growth… and no need for strong-armed sales." [p104]

It's possible to automate customer interactions (mandatory for scale) and be efficient while keeping a human face. Give customers info they need to self-serve, but also be incredibly responsive when they need to interact with you.
- Stop selling, people want to buy and not be sold to
- Intercept & Engage. Automate certain interception points, when you think a customer is likely to benefit from human interaction but they are too shy to ask
- When time to engage, make sure a human gets on quickly

The Responsive Method (TRM)
- Goal first: know the organization's vision and have clear, measurable goals
- Wow curious!: insatiable thirst for asking questions and learning about customers
- Interrupt-driven: interruptions from customers = valuable opportunities to learn
- Yea or nay now: answer inquiries immediately with a yes/no
- Transparent: openness, respect, honesty
- Kind: compassion, respect, caring

Success Disasters - good problems to have. Plan for what is likely and do not worry about everything that might happen along the way.
- "You can expend a lot of energy on things like that and the problems might never materialize, but the good things do not either because you were too preoccupied to make them happen. Fear carries a heavy opportunity cost. You can afford not to worry about unlikely problems ahead of time if you trust that you and your team can solve them when they happen." [p172]

Lovability Toolkit
- Are the building blocks for lovability there?
○ Relief
○ Satisfaction
○ Support
○ Confidence
○ Trust
○ Scale
○ Sustainability
○ Motivation
○ Fun
○ halo
- Are the signs of lovability there?
○ Hugs
○ Love notes
○ megaphones
- How much do customers love/like/tolerate/despise your product?
- How lovable is your company among employees?
○ Have purpose
○ Value work
○ Reject work/life
○ 100 + 100 = 100 (equal priority of company and employee, ownership)
○ Be anywhere
○ Teach hard
○ Grow talent
○ Honor reality
○ Work it
○ Keep pedaling
○ Let go

[Angelo G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read. Anyone that works for a company with a product needs to read this as it provides a great insight into how focusing on the entire customer experience will ultimately lead to long term success.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I happened upon this company on LinkedIn and thought they had an interesting story and philosophy and way of doing business--focus on meeting a need and making customers happy to be successful. This book is most helpful if you are planning to start a business, particularly a product-based company, but there are some helpful insights for success beyond business. Listen, care, focus, and be happy!

Here are a few favorite quotes:

"There are better ways to build a business (p. 2)."

"The idea of putting customers first and acting with integrity is gaining traction (p. 4)."

"Business is not about software or hardware, but the people who create value (p. 5)."

"A human-centered approach is consistent with the time-tested values of our grandparents and the way they did business (p. 5)."

"We also wanted to create a place where people would love to work (p. 7)."

"Our goals did not seem unreasonable... Create software that would help others build better products. Share information freely and remove friction. Eliminate traditional approaches to selling. Take care of our customers... Set smart employees free... Take a long-term outlook... Redefine what a technology company could be (p. 7)."

"Lovability--the capacity to earn genuine, heartfelt love and loyalty from customers--is the secret ingredient that propels a select few organizations ahead and leads not only to consistent growth and profitability but sustainable happiness for everyone involved (p. 10)."

"Lovable products, services, and companies are disrupting entire industries. They are changing the world (p. 11)."

"A corporation does not do anything: its people and customers do (p. 11)."

"My goal with this book is to give you a clear path to building products and a business that customers love (p. 11)."

"It is a relationship-based approach guided by the same ideals that guide healthy relationships in other parts of our lives--honesty, empathy, communication, and authenticity (p. 12)."

"Build businesses around integrity, human happiness, long-term sustainable prosperity, and mutually beneficial exchanges of value (p. 12)."

"Customer support builds value and trust (p. 20)."

"The product is the complete experience and the relationship you and the customer share... the seven components are... marketing... sales... technology... supporting systems... third-party integrations... support... policies (p. 21)."

"Your customer experience is your product (p. 26)."

"A customer journey map is a great way to blend analytical data... and anecdotal data... into a complete picture that answers a big question: How are our customers experiencing our company and where are we failing to deliver a lovable experience (p. 27)?"

"Understanding the customer's journey and need at a deep level... transformed both the customer's internal culture and our own... That's what leads to love, loyalty, and profitability (p. 29)."

"Know them and honestly care about helping them (p. 35)."

"What is the purpose of your product?... Profit is the outcome of a well-executed CPE, not its purpose (p. 35)."

"Service and relationships matter... Consider the customer journey... Your values are your product... Every product has a purpose (p. 37)."

"What makes Airbnb truly unique in a world of wannabes is its understanding that its product is not rooms... It's trust (p. 41)."

