The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers

Several years ago I was part of a group of product management professionals and we all felt that our profession lacked a good how-to guide that product managers could use. We considered writing one ourselves but life was a little too busy for us at the time. A few years later The Product Manager’s Desk Reference was published (and now is in its second edition) and I thought this was the resource we had envisioned and we didn’t even have to write it – bonus! Instead, my guest Steven Haines wrote the book and has also written Managing Product Management, as well as The Product Manager’s Survival Guide, and just put the finishing touches on his fourth book, The New Manager’s Survival Guide. He is the founder of Sequent Learning Networks, a provider of training and organizational advisory services for mid-to-large organizations. I asked him to join me to discuss an important topic that hasn’t been discussed yet on this show, which is the business case tool. We talk about the right and wrong ways to use a business case and how this tool can improve your success and save you headaches as a product manager. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * Where did you develop your product management experience? Steve is an accidental product manager, coming from the world of financial analysis. He had the opportunity at AT&T to gain international business experience by taking on a product management role. Steve found product management to be a perfect fit for him because he looks at products as businesses and he wanted to deepen his business experience. He became part of a product management task force at AT&T. AT&T created the task force after recognizing other large multinationals’ success came from product management leadership. Product management is a core business function that integrates the other functions of the organization. To illustrate this, picture a picket fence with the vertical boards representing the traditional functions of companies (e.g., Development, Production, Marketing, Sales, etc.) and the horizontal boards representing the cross-functional role of product management. * What is a Business Case? It is one of the most helpful instruments a company can have at its disposal. Essentially, it is a justification for making an investment that allows decision-makers to say yes to good investments and no to poor investments. The complexity of a business case varies by its use. A new-to-the-company product would require a more extensive business case than would an extension to an existing product. A fledgling business case is needed when considering a new product concept. This can be a one-page opportunity statement. Questions it addresses include: what’s going on in the market, why is the investment important, and what strategic advantage does it provide the company? Business case authors should consider if it was their own money, would they invest in this product concept? Exploring these questions in the form of a fledgling business case creates collaboration within the company. Fundamentally, the business case is a decision tool to decide to move forward and make additional investment in the concept or not. * What are examples of not using a business case appropriately? When Steve is helping an organization with an audit of their product management practices and he asks to see the business case of a product, more than 90% of the time the business case is not available. They are missing an opportunity by not using the business case as a strategic instrument to help align the portfolio of products to the company strategy. Also, companies are spending insufficient efforts on market research to validate product concepts. Too often companies assume what customers want without actually validating it with them. The proper use of a business case includes a reflection of wh...

If you have wondered what it means to do innovation at a large company, you are in the right place. I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Bernardi, IBM’s Chief Innovation Officer responsible for Cloud and the Internet of Things. She is also a startup founder & CEO, strategic advisor to large organizations, and author of the book “Provoke,” which is about the need for organizations to embrace a culture of disruption to promote innovation. I caught her literally between planes so the audio quality is a little different than normal as I called her phone, but it’s still good for listening. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * How long have you been in your Chief Innovation role? Linda has been the Chief Innovation Officer at IBM for the last year, focusing on the Internet of Things and the Cloud and looking at where these are headed in the future. Her unofficial title is Chief Disruption Officer – changing the organization for real advancement and innovation. * Give us a sense of what the role involves at IBM. The culture of the 103-year-old company has many strengths but also a strong sense of how things are traditionally done. Disruption is needed and is a natural part of growth. It is required because everything in technology is changing. IBM is thinking about change in terms of the products and services it develops as well as its culture. What is unique about IBM is its ability to solve very complex problems, and it has done so for over 100 years. Change is coming both internally and through external acquisitions. The IBM of 2015 looks very different than it did even five years ago. * How are you being a disruptor at IBM? There are two components to that: culture and technology. Culture involves being able to think differently. The culture is changing from one that is selling IT products and services to one that is helping customers transform themselves. For those that have been at IBM, this can be an uncomfortable transition, while for the new hires who are not tied to the traditional ways of doing business, it is easy to adopt. The same is true for any change, such as switching hands you hold a toothbrush in. Any type of disruption brings about change and associated discomfort, whether it be personal change or large organizational change. Some people get paralyzed when they are disrupted, and being able to remain flexible is very important. To be a disruptor in an organization, sometimes it is necessary to take action and ask for forgiveness later. Technology has transformed from a series of organized and long-term steps, such as moving from central computing to client-server to personal computers, and now has erupted in choices (e.g., open source database systems versus proprietary systems) and mobile devices and expectations to have access to information from anywhere. * What characteristics or attitudes make a person good at leading innovation? A recognition is needed that the business will change – it always does. There are many examples of companies that did not effectively deal with the change, such as Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry, Polaroid, etc. Each was excellent at what they did, but they did not effectively deal with the disruption that was occurring to their business model. Consequently, one sign of leadership for innovation is being willing to do new things imperfectly to identify new opportunities. The forces outside of a company – the market – are significant. The market is way ahead of what companies are currently doing. This is another significant disruptive force. * How do you watch for and identify market trends? You have to be ahead of the game. While listening to customers is important, if you’re only listening, you’re reacting and behind of what is occurring. Companies need to create differentiating technology capabilities.

