Service Design Book Club with Martin Gonzalez
Martin Gonzalez is our guest speaker for the online book club event in October.
Book: The Bonfire Moment: Bring Your Team Together to Solve the Hardest Issues Startups Face
Co-authors: Martin Gonzalez and Josh Yellin
Chapter for discussion: Chapter 3: The trap of the Inner Circle
𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴. 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭.
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘴.
Join us for an engaging conversation with Martin and fellow service design enthusiasts!
Event details
Date: Friday, October 24, 2025
Time: 12 pm to 1 pm (Eastern Standard Time) | 6 pm to 7 pm (CEST) | Time zone converter
Location: Online event
Agenda
Introductions - 5 minutes
Overview of the chapter by Martin - 20 minutes (will be recorded)
Conversations with Martin - 30 minutes
Note: The Zoom link will be shared with participants after registration.
About the guest speaker
Martin Gonzalez is the author of the international bestseller, The Bonfire Moment: Bring Your Team Together to Solve the Hardest Issues Startups Face, and the creator of Google’s Effective Founders Project, a global research program that uses people analytics to uncover what makes the best startup founders succeed and shares their success formula with the world. He has run leadership courses for thousands of tech startup founders across seventy countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He is a frequent lecturer on entrepreneurship, organization design, and people analytics at Stanford, Wharton, and INSEAD.
Martin is a principal of organization and leadership development at Google DeepMind. He works with senior leaders to shape team culture, develop their people, and expand their leadership, so they can build cool things that matter. Prior to joining Google 10 years ago, he was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and a product manager at Johnson & Johnson.
In 2023, The Aspen Institute recognized him as a First Movers Fellow, honoring his pioneering work at Google. In 2024, he was featured on the Thinkers50 Radar List, a prestigious recognition that highlights emerging thinkers expected to shape the future of management, and which the Financial Times has dubbed the "Oscars of management thinking."
Currently pursuing his PhD at Stanford University, Martin is focused on how Artificial Intelligence will reshape organizations, building on master’s degrees in organizational psychology and behavioral science from Columbia University and the London School of Economics.
He’s a serial immigrant, having lived and worked in New York, Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei, and Manila, where he is originally from. Today he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Bea, and three kids: Noelle, Jaime, and Andrea.
About Service Design Book Club
Please read about our first meet-up on Medium, visit our website, and follow our LinkedIn page or LinkedIn newsletter for information about the upcoming events.
If you have any questions before our meet-up, please feel free to send them to arun.martin@gmail.com.
Code of Conduct
Service Design Book Club is dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices.
We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form.
We value your attendance!
(This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.)