"Obsessed with building valuation and pursuing the next round of funding, founders often delay focus on the CPE, building customer value, or helping employees grow... We wanted to build something that real people with real needs would find value in and pay for... That focus paid off fast (p. 51)."

"Lovability is the only success that really matters (p. 51)."

"A lovable product solves a real need (p. 52)."

"Lovability is backed with integrity (p. 53)."

"Do the right thing because it's the right thing (p. 53)."

"Sometimes, caring about customers means telling them that you're not a good fit--and even helping them find an alternative (p. 54)."

"Every person in an organization has a role to play in building a lovable product (p. 59)."

"Trust grows from 'moments of truth' when you have to back up your values with action (p. 62)."

"The building blocks stack up... hope, satisfaction, care, confidence, trust, scale, sustainability, motivation, fun, halo (p. 66)."

"Stay curious. To get to genuine lovability, keep digging and understand your customers' real needs and motivations (p. 69)."

"Business is made up of human interactions... Love is central to business (p. 77)."

"Lovability... solves a problem... means helpful, effective support personnel (p. 80)."

"Lovability lets employees focus on being better (p. 84)."

"Appreciation is not about praise. It is about the opportunity to rise based on your effort and accomplishments. Sustainably happy organizations promote from within and create a culture where every employee knows that achievement will be rewarded... Profit sharing encourages a team to take ownership (p. 85)."

"Stable companies with happy workforces also perform better financially than high-anxiety, high-turnover businesses (p. 86)."

"Lovability means you are responsible for being your best (p. 89)."

"Valuation is the value of an asset, usually calculated by an expert... it is highly quantitative... Value, on the other hand, is a measure of the importance, usefulness, or worth of something (p. 96)."

"The best businesses are usually tortoises, not hares--slow and steady, relying on personal relationships and responsiveness to grow sales, create value, and build customer trust (p. 97)."

"Build something that you feel good about and love working in (p. 99)."

"Distributed teams make it possible to hire the best people wherever they are (p. 104)."

"Lovability is not new. It is the way our grandparents and great-grandparents did business... Keep it simple. Put your head down, ignore the hype, and focus on your customers. Learn what they care about, what they need, and what makes their lives better. Then build that. Eliminate the distractions and drama that keep your team from doing their finest work. Do everything you can to deliver value that your customers will not only recognize but sacrifice for (p. 109)."

"'What problem do we want to help customers solve and how can we solve it better than anyone else (p. 117)?'"

"The people who founded companies in past generations did not rely on massive funding and market hype to launch their businesses. Instead, they saw a genuine customer need... and started a business to satisfy it (p. 121)."

"The Responsive Method includes... integrity... ambition... effort... skill... learning (p. 129)."

"We will achieve... By this date... By taking these actions... For this reason... (p. 134)."

"A sustainable organization respects the employee as the deliverer and creator of lovability and understands that you cannot foster love unless you feel it (p. 138)."

"What are your goals?... What customer problem will your product solve?... What are your initiatives?... What features are the highest priority (p. 148)?"

"Curiosity also helps people develop the empathy that is critical for lovable customer relationships. Empathy comes from understanding another person's situation--including their challenges and pain--and genuinely caring about them. You get there by asking sincere questions, finding common ground, and seeing the situation from the other person's perspective (p. 152)."

"Two words for startups about interruptions: Cherish them (p. 153)."

"People are the most important resource for any business, and people... respond best to kindness, respect, humility, and empathy. You never know what other people are going through in their lives (p. 157)."

"Sustainable happiness is about achieving what you want in your whole life, which includes what you do for work (p. 159)."

"You can build a sustainable, profitable business that is also good for and to people (p. 160)."

"An environment where employees derive pleasure from solving customer problems may sound idealistic, but it is both sound business practice and crucial for lovability (p. 175)."

"'Trust your team. If you do, your customers will trust them too (p. 187).'"

"Every interaction with employees either reinforces or contradicts your stated values and impacts whether people trust you to do what you say you will do (p. 202)."

"Giving people goals stretches them and brings them to life (p. 207)."

"Keep learning. Focus. Train harder. Be more transparent. Do one thing that will make customers love you. Then do another (p. 211)."

"Do what makes you happy and heals you and others will be drawn to your vision (p. 214)."

"Lovability requires a 24/7 focus on product and human interaction--there is no break (p. 215)."

"Companies that foster delight/love can maintain higher margins because their customers are willing to pay a premium for a wonderful experience (p. 224)."

