Overview: 

If you’ve ever been curious about Netflix as a company and how its culture enabled it to become one of the most important media companies in the world then you must read this book. While there are many presentations of the culture of Netflix online, and the company culture map is available for anyone to download, No Rules Rules is well worth the time as it is the definitive source, written by the company founder, and it goes deeper into the culture map presentation. 

Here Is What The Book Was About: 

The authors describe some of Netflix’ big successes, and how its culture evolved over time to enabled that success. From how it beat Blockbuster, to bringing the world “House of Cards” and how it approaches international expansion. A key aspect of its culture is candor, where employees are encouraged to voice concerns and provide feedback in a way that is actionable and will benefit the company.  Another one is to lead through context, rather than control as it encourages employees to make decisions themselves, rather than trying to please their bosses. Throughout the book, the perspectives of both co-author culture professor Erin Meyer, and CEO Reed Hastings is given and shared with the reader.  

Rating: (1 to 5) 

Rated 4.6 based on the readability, interesting valuable content that applies to my real life, great accolades from New York Times and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It could have earned higher if the last chapter had been tied into the story better. 

Other Thoughts on The Book: 

As there are 2 points of view in the book, that of Reed Hastings, and Erin Meyer, I found it enjoyable that the audiobook used 2 different readers, male, and female to read the book. While this was a different approach than many audiobooks, it worked in this case.  

Link to Book: 

Overview:

In the field of technology project management, there are many methodologies to choose from, including scrum, SAFE, LeSS, and traditional waterfall. The choice is often not yours as it depends on the type of project, as well as the leadership preferences in place at your organization. Choose Your Wow is a resource you can use for understanding the pros and cons of a particular methodology, as well as a comprehensive toolkit on a new methodology, Disciplined Agile Delivery.

Here Is What The Book Was About:

Choose your wow is essentially a textbook that explains the Disciplined Agile Delivery toolkit in detail, where each chapter can be used as a reference based on the step in the life cycle that you’re interested in. For example, there is a chapter on the 6 variations of the framework you can choose from, and chapters on risk management, as well as on deployment management. It also explains the key differences between the DAD framework, and other agile methodologies, in particular scrum, and SAFE.

Rating: (1 to 5)

Rated 4 out of 5; it offers valuable content that you can use immediately, as well as reference material. The appendix also offers many resources and useful information. It could have earned a 5 if it had been more polished; i.e. better editing, color, diagrams, as well as case studies or examples.

Other Thoughts on The Book:

Those of you familiar with PMI’s methodology may be wondering why it decided to purchase this company, and more information about that topic can be obtained simply by searching for “PMI Purchase of Disciplined Agile” on any search engine.

Link to Book:

Overview:

With over a billion daily active users, Facebook is clearly one of the most important companies of our generation. Steven Levy’s book, Facebook the Inside story is part biography of Mark Zuckerberg, and part history of Facebook. Reading this relatively long book will get you up to speed on what you need to know about the company, with insight into topics ranging from the connection to the movie the social network, Mark’s relationship with Sean Parker of Napster, current challenges with government regulation, and the future of Facebook.

Here is what the book was about:

The history of Facebook’s founding, background on Mark Zuckerberg’s life and upbringing, who he is as a person, and motivations throughout his life, as well as a look at current events and future prospects for the company. If there is a topic about Facebook you’re interested in learning m ore about this book will have at least something for you. It is very comprehensive, and engaging at the same time. Additionally, what makes this book unique is that the author Steven Levy had unprecedented access to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Chamas Polihapatia and many other high-profile executives.

Rating: (1 to 5)

I rated this book a 4.8 out of 5 because it was so engaging, well written, and all around good journalism. The fact that the author, Steven Levy, is an editor at the influential Wired magazine also helped this title earn the highest rating I’ve given a book this year.

Other Thoughts on The Book:

In determining whether or not to read this book, I came across reviews that indicated the book was biased in favor of showing Mark and Facebook in a positive light. I did not find that to be the case at all. Steven was fair in his reporting and both accurate and engaging in the story telling. He went into just enough detail so as to avoid being off topic.

Link to book :