User-centered Design

User-centered Design
Author: Karel Vredenburg
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2002
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780130912954

User-Centered Design: An Integrated Approach will help you optimize your customers' total experience with any technology product or service - from purchase and installation through support, upgrades, and beyond. Karel Vredenburg, Scott Isensee, and Carol Righi, the field's leading experts, present methods, techniques, case studies, and CD-ROM-based tools for introducing, deploying, and optimizing UCD to make products that are simpler, more elegant, more powerful, and more profitable.

The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You

The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You
Author: Lydia Fenet
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1982101156

The Senior Vice President of Christie’s and seasoned auctioneer Lydia Fenet, with her “razor-sharp humor and her don’t-mess-with-me gavel strike” (Mariska Hargitay, star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), shares the secrets of success and the strategies behind her revolutionary sales approach to show you how to embrace and channel your own power in any room. Who is the most powerful woman in the room? She’s the one who can raise a million dollars in a minute. She’s the one who can command the attention of a group of any size from one person to five thousand. She’s the one who can sell anything to anyone. And she can be you. As a senior executive at Christie’s, leader in her field, and one of Gotham magazine’s Most Influential Women in New York, Lydia Fenet knows firsthand that the one skill that can set women apart in both their personal life and career is the ability to sell. The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You equips you with everything you need to know—from how to sell authentically and how to network (or die), to the importance of never apologizing (start negotiating instead), how to perfect your poker face, and always, always, tell the truth. Most of all, she offers plenty of encouragement to take ownership in your position and look for opportunities to innovate. Filled with additional case studies, thoughtful insights, and meaningful advice from some of the most powerful and successful women in business, fashion, journalism, sports, and the arts, The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You “is an insightful, inspiring guide for women who are trying to claim their own seat at the table” (New York Journal of Books).

Reality Is Broken

Reality Is Broken
Author: Jane McGonigal
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2011-01-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1101475498

“McGonigal is a clear, methodical writer, and her ideas are well argued. Assertions are backed by countless psychological studies.” —The Boston Globe “Powerful and provocative . . . McGonigal makes a persuasive case that games have a lot to teach us about how to make our lives, and the world, better.” —San Jose Mercury News “Jane McGonigal's insights have the elegant, compact, deadly simplicity of plutonium, and the same explosive force.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother A visionary game designer reveals how we can harness the power of games to boost global happiness. With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games. Jane McGonigal is also the author of SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient.

Exploiting My Baby

Exploiting My Baby
Author: Teresa Strasser
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2011-01-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 110147825X

Teresa Strasser made her baby a spleen and some eyebrows. He got her a book deal. Everyone loves babies-and pregnant women-so TV and radio personality Teresa Strasser decided to use this obsession to her advantage. She came up with a way to provide for her newfound family and help other mommies-to-be with this down- and-dirty memoir about first-time pregnancy. An award-winning writer, Teresa is achingly honest about the motherhood she begins experiencing at age thirty-eight. With a biting sense of humor and heart, she portrays the tribulations that come with each trimester, from nausea, weight gain, and bladder infections to dealing with those other kinds of pregnant women. (You know the ones. The ones who glow-and gloat about it.) Exploiting My Baby is a must-read for anyone pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or who is just more crazy than baby-crazy. Hopping on a trail pioneered by such lions as Laura Ingalls Wilder, Erma Bombeck, and Tori Spelling, Teresa has no problem using her pregnancy, childbirth and difficult relationship with her own mother for material. It's her blunt and plain-spoken approach to exploiting her family for literary success that sets her apart. Watch a Video

Maxed Out

Maxed Out
Author: Katrina Alcorn
Publisher: Seal Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2013-08-28
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1580055230

Winner of a Foreword IndieFab Book of the Year Award Katrina Alcorn was a 37-year-old mother with a happy marriage and a thriving career when one day, on the way to Target to buy diapers, she had a breakdown. Her carefully built career shuddered to a halt, and her journey through depression, anxiety, and insomnia—followed by medication, meditation, and therapy—began. Alcorn wondered how a woman like herself, with a loving husband, a supportive boss, three healthy kids, and a good income, was unable to manage the demands of having a career and a family. Over time, she realized that she wasn’t alone; many women were struggling to do it all—and feeling as if they were somehow failing as a result. Mothers are the breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, yet the American workplace is uniquely hostile to the needs of parents. Weaving in surprising research about the dysfunction between the careers and home lives of working mothers, as well as the consequences to women’s health, Alcorn tells a deeply personal story about “having it all,” failing miserably, and what comes after. Ultimately, she offers readers a vision for a healthier, happier, and more productive way to live and work.

