Appendix III

Book Reviews

A handful of the reviews and messages I've received over the years

Today (April 10, 2025) is a special day. Business Thinking for Designers turns 5.

It was released 3 weeks into the global pandemic, without much fanfare or celebration.

My wife and I were knee deep in trying to figure things out how our family would survive, how we'd be able to give our kids a sense of fun and curiosity when everything around them was scary, and how we'd maintain any capacity for our own energy so that we could be present for our kids.

I was six months into my entrepreneurial adventure. I had no idea what I was doing, was worried constantly how I'd be able to make enough money to pay for the basics, and saw all the momentum I had been building quickly fade away.

Meanwhile, this little book was released to the world.

For five minutes, I forced myself to dance to The Weeknd in my living room. Hoping that in some way I'd feel some type of comfort or happiness for having worked so hard to get to that day.

But honestly, I felt empty.

That is until Danielle Torrico gave the book a ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ on goodreads.

I had never anticipated that strangers would read the book and share their feedback.

All those feelings I was waiting for – joy, accomplishment, and a sense of connection, they came when people began thanking me. They shared with me their experiences and what the book meant to them. I was overwhelmed that a thing I wrote played a positive role in their lives too.

While I was excited about publishing this book, I had not even considered that people would respond and give feedback. The emotional impact that these reviews have had on me has been humbling to say the least. I'm am so grateful that this book has played enough of a role that people felt compelled to share a review, or message me personally about how much they enjoyed it.

Here's a sample of the feedback I've received over the years. If anything, I hope reading these encourages you to consider writing and sharing it with others.

Your book has been eye-opening for me as a new-grad designer. I absolutely loved it. THANK YOU! — Suyash Thakare

I have been thinking of starting something of my own for a while and this global pandemic has given me time to do so but I don't know how so I started doing a research online and I stumbled upon your book business thinking for designers and it has been very insightful. — Tolulope Nejo

First of all - I really need to say I’m loving your perspective about business and designers. For a long time now I’m trying to talk about this, but it seems like a taboo in the design community and it’s a delight to find an alike mind in this perspective. So I’m deep diving into all your lectures, podcasts and your book. — Carolina Tod

As the "UX team of one" person at my workplace, this is gold. — Bruno Lucena

I just sat down yesterday and read your latest book - "Business thinking for designers" and I just wanted to reach out and say this was the exact book I needed to read. Understanding the business side of things and being about to work with business thinking in mind is key. I've actually written this down as a goal for this year as a key area of learning for myself. — Nick Blanche

I just wanted to reiterate my appreciation for the book – as I said, I'm an early stage designer, but it's such an amazing resource to get a jumpstart on what it's like to empathize and communicate with non-designers! — Evan Linsey

It just hit every nerve and there was so much I could take home from it, thanks a lot for sharing your insights and thoughts. I really liked that you brought up the fact that actually listening to your colleagues' needs and approaching them like you would in a kickoff of a new design project really resonated with me. I have a background in psychology so I do look out for these type of things as they are very important to me. It's great to hear that there are people trying to change the way we interact with other departments and break the barriers down, one step at a time. Stepping into my colleagues' shoes is something I'll try to do more from now on. I also listened to your (audio)book during my workdays and it was very inspiring. I actually discussed your webinar with a software developer and he was very excited about it immediately. So I think the thoughts and ideas you put out are not at all limited to designers but also resonate with devs, for example. That's really cool. — Stefanie Scheid

Thank you Ryan for making “Business Thinking for Designers” available for free and shedding light on a subject that is too often neglected by design programs, but of tremendous value. — Phoebe Goldenberg

It’s jam-packed full of tips, models, strategies, and additional resources that any designer looking to move beyond pixel pushing should understand. Well done Mr. Rumsey and InVision! — Russell

If you need a short and solid primer to start with, get Business Thinking for Designers, by Ryan Rumsey. It's solid, concise and practical - focused on tasks, frameworks and how to be confident/effective. — Scott Berkun, author of How Design Makes The World

