Business of Software Europe 2019

By Stephen Kellett
18 April, 2019

Last week I attended my the Business of Software Europe conference. This year the conference returns to Cambridge after a few years in Dublin and London.

This year the conference logo is the black squirrel, which is apparently a genetic mutation local to Cambridge.

As usual, an excellent conference with a wide range of topics and an interesting mix of speakers. I’m not going to go into detail on the talks, other folks will have already written them up in more detail than my sparse notes will allow. If you’re interested in high level strategic thought about how to run a software business, this is the conference for you.

But I did make a note of every book that a speaker or attendee mentioned.

Let It Go, by Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley CH. This book was provided to all attendees by the conference.

Art of Profitability, by Adrian Slywotzky

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

The Games People Play, by Eric Berne

Rest, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

What Got You Here Wont Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith

Skin In The Game, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Let My People Go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard

This Is Marketing, by Seth Godin

Clean Code, by Robert C. Martin

Building A Story Brand, by Donald Miller

11 Laws Of Showrunning, (PDF) by Javier Grillo-Marxuach . Also a podcast.

Powerful, by Patty McCord

The Art of Product Management, by Rich Mironov

What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard, by
Mark H. McCormack

Chimp Paradox, by Professor Steve Peters

The Manager’s Path, Camille Fournier

Radical Candor, by Kim Scott

Badass, by Kathy Sierra

Purple Cow, by Seth Godin

Film: Free Solo

Video: Steve Jobs marketing talk

Metcalfe’s Law, as the number of people rises, the number of connections gets out of control.

Conway’s Law, your designs are constrained by your communication structures. This graphic captures it all. Note the Microsoft graphic.

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