Build to Sell

About the authors

This book has been 10 years in the making and is the brainchild of Sandrine Olivencia. It represents 30 years of her career condensed into a 400-page book, the first in a series.

Sandrine has been an executive coach for 15 years. She specializes in applying lean thinking to help startups and scale-ups grow rapidly yet respectfully. She co-authored The Lean Sensei with Michael Ballé (author of The Lean Strategy), a book on working with and developing into a lean sensei, which earned a Shingo Prize.

Flavian and Caroline have worked in tech startups on leadership roles in product and engineering. Sandrine asked them to join to bring their experience and anecdotes.

The three authors have partnered and built the company Taktique.

Escape Feature Frenzy and Build to Sell

Are you trying to bring a new product concept to life, find market fit for your brilliant idea, scale up a promising product, or revitalize an existing one? Dive into a world where products don’t just work—they captivate! Build to Sell is a transformative journey enriched by decades of experience in the tech industry. Explore groundbreaking strategies that mesh proven lean engineering with modern product management. Unlock the secrets of:

Emotion-Centric Design: Dive deep into user emotions and shape experiences without bias.
Chief Product Engineer: Become a visionary leader, blending technical expertise with strategic and financial insight.
Performance-Based Product: Focus on enhancing performance, not merely adding features.
Design to Cost: Combine creativity with cost control to ensure profitability.

With real-life examples, thought-provoking concepts, and vivid visuals, this guide equips you to transform offerings into market sensations.

Ready to lead a product revolution? 🚀

Praise for Build to Sell

Julie Scherer

Ph.D., Chief Data Scientist at Motive Medical Intelligence, San Francisco

Build to Sell is a masterful and inspiring integration of the most important principles of building great products with a blueprint of the organizational culture and practices that deliver those products to customers. Rather than simply describing what is needed, Build to Sell explains all of the critical elements, from the product vision to the emotional appeal to customers, links them and provides a pragmatic framework in which leaders and managers can transform their products, their teams, their company and most importantly their customers’ experience.
Jonathan Widawski

Co‑Founder & CEO at Maze, San Francisco

Build to Sell is exceptionally insightful and perfectly aligned with our product philosophy. The book offers invaluable insights and practical guidance that resonate with our approach to creating compelling digital products. It’s a must‑read for anyone looking to craft their product strategy.
Michael Ballé

Five‑time Shingo-prized author, Paris

I love this book—I wish I had written it! There is no greater waste than a product that doesn’t sell. This clear, precise, and easy-to-read book is filled with concrete examples. It’s the handbook we need to start thinking about designing not just products people like, but products people love.
Andrew Davis

CPO at AutoRABIT, San Diego

Perhaps the greatest cognitive bias that afflicts Product Managers is the tendency to confuse our own hopes and opinions with the reality of how prospects and customers will experience our products. Build to Sell offers a step-by-step guide to replacing our assumptions with observations and reliable inference.

Mark Striebeck

Co‑Founder at Arta Finance, San Francisco

There are many books that try to explain the success of Silicon Valley companies. Some focus on processes, some focus on product management and some focus on the many Silicon Valley legends who lead these companies. Sandrine puts process, product and leaders together and shows how the combination of the three is critical. And she provides guidance for companies and founders on how to get there.
Stéphanie Smith

Founder & CEO at ModaResa, Oslo, Paris

Flavian and Sandrine introduced me to the lean principles, which have been foundational in how I built ModaResa. Build to Sell encapsulates these principles, fostering a culture of problem-solving and continuous improvement. This book is the cornerstone for creating impactful, customer-centric products, and has profoundly influenced my leadership approach.
Jeff Gothelf

Author of Sense and Response and Lean UX, New York City

Build to Sell is a powerful exploration of lean principles applied to product creation. It’s filled with practical advice and real-world examples, making it a must-read for anyone dedicated to building products that truly resonate with their audience.
Lucia Cinque

Co-Founder & Chief of Staff at WhiteLab Genomics, Paris

Lean is brilliant but challenging to grasp in theory until experienced in practice. Collaborating with Sandrine and Flavian as a former CPO, I’ve witnessed its transformative power in product management. Build to Sell offers the practical guidance needed to embark on your own transformative journey and boost your team’s energy.
Fabrice Bernhard

Co-Author of The Lean Tech Manifesto, Co‑Founder and group CTO at Theodo

“Perfection is achieved, not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away,” said Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This beautifully captures the essence of Build to Sell. Sandrine, Flavian, and Caroline, with their combined expertise in lean methodology and tech innovation, guide readers on crafting products that stand out in today’s competitive landscape.
Najla Elmachtoub

Former Director of Engineering at Etsy, New York City

As an engineering leader, I aim to build teams where every member understands our customers and how to act in their best interests. Build to Sell provides the common language to have engineers and product people work together towards that goal.
Nicolas Silberman

Director at Bpifrance Digital Factory, Paris

Build to Sell has profoundly transformed my approach to lean engineering, guiding me to focus on problem-solving rather than mere feature addition. This book is an indispensable resource for creating impactful digital products that truly resonate with customers.
Denis Barthélemy

CTO at EchoAnalytics, Paris

As a CTO, I frequently encounter challenges with product roadmaps. Build to Sell’s Chief Product Engineer role revives magic and craftsmanship, moving beyond “feature factory” processes. This organizational change empowers real agility, enabling us to resolve tough engineering trade-offs and create elegant, innovative solutions.
Alexis Allen

Senior Product Manager at SparkPlug, New York City

If your work focuses on building and selling products, this is the book for you! I have practiced the concepts and tools presented alongside Sandrine and they have transformed my product management practice forever. A must-read for all professionals in product!