Review - Lovability by Brian de Haaff

Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It by Brian de Haaff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

ebook, 272 pages

Published April 25th 2017 by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Synopsis:
'Genuine, heartfelt devotion and loyalty from customers — yes, love — is what propels a select few companies ahead. Think about the products and companies that you really care about and how they make you feel. You do not merely likethose products, you adore them.

Consider your own emotions and a key insight is revealed: Love is central to business. Nobody talks about it, but it is obvious in hindsight. 

Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It 
shares what Silicon Valley-based author and Aha! CEO Brian de Haaff knows from a career of founding successful technology companies and creating award-winning products. He reveals the secret to the phenomenal growth of Aha! and the engine that powers lasting customer devotion — a set of principles that he pioneered and named The Responsive Method. 

Lovability provides valuable lessons and actionable steps for product and company builders everywhere, including:
•   Why you should rethink everything you know about building a business
•   What a product really is
•   The magic of finding what your customers truly desire
•   How to turn business strategy and product roadmaps into customer love
•   Why you should chase company value, not valuation
•   Surveys to measure your company’s lovability

Brian de Haaff has spent the last 20 years focused on business strategy, product management, and bringing disruptive technologies to market. And in preparation for writing this book, he interviewed well-known startup founders, product managers, executives, and CEOs at hundreds of name brand and agile organizations. Their experiences, along with headline-grabbing case studies (both inspiring successes and cautionary tales), will help readers discover how to build something that matters.

Much has been written about how entrepreneurs build innovative products and successful businesses, but the author's message is original and refreshing. He convincingly explains that there is a better path forward — a people-first way grounded in love. In a business world that has increasingly emphasized hype over substance and get-big-at-any-cost thinking over profitable and sustainable growth, it's time for a new recipe for company success.

​Insightful, thought-provoking, and sometimes controversial, Lovability is the book that you turn to when you know there has to be a better way.'

My Thoughts:
I run my own small business and have done so for the past 8 years so I was very interested to see what this book was about and whether I could pick up any actionable tips on how to better engage with and serve my clients.

Lovability did have some interesting and thought provoking ideas, especially the concept of bringing the emotion of 'love' into the performance metrics of a business. It's not something that you would normally associate with running a business but I can certainly see the benefits of keeping it in mind when engaging with customers and catering to their needs and wants.

Unfortunately this book was very repetitive in some places and I think it could almost have been cut down by almost a third if a lot of the repetition was taken out. Some sections also felt very generic and were points that could be found in practically every other business book out there.

Also, some parts could have been explained in a lot more detail to really show the point being made and to assist the reader with implementation in their own business.

Overall though, this book does give a good basic framework to follow around offering a complete customer experience and in making sure you deliver real value and it may be useful if you're after a new way to measure and view your business other than just from a financial perspective.