You can purchase and learn more about my books here!

Maximize revenue and build customer loyalty with the Profit Stream Canvas. This powerful visual tool helps you understand and implement effective pricing, licensing, and compliance strategies. Discover how to align your monetization choices with your business objectives and create lasting value for your customers.

    1. "Jason Tanner and Luke Hohmann have written an awesome book that touches on a topic that is largely ignored in the Lean-Agile world. Perhaps there’s a stigma about saying you care about profit, let alone want to focus on it. Personally, the word has not been a common conversation starter for me despite all the work I do with senior executives, Product Managers and corporation’s Lean Portfolio leaders. However, as an executive who is focused on helping enterprises achieve Business Agility, and the sustainable success it brings, I don’t ignore it.
      As Luke and Jason wrote the book, they tapped into the team at Applied Frameworks and our expertise in the product management and Scaled Agile space to gather ideas and inputs. This experience took me from being a hesitant skeptic to a truly staunch supporter. While “Profit” does not get me up in the morning like “Sustainability” does, the authors wove this perspective and many others into the book. Writing a book on profit that positions it as a powerful balancing force as opposed to the only thing that matters, has greatly expanded the number of individuals that I recommend read it."

    1. "Software Profit Stream is a game changer for achieving the Scrum goal of generating value for complex products. This book provides invaluable insights and practical strategies that have revolutionized my teaching and implementation of Scrum. As author Luke Hohmann has said, “It is no longer enough to generate value; you must generate profit.” As a Scrum Trainer, Software Profit Streams has changed how I teach individuals and teams to use Scrum to deliver sustainable value. The book offers practical strategies and insights that have transformed my approach to teaching the product discovery cycle. The concepts of Tangible and Intangible Value and the seven Value Exchange Models are game changers in thinking about value. Students no longer think, “Oh, we’ll just sell ads.” is the easy button for product development. This book should be on every product person’s bookshelf. I highly recommend it to all my product owner students and to anyone who cares about the success of their products and teams."

    1. "I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book. Even in its pre-release state the book was stunning. The thought the authors and illustrators put into the visual representation of dry and boring topics is incredible. I've now read this book cover to cover 3 times. Over the course of my career I've held leadership positions in startups and been a part of organizations with mid-cycle solutions. When they say that this book can help no matter where you are in the solution lifecycle. I believe it. Most people understand that pricing can impact profit. But now I can see how understanding the implications of things like licensing and compliance can also impact profitability. This book inspires you to think a bit differently about the design of your software-enabled solution. In a good way. After all. Just like the sun sustains the earth...profit sustains your business. High recommend."

    2. "Product Managers and Product Owners in any organizations are tasked with the responsibility of building the right product for their customers and their business. This means not only building a product that works and that delivers solutions to the customers, but also a product that can be sustainably viable in the marketplace. Yet too often product people focus on the "building" part of the job, and forget the "business" part. Software Profit Streams helps to close the gap, by providing tools and insights on how to think holistically about a new product offering, how to identify profit streams, and how to generate sustainable value for the business.
      In this book Jason and Luke have amassed a wealth of knowledge, pulling from product management, business, and marketing practices. And they have distilled even complex concepts into bite-sized topics that are both easy to understand and usable in action. However, this is a huge book, counting almost 400 pages. It is a textbook for product people interested in learning all aspects of the topic."

      -Valerio Zanini, Product Management Expert, Certified Product Innovation Trainer

    3. Yes, some businesses fall in the category of "potential unicorns", and the prospect of near-term profitability can be rightly sacrificed in pursuit of rapid scaling and market growth. But that profile is a vanishingly small portion of companies in the business of selling software or software-enabled solutions, and following that path makes as much sense as modeling your retirement portfolio based on how billionaires invest.
      Software Profit Streams is the new Bible for everyone in the software industry NOT on FAANG or Silicon Valley unicorn trajectories. Using the Profit Stream Canvas to guide your business decisions may not make you a billionaire, but if your goal is to have satisfied customers, employees, and investors -- and just be able to sleep well at night knowing your business is sustainably profitable -- you need to read this book!

