Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy (Fast Forward Your Product Career: The Two Books Required to Land Any PM Job)
Neel Mehta (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Aditya Agashe (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Parth Detroja (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |



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***Swipe to Unlock was updated in 2020 to include over 40 pages of new content to cover the latest developments in the world of tech.*** We highly recommend buying our book directly from Amazon rather than a third-party seller as it's the only way to ensure you get the latest version.
This #1 Amazon Business Bestseller won a medal from the North American Book Awards and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Business Insider. Swipe to Unlock has been translated into 11 languages including Chinese, Korean, & Russian and wastouted as "our generation's Rosetta Stone for enabling anyone to peer into the technology changing everyday life" by Jeremy Schifeling.
Swipe to Unlock teaches you how to think like a technologist by answering real-world questions like:
- How does Spotify determine what songs to recommend to you?
- How did KaiOS become the third largest mobile operating system in just two years since launching?
- Why does Amazon offer free shipping with Prime if it loses them money?
- How did a single typo take down 20% of the internet?
- Why did Microsoft acquire LinkedIn?
Topics Covered: Software Development, Business Models & Strategies, Economics, Hacking & Security, Hardware & Robots, The Internet, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Technology Policy, Emerging Markets, Future Trends, and much more!
Featured Companies: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Uber, WeChat, Yelp, Tinder, Washington Post, Grab, Toyota, GoJek, Samsung, Salesforce, M-Pesa, Quora, KaiOS, Twitter, Tesla, ByteDance, Airbnb, Robinhood, Adobe, Alibaba, Netflix, Paytm, Target, and many more!
Unlock the answers you need to ace your tech interviews or become a better-educated digital citizen. Buy Swipe to Unlock today to understand why it's the Top Gifted Technology Book of 2020!
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Editorial Reviews
Review
-- Jeremy Schifeling, Founder of Break into Tech; Formerly @ LinkedIn and Apple
"Written in an upbeat, accessible manner, Swipe to Unlock demystifies the jargon and concepts of the tech world. I'm recommending it as a "must read" to all my business students and advisees seeking jobs in the tech sector!"
-- Professor Deborah Streeter, Applied Economics and Management @ Cornell University
"The first of its kind, Swipe to Unlock is an essential guide for anyone looking to understand the tech and business concepts you need to know. A comprehensive, well-researched book and a definite no-brainer resource to leverage for your job search!"
-- Pam Silverstein, Entrepreneur in Residence @ Cornell University
From the Back Cover
You don't need a computer science degree to answer questions like these. Written by three former Microsoft product managers, Swipe to Unlock uses real-world examples to break down the core concepts of technology and business strategy. Learn how to decode buzzwords like "big data," "the cloud," and "machine learning" -- all without writing a single line of code.
Friendly, accessible, and refreshingly clear, Swipe to Unlock is your guide to landing a non-developer role at a tech company, using technology to improve your business, or becoming a better-informed digital consumer.
About the Author
Parth Detroja is a Product Manager at Facebook. He has previously worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM. He studied Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and graduated summa cum laude as a Merrill Presidential Scholar (top 1% of class).
Aditya Agashe is a Program Manager at Microsoft. He is the founder of Belle Applications, a company that builds and optimizes software platforms for businesses. He studied Computer Science and Business at Cornell University as a Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar (top 1.5% of class).
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Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 20, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 347 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1976182190
- ISBN-13 : 978-1976182198
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.87 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Computer Hardware Design
- #2 in Home Computer Networks
- #3 in Computer & Internet Law
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Adi Agashe is a prominent Product Manager at Microsoft and author of the bestselling technology strategy book, Swipe to Unlock. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, Inc., and more. He works on Azure cloud growth team to build hyper-converged and hybrid features that help customers adopt cloud technologies. He previously managed product and engineering teams as the founder of Belle Applications and Head of Product at Speare.
Neel is a Product Manager at Google and studied Computer Science at Harvard University. He worked previously at Microsoft and Khan Academy. Neel founded the Civic Digital Fellowship, the first paid tech internship program in the federal government.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2019
Top reviews from the United States
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Although this book isn't branded as a PM interview book, in my opinion, it was MUCH more insightful than Cracking the PM Interview. I found Cracking focused largely on what product management is and how it varies by company. While that's definitely useful information, it is oriented towards beginners.
I found Swipe to Unlock did a wonderful job complementing Decode and Conquer. While Decode and Conquer gives you an overview of what sort of questions to expect and examples of good responses, it doesn't really go into the tech trends or business strategy required to give a truly stellar interview response. That's where Swipe to Unlock comes in.
Through reading this book, I learned key insights on things such as the ridesharing market and the digital wallet ecosystem in Aisa and the key growth strategies for cloud SaaS. These were critical in helping me land APM offers from both Uber and Asana straight out of undergrad. For anyone prepping for a PM interview, I'd recommend reading Swipe to Unlock, then Decode and Conquer, and then doing mock interviews, Doing those things in that order is a killer combo.