The Leadership Challenge

The Leadership Challenge
Author: James M. Kouzes
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 111927897X

The most trusted source of leadership wisdom, updated to address today's realities The Leadership Challenge is the gold-standard manual for effective leadership, grounded in research and written by the premier authorities in the field. With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential. This new seventh edition has been revised to address current challenges, and includes more international examples and a laser focus on business issues; you'll learn how extraordinary leaders accomplish extraordinary things, and how to develop your leadership skills and style to deliver quality results every time. Engaging stories delve into the fundamental roles that great leaders fulfill, and simple frameworks provide a primer for those who seek continuous improvement; by internalizing key insights and putting concepts into action, you'll become a more effective, more impactful leader. A good leader gets things done; a great leader aspires, inspires, and achieves more. This book highlights the differences between good and great, and shows you how to bridge the chasm between getting things done and making things happen. Gain deep insight into leadership's critical role in organizational health Navigate the shift toward team-oriented work relationships Motivate and inspire to break through the pervasive new cynicism Leverage the electronic global village to deliver better results Business is evolving at an increasingly rapid rate, and leaders must keep pace with the changes or risk stagnation. People work differently, are motivated differently, and have different expectations today—business as usual is quickly losing its effectiveness. The Leadership Challenge helps you stay current, relevant, and effective in the modern workplace.

The Lean Startup

The Lean Startup
Author: Eric Ries
Publisher: Crown Currency
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2011-09-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0307887898

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

My Super Me

My Super Me
Author: Todd Herman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2020-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578612447

Our little hero is growing up in a world that can seem big, loud, and scary. Some people tell him he's too small, too young, or too whatever. But when he puts on his cape and learns to play through the fearless traits of his superhero stuffed animal, Captain Storm, he finds the courage and resilience to show up in a more brave way and ultimately unlocks his heroic self. This children's book captures the big idea nested in the already Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly bestseller, The Alter Ego Effect, from award-winning Performance & Mental Game Coach to Olympians, leaders & public figures, Todd Herman. What's the big idea? Humans find out what they're made of when they play with the idea of acting through the abilities of someone or something else they admire. And kids are better at it than adults. Little kids will enjoy following the story of Captain Storm, who makes his way through a maze of adventures and everyday challenges. This fun read will inspire them to believe in themselves and face down tough stuff with more grit.

Reincarnation Blues

Reincarnation Blues
Author: Michael Poore
Publisher: Del Rey
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2017-08-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 039917849X

A wildly imaginative novel about a man who is reincarnated over ten thousand lifetimes to be with his one true love: Death herself. “Tales of gods and men akin to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as penned by a kindred spirit of Douglas Adams.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) First we live. Then we die. And then . . . we get another try? Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to “get it right.” Answer all the Big Questions. Achieve Wisdom. And Become One with Everything. Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn’t make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her. More than just Milo’s lover throughout his countless layovers in the Afterlife, Suzie is literally his reason for living—as he dives into one new existence after another, praying for the day he’ll never have to leave her side again. But Reincarnation Blues is more than a great love story: Every journey from cradle to grave offers Milo more pieces of the great cosmic puzzle—if only he can piece them together in time to finally understand what it means to be part of something bigger than infinity. As darkly enchanting as the works of Neil Gaiman and as wisely hilarious as Kurt Vonnegut’s, Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking. Because it’s more than Milo and Suzie’s story. It’s your story, too. Praise for Reincarnation Blues “The most fun you’ll have reading about a man who has been killed by both catapult and car accident.”—NPR “This book made me laugh out loud. And then a page later, it made me sob. Reminiscent of Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore, Poore finds humor in the dark absurdities of life.”—Chicago Review of Books “Charming . . . surprisingly light and uplifting . . . It reads like a writer having fun.”—New York Journal of Books

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Author: Richard Rumelt
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-07-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0307886239

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.