Great Introduction to the method of interviewing users
594504
This book is a great addition to anyone interested in developing their interviewing skills or even breaking into it for the first time.  The best contribution of this book is how he doesn't focus on ethereal discussions in user research but is instead interested in deeply practical application and methodology.  For instance, he is not interested worrying about what to "call" his methods (such as the ethnography definition on pg. 3), but he is more interested in casting a vision for user research (pg. 10ff).  The first chapter alone makes the book worth the purchase where he outlines benefits to the entire process.  You're not going to get many interview books that cover everything from building rapport to how to place your camera when videotaping!  While it's all great, chapters 5 and 6 are particularly good even for experienced researchers because he really shows how to have great interviews by such tangible topics such as the types of questions you ask and crossing the "tipping point" from the user answering questions to telling stories.

So why the 4 star rating? Well, I wish I could give it a 4.5 because 4 isn't really fair, but I feel like I can't give it a full five stars. The reason for this is because after all this great material on why we should do interviewing and how to do interviewing, you're left with a cursory overview of making an impact with your research. Let's face it, you can become a great interviewer but if you aren't good at interpreting that data ("design synthesis") than you're only an interviewer not a UX practitioner (maybe that's a tad overstated).  I know you have to make decisions in what to include in a book, but to me this is absolutely foundational and left me wanting more.

Still, despite that critique the book is certainly worth a purchase, and it will only have a positive influence on your ability to effectively interview users.
956737
The book is any next candidate's hands-on in an "almost pocket-size" version.

Very well structured with information from existing theories but also from personal experience of a Senior Engineer who's been working in Silicon Valley area for quite some good time.

Take time to digest the key points, as it is very concise and essential topics is what you need to consider in a design interview. More info about the basics can be found online, however you need to try imagine or probably draw the nodes of the system yourself on a  piece of paper for the ease of retaining information.
3629720
I've really appreciated the approach the authors have taken by establishing a shared vocabulary as a baseline for everything that follows. In my own experience, the concepts of channels and touchpoints have been tricky to wrap my head around, let alone have a conversation on with other partners and clients. Part 1 does a solid job putting these together. And the content that follows provides a systematic approach to understanding the current state of an experience and then how to create a vision for and execute on an improved experience that betters meets the needs of your customers. I'm looking forward to utilizing the workshop templates provided.
I'd previously explored many of the tools and ideas presented in the book through the excellent writing on Adaptive Path's Ideas blog and through other human-centered design resources - but having one reference book that ties these techniques and more together into a coherent framework is immensely valuable. We will be purchasing extra copies to have on hand for our team to dig into.
4466556
This book helps with a good methodology to use to stimulate conversations with business units on strategy that can  be inputs into the overall IT strategy and budget. I really liked the book and its recommended processes.
3500968
In a single line - this book answers the question of why users (ordinary people) spend so much time on Facebook?

  This book is phenomenal in its ability to theorize consumer behavior, as applied to today's digital products. It summarizes in 4 clear steps that form a "cycle" with the consumer at its center. Following the steps in the cycle enable internet services and mobile applications to engage and retain users.
  The theory if successfully applied - will nudge users slowly to alter their behavioral patterns during a day and then fundamentally cause them to be hooked. As described by Nir Eyal - this book fundamentally uses live platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and several other software products as cases to describe how each of the 4 steps are as follows:
1) Trigger
2) Action
3) Rewards
4) Investment

 On the overall, this book provides a roadmap to alter consumer behavior to achieve the end goal of engagement with a firm's product.  I enjoyed reading this book, and will recommend it strongly to any product manager or CEO of a firm that intends to build a business, that needs continuous user engagement (versus a 1 time sale).

-hemang
@hemangcs
http://hemangcs.tumblr.com
2843783
This is a great book to introduce Lean/Agile principles into user experience development. The book is clear and concise with a generous helping of real world stories that bring the points home.

I do think the primary audience for this will be organizations that are not currently practicing Lean/Agile principles of iterate/test/iterate. The book presents itself as being a slightly evolutionary from basic Agile principles, but honestly the heart of the methodology presented here is essentially the same.

The key is to transform the development process from a top-down, linear basis to an organic, team-led, customer-driven approach that stresses rapid iteration and frequent testing directly with the users. If this is new to your organization, Lean UX is a great book to introduce your team (and your management) to the principles. If you are already practicing Lean or Agile principles, this doesn't add a whole lot to what you already are doing.
2791998
In the process of prepping for my Amazon interviews, I stumbled across this book. I was somewhat unclear as to how I prepare for coding interviews, when I've been coding practically all my life. Cracking the Coding Interview did an excellent job of guiding me through the most important topics, and taught me how to break down a problem the way interviewers wanted to see. I noticed myself making several mistakes which the book warned me about, and I was able to correct them prior to the interview.

In addition, this book offers a great list of interview questions which were really helpful in studying for my interviews.
4843747
A lunchtime conversation led me to google ways to do a 360-degree assessment of how others perceive my personal and professional skills and attributes. This book was the only first-page result that provided a concise, clear summary of a theory and approach to determine "who I am" in the eyes of others. Within an hour, I had read the first few chapters and sent out a survey to 140 people in my personal and professional network. Within 5 minutes, I got the first few results.

My only complaint is that the survey tool does not integrate with social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

However, the brevity, simplicity and focused message of this book makes up for the burden of manually uploading a CSV file then deleting email addresses.

