Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value

One of the best PM books I've read. Fantastic, thorough and the fictional company laid out in the book was a perfect scenario example of what a lot of companies experience when not aligned from top to bottom. Thank you for writing this eye opening gem of a book.

Melissa Perri’s "Escaping the Build Trap" is a must-read for anyone involved in product management, from aspiring product managers to seasoned professionals. The book addresses a common issue in the industry—companies focusing too much on building features instead of solving real customer problems.Perri explains that the “build trap” is a state where organizations become obsessed with delivering more and more features, thinking this will drive success. Instead, she advocates for a shift toward creating value, which requires strategic product management and a deep understanding of customer needs. Through clear explanations, real-world examples, and practical frameworks, Perri guides readers on how to move from a feature factory mindset to one that focuses on outcomes.One of the key takeaways is the importance of defining a clear product vision and empowering product teams to operate with autonomy. Perri also emphasizes the need for continuous discovery to ensure that the team is always aligned with user problems and the business strategy.The book is accessible yet comprehensive, offering actionable insights that can be applied in various organizational contexts. Overall, "Escaping the Build Trap" is an essential guide for those looking to create meaningful products and drive real business impact, rather than simply adding to an endless backlog of features.

Team leaders, product managers or anyone looking to adopt more product and customer centric ways of work should read this book. It provides a more practical and actionable guide toward product development in an agile context than other text’s I have read. The insight in this book is comprehensive talking about both the processes and practices as well as role descriptions which are most helpful.The Build Trap the author refers to describes situations where companies become stuck measuring their success by outputs rather than outcomes. This view is important, particularly in software development where the focus has been on shipping things, more than the results created by those things.The book draws on the author’s experience working with mid sized tech companies. Much of that advice goes something like this, company A had a problem, I came in, the problem was X, we solved it. That simplistic form of case study is the reason this is not a five star book. We do not get a chance to see or experience the struggles of others — struggles we will face adopting the advice in this book.The book has the frameworks, approaches and structure to help one institutionalize these practices. It is also short and focused, not a text book.Recommended for anyone looking to move toward more product, customer and outcome centric work.

Simply put, this book gets to the heart of Product Management today. Melissa tackles this head on. She does so succinctly and effortlessly.First, Melissa sets the table with one of the most common problems facing folks in corporate America today: The "Build Trap" (output over outcomes). This is something the broader corporate world faces, not just firms operating in the of digital space.From there she moves to covering Product Management as a leading role in firms. She covers the bad, the great, and offers some thoughts on career paths. What I specifically appreciated was highlighting the fact that a great product manager does not have to have a large staff or even a staff at all. A great Product Manager influences, questions, experiments, and even questions the analysis of results.Melissa gives a nice overview of how one connects Product Vision through to execution and how Product Management helps lead this. In many organizations, we find PMOs or tech leaders dividing up these into "phases" or assigning them to silos. Melissa dispenses with that and leaves the ownership where it belongs: a Product Management organization that helps lead the teams in the right direction (that direction being the customer).She follows this up with some tips for how to approach Problem and Solutions exploration. Her thoughts and examples on using a Product Kata (adapted from Mike Rother's work) is helpful and can easily help focus a team on how to get to effective solutions more crisply.Finally, her overview of what a good Product Management Organization looks like cuts to the chase. It's a very solid overview of what "good" looks like. It's not a nirvana state to never be attained, but a realistic view into where companies can get to.As a practicing Agilist, I appreciated this book since it is not an encyclopedia of Product Management, but rather it is a great overview of it. No author can solve your problem with their pre-baked solution. However, Melissa does not try to do that in her book. She provides a framework and mindset that helps people to consider ways to solve their own problems. This book is one that I can readily hand out to help start conversations, spark discussions, and paint a picture of where we need to go. Also it will help to align my fellow coaches, tech leaders, and product leaders AWAY from the Build Trap and towards real value delivery.

Absolutely perfect! Sharing all these case studies, the author is giving you solid examples of what to do and what to avoid. Excellently written, extensive, detailed & perfect to boost your product management career.I now know that a lot of product people have the same problems like me, and I can solve them!Thank you Melissa!