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2019
Although this book isn't branded as a PM interview book, in my opinion, it was MUCH more insightful than Cracking the PM Interview. I found Cracking focused largely on what product management is and how it varies by company. While that's definitely useful information, it is oriented towards beginners.
I found Swipe to Unlock did a wonderful job complementing Decode and Conquer. While Decode and Conquer gives you an overview of what sort of questions to expect and examples of good responses, it doesn't really go into the tech trends or business strategy required to give a truly stellar interview response. That's where Swipe to Unlock comes in.
Through reading this book, I learned key insights on things such as the ridesharing market and the digital wallet ecosystem in Aisa and the key growth strategies for cloud SaaS. These were critical in helping me land APM offers from both Uber and Asana straight out of undergrad. For anyone prepping for a PM interview, I'd recommend reading Swipe to Unlock, then Decode and Conquer, and then doing mock interviews, Doing those things in that order is a killer combo.



Each chapter of the book is full of key insights regarding business trends and tech developments. I think this book is a must read for everyone working in tech, but especially product management professionals. There’s few good resources to help PMs think big and critically analyze opportunity. I think Swipe to Unlock and Zero to One are probably the best books on the market for that.
I was familiar with at least half the material in this book, but I previously lacked the ability to explain the concepts in ways that non-technical members of my team could understand and thus comprehend the significance of the technical product decisions we were making. So this book definitely helped with that. But, the real value I got from this book was in the later chapters which focused more on business strategy and emerging market trends.
Having a Western-centric user base at Quora, I haven’t yet had much exposure to the tech trends in high growth tech markets such as South East Asia. This book does a phenomenal job breaking down key growth strategies other companies have used to successfully win market share in emerging markets. It also reveals that rationale behind major acquisitions such as Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn and provides actionable analysis on what things to look for to make an acquisition successful.
If you are a product manager, I would highly recommend reading this book. It will broaden your perspective from thinking how to incrementally improve your product to how to spot the next major opportunity. I just ordered copies for both of my reports to read!

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2019
Each chapter of the book is full of key insights regarding business trends and tech developments. I think this book is a must read for everyone working in tech, but especially product management professionals. There’s few good resources to help PMs think big and critically analyze opportunity. I think Swipe to Unlock and Zero to One are probably the best books on the market for that.
I was familiar with at least half the material in this book, but I previously lacked the ability to explain the concepts in ways that non-technical members of my team could understand and thus comprehend the significance of the technical product decisions we were making. So this book definitely helped with that. But, the real value I got from this book was in the later chapters which focused more on business strategy and emerging market trends.
Having a Western-centric user base at Quora, I haven’t yet had much exposure to the tech trends in high growth tech markets such as South East Asia. This book does a phenomenal job breaking down key growth strategies other companies have used to successfully win market share in emerging markets. It also reveals that rationale behind major acquisitions such as Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn and provides actionable analysis on what things to look for to make an acquisition successful.
If you are a product manager, I would highly recommend reading this book. It will broaden your perspective from thinking how to incrementally improve your product to how to spot the next major opportunity. I just ordered copies for both of my reports to read!




