Learning to Build: The 5 Bedrock Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs

by Bob Moesta

If you’re an innovator or entrepreneur, you challenge precedent and disrupt the status quo. You trust that the result is worth the struggle and embrace change because it could equal progress. You have blind faith. You know that success isn’t reserved for the superstars, but you remain humble because failure is always a possibility. This journey of entrepreneurship and innovation shouldn’t be a solo trip. If you’re missing something, struggling to begin, or have reached a plateau, fellow entrepreneur and innovator Bob Moesta knows your next steps because he’s been there himself. Now, in Learning to Build , Bob helps you develop the five fundamental skills every successful innovator practices to be their best. He provides you with the resources you need to learn these skills, grow through experience, and adapt your mindset. Bob has coached entrepreneurs for twenty years and developed more than 3,500 new products. He’s experienced success because of the insight his mentors have shared with him, and now Bob is paying it forward. Join him as he recounts his trials and tribulations and sheds light on the path that will lead you to your greatest breakthrough.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Nonfiction

187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 6, 2022

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative look into innovation and expanding your toolkit for truly finding ways to build products and services that will solve customer problems. Get out of the minutiae of what the issue is to see the whole picture. This book helps assess everything in front of you.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.”

Moestra explains his theories in simple, easy to understand, terms. I learned more about what influences me in my buying decisions.
I like the real world examples very relatable
Teaches you to see the big picture instead of focusing on one point.
Good philosophy that can be applied to everyday life, not just making products.

[Don S]

Is the ability to innovate, develop, and launch products/services something that is innate or can we learn how to do it?

Bob Moesta believes that it is a skill that can be taught and he offers to do so in his book, Learning to Build.

The approach is built upon 5 principles that surfaced for Bob after years of experience and reflection. This is not just any experience, but the experience of working in concert on complex issues with some of the greatest quality process thinkers and innovation theorists of the last century: Drs. Clayton Christensen, Genichi Taguchi, W. Edwards Deming, and Willie Hobbs Moore.

In an educational and entertaining fashion, he begins with his experience as an intern in the automotive industry, attempting to solve a problem with a rearview mirror. The twists and turns through solving multiple problems, and the insights on thinking he uncovers over time, set the context for truly understanding innovation.

After pondering how top innovators and entrepreneurs solved the development and launch of products and services, Bob identified 5 key principles:
1. Empathetic Perspective
2. Uncovering Demand
3. Causal Structures
4. Prototyping to Learn
5. Making Trade-Offs

Bob claims that these principles gave him “an approach and guardrails for building and creating” that results in adaptability.

He then takes great care in describing each principle while providing the details and approach that will guide the reader in applying it. Bob includes questions to ask and actions to take, along with examples from several case studies. Each chapter on the principles ends with recommended resources for further education and study.

As Bob stresses, the approach is detailed and hard to perfect because of its complexity. Furthermore, he emphasizes that the skills are not meant to be used in isolation. They are interdependent and layered, just as the very problems one attempts to solve in developing and launching products and services.

In support, Bob uses a variety of examples, from engineering to writing a book to making dinner. All of these help build the understanding and confidence of the learner, no matter their objectives and skills.

As difficult as perfecting the application of the principles can be, Bob’s presentation of them is enjoyable and ultimately fulfilling for someone who wants to use these principles to extend their life and business to make an impact.

Through his experience, Bob discovered a novel way to progress the art and science of innovation and entrepreneurship and a novel way to graciously share them with the reader for their own progress. Highly recommended.

[Kara Foley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The job this book did for me was help me understand and improve upon my own innovation processes with a new strategic perspective.

This book was full of inspiration and practical advice for how to be a more successful innovator. I was able to identify what I’m already fairly skilled at and where I should prioritize my own product dev toolkit… the biggest takeaway for me being that often times product managers think very narrowly and methodically about individual features — losing track of the whole, even when prototyping.

I especially loved the through line of Bob’s own career and stories from his experience that really drove home his key points. So so interesting!

I’m exited to apply this advice to my own work and also dig into the additional suggested resources!

[Saurav · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because I came across Bob on Lenny's podcast. At first I thought this is another product discovery book, but turns out this is partly a systems thinking book and I'm probably gonna explore more on causal structures and systems dynamics after this which I was always keen on learning for years now but never could commit my time to.

[☀️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a pretty solid book to everyone getting into the corporation world, pretty solid and quick book about the 5 most important things to know when innovating, i feel like its a very solid foundation of the essentials you need and gives u a broader perspective into things!

[John Staveley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love bob moesta as a public speaker but this book is too high level to be useful. Just sign posts to other things you might read that have sufficient depth. Watch his talks, wouldn't recommend the book.

[Thomas Hefke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really good business book.
It tells stories.
It gives context.
It helps understand the system.
It delivers additional reading material

👍

[Rico Beran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely impactful on my career. A great book to understand the ideas core to building user centric products with great case studies and the authors personal experience.

[Razvan Visan · Rating 5 out of 5]

JTBD....
trebuie integrat in ADN ca sa fie eficient

empatie fata de client

[Yen Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by my product course mentors. At the beginning it could be hard to digest but over time, I was able to slowly grasp the concept while taking note at the same time.

[Jason Kunio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fast read because it was so engaging. I am a product manager so innovation is always on my mind. Learning about the 5 Skills of innovation through practical stories, from young and enlightened Bob's working career, made this book very actionable. When I was first introduced to Bob through JTBD theory, I felt like, this is a guy that understands how to think about product development in ways that are different than I had ever been exposed to. I had many light bulb moments when reading this new book. I felt like it took concepts that I had in my mind and clarified them. It expanded the concept of creating and using persona through the empathetic perspective to uncover demand. The concept of casual structures to get a better understanding not of the specific problem you are solving but the larger system it is a part of and solidifying tradeoffs and how to prototype for success. I can not recommend this book more highly. It is one of the best books I have read in the past few years.

[David Siu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short and to-the-point book on non-trivial methods to build and innovate. The author was very experienced in the domain of building and innovating, hence his ideas deserved careful consideration.