Resources for Digital Consultants

Becoming a great consultant is a constant process of development. You’ll need the right resources, information and tools to help you serve your clients.

Below is a list of some of the tools, resources and books I’ve utilised in my consulting. Please feel free to suggest others in the comments below.

Books Tools Presentation Podcasts Market Research

Books

Learning from the best in the business

  • Leading Digital – based on huge amounts of research this collaboration by Harvard, MIT and Capgemini covers the reasons behind digital transformation and discusses how to move forward
  • Business at the Speed of Thought – a classic read on digital transformation by Bill Gates. Contains many promises about technology that have yet to be answered
  • How to Make an Impact – important piece published by the Financial Times on the presentation of data
  • Flawless Consulting – Peter Block’s work on how to engage and transform organisations
  • Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility – making plans is one thing. Delivering change is an altogether more difficult proposition that Kotter, through extensive research, shows you how to achieve
  • Good to Great – well researched book that identifies the traits of companies that experience huge growth

Other worthy mentions should go to Seth Godin and Avinash Kaushik. Reading anything by these guys will expand your mind as a consultant and help you think differently about the approaches you take.

Tools

Getting the job done

  • Evernote – capture, store and find notes. Even more powerful when used in teams
  • Soft Moleskine Squared Notebook – the ultimate way to catch notes and sketch out ideas. Great for capturing interview notes
  • SurveyGizmo – probably the best and most flexible online survey software I’ve tried. Great for discovery phases of projects
  • Trello – simple Kanban boards for organising ideas, managing work and delivering agile projects
  • List of Every Marketing Channel – published by Storm81 this Excel file is vital for use in strategic multichannel planning

Presentation

Presenting your ideas clearly

  • Slideshop – template slides for presentations. Speeds up the process and also a useful resource for ideas
  • GraphicRiver – marketplace of presentation templates and graphical elements that can be used to deliver quality presentations
  • Slideology – Nancy Duarte’s seminal book on developing highly visual slides that communicate a point
  • How to Design TED-Worthy Presentation Slides – TED presentations have become a huge sensation. This book provides real examples of how to deliver an incredible presentation with slides
  • Pitch Anything – highly opinionated, and perhaps somewhat controversial book on pitching. Contains interesting guidance on how to deliver a very powerful message

Podcasts

Essential listening on your travels

  • HBR – interview led snippets of the latest business thinking
  • Tim Ferriss – Tim’s podcast is rather eclectic but he manages to interview some heavyweight tech entrepreneurs
  • BBC’s Bottom Line Podcast – well produced business podcast where Evan Davies challenges business leaders on different topics

Market Research

Best insights to guide your client engagements

What resources are we missing?

What resources do you use?

Please share your resources in the comments below and I will add them to my list.