A reading list for engineers who want to understand how SaaS products and new businesses get built and how they grow. Each pick has its own review on this blog, and every entry links to it. The list starts with launching a SaaS and its architecture, then moves to sales and customer success, and finally to understanding customers.
Why engineers should learn the business side
A SaaS does not grow on engineering alone; it becomes a business together with marketing, sales, and customer success. When you know how the business works, you tie feature priorities and design decisions to business results. Understanding customer problems pays off most when you decide what to build.
1. Launch a SaaS
All for SaaS
It covers the knowledge you need to launch a SaaS. You pick up the core ideas behind a SaaS business, such as recurring revenue and unit economics. I cover it in the review.
Building Multi-Tenant SaaS Architectures
It covers the key points of SaaS architecture: control and application planes, tenant isolation and routing, and noisy-neighbor mitigation. Its examples center on AWS, but the ideas apply to other clouds. See the review.
2. Sales and customer success
The Model
It systematizes the division of work across marketing, inside sales, field sales, and customer success. Even from an engineer's seat, you see how sales becomes repeatable. I wrote it up in the review.
Customer Success
It explains, through ten principles, how to help customers succeed in a subscription business. It also makes the difference from customer support clear. I cover it in the review.
3. Understand customer problems
The Lean Startup
The standard book on Lean Startup, built on lean manufacturing. You learn the basics of moving a business forward by testing hypotheses. See the review.
Competing Against Luck
It argues that customers do not buy for the sake of buying; they "hire" products to get a job done. It helps when you face the problem users want to solve. I wrote it up in the review.
Wrap-up
If you work on a SaaS, start with All for SaaS for the business basics, and move on to Building Multi-Tenant SaaS Architectures if you own the design. The Model and Customer Success cover the machinery of growth, while The Lean Startup and Competing Against Luck cover understanding customers. Every book has a full review here, so start with whichever one interests you most.