Uncover hidden customer needs and accelerate product development with Innovation Games. This groundbreaking approach helps you understand what customers truly want and deliver the right solutions faster, reducing costs and time to market. Learn how to use these interactive games to engage customers in a fun and insightful way, uncover their hidden desires, and gain valuable insights that inform your product development process

    1. "Everybody wants to better their businesses and make serious efforts to do so, but maybe we could be more effective is the efforts were less serious and more fun. Business communication is always challenging within the organization, with customers, providers, contractors, etc.. This is in part because they are not face-to-face and because most times one or more people who could add significant value take a passive role, in part because most times there is someone who enjoys dominating the meeting. End result is incomplete and biased information and decisions.
      One main reason why games work is because (a) they are fun, and (b) they make everybody to actively participate. Hohmann's book is a great starting point. The games cover diverse needs and conducted properly add significant value (and save costs) to teams, projects, and entire enterprises.
      Don't get serious... instead, start using this book!"

    1. "Luke has done a masterful job in writing a book on collaboration. His advice is durable, timely and still relevant. If you are working in a virtual world or in-person. Innovation Games can help you collaborate better. You do not need fancy tools to get a big bang lift out of what Luke has provided. Just buy his book, read it in small steps and try the collaboration games in small steps. If the word game is bothering you then use a different word. The material in this book is great!!!"

    1. "I like this book because it's full of practical tools on discovering your customer's needs, wants, and likes. As an agile innovation consultant, I have used several techniques from this book to help customers describe their most important features (product box) and then prioritize them (buy a feature). The author emphasizes the need for thorough preparation and documentation while making the business process seem fun like a game.
      I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to draw out customer requirements. There are even some techniques for discovering the killer features that will set your product apart from your competitors' (Give them a hot tub). I plan on using these techniques in upcoming customer engagements especially for helping them with strategic direction and product requirements gathering.
      It's a must for any innovation professional."

    2. "I first heard of this book while reading about coding debt, so I looked up the book and sounded just what I was looking for, and I was not disappointed. This book shows creative ways to work with clients to find out what they like, don't like and want in new or updated products. This book was so helpful I recommended it to my company and it is now a mandatory read for all mangers in my section."

    3. "Every product manager should own this book. I have used the games many times with different companies and product lines with both customers and sales teams. Your success with the games is directly tied to your preparation. The games are fun for those participating and can provide a wealth of information for the product manager."

Tired of the limitations of ROI analysis and struggling to prioritize your project portfolio? This playbook offers a proven approach that drives better business results and empowers your team. Discover how to engage your employees in the prioritization process, foster collaboration, and make data-driven decisions that deliver exceptional outcomes.

    1. "Great concepts and I can see how game playing would help build a project portfolio while breaking down some common barriers. As a playbook, it's fairly light on details and relies a lot on brief stories of what some customers have done. It's an easy read but with a heavy marketing/sales influence."

    2. "What could be better than doing serious work and having fun at the same time? Doing that work in a way that actually engages your customers or employees. When your stakeholders actually have a say in your priorities you get better results AND they will support your efforts to build and implement the projects you choose. A fast read and a great introduction to the art of collaborative play for serious work."

