Amazon.sg:Customer reviews: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

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From Singapore

Shumin

So many important lessons in one easy to read book

Reviewed in Singapore 🇸🇬 on 13 August 2022

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Loved the book, in particular the advice on deciding when to stick with a company and when to leave, and also the lesson at the end on gratitude as long as the outcome was more consumers benefiting from the original vision of smart home appliances the Nest team had.

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From other countries

Wojo

Interesting glimpse behind the scenes of Apple and Nest

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 15 January 2023

Verified Purchase

In BUILD, Tony Fadell gives us a glimpse into the companies and technology that led to the iPod, iPhone and ultimately, NEST being bought by google. He also shares valuable insights on bringing groundbreaking products to market. If General Magic is meaningful to you as it is to me, you will relate to this book and enjoy it as I did.

One person found this helpful

Deep Knowledge

Masterpiece

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 2 December 2022

Verified Purchase

Every chapter is relevant. Disliked absolutely nothing.Got a copy for every one in the team.

2 people found this helpful

Mark Simpson

Founder, Product Manager, Start-Up Leader, Investor - this is an essential read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 June 2022

Verified Purchase

It's hard to summarise how good this book is. It is full of practical tips, fantastic anecdotes and delivered with great storytelling (a key factor for Tony advises for success)

Using Tony’s check list that in order to make a difference companies need to focus on 5 things (abridged):
1. Be humble and flexible, and able to adapt to customer’s needs
2. Deliver something wholly new or deliver in a novel way that competitors can't
3. Solve a real pain point that is relevant to many
4. Execute the vision - in all aspects, not just a product
5. Think about a problem/need in a way customer haven't and makes perfect sense to them when they hear/see/experience it.

Using this approach, here is my assessment of Build:
1. Packed full of humility, reflection, and learning; It is customer, problem and team obsessed. Tony packs in years of advice and hard-earned experience
2. A great combination of stories, practical advice that are wholly engaging and unlock some of the aspects that can enable and inhibit venture and product building. Plus the proceeds from the book will be invested in a climate fund, plus Tony is also committing to a 5x match (up to $25 million) of his personal funds.
3. Entrepreneurship and great product design is hard, really hard – successful practitioners model success, they constant seek to learn – so here’s an opportunity to learn from one of the best
4. The book is great entertainment, great learning – one you won’t want to put down until you finish and will definitely want to return to time and time again. Beyond the content of the book Tony has tried to deliver a fully compostable book – he failed and he’s keen to engage with people that can help him (humility and striving for perfection)
5. The learning is delivered in bite size chunks, nicely delivered in written and pictorial form, lots of links back to relevant sections to glue things together. A book you can read cover to cover, dip in and out of. The learning itself is brilliant, the fact that all proceed from the book are going into the Build Climate Fund to fund climate focused initiatives is fantastic (see https://tonyfadell.com/the-fund/ )

A fantastic opportunity to learn and contribute to a valuable cause.

11 people found this helpful

Mike Skirzynski

A critical read if you're starting a company

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 31 January 2023

Verified Purchase

My co-founder and I are reading this book and using it as a playbook for our company. There are many wonderful lessons for anyone looking to build their own company or make an impact wherever they work. I would highly recommend this!

Michel KHAZZAKA

A foundational book for every 'builder' !

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on 12 July 2022

Verified Purchase

Thank you Tony for sharing your historically unique experience and learnt lessons as an engineer, entrepreneur and leader. You've designed and built the iPod and the iPhone and developed the connected homes revolutions and these were foundational since 2007 for the whole future. In my business your inventions triggered revolutions in the payments industry and allowed for the emergence of mobile payments I am expert in and the disruption of banking worldwide. As Steve said, you have built "THE ULTIMATE DIGITAL DEVICE" "YOUR LIFE IN YOUR POCKET". Thanks for sharing your thought processes, and methodologies to help every engineer entrepreneur and consultant succeed and learn for the best: team building, recruiting , scaling, negotiating, board management, failing and selling and succeeding again. as you've said in this book “Common sens is common but is not evenly distributed” thanks for correcting that in BUILD.

