Osama A. Hashmi

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Innovation Thinking Methods by Osama Hashmi is a novella of sorts, based on new ways to think about business and innovation.

This is a good book to pick up just to get some new ideas for your business or product. It definitely leans more on personal experience or names, rather than looking at broader theories or disciplines. It's also not a bad primer to start to understand planned obsolescence and why companies chase each other rather than aiming for a whole new product.

The tone is great and accessible and I found it gave me a lot to think about, even as a consumer and not someone who works in business. I think, and this isn't really addressed in the book, that it's because the principles of innovation can be expanded to creative ventures as well - it's just that the market and feedback principles are a little different.

Now, the book feels like it has some flaws and Hashmi is the first to admit it. it has been written as a short-term 'state of play' type book rather than something meant to stand the test of time. If he was tasked to do something similar in five or ten years, I think the book would look pretty different.

Also, if you read the book and decide you want to know more, there's a list of links and some more detail on sources and ideas that you can read - they definitely don't belong in the main body of the text, but they're a neat resource if the book got your brain going (particularly the One Sentence Summaries of the book).

Some minor things: Some of the links are a little strange and didn't work for me in iBooks, they just took me to another page in the ebook (that seemed unrelated) rather than an external source (or some kind of index).
There's also a coffee metaphor throughout that I found a little forced, but it's possible that's just me.

Overall, this is a good book. It's nicely written and very accessible - sometimes these books can be a little jargony but this one isn't. My only comment would be to buy the ebook rather than the hardcopy. Not only does Hashmi himself argue that it's more of a braindump than his magnum opus, but I think that if you like what the book has to say, you're better off chasing those ideas more comprehensively than coming back endless to this book. It's a hub of ideas, not a well.

I would rate it 4/5… (altro)