Product Reviews: Part 8
This past week (June 8, 2015), my Amazon reviews hit the milestone of 2500 total cast votes. Approximately 9 months ago, my Amazon reviews hit the milestone of 2000 helpful votes. While my reviewer ranking has continued to decrease, due to less review writing, existing reviews appear to be holding up rather well, and the percent that were helpful has remained at 87%.
As with my last post, in the spirit of my Google Analytics posts that discuss most frequently visited pages alongside the top countries and cities of origin for these visits, listed below are my top 10 reviews of business and technology books, ranked by the number of helpful votes each has received.
#1: 69 helpful votes of 75 (92.0%)
Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by A. G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.
Reviewed January 8, 2013. Currently #1 of 221 reviews of this book at Amazon.
Good business texts are rare, and this book is among the top strategy texts that I have read in my career. Two other strategy texts that I recommend are "The Limits of Strategy: Lessons in Leadership from the Computer Industry", by Ernest von Simson, and "Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management", by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel.
#2: 59 helpful votes of 61 (96.7%)
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices), by Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press, 2006.
Reviewed July 4, 2006. Currently #1 of 57 reviews of this book at Amazon.
At the time, I commented that "this book is absolutely the best software estimation text I have read to date". While this is still true, alongside this book I now recommend a book by Mike Cohn that I reviewed the following year called "Agile Estimating and Planning".
#3: 33 helpful votes of 48 (68.8%)
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, by Eric Ries, Crown Business, 2011.
Reviewed January 8, 2013.
The low number of helpful votes relative to the number of cast votes is an anomaly. Most of my other reviews which have received a relatively low number of helpful votes were likely the result of readers disagreeing with either what the authors or I had to write, rather than the purpose of a vote, which is intended to indicate whether the review was helpful as part of an individual purchase decision.
#4: 33 helpful votes of 34 (97.1%)
DW2.0: The Architecture for the Next Generation of Data Warehousing (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems), by William H. Inmon, Derek Strauss, and Genia Neushloss, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.
Reviewed September 26, 2008. Currently #1 of 8 reviews of this book at Amazon.
This book maintains the distinction of being one of the worst technology texts that I have read in my entire career. The fact that I have received such a high number of helpful votes for a book about which I have been so openly disappointed seems to indicate that readers respect honest opinions. The interesting thing is that honest negative opinions seem to be more well received for technology texts.
#5: 28 helpful votes of 31 (90.3%)
The Purpose Economy: How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth and Community is Changing the World, by Aaron Hurst, Elevate, 2014.
Reviewed April 1, 2014. Currently #1 of 47 reviews of this book at Amazon.
As a pro bono consultant for Taproot Foundation, I was familiar with the founder of the organization, Aaron Hurst. And upon first hearing about his upcoming book, I contacted him to let him know that I would be happy to review it. Pre-release digital access was provided to me on behalf of the author by publicist Puja Sangar via NetGalley.
#6: 27 helpful votes of 31 (87.1%)
The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully, by Gerald M. Weinberg, Dorset House Publishing, 1986.
Reviewed November 13, 2003. Currently #3 of 56 reviews of this book at Amazon.
Nearly 10 years ago, I commented that this is "an incredibly informative and entertaining consulting book", and I still continue to recommend it. I have written about some of the author's laws, rules, and principles in the past, and have received surprise correspondence from Gerald M. Weinberg as a result. Given the time, I would love to write additional commentary based on my years as a consultant.
#7: 19 helpful votes of 21 (90.5%)
The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed, by Michael L. George, John Maxey, David Rowlands, and Mark Price, McGraw-Hill Education, 2004.
Reviewed May 26, 2007. Currently #3 of 143 reviews of this book at Amazon.
Back when I ran my first Six Sigma project, I looked for a concise explanation of the most common Six Sigma tools, some of which I had already been exposed during training, but I wanted a quick reference that did not require repeated searches through the original, bulky training materials. Fortunately, this book was my choice over the limited selection of competing books of this genre during that time period.
#8: 18 helpful votes of 21 (85.7%)
Hadoop in Action, by Chuck Lam, Manning Publications, 2010.
Reviewed March 24, 2012. Currently #1 of 14 reviews of this book at Amazon.
Shortly after the term "big data" started being used more frequently in the technology space, but before the media started using it (and far too frequently), and about one month before I attended BigDataCamp Chicago, I read this book to start getting familiar with related technologies. Interestingly, Manning Publications just released its second edition of this book about three weeks ago.
#9: 17 helpful votes of 20 (85.0%)
Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, by Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris, and Robert Morison, Harvard Business Press, 2010.
Reviewed January 24, 2010.
This book is the second that I have read by Davenport, after "Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning" and before "Enterprise Analytics: Optimize Performance, Process, and Decisions through Big Data". While the first of these books received significant attention from the press, I gave this text a higher rating at the time because it focuses on deploying analytics in day-to-day operations, rather than on use of analytics for competitive strategy.
#10: 17 helpful votes of 24 (70.8%)
Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice, by Alan Weiss, McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Reviewed December 7, 2009.
Of the four books I have read by Weiss, I probably consider this text the least interesting, but since it is arguably the best known work by this author, it has received the most attention. His later book entitled "How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession: Powerful Techniques for the Successful Practitioner" has been the most personally influential, partially influencing my decision to finally start this blog back in 2009 after a previous employer decided to discontinue the thought leadership area of its public website.