(Book Review) Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams, 2nd Edition

Overview

Review Published: August, 2017.

From authors Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden comes a full examination of Lean UX.

From theory to application, this book offers seasoned UX Designers and newcomers a broad and detailed examination of the newest strategy to design great products.

Rating:

3.5 / 5

Three and a half out of five.

(Great Central Idea, Presentation Needs Polishing)

What does this score mean?

Difficulty:

Intermediate (Some UX design & Agile development knowledge needed).

Length:

208 pages.

Where to Buy It:

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What's Good

  • A solid framework for understanding Lean UX; this helps the reader to form a sturdy but flexible understanding of what Lean UX is, why we need it, and how it can be used in a broader business context.
  • Plenty of case studies; this helps the reader to see the advantages of the Lean UX process, and provides anecdotal examples across several projects/industries to highlight them.
  • Largely accessible, with an ambitious scope; while the book assumes you have a fair amount of design knowledge, it is still largely accessible to anyone that wants to learn more and is packed with a generous amount of content.

What Can Be Improved

  • Some clarification needed; while the book does a good job of explaining the broad strokes of Lean UX, there are a few sections (i.e. integration with Agile practices other than Scrum, and when to use them) that could be expanded upon.
  • The book assumes a fair bit; while largely accessible, getting the most out of it requires a larger body of design and development knowledge, and there are no additional resources to guide readers that are currently missing that.
  • Disparate terms can cause some confusion; terms can suddenly change (most likely a result of different authors writing different sections), leading to several instances where the reader can loose track of the subject matter while they catch up.

The Bottom Line

  • A key text for UX Designers; the overall value and quality of the content is high, despite some parts that are a bit vague.
  • For any level of UX designer to understand the broad strokes of this UX strategy; while there are some sections that could be expanded upon and updated, this is a great resource for understanding Lean UX as it evolves.
  • A worthwhile addition; at just under $30, this is an affordable book offers a lot for UX designers and is very much worth reading.

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© 2016 David Service

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