Want to know what books Kevan Lee recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Kevan Lee's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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Growing Up Fast is a practical book about how to implement an agile marketing process in modern business to create the necessary collaboration between marketing and innovation for business success. The first half of the book covers the philosophical underpinnings of complementary opposites in nature, human interaction, and the workplace. It surveys business management over the last 100 years and shows how we've come to the "Agile Age," which is not about big ideas Mad Men-style, but lots of little ideas to test and try.
The second half of the book discusses the mindsets and tools... more Growing Up Fast is a practical book about how to implement an agile marketing process in modern business to create the necessary collaboration between marketing and innovation for business success. The first half of the book covers the philosophical underpinnings of complementary opposites in nature, human interaction, and the workplace. It surveys business management over the last 100 years and shows how we've come to the "Agile Age," which is not about big ideas Mad Men-style, but lots of little ideas to test and try.
The second half of the book discusses the mindsets and tools required for success in agile work, and examples are given throughout the text in the form of case studies on companies like Netflix, 3M, Microsoft, Domino's Pizza, and Dell Computer.
The introduction and conclusion of the book set up the metaphor of the book's title, to personify the current impasse between big regulation government and total free market capitalism. Agile is posed as a third option between the Mom and Dad's battle between over-planning and wild speculation, concern for the future and obsession with "what worked" in the past-as both occupy our resources without agile process or priorities for the innovations we need going forward in society.
Agile is portrayed as an inquisitive, experimental, brilliant child who still lives above the garage at her parents' house-and it's time for her to move out.
"There are also plenty, plenty of high-level remarks out there about how businesses need to be agile - with very little insight about how. Hey, we should all be rich and good-looking too...
But there have been few guides that address the gap between the fluffy and the functional.
Growing Up Fast: How New Agile Practices Can Move Marketing and Innovation Past the Old Business Stalemates by Jascha Kaykas-Wolff and Kevin Fann brilliantly spans that chasm." Scott Brinker @chiefmartec less 
Kevan LeeIn proper combination, innovation creates marketing opportunities, which create innovation, which creates marketing opportunities, which create innovation, which creates marketing, and on and on. (Source)
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We Are All Weird is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values.
For generations, marketers, industrialists and politicians have tried to force us into little boxes, complying with their idea of what we should buy, use or want. And in an industrial, mass-market driven world, this... more We Are All Weird is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values.
For generations, marketers, industrialists and politicians have tried to force us into little boxes, complying with their idea of what we should buy, use or want. And in an industrial, mass-market driven world, this was efficient and it worked. But what we learned in this new era is that mass limits our choice because it succeeds on conformity.
As Godin has identified, a new era of weirdness is upon us. People with more choices, more interests and the power to do something about it are stepping forward and insisting that the world work in a different way. By enabling choice we allow people to survive and thrive. less Irina BotnariWe Are All Weird, Seth Godin, is also a bible for our fast forward changing world. We're all different in our own ways. The businesses shall adapt, quick. And so shall we. (Source)
Kevan LeeWe don’t like the advertising that’s not for us, not about us, not interesting to us. But talk to me, directly to me, about something relevant and personal, and I love you for it. (Source)
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Finally available in bookstores, the Portfolio edition of Derek Sivers’s iconic and bestselling manifesto on lessons learned while becoming an entrepreneur
Most people don’t know what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own.
Best known for creating CD Baby, the most popular music site for independent artists, founder Derek Sivers chronicles his “accidental” success and failures into this concise and inspiring book on how to create a multimillion-dollar company by following your passion.
Sivers... more Finally available in bookstores, the Portfolio edition of Derek Sivers’s iconic and bestselling manifesto on lessons learned while becoming an entrepreneur
Most people don’t know what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own.
Best known for creating CD Baby, the most popular music site for independent artists, founder Derek Sivers chronicles his “accidental” success and failures into this concise and inspiring book on how to create a multimillion-dollar company by following your passion.