    3. "I recommend this book to anyone who wants to change the dynamic of their decision-making process and increase employee and stakeholder engagement. (Real engagement, not the ping-pong table kind of engagement… although that's nice too. ;-)
      I think this book is a slam-dunk for those who are tired of the "same-old" in business decision-making and engagement. Luke provides a great description of the specific (and very recognizable) problem areas that can be addressed using games and he describes how to play the games (including the "WHY" behind them). There is powerful psychology at work here. The information can be used to help convince your leaders/sponsors who may not be as familiar with these collaborative ideas and they tend toward the classic command-and-control methods. We can see from the research that people (particularly MIllennials) want to be included in the decisions that affect them (i.e.: product strategy, business priorities, etc.) and designing the games to address the very real-world issues is brilliant. (They are brilliantly fun too when I've used them!). The "Buy a Project" section is particularly valuable as EVERYONE I know in business (software products especially) says they have too many things to do. Their plates are too full! Usually this results in a slash and burn mentality at some point that arbitrarily cuts projects off without the right level of scrutiny (all the while letting marginal or distracting projects continue their sycophant behavior drawing the lifeblood out of the organization). This book helped me (and will help you) implement a great way to engage the organization and make faster, better decisions that the whole team gets behind. This is an example of eliminating some of the waste in the process towards becoming what we all say we want: faster innovation!
      My prediction is that the new workforce (collaborative, creative, open, thoughtful, aesthetic, democratic, valuable, distractible, tribal, etc.) will demand techniques like these and the leadership needs to be ready! Buy this ebook and get on your way to doing something EPIC! I highly recommend it."

    4. "I had to get feedback from several departments and build consensus amongst the directors of each to create a long-term roadmap, and this book gave me the tools to engage people at multiple levels and come up with a good starting point. The "tree" served as a great, unifying wallpaper in our conference room for several weeks before heading into the engineering room!"

Master the software development process and unlock your full potential. This comprehensive guide helps developers at all levels improve their skills, teamwork, and leadership. Discover practical techniques for enhancing individual and collective problem-solving behavior, optimizing project structures and processes, and creating a high-performing team environment. Learn how to leverage tools and training more effectively, avoid common pitfalls, and build on your personal and management successes.

    1. "I first discovered this book thanks to the happy confluence of serendipity, perpetual bookstore browsing, and two decades of white-knuckling it as a software programmer. For the past few years it has given comfort and advice. Again today I am purchasing a copy as a gift for the shrink who is nursing me following the burst of the dot-com bubble. If I were on a desert island I would first wish for this book."

    2. "Journey of the Software Professional is an impressive work. It begins with a Forward by noted author Gerald Weinberg (The Psychology of Computer Programming, etc.) where Weinberg says "In many ways, it opened my eyes. If you are a software professional, I think it will open yours as well." I couldn't have said it better.
      This book should be read by software development managers before their first assignments. Hohmann not only provides software engineering guidance and wisdom in real-world context but also, where possible, backs up his thinking with published works, all carefully annotated.
      What separates this work from most software engineering texts is Hohmann's ability to keep the work meaningful and relevant to real-world development environments. Many other texts note that most shops are at an SEI Level I maturity yet those same books delve into COCOMO II or McCabe's cyclomatic complexity--concepts and practices foreign in those same shops. It is easy to fill books with details of these and other software engineering tools and techniques but unless these things are placed in a meaningful context, they are simply tools absent of purpose.
      What Hohmann offers is much more: a way to think about the real problem to be solved by engineering management: the maturation of the software development department. It is along these lines that Hohmann shines. For example, in one section discussing conflict, Hohmann asks "How much time, if any should be allocated to the schedule to allow programmers to rework their code?" Refactoring (Fowler) is a new spin on how to accomplish this but acknowledging, at a management level, that such activities go on is not widely discussed in most texts. Hohmann challenges readers to think about problems such as these.
      Throughout the book are sections entitled "Advice to Managers" and "Advice to Developers". Most of the advice is rock solid and could apply anywhere for the same reason The Mythical Man Month (Brooks) is still relevant and should be required reading by all software managers: software development is (and always has been) about people! While tools and techniques evolve quickly, people have not.
      Because every author wants to bring something new and fresh they'll introduce some spin on their particular approach. Hohmann offers SPO: Structure-Process-Outcome to fulfill this pension. While I think it doesn't add much, neither does it detract. There is plenty in this book to let it stand on its own merit.
      I didn't agree with everything in this book. There are few books I can give blanket and unreserved approval to, in fact. But this book did do what Weinberg promised in his Forward: it made me THINK. The book's subtitle is "A Sociology of Software Development" and that description fits well. It is not a substitute for a solid book on software engineering techniques. But, I believe this book would greatly supplement anyone's library whose quest is to better understand the discipline."

