‘Escaping the build trap’ review

Escaping the build trap gives someone unfamiliar with the world of product management and overview of role and how it can benefit a business and highlights the common issue we have today in the agile workflow where outputs rather outcomes are the focus for the business – the build trap!

As a Product Designer I work closely with Product Managers but have often questioned how the PM role fits with my role and others on the team. For those of us working with multiple PMs, who can have significantly different approaches to their role, it can lead you to wonder is there a standard process or is product management a buffet of tools that individual pick and choose as they want?

Melissa’s book provides invaluable insights into how what the Product Management role is, how it should work, building a management hierarchy to ensure delivery of products and highlighting the value of making outcomes the focus rather than outputs. Building on this it references the whole organisation and gives the reader the tools to recognise if a company’s process is working, what actions need to be taken to change it, how long the process could possibly take and most importantly the need for management understanding and support. 

For anyone involved in product development this is a worthwhile investment of time, plus Melissa manages to cram a lot of information in a very light book. 

Author: Melissa Perri
Published: 2019