As an introduction to the complexity of innovation, Stephen J. Kline’s and Nathan Rosenberg’s seminal article "An Overview of Innovation" is still unsurpassed.
For an early and different, yet related take on Product Thinking, read Nikkel Blaase’s well-known Medium post "Why Product Thinking is the next big thing in UX Design".
Our framework for describing complex adaptive systems is heavily influenced by Robert Axelrod’s and Michael D. Cohen’s book "Harnessing Complexity".
Helpful overviews of the extensive literature on sense-making are Peter Pirolli’s and Daniel M. Russell’s “Introduction to this Special Issue on Sensemaking” in Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 26, and Brenda Dervin’s and Charles M. Naumer’s reference article “Sense-Making” in the Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.
A comprehensive theory of conceptual spaces, their significance and construction can be found in Peter Gärdenfors’s book "Conceptual Spaces".
Barbara Tversky presents a thorough account of the visualization techniques and theories our (and pretty much every) canvas is based on in her paper "Visualizing Thought".
Further Reading
Sources and background for our main topics
The Product Field is standing on the shoulders of giants.