Sense & Respond Learning books

Practical, Actionable Guides for Teams & Leaders

Quick Reads. Big Ideas. Zero Fluff.

TOOLS FOR MAKING BETTER DECISIONS

Our books provide clear strategies for navigating product discovery, OKRs, digital transformation, and agile collaboration—so you can build better products and stronger teams. Written by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden, these practical and impactful business books offer proven frameworks and practical takeaways to help you tackle today’s toughest product challenges.

Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
Lean vs. Agile vs. Design Thinking by Jeff Gothelf
Outcomes Over Output by Joshua Seiden
Sense & Respond by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
'Who Does What by How Much? A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs' by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
Sense & Respond by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden

Sense & Respond

How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously

AUTHORS: JEFF GOTHELF AND JOSH SEIDEN

Today’s most successful companies aren’t just building products and services—they’re continuously learning, adapting and evolving with their customers.

In Sense & Respond, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden introduce a modern management model built for agility, continuous learning and customer focus. With real-world examples and actionable advice, they show how to organize, manage and lead responsive teams that thrive in a world of constant change.

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WHY BUY THIS BOOK

This is your playbook for building a culture that learns quickly and adapts faster. If you're rethinking how your business operates, start here.

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Scott Purcell

★★★★★

This book is the long awaited leadership manual to a cultural shift that brings Design Thinking and Agile Development together in a smart way that is both realistic and thoughtful to the organizations that heed the concepts.

Practical examples demonstrate success but the authors dive deeper into the meanings behind why the examples are successful in a way that speaks a leader's language.

Sense and Respond is recommended reading for anyone who wants to get out of the game doing needless work and into the game of innovation that everyone in your organization will want to get behind.

Nick Rockwell, Chief Technology Officer, New York Times

★★★★★

Gothelf and Seiden translate and transport the essence of agile thinking from software development into the heart of the business. Their message is timely, as most companies are missing the boat on what is truly important about agile. Sense and Respond provides exactly the guidance we need to get back on the right path.

'Who Does What by How Much? A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs' by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden

Who Does What by How Much?

A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs

AUTHORS: JEFF GOTHELF AND JOSH SEIDEN

Everyone has a customer. (Yes, everyone, believe it or not.) You succeed when you make them happy. How do you make them happy? That’s what OKRs are all about.

In Who Does What By How Much?, OKR experts Jeff and Josh deliver a clear, practical and repeatable approach for creating Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to do exactly that—put customers first.

Unlike other OKR books written for executives or startup teams, this one is designed for everyone—regardless of industry, seniority, or function.

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WHY BUY THIS BOOK

For anyone who needs an easy-to-follow approach to creating customer-first OKRs in the real world.

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Amazon Customer

★★★★★

Packed full of practical advice on OKRs

I highlighted so much of this book!

No matter if you’re a team lead or an individual contributor this book is written for both. If you’ve implemented OKRs or doing them for the first time, it’s also got you covered.

The book is well written and easy to follow. Highly recommended.

Sam McAfee

★★★★★

Great OKR walkthrough! Just what we needed.

We’re using WDWBHM internally to help us with our Startup Patterns OKRs. It’s super helpful! So far, chapters 4, 5, and 6 have been great for where we are. We’re reconfiguring our OKRs to account for our diagnostic tool (a product rather than content marketing) as our primary method of lead generation for our consulting work moving forward. I liked the path Jeff and Josh laid from strategic thinking to customer journey to actually writing OKRs. Fantastic and easy read, and extremely practical.

Outcomes over Output

Why Customer Behavior Is the Key Metric for Business Success

AUTHOR: JOSH SEIDEN

Teams are often asked to build features—but features alone don’t create value.

In this concise guide, Josh Seiden shows you how to flip the script by setting goals as outcomes. Instead of measuring success by what gets built, learn how to align your team’s work with the impact it creates

WHY BUY THIS BOOK

Perfect for leaders and teams looking to shift from task-focused execution to results-driven thinking—without adding layers of complexity.

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Kerrie

★★★★★

Being Agile versus Believing Your Agile

He goes on to demonstrate in an easy to follow manner the difference between an outcome and an output. Then shows the reader how to be sure they are focused on outcomes rather than outputs. The author also doesn't live in an artificial environment. He deals with the realities of how managers will still want release dates until they are educated and trust is built.

Chris

★★★★★

Small, easy to read, but is a true gem!

Its entire content can be summarized in the book's title, but it is guiding you through very important lessons in product management, and can radically restart your mindset towards Agile Methodologies & Product Management.

This book does a fantastic job articulating the difference between being agile and thinking you're agile. If you have a backlog, use sprints, etc. but never have demos, never release any product, you are not agile. The author shares an experience in his personal past where the team thought they were agile, but were not.

Lean UX (3rd Edition)

Designing Great Products with Agile Teams

AUTHORS: JEFF GOTHELF AND JOSH SEIDEN

Lean UX is the foundational guide for teams working at the intersection of design, product and engineering. 

This third edition of this award-winning book,  goes deeper into collaboration, discovery and how design fits into Agile environments. You’ll find tools like the Lean UX Canvas and practical guidance on working in short, iterative cycles that keep your focus on the customer.

WHY BUY THIS BOOK

It’s the industry standard for building customer-centric products, better and faster—without all the fluff.

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Simon Vandereecken

★★★★★

A tremendously interesting read about the Lean UX process. I've learned quite a lot through it, and also spotted several weaknesses I've encountered while working with business. It cleared a lot of the processes I'm used to work with, making them more straightforward and efficient. 

For me it's a must read for anyone working in the UX field nowadays, helping shape products that work in a more powerful way. It also includes user testing throughout the whole process and not just at the end of it, while mixing it quite nicely with the Agile-Scrum methodology (even if this will need a bit of a fight for some company).

Dani

★★★★★

Absolute must read! Great improved 3rd edition!

Lean UX is an absolute must read, not only for UX designers, but this book is also super relevant for roles like Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Product managers etc.

There are some few sections about agile/scrum basics which might be more relevant for less experienced and some deep dive sections on UX design, but Jeff really brings it to the point when it comes to focusing organisations and teams on outcomes rather than output.

What I liked most about the 3rd edition (after having read the 2nd just a few months ago) is the introduction of the Lean UX Canvas. It is a brilliant tool to guide the teams and their stakeholders through the whole process, creates alignment and increases transparency.

Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking

What You Really Need to Know to Build High-Performing Digital Product Teams

AUTHOR: JEFF GOTHELF

You’ve heard the buzzwords. Now it’s time to cut through the noise. 

In this short and practical  book, Jeff Gothelf demystifies the most talked-about approaches to modern product development. Learn what Lean, Agile and Design Thinking really mean—and how to bring them together to create better outcomes for your team and your customers.

WHY BUY THIS BOOK

Ideal for anyone trying to help cross-functional teams speak the same language. A fast, clear read that brings alignment where it's needed most.

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David W. Gray

★★★★★

Cuts through the jargon to provide clear, concise descriptions and a forward path that works.

A refreshingly brief, no-nonsense, practical guide for leaders and practitioners who are struggling to implement new methodologies like lean, agile and design thinking. Gothelf cuts through the jargon and provides clear, concise descriptions of the main approaches and provides a path forward that blends and balances the best from each.

Tactech

★★★★★

Must know for teams, short and to the point!

Great primer explaining the pain and chaos between UX, PM, and developers. Must read for teams.