I am doing another interview in my Design Thinking series and the topic of this episode is the impact of moving design principles into what is commonly called the Fuzzy Front End (FFE). I personally prefer the term Managed Front End, because, while it is fuzzy, full of unknowns and chaotic at times, it is also manageable. I spoke with Design and Design Thinking researcher and practitioner, Giulia Calabretta. She is an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She contributed a chapter with a coauthor to the Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA book titled, “Integrating Design into the Fuzzy Front End of the Innovation Process.” Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * What drew you into the field of design? Giulia’s background is in business and management and she has always been interested in innovation. She believes Designers have the best tools for helping companies with innovation. Designers are human centered and should be part of the innovation plans of companies. When they are, the innovations are much more successful. * We need a common understanding of the FFE. How do you describe this early stage of product innovation? It is a messy moment in the innovation process. It begins when people in the company wish to do something new, recognizing a customer need or problem they can take action on to solve. This involves searching for opportunities, idea generation, and idea selection aligned with what is best for the company. * What challenges exist in the FFE? Uncertainty is a key challenge. Companies don’t know exactly what course of action to take and if they will be successful with the course taken. To deal with the uncertainty, some companies will attempt to collect too much information and then have the challenge of knowing what to do with it. They may also involve numerous people throughout the organization in an effort to limit risk but this greatly complicates the decision-making process. * What design practices help with problem definition? One way designers help is to broaden the perspective on innovation. They are good at reformulating specific objectives to consider the broader reasons behind them. An example is public transportation company 9292 in the Netherlands. They provide services to help people understand their best options for public transportation to get from one place to another. When Google maps became popular, 9292 found their service was being used less. They enlisted designers, asking them to create a new website to bring customers back. Instead, the designers asked the company what they really wanted to achieve and after a series of creative workshops (generative sessions) determined that the larger goal was creating deeper relationships with customers. After reformulating the problem, they determined that a new website was not the best solution. Instead, they created a series of personalized mobile services for smart phones, elevating 9292 to be the preferred public transportation planner in the Netherlands. * How does design help us manage information in the FFE? In dealing with uncertainty in the FFE, an overwhelming amount of information can be collected while still not necessarily having the information actually needed. Designers have creative ways of doing user research as opposed to traditional market research to determine what customers really want and consider valuable. An example is Context Mapping, which is a visual journaling process consumers can do without a researcher present to map their behavior over a period of time. An example is applying Context Mapping to understand the relationships between a consumer’s shopping behavior and their eating behavior. The consumer takes pictures over the course of a few days of him or her cooking, eating, shopping, etc.

When it comes to innovation, there are significant distinctions between startups and large enterprises. Startups have the advantage of agility and ability to rapidly change directions because they are not encumbered with legacy systems and organizational constraints. Large enterprises have access to greater resources and an established brand but also have erected barriers to innovation over time and inertia to change has set in. Such enterprises often reach a point where they realize that their existing culture, processes, and structure have limited their innovation to the point of harming the organization. I frequently have conversations with leaders of companies about these very issues. What should large companies do that wish to be more innovative? A place to start is benchmarking the actions Caterpillar is taking to overcome innovation barriers they created over many years and turn the organization into an innovation machine. To explore their actions, I had the sincere pleasure of talking with Ken Gray, Caterpillar’s global Director of Innovation. Ken has worn many hats at Caterpillar, including mechanical engineer, product manager, global product manager, and leader. He is well suited for the Innovation role. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * When did you start your career at Caterpillar? Ken has worked for Caterpillar for 33 years. He made the decision in second grade, telling his mom he was going to become an engineer and work for Caterpillar when he grew up. * You have been an engineer, project manager, product manager, program manager, and in other management and leadership roles.  What principles guide your leadership philosophy? Ken uses the “kitchen table” approach to managing his team. The term comes from his experiences growing up in his home where dinner time at the kitchen table was used to explore any topic – nothing was off-limits. It was the time to bring up tough subjects and hone listening skills. At Caterpillar, his teams are rankless and anyone can share anything. People are encouraged to be brave. When difficult topics need to be discussed, his team members preface the conversation with “we need kitchen table time.” Organizations need to practice open communication regularly so when the tough issues arise, people are willing to share them with leaders. Listening is an active process that requires empathetic and attentive listening while asking clarifying questions as well as questions that help team members learn. * The role you are in now is new to the organization, the Caterpillar Director of Innovation. How did this role and the associated Analytics and Innovation Division come into existence? Given the large size of the organization (global operations with 110,000 employees), Caterpillar has found pockets of innovation in the company but topline performance of the business has been essentially flat since 2009. Executive leadership recognized the organization must be more innovative to continue growing the top line. This resulted in the creation of the Analytics and Innovation Division. The analytics dimension results from the large amount of data collected from machines Caterpillar makes. It is this data that, coupled with ideas from any other sources, helps to drive innovations. Consequently, the analytics group and innovation group needed to be as close as possible, resulting in a single division. * How is your role structured related to increasing innovation at Caterpillar? Ken is trying to create new viable businesses for Caterpillar. While the group will continue looking at innovations related to existing machines, the goal is new business development. Ken structures his work into three innovation categories: * Core – doing what Caterpillar already does but doing it better.

