Data-driven doesn't mean dashboard-obsessed—it means using evidence to calibrate judgment, design experiments, and know when intuition should override numbers. This list covers the analytical foundations, experimentation discipline, and statistical thinking that separate signal from noise.
Decision Frameworks
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke · Book · Amazon
Separating decision quality from outcome quality—foundational for evidence-based thinking.
How to Measure Anything
Douglas Hubbard · Book
Quantifying uncertainty and intangibles—Monte Carlo methods and calibrated estimation for business.
Analytics and Experimentation
Lean Analytics
Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz · Book
One Metric That Matters by stage—startup analytics with practical frameworks.
Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments
Kohavi, Tang, Xu · Book
A/B testing at scale from Microsoft researchers—statistical rigour for experimentation programs.
Statistical Thinking
Naked Statistics
Charles Wheelan · Book
Accessible statistics literacy—base rates, regression, and probability for non-statisticians.