This book is like the best technology story you will read ! It kept me engaged throughout, I come with a fair amount of experience in the field and literally grew with the internet and read this felt like both a guide and a memoir! It is a wonderful reference guide for folks who wants a quick reference on everything you should know about technology and everything you would possible want to explore!
Even the glossary/additional material is so well thought through for quick references and fact check!
A must read for everyone who loves products , whether u make one or not!
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Thorgot
Worth Every Penny
22 August 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
Worth Every Penny
Reviewed in the United States on 22 August 2019
After I blew my Microsoft PM interview by not being knowledgeable about enterprise cloud trends, a friend suggested I read Swipe to Unlock. I was on the fence about getting this book as it costs almost $30 with shipping and tax at the time. However, I am extremely glad I made the investment.Reviewed in the United States on 22 August 2019
Swipe to Unlock is essentially a collection of case studies on random important information that you aren't really taught in school (motivation behind various acquisitions, tech industry trends, recent gov't, and tech policy rulings, analysis based predictions, etc.)
I read this book before my on-site for a PM role at Google. One of my Google interviews focused heavily on emerging markets payment solutions. Before reading Swipe to Unlock, I knew nothing about this topic and would have been forced to give a vague and uninformed response.
Luckily for me, this book had a very insightful payment section which went over the key mobile payment players in each region (eg. WeChat, Paytm, M-Pesa, etc.) The book also predicted that in Southeast Asia, ride sharing drivers would in the future serve as mobile cash in, cash out ATMs to power digital wallets. Given Google is a major investor in GoJekm the leading ridesharing app and digital wallet in Indonesia, sharing this insight went over very well in my interview. I honestly don't think I would have gotten my Google offer had I not read this book.
I think this book is a must-read for anyone interested in working in tech, especially Product Managers. Everyone has some knowledge gaps whether it be the technical side, the business side, the legal side, etc. Swipe to Unlock does an amazing job of giving you a thorough overview of obscure must know things that may show up in your interviews. Although this book isn't written like a traditional interview prep book, reading it will definitely help you stand out in your interviews.
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Jean Ren
A Must-Read for All Those Interested in Breaking into the Tech World
24 May 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
A Must-Read for All Those Interested in Breaking into the Tech World
Reviewed in the United States on 24 May 2019
I am a PM at Quora and discovered Swipe to Unlock through our company book club. One of our leads nominated it as our read of the month. Our books are usually more of stories (e.g. Bad Blood) rather than case studies, so I was a bit reluctant reading “a primer” given that I have been working in tech for almost 8 years now. I have to hand it to the authors though, they did a phenomenal job incorporating vivid storytelling into the book!Reviewed in the United States on 24 May 2019
Each chapter of the book is full of key insights regarding business trends and tech developments. I think this book is a must read for everyone working in tech, but especially product management professionals. There’s few good resources to help PMs think big and critically analyze opportunity. I think Swipe to Unlock and Zero to One are probably the best books on the market for that.
I was familiar with at least half the material in this book, but I previously lacked the ability to explain the concepts in ways that non-technical members of my team could understand and thus comprehend the significance of the technical product decisions we were making. So this book definitely helped with that. But, the real value I got from this book was in the later chapters which focused more on business strategy and emerging market trends.
Having a Western-centric user base at Quora, I haven’t yet had much exposure to the tech trends in high growth tech markets such as South East Asia. This book does a phenomenal job breaking down key growth strategies other companies have used to successfully win market share in emerging markets. It also reveals that rationale behind major acquisitions such as Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn and provides actionable analysis on what things to look for to make an acquisition successful.
If you are a product manager, I would highly recommend reading this book. It will broaden your perspective from thinking how to incrementally improve your product to how to spot the next major opportunity. I just ordered copies for both of my reports to read!
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Abhay Gupta
Swipe to Unlock: An Essential for a PM Interview
8 May 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
Swipe to Unlock: An Essential for a PM Interview
Reviewed in the United States on 8 May 2019
Whenever I asked my PM friends how to prep for product management interviews, I kept hearing the same three things: read Decode and Conquer, read Swipe to Unlock, and do mock interviews. I had already read Decode and Conquer and had been doing mocks, but hadn't heard of Swipe to Unlock until I started talking to people in the industry.Reviewed in the United States on 8 May 2019
Although this book isn't branded as a PM interview book, in my opinion, it was MUCH more insightful than Cracking the PM Interview. I found Cracking focused largely on what product management is and how it varies by company. While that's definitely useful information, it is oriented towards beginners.
I found Swipe to Unlock did a wonderful job complementing Decode and Conquer. While Decode and Conquer gives you an overview of what sort of questions to expect and examples of good responses, it doesn't really go into the tech trends or business strategy required to give a truly stellar interview response. That's where Swipe to Unlock comes in.
Through reading this book, I learned key insights on things such as the ridesharing market and the digital wallet ecosystem in Aisa and the key growth strategies for cloud SaaS. These were critical in helping me land APM offers from both Uber and Asana straight out of undergrad. For anyone prepping for a PM interview, I'd recommend reading Swipe to Unlock, then Decode and Conquer, and then doing mock interviews, Doing those things in that order is a killer combo.
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