Professor Vijay Kumar observes that many businesses claim to value innovation, but few succeed in consistently bringing innovations to market. The reason for this, he says, is that many companies don’t understand how to manage innovation—some don’t even realize that innovation can be planned and managed like other types of projects.

This book is Kumar’s solution to the problem. He lays out a systematic approach to innovation management involving the completion of seven innovation tasks. Kumar also discusses a number of specific tools and techniques you can use in the course of completing an innovation project. We’ll discuss his approach, examine some of the tools he presents, and compare Kumar’s advice to that of other innovation experts, like the creators of Blue Ocean Strategy, Zero to One, and Crossing the Chasm.

Humans play a wide variety of games, from basketball and chess to video games and poker. Why are we so enthralled with these games, even when they don’t really have an impact on our lives outside the game?

Theory of Fun for Game Design, by veteran game designer Raph Koster (lead designer of Ultima Online), discusses why games are fun, what games teach their players, and ultimately how to make a meaningful game.

You probably know someone who regularly blows things out of proportion, or who insists on having the same argument over and over, or constantly tries to one-up other people. According to Dr. Eric Berne, a pioneering psychiatrist who broke away from the Freudian tradition, those are just two of the games that people play in work, love, sex, and friendship.

Games People Play is Berne’s 1964 classic about the many ways that we habitually relate to one another through “games.” These aren’t fun, harmless social games, though—they’re subtle, largely unconscious patterns that harm us and our relationships. Berne explains how most of us don’t even notice our games, and how we’re missing out on the fulfillment of game-free living.

In our guide, we’ll explore the foundations of Berne’s theory and build up to an extensive discussion of games, before finishing with his strategies for growing into a fuller way of living. We’ve also added psychological perspectives from Freud to modern-day and updated Berne’s ideas.

Creating a successful product can feel like a risky gamble, but what if it doesn’t have to be? In The Lean Product Playbook, entrepreneur Dan Olsen argues that you can feel confident in your product’s success by making sure it has product-market fit—that it satisfies customer needs better than other available options. Olsen provides a practical guide to finding product-market fit using the lean startup approach, presenting repeatable and systematic steps for identifying target customers, understanding their needs, and creating a winning product strategy. By following Olsen’s Lean Product Process, you can craft winning products with minimum time, effort, and costs.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to find product-market fit, validate your product idea with a minimum viable product, and build and optimize your complete product using key metrics. Along the way, we’ll supplement Olsen’s strategies with insights and advice from other product experts and entrepreneurs.

Professor Vijay Kumar observes that many businesses claim to value innovation, but few succeed in consistently bringing innovations to market. The reason for this, he says, is that many companies don’t understand how to manage innovation—some don’t even realize that innovation can be planned and managed like other types of projects.

This book is Kumar’s solution to the problem. He lays out a systematic approach to innovation management involving the completion of seven innovation tasks. Kumar also discusses a number of specific tools and techniques you can use in the course of completing an innovation project. We’ll discuss his approach, examine some of the tools he presents, and compare Kumar’s advice to that of other innovation experts, like the creators of Blue Ocean Strategy, Zero to One, and Crossing the Chasm.

What if there were a secret shortcut to elite performance and creative innovation? According to workplace performance psychologist Ron Friedman, there is—and it’s called reverse engineering. In Decoding Greatness, Friedman argues that the surest road to success is to take apart work you admire to see how it’s made, and then create your own version of it. By doing so, he says, you’ll spark original ideas, improve your skills, and ultimately find creative success.

In our guide, we’ll explain Friedman’s advice for doing great work—whether that means getting a show at an art gallery, winning a marathon, or nailing a big product pitch. We’ll explore reverse engineering in depth and show you how to go from taking apart someone else’s work to creating your own. Then, we’ll discuss how to practice effectively and how to get useful feedback from peers and experts. We’ll also build on Friedman’s ideas by putting them in conversation with advice from creativity and performance experts such as Austin Kleon and Tim Ferriss.

Are you a salesperson? You might be surprised to learn that the answer is “Yes.” Hate it or love it, in the modern world, we’re all selling something, and the value of sales skills has never been higher.

To Sell Is Human explains the history, evolution, and significance of sales. It challenges commonly held assumptions by redefining the meaning of sales, re-evaluating the purpose of the salesperson, and showing you how to effectively harness sales skills to create purpose, growth, or “movement” in your life (whether it be for personal or professional gain). Using our guide, you’ll build on your inherent sales instincts to develop confidence, build connection, and generate success in your life.

In the digital age, when nearly anyone can start a business online, how do you stand out? In Launch, marketing expert Jeff Walker offers a product launch strategy that will help you market and sell a product with little to no start-up costs. By focusing on giving value and building customer engagement, you can create a business that grants you flexibility, autonomy, and immediate profits.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how the Internet has changed the marketing game and how you can adapt to—and take advantage of—this new landscape to quickly and successfully grow your business. Then, we’ll discover how you can attract interested buyers with little more than an email list, even before you have a product to sell. Along the way, we’ll draw on insights from the field of psychology to show why Walker’s strategy works and compare his book with those of other experts, such as Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars and Ryan Holiday’s Perennial Seller.

In his epic 707-page Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss shares the habits and beliefs of 101 people at the top of their game, including tech investors like Chris Sacca and Peter Thiel, entrepreneurs like LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Evernote’s Phil Libin, superhuman athletes like Amelia Boone and Wim Hof, media figures like Edward Norton and Whitney Cummings, and more.

These are the principles that successful people use to achieve audacious goals, improve themselves, and be happier. The premise: if you can apply the lessons from this book, you can be more effective.