I am not a big fan of reading “books about work” during the holidays as I believe that our brain needs space and time for recharging. And lately, I have also been a bit sick of all the different publications on frameworks that never fail to leave me feeling that I will never be enough.

But I read one book that I really want to recommend taking with you wherever you go. It is not a product book per se (maybe that is why I liked it), but the memoir of Philip Knight, the founder of Nike.

The book goes through Knight’s life from when at age 22 he had the crazy idea of creating a company that could sell athletic shoes at a lower price, until when he left Nike as one of the biggest companies in the world. With all the ups and downs, the story is highly entertaining and also filled with product lessons.

Here are the ones that I take with me.

Focus is the key to success

I cannot even count the times that Knight repeated this in his book: always make sure to focus on one thing and make sure that it is the most important one.

It might seem obvious but creating the distance and the habit of understanding where you have the most impact and focusing all your energy there, is a true superpower. You can apply this lesson to your backlog when you have to decide on what you should prioritize. Or you can apply that to your to-do list when you have to decide where to spend your energy.

There are always more things than you will be able to handle, the real strength is to identify the one thing that you need to nail to create impact.

That is what Knight did during the entirety of his journey, and it has worked out pretty well for him.

I’d never been a multitasker, and I didn’t see any reason to start now. I wanted to be present, always. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered.
Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

Surround yourself with experts and people who believe in your vision

One impressive thing about the Nike journey is that it has not been a one-man show, but a team effort.

And exactly as in the best product teams, Knight would have not come so far without the contribution of his team.

Without coach Bowerman, he would have not had the innovation in the shoes, nor the credibility to kick-start the company. Without Johnson and Woodell powering the go-to-market and conquering one state after the other with tons of sales, he would have not had the numbers to scale the company. And without his wife helping him keep it all together, he probably would have fallen short and most likely failed.

Without the Nike team, Knight would have not had operations, product development, or word of mouth. And he most likely would have not been able to reinvent the shoe business as he did. The way he achieved this was by letting every expert run their game, yet keeping them all together with a vision. And most importantly hiring only people who believed and could contribute to enriching the team to come closer to the vision.

You can call them an excellent example of an empowered team. Before empowered team was even a thing.

Life is growth, adapt as your phases change

Reading Nike’s story unfolding, one thing really struck me. Throughout the pages, it was super clear to see how succeding means growing, which in its turn means changing.

And with change, what is needed from the man in charge needs to adapt to the situation.

At first, Knight’s job was securing a commercial deal with Japan, at age 22 and against all the odds.

Then faking until making it both by expanding the business and renegotiating contracts.

It was about getting great at giving people responsibilities, seeing the potential in athletes to endorse, and convincing them to join his cause, with no monetary incentives.

It was about shifting mindset going from a really low willingness of taking risks to going all in. Or from being defensive to being offensive. From leading the change personally to trusting others to do that.

It was extremely fascinating to see all the different phases of the company and read between the lines the struggles that the founder had to identify and go through to succeed.

This is quite a big lesson for all leaders out there - if you are successful, the environment around you will change all the time. And your job is to identify the phase you are in and adapt to what is needed. Life is growth, and growth is change. Be ready for it.

Product success is anticipating and changing customer behaviors

One of the angles of the books that I liked the most is seeing how almost every big breakthrough of the company was connected with identifying and changing customer behavior.

It all started with the idea of introducing cheaper running shoes in America, especially for college students. Then continued with one of the biggest innovations and breakthroughs of running - Bowerman’s legendary waffle soles. Born by the need of having a bigger grip for runners it is today something no runner could think of living without. And it culminated with what I would call a revolution: everyone using sneakers outside of running courts.

Imagining a world where:

running shoes are really expensive
there is no cushioning in running shoes
running shoes are used only for running

That sounds really absurd, right? But that was the reality not so long ago before Knight and his team worked their magic. That is an excellent example of innovating and delivering at scale. Something that every product team aspires to achieve.

The iconic waffle soles invented by coach Bowerman and nowadays present in all our shoes

You have to work hard - or?

I really really like this book, but I didn’t like the part where Knight fuels the narrative and the myth of the tireless entrepreneur that has to take all things into their hands and works through it all.

The eternal underdog that fights recklessly despite burnout, despite what others think, and despite his family. I have seen this narrative far too many times in successful entrepreneur stories.

And as much as nobody questions that a lot of hard work is needed, I would have wished for some reflections about the cost of sacrificing family for work. Especially because in the case of Knight lead to a big personal tragedy.

I had hoped that the idea of working in teams would bring up another angle where, in retrospect, there could be an admission that the burden could be shared. But it was not like that, and it felt to me like a missed opportunity.

My main takeaways from Shoe Dog