Swipe to Unlock is essentially a collection of case studies on random important information that you aren't really taught in school (motivation behind various acquisitions, tech industry trends, recent gov't, and tech policy rulings, analysis based predictions, etc.)
I read this book before my on-site for a PM role at Google. One of my Google interviews focused heavily on emerging markets payment solutions. Before reading Swipe to Unlock, I knew nothing about this topic and would have been forced to give a vague and uninformed response.
Luckily for me, this book had a very insightful payment section which went over the key mobile payment players in each region (eg. WeChat, Paytm, M-Pesa, etc.) The book also predicted that in Southeast Asia, ride sharing drivers would in the future serve as mobile cash in, cash out ATMs to power digital wallets. Given Google is a major investor in GoJekm the leading ridesharing app and digital wallet in Indonesia, sharing this insight went over very well in my interview. I honestly don't think I would have gotten my Google offer had I not read this book.
I think this book is a must-read for anyone interested in working in tech, especially Product Managers. Everyone has some knowledge gaps whether it be the technical side, the business side, the legal side, etc. Swipe to Unlock does an amazing job of giving you a thorough overview of obscure must know things that may show up in your interviews. Although this book isn't written like a traditional interview prep book, reading it will definitely help you stand out in your interviews.

Swipe to Unlock is essentially a collection of case studies on random important information that you aren't really taught in school (motivation behind various acquisitions, tech industry trends, recent gov't, and tech policy rulings, analysis based predictions, etc.)
I read this book before my on-site for a PM role at Google. One of my Google interviews focused heavily on emerging markets payment solutions. Before reading Swipe to Unlock, I knew nothing about this topic and would have been forced to give a vague and uninformed response.
Luckily for me, this book had a very insightful payment section which went over the key mobile payment players in each region (eg. WeChat, Paytm, M-Pesa, etc.) The book also predicted that in Southeast Asia, ride sharing drivers would in the future serve as mobile cash in, cash out ATMs to power digital wallets. Given Google is a major investor in GoJekm the leading ridesharing app and digital wallet in Indonesia, sharing this insight went over very well in my interview. I honestly don't think I would have gotten my Google offer had I not read this book.
I think this book is a must-read for anyone interested in working in tech, especially Product Managers. Everyone has some knowledge gaps whether it be the technical side, the business side, the legal side, etc. Swipe to Unlock does an amazing job of giving you a thorough overview of obscure must know things that may show up in your interviews. Although this book isn't written like a traditional interview prep book, reading it will definitely help you stand out in your interviews.


Top reviews from other countries

- Those who generally like to be in the know, in order to gain understanding and connect the dots i.e. the "how things work" minded people.
- Those who have an orientation and interest in business strategies and want insight into the recent past decisions taken by big tech compies.
The authors do an exceptional job at covering many topics and answering various questions that you may or may not have had or thought of.
Even though I'm in the tech industry, after reading the book I felt like the veil had been lifted in a lot of areas that I was and wasn't aware of.
On that note, anyone looking for in-depth technical detail should pick up this book knowing that's not what it's about and read to "discover".
Would I recommend this book? No doubt, YES.

I’ve recommended this book to few friends and all of them have instantly bought and developed a liking for the book.
Kudos to the authors - Neel, Parth and Adi for putting this together. I’m now onto their next one on blockchain.


Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2020
I’ve recommended this book to few friends and all of them have instantly bought and developed a liking for the book.
Kudos to the authors - Neel, Parth and Adi for putting this together. I’m now onto their next one on blockchain.



As a fairly new product manager (under 2yrs), I would say that this book was a great read - literally could not put it down. This is the fastest I have ever read a book (17 work days, only on a commute to work and back).



Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2020