[Monty Mitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a fan of what De Haaff has built and largely agree with the approach that he lays out in this book. Unfortunately, the book falls a bit short in being a persuasive argument for bucking the trend of Silicon Valley's 'raise as much cash and probably burn out' approach to building companies. The main issue I have with the book is that it reads more like a collection of long blog posts as opposed to a tightly constructed narrative. The consequences of this are excessive repetition, an outsider's tone, and glossing over interesting ideas.

The repetition of ideas and terminology was such that I found myself scanning the text until I found a new idea and this became more frequent the further I got into the book.

Regarding tone, I couldn't help but compare this book to the books and writings produced by Basecamp's leaders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson as they have similar approaches to product and business building. Fried and Hansson's writing have a much more 'reporting from the trenches' tone that really ground their thinking in reality. However, Lovability feels a bit more like it was written by someone who just knew de Haaff really well. I'm not saying someone else wrote it but I do think some more upfront planning and overall editing could have fixed this. There's just not enough of him in this. De Haaff has a wealth of experience and that should have been more front and center in this book. As an example, he lays out a variety of phased steps for building a great product experience. This would have been a perfect place to include Aha!'s experience in getting these right and where in his career he saw these steps being implemented improperly. Without that, it just feels theoretical. There is a moment where he describes why chooses not to hire a sales team and feels that sales should be more akin to tour guides based on his experience of visiting historic sites in southern Spain. These are the moments that ground his ideas in something tangible but they are rare.

The book also gives equal time to cliched ideas and innovative ideas and that's a real miss. He devotes the same amount of writing to the idea that businesses should be kind (of course) to the idea that businesses should be interrupt driven and immediately squash all bugs (I guess that most software teams don't operate like this). It's such an interesting idea and seems to be a central operating principle of Aha! so why is it treated more of a bullet point than actually deep diving into this? It should have been its own chapter.

In general, Lovability feels like it was edited by a marketing team (that's not intended as an insult, editing marketing content and editing a novel are two vastly different things) and I hope that should he write another book, and I hope he does, that he finds a way to construct a narrative that includes his life, learnings, and failures, as a more central part of it.

[Michael Dubakov · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is OK, but overly optimistic.
I personally haven't found anything new here, but it resonates of my vision of the world, thus stretched 4 stars.

It looks like only positive sides of the authors approach are enumerated, while all negative or problematic sides are carefully avoided. Usual for such books business examples carefully selected to form a right point of view, so I felt manipulated at times, despite the fact that the author is sincere.

[Alex Schmidt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book wasn’t what I thought it would be. Think this is more for people creating a new product vs what I do since my company gives me everything I could possibly need to be successful. Got 2 good nuggets out of it but wouldn’t recommend unless you are trying to start up a company from scratch.

[Roshan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could have been covered in 2 or 3 pages... a bit like "Start with Why" in that regard

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've so far read two exceptional business books this year written by the founders of two SaaS platforms we use at BigChange: “The Product-Led Organization: Drive Growth By Putting Product at the Center of Your Customer Experience” by Todd Olson, founder of Pendo, and Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It by Brian de Haaff, founder of Aha.io

The authors of both books lead product-lead organisations, with Todd's book mainly focused on the developing product, while Brian's book concentrates on ensuring that the product you develop is loved by customers from an operational/customer success perspective.

'Lovability' is a straightforward concept: create a business that offers a product or service that customers genuinely love. Consider how many products or businesses you love working with. You may tolerate many, hate a few, and endure a handful due to a lack of alternatives, but you probably love using very few. The only product I genuinely love is my Kindle, arguably due to the content (such as this book) that it serves up, rather than the hardware itself.

Many businesses overlook 'Lovability' as a metric, but it creates genuine love and loyalty from customers, resulting in lower churn, increased testimonials, and, as a byproduct of that, faster and more sustainable business growth.

Two concepts are presented.
1. The first is CPE, the Complete Product Experience. Every aspect of marketing, sales, technology, supporting systems, third-party integrations, support, and policies must be focused on and developed for the customer. For instance, a support process may be efficient from an internal perspective, but if it leaves the customer frustrated, it will cause a loss of love!
2. The second concept is TRE, The Responsive Method. The only way to create a sustainable business with lasting success is by prioritising customers' needs first, as without them, there is no business. Although constantly 'interrupted' may seem daunting, we should listen to what the distractions tell us - someone requires our assistance. Customers don't want to waste our time; they require help with an issue. This is an opportunity to gain their love. Rather than being annoyed, we should be excited that someone wants to engage with us.