In this episode I’m talking with the creator of an entire category of product innovation – one that significantly changed how I think about the process of innovation. Clayton Christensen said his approaches “bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation.” The category of innovation is known as ODI, Outcome-Driven Innovation, and it was created by Tony Ulwick. When ODI was published in the Harvard Business Review, they declared it one of “the ideas that will profoundly affect business as we forge ahead in today’s complex times.” Tony also authored the best-selling book What Customers Want, explaining how the jobs-to-be-done framework is transformed into practice with ODI. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * What experiences led to you creating Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI)? At IBM, Tony worked on the PC Junior as a manufacturing engineer. The team was very excited to launch the product but within a day the Wall Street Journal declared it a flop! It turned out that they were right and the cost to IBM in a failed product was over $1B. This got Tony thinking about the metrics to determine what makes a good product – a product that customers want. This was the start to Outcome Driven Innovation, which has matured over the last three decades. * Can you briefly share the key components that make ODI work? The key component is understanding the metrics people use for getting the job done – measuring what people want the product to accomplish for them. Customers don’t describe metrics for a product but do discuss the job they want to accomplish in terms of metrics. An example is a product for teeth whitening and the job customers want done is to have whiter teeth. Associated metrics include how much whiter their teeth can be, the convenience involved, and the financial costs. All the metrics are categorized into one of three areas – core/functional, consumption, and financial. * What is the specific language associated with a customer need? A perfect need statement uses a specific syntax based on three characteristics of needs: (1) it has to be a measure of customer value, (2) it has to be measurable and controllable in the design of the product, and (3) it must be stable over time. Details of the syntax are described in What Customers Want. * How are need statements captured? There are many approaches, such as ethnographic research and face-to-face interviews, but we have found that phone-based interviews work well when performed by a skilled practitioner. Interviews focus on the job the customer is trying to get done and understanding the details of this job and why they are doing it. A “job map” is then created that lays out all of the jobs the customer is trying to get done. * How are customer needs ranked? A complete set of customer outcome statements (needs) is often over 100 items. The objective of ODI is to cast a wide net and capture all possible customer needs. Customers rank the needs by importance and satisfaction. This can also lead to identifying underserved customer segments – segments that cluster around specific unmet needs and who may be willing to pay a premium price to have their needs met. * What about the satisfaction ranking – what have you found about that? ODI allows a composite satisfaction ranking for the product concept to be calculated. If the composite satisfaction is 20% or higher than existing products on the market, people are willing to make the switch and buy the new product. * What about seeing ODI in action – do you have a case study to share that illustrates the process? One example is the Bosch circular saw. ODI was used to examine unmet customer needs.

Brian Lawley is the CEO and Founder of the 280 Group, a company that provides product management and product marketing solutions. Brian has a long history in product management, including product manager for the Apple Macintosh OS. He is also the author of “The Phenomenal Product Manager: The Product Manager’s Guide to Success, Job Satisfaction and Career Acceleration.” Brian and his 280 Group team recently conducted a research project titled the “Challenges in Product Management 2015.” We discussed the key findings from the study.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * This is the first year of the study – why did you decide to produce it? There has never been a comprehensive study about the challenges that product management organizations face. Other studies have focused on product managers while our study focuses on impact of product management to the organization. * Before diving into the findings of this year study, what are your overall impressions of how product management has changed in the past few years? The importance of product management has increased. One report states that the product manager is the fourth most important role in organizations. Technology companies recognized this first but today product managers are found in all industries. * What do you know about the participants in the study? 890 people participated in the study. 30% were directors and VPs, 41% were product managers, and 20% were senior product managers. Two-thirds were from the US. Numerous industries are represented. * How is the role of product manager viewed in companies?  61% are viewed as leaders in their company but 57% are too tactical and not strategic enough. The challenge of product managers is to free up at least 30% of their time to work on strategic activities. Product managers spend too much time managing feature lists and requirements instead of holistically managing the product to optimize value for all stakeholders. * How do product managers feel about their competency in the role? Most product managers receive no formal training in their discipline. Across teams, product manager skills vary greatly. Some product managers have very advanced skills. Most respondents shared that their knowledge was average or below. * What did you learn about product management processes in organizations? 49% believe that their product management process is their biggest challenge while 40% of directors and VPs believe their processes are a challenge. About 55% responded that their process is not well defined or standardized. The companies with the most product challenges are those without clear and standardized processes. * What did participants say about improving the product management process their company uses? There was clear recognition that improving processes would increase product success and organizational profitability. * A topic that has come up several times in Agile communities is the role of product manager vs product owner. Did the study examine this intersection? Of companies that said they are doing Agile development, 70% shared that the same person has the roles of product manager and product owner. A key issue is that many of them have not been trained in product management and many have also not been trained as a product owner. On small projects, a person with the right skills and experience can be successful as the product manager and product owner. On larger projects this becomes cumbersome and strategic focus is lost. When separate people are used for the roles, trust must exist between them to be effective.   Useful links: * Challenges in Product Management 201...

