Click: How to Make What People Want

In this competent manual, Knapp (Sprint), cofounder of the venture capital firm Character Capital, promises to help readers develop a hit product in two days. On day one, Knapp recommends brainstorming how to solve a common problem and determining how to differentiate the product from competitors. Day two, he suggests, should be devoted to improving the product by considering criticisms and by testing it with customers. To illustrate how to differentiate a product from the competition, Knapp recounts how while developing Google Meet, he focused on making ease of use its selling point, ensuring it could be accessed from an internet browser while rivals Skype and Tandberg required the installation of an app. Emphasizing the importance of testing products with consumers, Knapp discusses how the company Phaidra, which creates AI software that autonomously monitors sensors in industrial plants, learned from an unsuccessful trial run that engineers found the user interface insufficiently informative and then revamped the software based on that feedback. The “two day” conceit is misleading since the product testing process is scheduled to take five days per test, but the guidance makes the daunting entrepreneurial process approachable by breaking it into steps. Business leaders will find this a solid program for stimulating innovation. Agent: Sylvie Carr, Carr Agency. (Apr.)