Brian provides an excellent illustration of how TRE can be entirely Agile. For a software firm, consider the case of a customer reporting a bug. At Aha, these are typically resolved within an hour. This provides a minimum of three apparent benefits.
1. The customer who reported the bug will be amazed by this speedy resolution, increasing lovability.
2. Other customers who discovered the bug but did not report it will be unaffected.
3. Technical debt will not increase. Customers' experience and lovability are reduced when they interact with a bug. Additionally, internal teams learn to work around issues, making tracking what has and has not been raised extremely difficult.

The book also introduces the concept of a 'love score', a powerful metric not measured by traditional means like NPS. A love score is based on the number of 'love notes' a company receives over time, which could be anything from a simple email saying 'great job' to more effusive expressions of love for the product or service.

This is a metric that every business should track as it provides a direct measure of lovability. I would love to see this concept implemented at BigChange and have already discussed implementing it with our Customer Success Director.

Lovability might be an obvious concept after reading this book; anyone in business can take something meaningful from it.

In conclusion, I would give this book a 5 out of 5. It is a highly recommended read for anyone who wants to build a successful business by focusing on their customers and creating products or services that they will love.

[Michel Billard · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of joining Aha!, I was given a book to read: Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It. It’s a refreshing business book where Brian de Haaff, Aha!’s CEO, demonstrates how it’s possible to build successful products and companies with methods that are (sadly) uncommon in a world where tech companies fight for venture capital (VC), growth at all costs and big exits.

I’m surprised I haven’t come across the book before considering the values and ideas put forward in the book closely align with mine. You will probably disagree with some of the ideas as I did at first, but Aha! is proof that it can be done while building a world-class product.

Of course, with a name such as Lovability, there is a lot of talk about the concept of love. Brian explains how it can be tracked and why the metric is a good indicator of long term success. It’s reminiscent of the Net Promoter Score which was so popular a couple of years ago.

If you went through (or currently going through) a VC-funded startup experience that didn’t go as well as you hoped it would as I did, I strongly recommend giving this book a read.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are living in a very future-oriented world, where technology seems to be the ticket to success, but the ways to make success happens are sometimes the old, classical human ones. Lovability proves that what it matters at the end of the day is the focus on human emotions and the bridge that shall be made between a brand and its customers. It applies to almost every kind of company, from the cloud-data operators to retail shops. It requires a bigger amount of dedication and time, much more than when it comes to learning how to use various apps and technical innovations, but it definitely has a transformative power. What I've found interesting in this approach was the long-term vision, which embraces not only the strict business targets, but can have tremendous effects on the employees and customers as well.
A book recommended to any small or big business owner or entrepreneur, looking forward to see more than a change of the bank account situation.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

[Justin Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've already read a lot around building customer focus, empathic leadership, and the "build a company, not just an exit" writing around the web, a lot of the ideas in this book might not be surprising to you. That doesn't make them any less important -- and if you're new to this way of thinking, this book will be a revelation to you.

There were some ideas in the book I would usually have disagreed with. And here I found it especially interesting. Because the ideas I disagreed with, they were raised in a way that made me think less "well, I guess I have to take the good stuff and ignore the other stuff" and more "Huh. I wonder what would happen if I gave it a fair try?"

I read this book as I was getting ready to join Aha! And it made me even more curious to learn how this philosophy works in practice, and even more excited to start.

[Austin Merritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovability is outstanding. It's a wonderful model for building a business and delivering products and it will change the way you approach your work each day. Deliver real value, offer customers a complete experience, help them achieve something meaningful. Think about the businesses or products you love. They all work hard to deliver for you in these key areas. Lovability provides a framework and inspiration for entrepreneurs, product managers, customer success leaders -- anyone who wants to build something great.

[Dru Clegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've considered starting a business or launching a product, this is the book to read. As someone who spent several years working with tech startups, the approach Brian outlines is refreshing and proven with the growing success of his latest company, Aha!. His recommendation to be profit-focused and to lean on paying customers instead of investors may seem obvious, but it is rarely done. The tips and tricks shared in Lovability provide an innovative approach to building a business around a "complete product experience" (CPE) to make sustainable growth reality.

[Jean-Francois Potvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My organization has been using Aha! for about 6 months now and I totally understand what #lovability mean. This is an awesome product, a great company and The Responsive Method combined with the Complete Product Experience seems to be great tools for building a successful digital solution and company culture. I'll definitely take some of Brian's advices and try to get our leaders onboard with this methodology.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try and read a handful of books that are related to my work, professional development, or some project I have going. This book is one of those books that I now want everyone I work with to read. It combines business philosophy and anecdotes with real practical advice in an amazing and compelling way. I am ready to go out an evangelize about the importance of using lovability as a metric for success in the work I do.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lovability concept is one that should be applied by all companies, by all means. A complete product experience is what really makes the customer come back and at the same time develops a business based on trust and happiness for all parties involved. The book itself may seem a bit repetitive at times, nevertheless the basic concepts and framework should be considered and applied nowadays.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The CEO of one, if not the best, product management tools in the industry. Mr de Haaff puts his thoughts and wins on paper for all to consume.