My guest is Allan Anderson. He is a keynote speaker at the 2015 Product Innovation Management conference. For the past 20+ years he has been refining his skills in product development and change management, gaining three perspectives as practitioner, academic, and c-level leader in companies. He earned a PhD in Product Development from Massey University in New Zealand, where he is also a professor.     Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * How did you get your start in product development? Allan pursued food technology in college which led to a specialization and graduate degree in product development. * In the description to your keynote speech at the Product Innovation Management conference you shared that “often, there is very little understanding of the principles that truly underpin good NPD practice and how these principles should be applied within a specific company.” Are you suggesting that a one-size-fits-all approach to NPD doesn’t work – that the best practices used by one company may not work as well in another company? There’s been a tendency for companies to adopt a product development process found in books or provided by a consultant without really understanding why the process was chosen and considering if it is best suited to them. Allan refers to this as a paint-by-numbers approach. Instead, he encourages companies to develop processes that are specifically created for their culture, structure, and needs. Organizations should develop their own product development process built around a model with three components: (1) do the right things – choose the right products to work on with the right focus for the organization, (2) do the right things right – choose the processes and practices that are appropriate for what you wish to achieve and measure their success, and (3) create a culture and working environment that helps you to be successful. The key objective is learning what works for the organization. * How can NPD performance metrics help an organization determine what is important and how to continually improve? Traditional metrics used in product development are lagging metrics that focus on outcomes. They don’t lead to any form of learning. Instead, use “contributing metrics” that influence the desired outcomes. For example, does the organization have the right portfolio management in place, are the right cross functional teams in use, is the fuzzy front end being given sufficient attention, etc. * What metrics should be used? Allan uses his model of (1) doing the right things, (2) doing the right things right, and (3) creating an innovation culture to create metrics that are appropriate for the organization. The objective is to lead to learning and improvement of the product development process. What is important is the discussion that occurs around metrics and what are the key areas for the organization to improve product development. It is important to involve the entire organization and identify discrepancies in perspectives between groups, such as between manufacturing and engineering. This produces opportunities for deeper learning and process improvement. It also increases ownership of the processes. * Do you have an example of an organization that used performance metrics to transform their NPD process? When Allan was the CEO of the New Zealand Dairy Industry, an R&D group with about 400 employees, he applied his model to define the important metrics and factors for their product development success. In doing so, this led to discussions that brought employees together and improved teamwork. The focus was on people and encouraging people to talk to other people in the company.

