Millions of software professionals are hard at work creating mobile apps, web apps, and desktop software - and most of them are working harder than they need to. This unique guide contains best practices for managing teams and projects throughout the software definition, development, and launch process. Distilled from author Chris Vander Mey's experience with shipping software at Google and Amazon, the recipes in this book will help keep you focused on practices that lead to great products. Shipping Greatness begins with a step-by-step product development process devised by software experts, and provides straightforward techniques for working with designers, managing the project, testing, building metrics, and launching. You'll also learn skills that effective software leaders use to achieve greatness, with chapters dedicated to team building, understanding technology, communicating, and coping with life in the software industry. With this book, you'll learn how to: Build a great mission and strategy Define a great product Create a great user experience Achieve project management greatness on a budget Do a great job testing Build great metrics Have a great launch Assemble a shipping-ready team Develop great shippable technology Communicate while shipping Make great decisions Stay a great person while shipping

Chris Vander Mey is a former Senior Product Manager at Google and Engineering Manager (a.k.a. "Two Pizza Team Lead") at Amazon. He has shipped software that hundreds of millions of people use. At Google he shipped Google Apps Marketplace, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, Google+ Hangouts. At Amazon he shipped multiple versions of customer reputation systems and the Real Names product. He has led teams to develop software in many consumer and enterprise areas, including Google Maps, iOS & Android, and highly scalable data storage systems. He holds numerous system patents and a Master of Engineering Management degree from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.