If you love aha! and product management, you need this book. If you want to gain incite from a great leader, you need this book.

Get it. You can thank me later.

[Ivan Lozano · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of good ideas introduced in the first few chapters of the book, then many, many chapters of filler content repeating those same ideas and promising cool tools to carry them out at the end of the book. You get to that last chapter and it turns out the tools are simply small surveys. This book could have been 3 chapters long.

[Dave Boucher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tech world is obsessed with valuation when they should be obsessed with value. This book takes tech companies back to their roots and squarely focuses on creating real, tangible customer value. Such a simple concept, but it gets lost in most tech companies these days. It all starts and ends with real customer value. I loved this book!

[Mattias Wahlberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half introduced, at the time, a novel approach to measure success in your product. Instead of measuring hard data and usage, look for customers joy and excitement over thoeri jopbs to be done and how you may have helped them.

The second half was in my opinion too much of an advert for the writers company and their services.

[Mike F · Rating 4 out of 5]

insightful, weaving in old world characteristics such as kindness, humility into business and contrasting with some failed modern traps such as rushing too quickly to market. bonus - fun illustrations!

[Yoric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no doubt building lovable products is important. Maybe I were too busy when reading this book, and I couldn't catch the really good pieces of advice, out of the very common sense, that could benefit me.

[Nancy Bostwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

More focused on business but a good reminder of what is important and how to have fun doing it !!

[Wulan Suci Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I picked up the book, I was expecting something more than what author currently put in this book, something deeper than just about how he build his own brand and startup. unfortunately, I didnt get it even after read the book untill the last page.
There are also so many repetition on the concept and topic discussion in the book, with two to three pages long of summary with big space / empty gap between one point to another, which leave impression that the author/publisher purposely want to make the book thicker for commercial purposes . But as he mentioned in the book, this is his first book, so I do believe he will be able to do better in his next book!

[Dragan Nanic · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that someone believed that book like this is necessary is worrying. The whole message is simple, if obvious: products should be built for people, solving a real issue; companies should aim for serving people not the other way around and greed is a sin! (minus the last one, I added it myself. De Haaff mentioned greed only once, in passing.) Unfortunately, it is repeated ad nauseam. Furthermore, it is elevated to the status of method to practice and live by because:

Love is a fundamental concept central to all human interactions. It is a driver of good health and happiness. Business is made up of human interactions. Do the math and the solution is clear: Love is central to business. No longer should love be relevant only in the home, nor should it be a soft-squishy metric. Love is measurable, trackable, and predictable. It belongs in the workplace.


The fact that I agree with the message and the notion that it should be communicated broadly is maybe even more worrying. In today's world it is obvious that we are forgetting to care for the others (myself included). Yet the cynic in me cannot refrain from asking: wasn't it always the case? However, it feels good to hear it now, from the mouth of someone who actually lived according to the times (again, de Haaff never admitted it in so many words) and converted to the right way. The way of his grandfather (so maybe things were better then, after all :)

The fact that I actually liked the author's honest, if somewhat naive, approach wasn't enough to earn it three stars. This should have been a strong, if longer, article. Inspirational, motivational, lovable. Not a self-promotion of own company or a raving of a technocrat.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I run my own small business and have done so for the past 8 years so I was very interested to see what this book was about and whether I could pick up any actionable tips on how to better engage with and serve my clients.
Lovability did have some interesting and thought provoking ideas, especially the concept of bringing the emotion of 'love' into the performance metrics of a business. It's not something that you would normally associate with running a business but I can certainly see the benefits of keeping it in mind when engaging with customers and catering to their needs and wants.
Unfortunately this book was very repetitive in some places and I think it could almost have been cut down by almost a third if a lot of the repetition was taken out. Some sections also felt very generic and were points that could be found in practically every other business book out there.
Also, some parts could have been explained in a lot more detail to really show the point being made and to assist the reader with implementation in their own business.
Overall though, this book does give a good basic framework to follow around offering a complete customer experience and in making sure you deliver real value and it may be useful if you're after a new way to measure and view your business other than just from a financial perspective.

[Karen Maslowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Refreshing approach to building products. I appreciate the focus on solving an interesting problem and building value - not just hype.