There is a great TED talk by Steven Johnson titled “Where Good Ideas Come From.” Steven shares the importance of coffeehouses and how many innovations we recognize that took shape through discussions in coffeehouses. Interestingly, I met today’s guest, Larry Marine, at a coffee shop. I heard him discussing product design and started talking with him about the innovation research I was doing at the time. We later co-authored chapter 5 in the PDMA Toolbook 3 titled “Integrating User Observations with Business Objectives to Drive Product Design.” Larry is a User Experience expert that has helped many companies improve their products as well as design new products.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * What was your path to working in UX? Larry discovered Don Norman’s new Cognitive Science program at UC San Diego after serving as a computer tech in the US Navy. Norman is known as the father of usability and user experience. Larry was in the first graduating class of cognitive psychologists. * What is the essence of UX work? Fundamentally, it is seeking to understand how users will react to specific stimuli in a given context. For example, identifying how a user will respond to a user interface. Our goal is to create the right experience for the context. A classic example is door handles – instead of expecting users  to push on a handle to open a door inwards, give them a flat panel which can only be pushed. * Can you share examples of a project where UX changes took an average product and made it a great product? For a software example, Larry redesigned the user experience of ProFlowers– the website for selecting and ordering flowers. The design was different than all the other online florists at the time. The web developers actually didn’t implement the design because it didn’t “look” like the competitors. The ProFlowers leadership team had the developers implement the new design. Their sales surged and ProFlowers.com has been one of the top performing websites for conversions. The other example is a medical device that performed blood screenings. Users were complaining about its use and Larry was asked to redesign the user interface. After investigating how the machine was used in a laboratory, the actual problem was with the lack of integration between five machines. It was a manual process to move from one machine to the next, data had to be reentered, and blood samples could be mixed up. The solution was a new screening control system for the entire laboratory. * When you make an impact like that, where do you start? By stepping back from the problem, we always find a larger unmet need. We start with an audit to understand who are the users, what problem they are trying to solve, and their objectives. For ProFlowers, the way online florists at the time were selling flowers did not match the problem customers had. Websites asked customers to build a bouquet instead of solving the actual problem, which was buying flowers for a special occasion. In the redesign, the customer is first asked what occasion they are buying flowers for (birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, etc) and then they are shown bouquets in various price groups and color options. * Walk us through the steps of conducting an audit. It begins by identifying who the users are and then understanding what problem they need solved. We need to understand what the users currently know and what they need to know to succeed in the tasks that solves the problem. This is a deeper level of information than busi...

Mark Zeh was already developing products using a methodology that was very similar to what IDEO was doing when he joined them. The approach has since been coined Design Thinking. He views the use of storytelling coupled with prototyping as the keys that make Design Thinking work so well. Mark started his design career in the US creating custom mountain bike frames in Minneapolis that carried his name. He worked for product design giant IDEO in the US and helped to lead the office in Germany. He also consulted independently to numerous companies, applying Design Thinking, and is now at Bose, the audio technology powerhouse. In addition, he leads the Entrepreneurship program at the Munich Business School. I invited him to share his insights on using Design Thinking, which he recently wrote about in the PDMA Essentials book titled Design and Design Thinking. His chapter is The Key Role of Stories and Prototypes in a Design Thinking Product Development Process.” Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * You use a Design Thinking product development framework. What are the components of that framework? (1) identify customer needs, (2) the cycle of build, test, iterate, and refine, (3) validate and communicate what you found to the organization, and (4) a product development process (not shown in diagram). The activities need to be performed in this order– jumping ahead only leads to problems.   * What is the role of story in Design Thinking?   Knowledge is captured in stories, not raw data.  When examining a need and how customers are behaving, building a narrative is important to communicate to others on the product team.  Stories are the foundation of the process.  They begin by understanding what already exists and then envisioning the future. * What is a prototype and how is it used with story?  A prototype is something you can engage with physically. It is a tool to help you communicate and test ideas. It is refined through iterations as the value proposition is further understood.  Putting prototypes into the hands of  customers actually causes them to think differently than simply talking about the concept. As a product designer, you need to get customers engaged in the concept and this is accomplished through the prototype.  Don’t start building the product early – first get feedback by iterating through prototypes. * How can story and prototyping be combined to improve a product development process?  Story and prototypes are intertwined.  The prototypes are props for the story,  allowing for the story to be acted out.  A prototype is a more effective communication tool than words for aspects of the story. * Can you share an example of a successful product that resulted from applying this framework? The Lemond G-Force RT Recumbent exercise bike is one of the few examples Mark can share publicly. Mark learned that many women were buyers of recumbent exercise bikes but bikes were not tailored for their purchasing process. The design of the bike was influenced by observations of the purchasing process of women:  who the buyer is, how they interact, how the exercise bike gets home, and where it is placed in the home.  The key insight learned was that the exercise bike should look like architecture – a design feature of the room where it is placed. Those insights drove the creation of prototypes and ultimately the final product. * With all the design experience you have accumulated over your life, if you could, what would you tell the 25 year old version of yourself?  Listen better.  Dig deeper into what people are saying and develop empathy to better understand what they’re telling me.   Useful links: *

