Book · 2019
The Unicorn Project
by Gene Kim
A senior engineer gets exiled to a doomed payroll project and finds a rogue skunkworks team racing to save the company's flagship app before the deadline kills it.
What does Reddit think of The Unicorn Project?
Every displayed excerpt here does the same thing: it drops The Unicorn Project into a reading list instead of reviewing it. r/sysadmin (↑117, ↑102) introduces it as Gene Kim's sequel to The Phoenix Project, the developer's-eye retelling of the same outage-and-rescue plot. r/ExperiencedDevs (↑111) files it next to Designing Data-Intensive Applications and Meltdown as audiobook material for commutes and dishes. r/devops (↑131, ↑109) treats the 2013/2019 pair as the standard culture-and-CI/CD primer for a DevOps reading stack; nobody there argues about the plot. r/cscareerquestions (↑498) and r/learnprogramming (↑602) both fold it into broader career-reading megathreads alongside Clean Code and The Pragmatic Programmer. Nobody in the sample disputes the story; nobody defends the prose either. It shows up, gets nodded at, and the thread moves on to the next title in the list.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Sequel and companion to The Phoenix Project
- · DevOps culture taught through fiction
- · Reading-list staple more than standalone discussion topic
- · The same crisis retold from the developer's seat
- · Audiobook-friendly technical canon for commutes
Common praise
- + r/sysadmin's ↑117 thread calls it the sequel the day Gene Kim released it, no argument needed.
- + r/ExperiencedDevs' ↑111 audiobook list slots it next to DDIA and Meltdown for the commute.
- + r/devops keeps pairing it with Phoenix Project (↑131, ↑109) as the go-to culture-and-CI/CD primer for a team stack.
Common criticism
- − The ↑102 r/sysadmin post describes it as the same outage story retold from the developer's seat, not a new plot.
- − None of the top-upvoted excerpts evaluate the writing itself; they just append the title to somebody else's list.
- − r/cscareerquestions' ↑498 megathread buries it in a bibliography instead of discussing it on its own terms.
Who it's for
Already finished The Phoenix Project and want the same crisis from the other side of the org chart? This is the next stop, according to r/sysadmin. Building a DevOps reading list for a team is exactly what r/devops keeps using it for, usually alongside Accelerate. Commuters who like technical audiobooks get it recommended in the same breath as Designing Data-Intensive Applications over in r/ExperiencedDevs. Want a book people actually argue about? Look elsewhere — everything in this sample is citation, not debate.
Mentions over time
Which Reddit comments matter for The Unicorn Project?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“* The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master * The pheonix project & the unicorn project * Working effectively with legacy code * The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride
“We should really just put together a community reading/listening list... Reading: * Clean Code / Clean Architecture / […
“The sequel to “The Phoenix Project” is “The Unicorn Project.” I also like “Accelerate” if you’re into DevOps. For leadership advice, I recommend “Turn the Ship Around” and “Extreme Ownership.” Both well produced audio books that are interesting to listen to. For interesting infosec stories, the D…
“This is the list I made for work: **Culture/Organization** * The Phoenix Project (Kim/Spafford/Behr, 2013): allegorical novel that uses fiction to teach us about the advantages of modern IT culture (agile, CI/CD, etc.) * [The U…
“The author of "The Phoenix Project" just released a sequel two months ago. It's called "Unicorn Project".
“Also recomend the new book "The Unicorn Project". It is the same story told from a developers point of view instead of an operations lead point of view.
“The Phoenix Project The Unicorn Project The DevOps Handbook First two may be slightly OT, but IMO they're essential for understanding real DevOps.
“Reading The Phoenix Project and the Unicorn Project will help out with understanding why this happens and what its effect on the business process is. Essentially your coworker has a lot of WIP. WIP is death to the productivity of any system. WIP needs to be minimized so that productivity can move f…
“Have you read "The Phoenix Project"? Take note of how they handle "Brent" Once you have read the above, read "The Unicorn Project".... They are both short books that may give you a bit of insight into this....Site Note - Get management to read them as well if you can.
“The Phoenix project is a nice novel, it frames the problems solved with DevOps. The handbook is pretty dry, I'd give it a quick scan and move on, but keep it around, it can be a nice refresher. Another book by Gene Kim that is similar is the Unicorn project. The Unicorn project is framed nicely f…
“Phoenix Project or Unicorn Project. Its more so a project management book with references to real architecture and the business problems they create or solve. Its key in understanding the human interaction points. You could pick AWS over some cooked-up thing they already have but you ain't gonna get…
“This is the other side of the story from the developer's point of view. Even though I come from a sysadmin point of view I found the Unicorn project a better book. It filled in the gaps for me.
“I enjoyed The Unicorn Project a lot more than The Phoenix Project.
“Algorithms to Live By, and Grokking Algorithms are two not so textbook like CS books. Phoenix Project and Unicorn Project are both awesome too, but are more IT/career related
“Followed by the unicorn project, though that wasn't as good as.
Convinced? Pick up The Unicorn Project
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Unicorn Project — counted from the comments, not curated.
The Unicorn Project — frequently asked
Do you need to read The Phoenix Project before The Unicorn Project?+
Yes, per how Reddit frames it. r/sysadmin's ↑117 post calls it “the sequel” the moment it published, and the ↑102 post explains it retells the same story from a developer's point of view rather than an operations lead's. Neither thread treats it as standalone; both assume you're arriving from the first book.
Is The Unicorn Project just The Phoenix Project retold?+
Reddit doesn't dispute this. The ↑102 r/sysadmin comment states plainly it's “the same story told from a developer's point of view instead of an operations lead's,” not a new incident. That's the closest thing to a critical take in the sample — nobody argues the plot is original, they just value the different vantage point.
Does Reddit recommend The Unicorn Project for DevOps teams?+
Yes, repeatedly. r/devops' ↑131 and ↑109 threads pair it with The Phoenix Project as standard culture-and-CI/CD reading, and r/sysadmin's ↑154 comment adds Accelerate to the same list. It shows up as team-reading-list furniture more than an object of debate, but the recommendation itself is consistent.
Is The Unicorn Project good as an audiobook?+
r/ExperiencedDevs' ↑111 post puts it next to Designing Data-Intensive Applications and Meltdown as something to listen to during chores or a commute, which implies it works fine in that format. No thread in the sample specifically praises the narration, so treat that as an inference from the company it keeps, not a direct review.