Sivers details his journey and the lessons learned along the way of creating CD Baby and building a business close to his heart. In 1997 Sivers was a musician who taught himself to code a Buy Now button onto his band’s Web site. Shortly thereafter he began selling his friends’ CDs on his Web site. As CD Baby grew, Sivers faced numerous obstacles on his way to success. Within six years he had been publicly criticized by Steve Jobs and had to pay his father $3.3 million to buy back 90 percent of his company, but he had also built a company of more than 50 employees and had profited $10 million.
Anything You Want is must reading for every person who is an entrepreneur, wants to be one, wants to understand one, or cares even a little about what it means to be human. less 
Timothy FerrissA true manifesto, a guidebook with clear signposts, and a fun ride you'll return to again and again. (Source)
Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)
Kevan LeeBusiness is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. (Source)
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4
Two successful startup founders offer a comprehensive overview of the various ways startups can achieve strong, sustainable growth, and a guide to choosing the ones that will make the differencce.
Why do so many startups fail? According to entrepreneurs Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, most failed startups don’t get off the ground not because of a bad product, but because they don’t have enough customers. They make the fatal mistake of putting all their effort into perfecting their product at the cost of reaching out to potential users. Instead, they should be putting half... more Two successful startup founders offer a comprehensive overview of the various ways startups can achieve strong, sustainable growth, and a guide to choosing the ones that will make the differencce.
Why do so many startups fail? According to entrepreneurs Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, most failed startups don’t get off the ground not because of a bad product, but because they don’t have enough customers. They make the fatal mistake of putting all their effort into perfecting their product at the cost of reaching out to potential users. Instead, they should be putting half their resources into getting traction.
TRACTION is the essential guide for any startup looking to stay ahead of the curve and start building a user base early in the game. The book offers no one-size-fits-all solution: every startup is unique, so no single method is guaranteed to generate traction. Instead, the authors identify nineteen different traction channels from viral marketing to trade shows, offer insights on how to exploit each one to its fullest potential, and provide a framework to test various channels and identify the best one for any startup.
Drawing on advice from more than 40 successful startup founders and marketers, from Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales to American Apparel’s Ryan Holiday, TRACTION is a comprehensive textbook for marketing your way to growth. less Pat WallsI love this book because of the problems it solved at the time that I read it. I think my favorite business book changes over time, and this book is very new and "with the times". (Source)
Cory ZueThe business book I find myself recommending the most often is Traction, which is an excellent practical and high-level take on strategies for getting traction for your products. I found it particularly helpful because it prevents a framework and strategies you can actually execute and follow yourself instead of just pontificating about ideas. (Source)
Kevan LeeThe bullseye framework for finding the best traction channels: Get it here. (Source)
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5
The bible for bringing cutting-edge products to larger markets--now revised and updated with new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing
In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore shows that in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle--which begins with innovators and moves to early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards--there is a vast chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. While early adopters are willing to sacrifice for the advantage of being first, the early majority waits until they know that the technology actually offers improvements in... more The bible for bringing cutting-edge products to larger markets--now revised and updated with new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing
In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore shows that in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle--which begins with innovators and moves to early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards--there is a vast chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. While early adopters are willing to sacrifice for the advantage of being first, the early majority waits until they know that the technology actually offers improvements in productivity. The challenge for innovators and marketers is to narrow this chasm and ultimately accelerate adoption across every segment.
This third edition brings Moore's classic work up to date with dozens of new examples of successes and failures, new strategies for marketing in the digital world, and Moore's most current insights and findings. He also includes two new appendices, the first connecting the ideas in Crossing the Chasm to work subsequently published in his Inside the Tornado, and the second presenting his recent groundbreaking work for technology adoption models for high-tech consumer markets. less 
Drew HoustonIt’s [about] how do technology products make their way from early adopters t the mainstream. (Source)
Ron ConwayBestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. (Source)
Seth GodinThis is a key component in my Purple Cow thinking, but with a twist. I'm not as worried about the chasm as I am about the desire of marketers to go for the big middle. (Source)
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