    3. "Java break, <groan> Oh - it's a bad pun. but with a subtitle of "A Sociology of Software Development" one would think this is a dissertation. May be it was. But it's a good read. However it may take several times to get the most of it.
      I recommend this for every software engineer. Managers buy it for the whole group, start them out with a plan, to develop as a person."

    4. "Luke Hohmann explains three aspects of the software development journey: inward focus, outward focus, and upward focus. Principles from psychology are used to demonstrate how the reader can achieve personal growth and develop skills as an engineer or manager. Practical advice for staff and management is prominent at the end of each chapter. Cognitive models, values, personality, goals, culture, strategy, rituals, future perfect thinking, domain experience, competency frameworks, learning styles, training plans, the Johari Window, organizational cohesion and coupling, topology, and roles are discussed in the context of software engineering. The structure, process, outcome (SPO) framework for organizing a software project is a constant thread."

Discover the business value of software architecture and learn how to create and sustain winning software solutions. This book provides practical wisdom for technologists and business professionals alike, bridging the gap between technology and business. Understand how to align your software architecture with your customer's overall goals, drive business value, and make informed decisions that deliver exceptional results.

    1. "Beyond Software Architecture should be required reading for anyone starting a software company - that is unless one prefers the school of hard knocks!
      Luke does a fabulous job of going beyond the many books written on software and technology and beyond the many books, classes, and seminars addressing how to create a successful startup and get funded.
      Hohmann's keen insight and practical advice can make an enormous difference for any group of bright and knowledgeable software engineers and/or visionary entrepreneurs with the "killer" application - a difference that can mean success. He clearly defines the space between the technology and the market and draws them together so that technologist and business person alike can gain a necessary understanding for what it takes to bring to market and sustain a successful software product.
      I wish that this book had been available ten years ago and that I had read it!"