Back in episode 25 I told you about a unique experience I had creating the Future Innovation Leaders class for 8-12 year olds. We explored the connection between the digital world and the physical world. One of the tools we used was LEGO Mindstorms – robots that can be built and programmed. An executive at LEGO listened to the podcast and we started a conversation about innovation at LEGO. Innovation is a part of LEGO’s DNA, but this has not always been the case. In the 90s, the company’s sales were declining. They hired innovation consultant after innovation consultant, trying practices that worked for others but were not a good fit for them. In 2003 the company lost $300 million dollars. Then a few things changed, with a focus on creating “enhanced play” experiences. Today, 60% of their annual revenue comes from new products – innovation is at the core of their successful business.  Part of their turnaround is because of how they leveraged their loyal fans, creating a community that promotes the brand and extends what you can do with LEGOs. When I asked LEGO who I could interview to discuss innovation, their response was interesting, but not surprising given how their community of fans has influenced their success. They said to talk with “bazmarc” – at least that is how he is best known in the LEGO community. Bazmarc, who is Marc Andre Bazergui is an IBM Remote Technical Support Specialist by day, and a LEGO Robots Expert by night. He is one of the 12 members of the official LEGO Mindstorms Expert Panel (LMEP) that has been actively involved in the design, testing, and development of the product. He is also a contributor to a larger but exclusive group called the Mindstorms Community Partner (MCP) program. Marc has traveled around the world for events to inspire kids and adults with the wonders of Mindstorms. My interview with Marc uncovers community-building practices product managers can put into action.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Summary of questions discussed: * A lot of us played with LEGOs when we were kids, but few of us have gotten involved with their robotic system, Mindstorms. What is Mindstorms? It is a toolkit that allows kids and adults to create robots. It consists of a computer brain, called the Brick, with sensor ports and motor ports. Robots are created by adding sensors, motors, infrastructure, and creating programs in a visual coding environment. The current generation of the product is called EV3, the previous version is NXT, and the first is RCX. * LEGO has crowd sourced innovation through community building. You are a Mindstorm Community Advocate – essentially an ambassador for Mindstorm. What do you do in that role?  Advocates volunteer their time to support LEGO and influence the direction of current and future products. The MCPs have meetings with the LEGO Community Manager (a LEGO employee) every two weeks, discussing plans to create more customer engagement, helping LEGO spot new raving fans, and sharing fascinating customer stories. He also administers a LEGO Facebook group, sharing games, EV3 selfies, and more. * How did LEGO structure the community – what are the “building blocks” (pun intended!) that make it work? A key action was when LEGO realized customers were hacking the original RCX Mindstorms. Instead of trying to control the use of RCX, LEGO encouraged the hacking and saw a community develop that extended what LEGO envisioned for the RCX.  LEGO contacted key contributors and offered them a cryptic opportunity to be part of something special but could only tell them more after they signed a nondisclosure agreement.

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights make my head spin. But, any good product manager or innovator needs to consider the intellectual property issues when developing a product. Consequently, I asked patent attorney Dan Brean of the Webb Law Firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to help all of us Everyday Innovators navigate the IP issues with new product development. Dan is an experienced patent litigator and prosecutor, primarily working with mechanical, electrical, and software technologies, so he brings a good mix of hardware and software IP experience. He also teaches at the University of Pittsburgh school of law. This interview is part of my continuing Design Thinking series as Dan contributed the “Intellectual Property Protection for Designs” chapter to the PDMA Essentials book, Design and Design Thinking. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators * We are wired to look at a situation, identify problems or shortcomings, and create product concepts to provide solutions. One of Dan’s early memories of creating a product concept is when he was 7 years old and noticed that car headlights don’t point where they are needed when making turns. He decided a turning headlight that turns as the wheels of the car do would be an improvement. * When it comes to intellectual property protection, what you choose to do and not do has lasting ramifications– knowing the options and the timelines involved is important. Questions discussed: * What is the purpose of Intellectual Property protection and why does it exist? IP is something that is intangible – you can’t see, feel, touch, or smell it. As a legal concept, IP rights can make those intangible ideas in some sense ownable.  It gives rights over the controlling and use of the ideas. * What are “prior art” issues?  This refers to the universe of public knowledge before the date your patent application is filed. Anything that happened before (prior) that contributed to the technology field (art) is considered prior art. Only ideas that are new and inventive (not obvious) can be rewarded patents. Consequently, being the first to file an invention is important. * When moving through a traditional product pipeline that starts with several reasonable product concepts and eliminates the less promising ones as information is gained, when should IP actions be considered? It should be considered at all stages, but there is a trade-off. You want to get patent protection filed early for viable product concepts, but you can’t file before details of the invention are known. Considering prior art for the invention should be part of the considerations as the concept moves through the pipeline. * What are the forms of IP protection and how do product managers know which ones they should consider? * Utility patents are most common and cover the utilitarian value of a invention – something that performs a useful process. * Design patents cover the ornamental appearance of a object or user interface – the aesthetic aspects of a design. Many inventions fall under utility patent and design patent protection. * Trade secrets is anything that is kept confidential and has a commercial advantage to it. A famous example is the formula for Coca-Cola’s Coke beverage. * Trademarks protect brand names or logos or other characteristics that specify a brand. * Copyright protection is for artistic works. * What is an example of a product concept going through the IP process? We discussed some type of eyeglass clip that can be worn on a shirt. Start with a patent search to identify whether prior art exists. See the links below for patent search tools. Even though you may not have seen a similar product on the market, there still may be prior art.