Michael A Trippe

An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making: I’m Not A Builder/Maker And I LOVE This Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 July 2022

Verified Purchase

So - as the title suggests I am neither a builder nor a maker… of electrons or atoms. What I am is a 55 year old self-professed geek who has lived through the technology revolution. I went to a video arcade as a kid. I had a TRS-80, a Kaypro computer, a Channel F gaming console and (of course) every iPod, iPhone, iPad… just keep it coming. I LOVE technology.

What fascinated me about this book is that it is not just about creating the next great thing and trying to disrupt the world. It teaches us about things like inspiration and drive and setting goals and thinking clearer…

As the aforementioned geek I have to admit that I LOVE knowing the history of some of the most disruptive devices in our near history… I had a Sony Walkman… world changed with the iPod. I had a Motorola Q - which was so killer… then came Apple and Steve Jobs and (of course) Tony Fadell with the iPhone. As an early adopter of course I got one… Life changed.

This book is so insightful. It encourages all of us to follow what guides us. Whether it’s an MP3 player or a phone or a thermostat.

Fantastic book. Cannot praise it enough.

One person found this helpful

Maciej Swat

Insider's guide to success in digital industry

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 6 August 2022

Verified Purchase

You may look at this book as a personal story of Tony Fadel and how he achieved success and fame within , lets call it "digital industry". Fadel gives you countless examples of what works and what does not work in wide range of companies - from startups to industry leaders (Apple, Google, Phillips(?) ).

It is a story on how passion for product development can catapult you to the top of your profession. Written in a very informal and often entertaining way this books keeps you engaged from page 1 till the epilogue.

Fadel give you plenty of advice, hints on how to succeed in your profession. How to talk to management, how to talk to venture capital firms, how not to get sold cheaply and how to value your skills, time and resources.

You will get a bit of internal gossip straight from Apple or Google which by itself adds color to the book. But this book is not about gossiping. Far from it. It is a serious , yet very lightly written story of once person journey to the top of his profession. If you work in any "industry" you are guaranteed to find something for yourself.

8 people found this helpful

Duncan Fransz

Pragmatic

Reviewed in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 on 23 July 2022

Verified Purchase

Usually, nonfiction books on innovation, startups, career (etc) are written from either a theoretical or a practical viewpoint. The first a tough-to-read generic framework; the second fun to read, but mostly n=1 examples that somehow worked out in the best way possible (survivorship bias). This book hit the sweet spot between both approaches. Not only inspiring, it also provides actually useful pointers. Thus: pragmatic.

On a separate note. Having read the Steve Jobs biography (by Walter Isaacson) and the Bill Campbell biography ('Trillion Dollar Coach') turned out extra pleasurable. It felt like a guest appearance of familiar characters from a TV show you finished watching, in the show you're currently enjoying.

Anyway, I've recommended (insisted) the book to a number of friends. None of them complained as of yet...

@Timothy_Hughes

Are you about to start a start-up or taking your first seed round then read this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 August 2022

Verified Purchase

Are you about to start a start-up or taking your first seed round then read this book

OK, you could be anyway through the stages of building a start-up or an entrepreneur

Written by Tony Fadell, the guy who helped create the iPod and Nest, which he sold to Google for $3.2 billion

In the book, Tony shares his knowledge in terms of what it takes to create a start-up, from finance to culture. He also shares many of his marketing secrets, the importance of storytelling and what it takes to be a people leader. He also takes you through some of the rough aspects of being in a company which many people don’t talk about. Such as, why and when should you quit.

Tony also worked for Steve Jobs at Apple so you get some Steve Jobs history, insight and history of building the iPod and iPhone thrown in

The book was recommended to me by Gavin Dimmock

4 people found this helpful

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Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making - The New York Times bestseller

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