Overall, I highly recommend that all executives take the time (and risk) to survey those whom you have had good and bad relationships.

I look forward to learning more about my weaknesses so that I address them while I increase focus on my strengths.
1592557
I received this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.  This book delighted me.  Clear, concise, right-to-the-point talk about what goes on for both sides of the interview process, be it interviewee or interviewer.  What NOT to do/say for the interviewee and what/why TO look/listen-for when it's the interviewer.  Being a rather old(er) person, opportunities remaining for a 'regular job' interview are slim.  However, the general scope of being an interviewee/interviewer are similar for volunteer situations and groups one wishes to join... so I'm quite pleased to have this book for reference.
1383206
I'm a former recruiter and current career coach, so I know how important social media is for the job search. This is a critical topic for job seekers to master and Waldman has put together a great reference book on this often overwhelming topic. This is not just for beginners who are looking to get started, though it's accessible for newcomers. There are resources mentioned, shortcuts and strategies that will benefit even regular users of social media.

One of the trickiest areas of job search is managing all of your contacts and activity, and Waldman gives some great suggestions for contact management, reputation tracking and management, and activity tracking. This is definitely a book you'll want on your reference shelf for job search AND career management.
3939834
The authors submitted respondents from a lot of countries to over 1,300 questions. The reader can see some of the same things come up again and again. The way you can see this is through the statistics. A lot of the book consists of statistical methodology.

I'm really looking forward to the next edition that I expect will have even more analysis and editing.
3838531
Valuable resource for anyone (and that means most of us at some point in our lives) tasked with interviewing people. How do we make the best assessment of that person's character, experience, potential based on a one-time meeting of an hour or two? Mr. Diamante's book will give you great tips. The material is well presented and easy to digest.
3056587
Very good book to get you started.
Besides explaining the different steps you need to go through in a case interview, Victor also explains what the interviewer is actually looking for and why. It helped me understand why they ask for certain things and what you can do to actually make a good impression on the interviewer.
You can also check out his website which is pretty good too.
The book doesn't provide any case practice though. It's really a good place to start to lay the foundation of how you should approach cases.
664171
I wish I'd had this book 13 years ago when I was a technical writer in a software company moving into what I later found out was called information architecture and which we would now know as user experience.

It is a fantastic resource for anyone new to the field. It gives an excellent introduction to what is involved and what you can do to improve user experience while retaining your day job.

One highpoint for me is the chapter on generating ideas, which demonstrates many of the well-known methods (excellently illustrated) as well as some more esoteric activities. Even seasoned UXers will find something new here.

There's also a very good chapter on deliverables with one of my favourite lines in the book: "Deliverables are a step on the journey, not the end of the line". Perhaps it would be good if the authors warned here that in agencies (I refuse to perpetuate the authors' use of the appalling terms "outties' and innies"!) deliverables are often seen as the final and only outcome.

I also thought the section on responding to criticisms in review sessions well thought out. It ought to give confidence to anyone facing this daunting prospect, and probably has some handy tips for more experienced practitioners.

A few criticisms: the book only talks about web sites: user experience experts work in all sorts of product environments (like software) and it would be good if the book made the point that many of these skills and methods are transferable. I found some of the chapter on working with other disciplines a little patronising, particularly of visual designers, who can be highly experienced interactionists with whom we can and should work closely. I also thought the section on Agile was a little optimistic, skating over some of the difficulties.

But overall this is a great new book and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to work in user experience design.
1086077
So many interviewers ask about DNS and SSL. I read this book having my previous sole resource of DNS knowledge be interviews. I was amazed at how much I didn't know like how anycast is used with the DNS root servers. My favorite chapter was the one that included passive DNS, the whole book was a quick and easy read.

Negatives: None really, The authors said a few things about exploits like "try the exploit after you patch" that seemed like they had less expertise in that area.
2034829
This book is a great introduction to thinking about how to use a variety of digital tools for the purposes of teaching writing.  The book starts out with a helpful intro. that discusses how the literacy practices of reading and writing are changing via online interaction and then goes into each of these different practices.

What I enjoyed most is how the the book organizes its discussions of digital tools according to the thinking/writing processes they promote.  For example, wikis are discussed in a chapter on collaborative writing, while video composition is discussed in a chapter on storytelling. In this sense the book is more than a "how to" manual in that it gets at how these tools can be used to promote writing.

For those who want a book jam-packed with classroom friendly URLs and teaching resources, they will enjoy the companion wiki that goes along with the book.  I appreciate how the book explains the ideas while the wiki provides numerous examples to illustrate and support how it can be done in the classroom.

This book will be helpful to those who want to use digital tools to update how they teach writing, or for those already digitally savvy, who want to expand their digital writing repertoire.
1143753
This book is a great introduction into the world of Samurai Sales Mastery.  Dan does a great job of framing where we are, how we got here and why things have changed so much in the sales environment.  His mention of Daniel Kahneman was the piece of knowledge that led to the synthesis around the job interview competitive advantage I describe in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Peak-Interview-New-Insights-into-Winning-the-Interview-and-Getting-the-Job/dp/1450568947/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Peak Interview: New Insights into Winning the Interview and Getting the Job.</a>.  Put the Win Back in Your Sales is a delightfully easy, quick read.  I strongly recommend it.