I met my guest at Innovation Excellence, the online home of the global innovation community, where we both contribute innovation insights regularly. Truth be told, I was giving in to my vanity and checking out the top-20 posts for the month. My record is three posts in the top-20 in one month. For the month I was checking, Michael Graber’s name took the spotlight, and of course, I immediately thought he would be a great person to interview. When I did, I was not disappointed. Michael has more than twenty years of experience leading marketing and innovation efforts. As an expert in marketing and user interface, he has become an accomplished brand strategist. And, this is what really made me curious to talk with him – he is also a published poet and musician – creative forces that compliment his analytical side. Even when he is talking about innovation and brand strategy, he does so poetically and effectively. Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators * Michael has a firm grasp on the connection between his artistic pursuits and innovation development. Story propels brands and God created the universe for stories. Further, poets are the original systems thinkers. The root of the word “poet” means “to make.” * The heart of storytelling is motivation and getting people to think new thoughts – the connection with brand development. * Storytelling also requires knowing your audience and speaking in terms that your audience will understand and appreciate. Product managers and brand managers must do the same thing. * When preparing a story to tell, creating a persona for the group you’re telling the story to will allow you to make a better connection and make a more persuasive argument. * To understand your audience, apply empathy and walk in their shoes. * An odd dynamic is taking place among the C-suite of many companies. They are demanding more innovation from the organization without really knowing what that means and the implications it has for the organization. Innovation requires a change in the organization but leaders are too often unwilling to do what is required to make the changes. * When the organization needs more innovation, start with innovation exercises, such as meeting with customers, practicing empathy, conducting interviews, etc. * The second element is working on the culture. Without working on the organizational culture, a new innovation team can do ideation work with customers and be excited about the new product opportunities, but the existing culture can stifle these efforts. It is like antibodies attacking an unknown element in the organization. * To begin considering a change in culture, one activity asks the senior leadership team to examine new models of revenue. This helps to push the team in new directions and can also identify revenue opportunities that are easily attainable. * Another cultural change tool is examining existing orthodoxies. Once these are understood, then conduct a mindset change exercise by introducing a completely new direction for the organization. For example, if the company was purchased by a competitor, how would that change orthodoxies? * To become more innovative as a company, you first have to decide what you want to become. * These cultural change activities help the organization to understand what exists, what can be changed, and what is essential. Organizations frequently find that what they thought was impossible is actually within reach. * Organizations seeking to improve their innovation culture need three things: * The full support and backing of the executive team in ways that are visible to the organization. * Building multidisciplinary innovation teams that understand how to lead innovation efforts. * These teams then help others in the organization,

Luke Hohmann was recommended by the VP of Global Innovation of the RELX Group, Jeff Honious, who was my guest in episode 28. Consequently, I knew I had to interview Luke to learn about his tools for innovators. Luke is the founder and CEO of The Innovation Games, which is now known as Conteneo. His past experiences include computer scientist, engineer, and product manager. Luke is serious about the smart application of games to optimize decision making in innovation, product development, and market research, and numerous companies use his tools. He is also the author of “Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play.” My favorite line from his profile is: “Luke’s an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building a company to flip, he’s building a company to change the world.”   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators * Luke’s background is in competitive figure skating, computer science, and engineering. Couple that with curiosity and a never ceasing desire to learn and you have the roots of his interest in innovation. * He credits a manager at EDS, Vern Olson, for starting him on a path to innovation. Vern told him that if he worked hard he’d be able to do really cool things and EDS would support him. This stimulated his curiosity to explore new things and earned him a reputation for innovation. * The lesson learned – Organizational leadership can create an environment that fosters innovation or stifles it. * Luke did not set out to create games for innovation but started as a product manager asking how to best understand what people are looking for. He used paper and pencil prototypes and through experience realized that he got better insights when his customer was holding the pencil and completing the prototype herself. * Luke later discovered the application of games. They respond to humans’ natural desire to play and collaborate. From a game theory perspective, games have a goal; a set of rules, resources, constraints, and interaction models; a feedback mechanism to tell you how you’re doing; and natural appeal that engages people. * The meta goal of an innovation game is to solve a business problem. * Buy A Feature is an example of an innovation game. It helps the group decide which projects are most important and makes the best use of their available resources. To use it, say you have: * 20 possible projects and the total budget for all them is $20M * But you only have $8M available for new projects * Instead of creating a competitive environment for selecting the projects, you create a collaborative environment. * This could be accomplished by telling eight decision-makers that they each have $1M to allocate to projects. * They must work together to determine the projects of highest value. * Buy A Feature is used in the non-profit Every Voice Engaged to help cities create budgets and decrease the influence of political positions. * Bwin.party, a large digital entertainment company, used Buy A Feature not only to select strategic projects but also develop alignment between senior leaders and managers. * Some  organizations try to use surveys to make decisions. Luke says “surveys suck.” Surveys can tell you what an answer is, but they don’t tell you the deeper meaning behind information. Collaboration does, which is the purpose of innovation games. * To find the right innovation game for the right problem, Luke’s company, Conteneo, has created a game finding tool. See more at Conteneo.   Useful links: * Luke’s innovation game company