    2. "There must be hundreds of books on the software developmental process, but I have yet to see a book that covers the business, technical marketing, sales cycle, deployment cycle, release cycle, licensing, installation, upgrade cycle, and everything in the middle all in one compact book. This book TRULY covers the life of a software application and everyone involved in it.
      For us techies, this book starts with what we are familiar with: "Why software architecture matters?" The author starts with a general overview of the topic, but it goes much further into the non-technical details software architecture, such as the Social Structure aspect:
      "A good architecture works for the team that created it. It leverages strengths and can, at times, minimize their weaknesses. ... Once created, the architecture in turn exhibits a strong influence on the team. No matter what language you've chosen, you have to mold the development team around it because it affects such as things as your hiring and training policies."
      New comers to the architect world don't really think about such aspects, or at least it's not really high on priority on many people's lists. The author puts such things right next to profitability, stability of the architecture, and defining the technical boundaries. Granted that Social Structure aspect of the architecture is as important as the others, you can't really find many books out there that treat it as such. Personal experience teaches us that, but there are cases, many cases, that one doesn't have the luxury of "trial and error". The author takes great pride in his experience and has written this book like a personal assistance to a newbie to the job, and to the expert architect with topics such as branding issues, licensing affects on the overall architecture and more...
      Tarchitecture and Markitecture are two words/concepts that are used frequently throughout this book. The author starts with the inception of software applications and explains the important rule that Market Architecture (Markitecture) and Product Management have in the overall picture of a software lifecycle. Why Business plan is important and how it should be written, how to release version 1.0 and subsequent versions, how customer input and interaction with the markitects play the most important rule in the subsequent releases of your software, and other such important questions are covered in chapters 2 and 3.
      The chapter Software License and Licensing models is probably one of the most valuable chapter (chapter 4) in the entire book. The author describes the concept of licensing and how it fits into the overall architecture and how it affects the architecture very elegantly. Various licensing models and their pros and cons are described:
      · Time based
      · Transaction based
      · OEM bases
      · Metering style
      · Hardware based
      · Services based
      · Revenue Obtained/Costs saved.
      The author explains why it is important to select the right licensing model, and how and why it could have a negative effect on your architecture if the wrong one is chosen. Various options for choosing a model are then explained such as the Honor System, the homegrown license managers, and the third party tools available.
      Another important aspect of software architecture - the-after-development-has-been-done-now-what aspect, is covered throughout the rest of the book. Deployment, installation, configuration and upgrades are the key topics. Other topics such as extensions to the current architecture, logging and branding are also covered in detail.
      The chapter on installation is another well-covered chapter that talks about a topic not covered at all or well in other books out there. Various deployment architectures are covered; Customer site installation, ASP, Managed Service Provider, and Web services models make up the topics for this chapter. This chapter, just like all the other chapters, relates the topic at hand to the overall system architecture, and why and how it can have an effect on the overall architecture of the system.
      Throughout the book, one theme screams out to the reader: "How every decision an architect makes affects the rest of the software life cycle, and what the architects need to think about and consider before coming up with their design?" The cycle - software life cycle, and how it is affected by the end user/customer, why it's the job of the market architects and business managers to gather the key points from their customers, what are some of the concerns that are common with any architecture (deployment issues, upgrade concerns, installation difficulties, logging and error reporting, security concerns), and tone of the most important aspect of all: Social aspects and how they have an important affect on the tarchitects, markitects and the overall application. I think the author says it best in the preface of the book:
      "You need to move beyond software architecture and move toward understanding and embracing the business issues that must be resolved in order to create a winning solution""

    3. "As a self-proclaimed "agilist," I have been in the habit of thinking more and more about ways that we can ensure that the software systems we build can richly and extensibly solve the business problems our customers need them to solve. And Agile processes like XP are certainly a big step in that direction. That's part of what attracted many of us to agility in the first place.
      In this excellent and timely book, Hohmann takes that desire for customer responsiveness a quantum step further, asking that every aspect of a software product (internal or external), from business model to architecture, be aligned with business purpose and business reality.
      To put it another way, he widens the software "project team" to include everybody and anybody who must dream up, define, design, market, sell, build, test, maintain, extend, support, and ultimately retire a system. It helps to systematize the hard and institutionally complex work of taking all of that input into account throughout the lifecycle.
      So the book talks about taking into account the customer-related input from all of the above roles. But it also asks us to keep the system responsive to all of the knowledge workers in those roles, and their continuing human needs. As hard as it is to do, it is not enough that a system be easy to extend for its programmers. It's not even enough that it provides the optimal feature set, on-time within budget. There is more hard work for it to do. Some systems are a hell of a lot easier to support than others, or easier to market and sell than others. And on and on.
      Hohmann shows us how the systems we build will inevitably end up responding to a wide range of needs and roles one way or another, and asks us to anticipate them all, embrace them all, and respond to them up-front, purposefully and systematically. I really, really like that. I can put these insights to use immediately.
      I think of the Agile practice revolution as an essentially humanizing revolution in software development, but at a fairly low institutional level. Agile practices largely help us only with the building of the system. And to the extent that Agile methods humanize that building process, they are great.
      But I think Hohmann's book gives us the start of a higher-tier, larger view of a humanizing movement, not just in building software systems, but in the entire lifecycle, the entire arc from conception to death. A humanized view of the lifecycle is a fabulous thing, to my mind. I think it really could change the software world permanently. We could all end up (gasp) loving our jobs.
      This is an important book, full of Aha! insights. If you have responsibility in any of the above roles I mention, I think you need to read it."