Designers need to know how to communicate their business value. The importance of this point hasn't changed, but the urgency has. Designers must learn how their business works and how to speak the language, right now as the economy and customer needs are reforming in realtime. Check out the brand new book, Business Thinking for Designers, a fantastic resource to address this problem. —Adam Fry-Pierce

Definitely useful handbook for the designers who find the interest in design performance evaluation and showing design's value in creating competitive advantage. I am extremely grateful for this precious resource, it saved my time, opened my eyes and raised my interest towards these subjects. — GIGLEMIANI Nana

Business Thinking for Designers is brilliant! — Rob Goodman

I learned lots of new stuff from this book and I love how it shows how some famous frameworks could be applicable in this context; negotiation canvas, pyramid principle, you name it. — Ivana Putri

Excellent book! Highly recommended. I was so impressed that I even enrolled the six weeks course organized by the author. — Charles-Henri Lison

Ryan Rumsey's course changed my perspective as a designer. Now it's all in a book! Learn practical strategies, vocab, tools, tips, frameworks in his new book "Business Thinking for Designers." Thanks for sharing, & my 1st book acknowledgment. — Nguyet V

Whenever I dip back into Business Thinking for Designers, I keep bumping into lovely little ways to improve my communication skills. The S+C+C+C+R framework is very useful for slides and presentations. — Richard Banfield, co-author of Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams

Lots of good visuals, tools, and definitions. These same qualities make it difficult to parse from an audiobook, so read the ebook version (also free). As he says in the introduction, this is a reference book, and I can see it coming in handy throughout the work week. — Grant Baker

If you haven’t already, go read Business Thinking for Designers. I have learned so much already. — Jakoby Jonsson

Excellent and easy to understand. Must read! Coming from business background, I still learned something new from this book. Best, it’s so much easy and interest to read (listen as I got the audio version) than all the other business textbooks. I felt energised and enlightening after each chapter:) — Lp Lin

It has been a revelation and has hugely impacted my thinking about communicating the value of design to business partners. It’s very generous of you to make this information available freely. Thank you for all you do for the design community.”Geo George“Amazing! Thank you for your contributions to our field! This was amazingly useful for me as a "Business Thinker" learning and leaning more into design (I work in design operations now). — Chris Denhart

The book is incredible and a must-read for Design leaders. I am halfway through the book and every page of the book adds value to my design career. I wanted to say thank you for putting out such an amazing book. — Hiten Rajgor

I wanted to thank you for all your thoughtful, inspired and inspiring writing. You have really helped me to rethink design from a deeper perspective. — Alan Ruthazer

Thank you for writing such an amazing book and sharing the knowledge to the design community. I work in a growing startup and doing dual role as both a business analyst and a product designer. Your book was such a perfect book to me and got to know many things that I need exactly at this stage. Being not an expert, I even managed to handle a new client call really well yesterday by just reflecting on the knowledge on business I got from your book.I am grateful and thank you for making an impact and increasing my confidence what I do :) I have started experimenting the business thinking ideas and started learning on my own! I will always refer to your book whenever needed. — Mahasri Jayan

Your book helped me gained confidence by showing me that understanding the business and the objectives of business facilitates the communication with stakeholders and other cross discipline professionals. This fundamental truth reinforces that I have to speak their language and display how the UX process is aligned with their goals of the business. — Carl

Just to say I really enjoyed your book on Business Thinking for Designers.  Not only did most of the content resonate, I also learned quite a few things! — Jennie So

I recently came across your business thinking for designers book with invision and it’s been a huge help as I transition into my new role! — Roberta Dombrowski

Business thinking for designers is such an awesome book! As a designer who is passionate about the intersection between design and business, I enjoyed every page of your book Ryan! Thank you! — Biniam Kebede

I read your book, Business Thinking for Designers and found it immensely valuable. Just wanted to share my sincere compliments. — Raunaq Shah