Jeremy Dillingham has a long list of skills and experiences as a seasoned product manager, including leading teams, roadmap planning, portfolio management, Lean Startup, Customer Discovery, Agile Development, and SaaS architectures. He is a mentor at Techstars, an accelerator for technology startups. He currently serves as a Senior VP at Return Path, a company that helps organizations promote and protect their brands.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators * Jeremy moved from project management into product management, one of many paths that works well. Project management provided the skills to manage a team, create a plan for delivering results, and more. * Product management has a larger purview than project management and requires working across the organization, such as with user experience, sales, marketing, manufacturing, etc. * Product managers benefit from having business acumen and understanding business concepts, such as the role of strategy, vision, business models, etc. * Jeremy joined a company, Return Path, during a period where scaling the business was the focus. The company did not have experience with new product development or innovation. Jeremy’s experience as a product manager allowed him to lead innovation efforts. A new product was required to respond to a strong competitor. * An example of an unsuccessful product resulted from not focusing on a single coherent market but instead sold the product to 10 very different customers. Instead of focusing first on a single vertical/industry and building a successful sales process for that vertical, their efforts were diluted across industries and it became a Frankenstein product. The situation is addressed in Jeffrey Moore’s book “Crossing the Chasm.” * An example of a successful product and one learned from the previous situation, focused on a single vertical, validating a market need, using a Lean approach with MVPs, and quickly closing sales and building revenue. By first focusing on a single vertical, you learn the needs of that niche and can best build a product that specifically solves its problems. Once you dominate one niche you can use that to springboard to another. * Some favorite tools: * Discovery – the process of talking with customers and validating what you are learning about the problems and needs. This involves writing a script of interview questions, prioritizing the questions, talking with customers to gain responses, and analyzing the data. Discovery sessions with customers should be done by two interviewers so one can focus on asking questions and the other can focus on taking notes. * Experiment – one pass through the build-measure-learn loop (per Lean). * Metrics – dashboards, KPIs, another important indicators. * Lean Canvas – see TEI 010 episode with the creator of the Lean Canvas.   Useful links: * Jeremy works for Return Path * Connect with Jeremy on LinkedIn * Recommended books * Running Lean by Ash Maurya * Escape Velocity by Geoffrey Moore * Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore * Inspired by Marty Cagan   Innovation Quotes “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Professional associations provide value to career development. The first professional association I was involved in was the Project Management Institute, and I eventually became certified as a Project Manager Professional (PMP) because I recognized its value in helping me improve my project management capabilities while also helping me to stand out with future employers. Another association I have valued, as well as contributed to, is specific to product managers, marketing managers, and innovators. It is AIPMM, The Association of International Product Marketing and Management. I interviewed the president, Therese Padilla, to learn more about this important organization.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Association of International Product Marketers and Managers (AIPMM) was founded in 1998. * The association exists to advance the profession of product management and support anybody and any organization that is involved in product management. * AIPMM surveyed the product management literature and created a standardized product management framework that consists of seven activities: * Conceive * Plan * Develop * Qualify * Launch * Deliver * Retire * AIPMM sponsored creating the Product Body of Knowledge (ProdBOK) – a guide to the product management body of knowledge written by 60 expert contributors. See TEI 017 episode for the discussion with the editor of the ProdBOK. * AIPMM believes that the skill set of product management is more important than specific domain or industry knowledge for product managers. To help product managers develop the skill set to be great at product management, AIPMM created a training and certification program. * AIPMM’s certifications include: * Certified Product Manager – emphasizes the management of the product development activities, focusing on the Conceive, Plan, Develop, and Qualify activities of the standardized product management framework. * Certified Marketing Manager – focused on outbound marketing, distribution, and channel management. This highlights the Launch, Deliver, and Retire activities of the standardized product management framework. * Agile Certified Product Manager – applies the practices of product management in an agile development environment. * Certified Innovation Leader – prepares product managers, product marketers, and innovators to lead the creation of new products by understanding and applying ideation and innovation methodologies. It covers the very beginning of product creation (the managed front end), frequently used product innovation approaches and tools, and a product development process to manage risk. It is the most comprehensive of the certifications available and integrates aspects of product management and marketing management. Useful links: * AIPMM website * Signup to be notified of webinars * The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge: ProdBOK   Innovation Quotes “Change before you have to.”  – Jack Welch   Listen Now to the Interview    Raw Transcript   Thanks! Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion,