The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers show

The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers

Summary: The Everyday Innovator is a weekly podcast dedicated to your success as a product manager and innovator. Join me, Chad McAllister, for interviews with product professionals, discussing their successes, failures, and lessons-learned to help you excel in your career and create products your customers will love. Every organization must have products that provide value to their customers. People like you who know how to create that value are the ones with real influence. The topics are relevant to product and innovation management, and include: creating a culture of innovation, managing product development, validating the viability of product concepts, conducting market research, selecting a product innovation methodology, generating product ideas, working well with teams and cross-functionally, and much more.

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  • Artist: Chad McAllister, PhD - Helping Product Managers become Product Masters
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Podcasts:

 TEI 260: Proverbs for product managers and innovators- with Dr. Max Mckeown, PhD | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 33:42

Do you like proverbs? I do. Proverbs are short general truths or pieces of advice. They can be a source of wisdom, which is why I read from the Bible book, Proverbs, most nights while I was in college. I was seeking wisdom. Proverbs come from many sources and some become common sayings, such as "measure twice, cut once" -- wisdom for carpenters. Or, "look before you leap," which is something many parents have shared with an impetuous child. I may have heard that one a few times myself. I also love innovation proverbs and I found a book full of them. It's titled, The Innovator's Book: Rules for Rebels, Mavericks and Innovators. The author is Dr. Max Mckeown, an award-winning author and artist who seeks to make complex ideas practical for the real world. His research focuses on how to increase the successful adaptability of individuals, teams and organizations. We discuss a few favorite proverbs from the book.

 TEI 259: Become indistractable and get more done better – with Nir Eyal | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 35:07

Do you feel your time and attention being pulled in too many directions and what you want to get done is not getting done? I sure do. For me, focus has been getting more challenging as I am taking on new projects to help more product managers. I've needed to step back and do some meta work to better organize my time. This includes putting into practice what I learned from this interview -- a discussion with Nir Eyal about the research he did to help him tackle the same issues. He synthesized what he learned in his latest book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir joined us the first year of this podcast, back on episode 030 to discuss how we can build habit-forming products. He is a writer, consultant, and teacher at the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. I love talking with him because he always has new insights for me. I needed this interview and I bet you do to.

 TEI 258: How product managers can work effectively with data scientists – with Felicia Anderson & Rich Mironov | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 41:07

Be prepared for the intersection of data science and product management Organizations are developing robust data science capabilities, adding the role of “data scientist” to their ranks. As the importance of data science increases in organizational strategy analysis and operations, it is also impacting product management. Product managers are being asked to work with data scientists. We are still at the forefront of this and figuring out how product management and data science intersect. To explore the topic, we are joined by two past guests who have been working at this intersection. In episode 117 Felicia Anderson shared how she was building a product management council at Piney Bowes and in 055, Rich Mironov shared how product managers can navigate organizational challenges. For the past year, they have been helping product managers work with data scientists. If this topic isn’t impacting your product work yet, it will in the future. This is information you need. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [2:19] What are some examples of how you use data science as product managers? In commerce services, data science can predict where shipped parcels are and which are at risk of being delayed, and determine when volumes of parcels will arrive so the company receiving them can optimize staffing and other resources. One trend I see is that instead of using data analytics to give ourselves internal insights that we then hard-code into our applications, we’re using AI to build data analytics into the products themselves, such as using natural language processing to spot trends in long-form text documents. Software can make recommendations to the end-consumer. The challenge is that this kind of data analytics is never perfect. You have to consider edge cases and problems that might occur if the software makes a bad recommendation or data is missing. Product managers need to think about the difference between type one and type two errors. If we tell somebody a thing’s going to happen and it doesn’t, what are the bad outcomes? If we tell somebody it’s not going to happen and it does, what are the bad outcomes? You want your errors to collect on the side with less damage. [11:23] How do you bring data science and product management together? Sometimes the business leads us into data science. In other cases, you build the data science teams and bring the product managers and business side onboard. You have to pair up the product management knowledge with the data science team because neither half can make it work alone. [12:36]  Do you usually see data scientists in product management teams or more separate? I’m mostly seeing them separated, but if a company is building data science products, like using machine learning, then data science is a core part of engineering. A data science team for internal insights tends to be a separate team that investigates problems brought to them and spots trends. Then they have to find the internal consumer who cares about what they found, which brings them back to the product managers who know what they need for their product. When we leave data scientists in their own separate department, what they learn is not very valuable because most of the company finds it totally obvious. On the other hand, product managers and others come up with crazy, fictional ideas about how to apply data and need data scientists to bring them down to earth. [14:57] How can product management become excessively data-driven to the detriment of good product managem...

 TEI 257: What it takes to create a successful food product – with Dave Hirschkop | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:09

Learn from the food industry to spice up your product management I have often discovered new insights about developing and managing products when talking with someone in a different industry than I normally work in. So, when I had the opportunity to talk with the creator of Dave’s Gourmet, a specialty foods company, I jumped at it. They make a wide range of products including Gourmet Pasta Sauce, Hot Sauce, Condiments and Spices. Dave Hirschkop is the founder and creative force behind Dave’s Gourmet. He joined us to discuss how to go from idea to award-winning food product. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:50] How did you come up with the idea for Dave’s Insanity Sauce? I opened a taqueria and starting making really hot sauces to mess with the drunk people who would come in, and I found that some people actually liked it. I made the sauces hotter and hotter and finally made the hottest sauce in the world. [4:42] Where do you start when it comes to bringing a food product to market? A lot of people start at home with what they like. There are two categories of food products. One is the better mousetrap, like a salsa that tastes better, perhaps based on a secret family recipe. The second is a solution to a problem such as a nutritional challenge. Once you have an idea, make sure that you can make it attractively and consistently, scale up the production level, and implement food safety. You also need to test whether others like your product enough to pay for it. [7:36] If I come up with a wicked Mac and Cheese that I want to sell, what would I do next? First, whip up a bunch of it and have a tasting party where a hundred strangers try it and give you feedback. You can also gauge how much people might be willing to pay for it. Next, consider production by looking at how mac and cheese is packaged. You might freeze yours and see if it still tastes good. Find out what would be involved in production by talking with a co-packer or an R&D consultant. Test any modifications you need to make for production. Selling your product at consumer fairs is a great way to make money and get feedback. [13:34] What should you consider when using a co-packer? Your product will always have some differences when you switch to a co-packer or from one co-packer to another. You will have to make trade-offs between cost and logistics like the availability of your ingredients. Know what your consumer likes about your product, and know what your goal for your business is. If you maintain the purity of your product, you may sacrifice some commercial success. And that’s okay–you can make good money in a niche. [16:36] How vulnerable is the food industry to supplier issues? It’s tough. One of our first products was a pasta sauce made with yellow tomatoes from only one supplier. When the supplier went bankrupt, we were out of business. A big company can create an entire supply chain, but a small company has to rely on bigger companies. Small companies need some luck to run into the right supplier. You may have to convince co-packers to make something special for you. If you want to innovate, you have to push. [19:53] How can food contests help you? Winning contests validates your product and gives you free marketing. The online digital space is another great way to test a product visually and conceptually. [21:50] Why is it important to know your customers? The customers of food companies vary alot. Your customers depend on your packaging, pricing, and marketing. Be scrappy. Ask yourself, where are my consumers? Don’t get too comfortable with your product. Be ready to change. [24:31] What was the tipping point that put Insanity Sauce on the map? We’re an odd company because Insanity Sauce was an instant hit. We were cheeky but it was fitting.

 TEI 256: The right way to manage change that innovation brings – with Barbara Trautlein, PhD | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 39:07

With Change Intelligence, product managers can influence more powerfully. Everyday innovators see innovation opportunities frequently — making products better, improving processes, creating a new product, and solving problems. The word innovation can be phrased as “in-a-new-way.” It is a good reminder that we are making something new that did not previously exist. That means making changes, and most groups and organizations struggle with change. For innovators, that’s a tension — we are about making change while the organizations we work in are largely about resisting change. To help us understand how to help people make changes with us, I invited Dr. Barbara Trautlein to join us again. She is an Organizational Psychologist who has helped many leaders and organizations get better results by navigating change. She is also the creator of the Change Intelligence, or CQ, system, which she teaches others and wrote about in her best-selling book Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change That Sticks. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [3:52] Why is it hard for organizations to change? Just like our immune systems protect us from harmful invaders, “antibodies” in organizations protect us from external threats. An organization wants to remain stable in a turbulent environment that’s filled with external threats. However, sometimes that goes too far and we begin to attack good ideas. It limits our ability to absorb new ways of thinking. We need to find a way for stasis and adaptability to co-exist to create meaningful change. The Chinese symbol for change represents both crisis and opportunity, and I think that’s how organizations view change. People like product managers see an opportunity, while executives tend to see problems and things that could be problematic. [7:28] What does neuroscience say about change? When neuroscientists put electrodes on people’s brains, they see that change makes the same neurons fire as when we feel physical pain. Change is literally painful for our brains, and that’s where some of the immunity comes from. Knowing this can empower us as change leaders by showing us that resistance to change is a normal, natural response. [14:52] How does John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model work? The eight steps are: * create an urgency for change * form a powerful coalition * create a vision for change * communicate the vision * remove obstacles * create short-term wins * build on the change * anchor the changes in corporate culture. Kotter later wrote the book Accelerate about his realization that we now live in a time of constant change, and managing change must be more iterative. With all these methods for managing change, 70% of organizational changes still fail. One reason is a focus on change management and project management, which are necessary but not sufficient. They are all about a step-wise model–the idea that if we carry out all the steps, we will have effective change. But because change is so turbulent, we need not just change management but change leadership. We are all leaders, so we need to build change leadership capability in ourselves, our teams, and our organizations. [19:47] How can personal leadership be used? Within your organization, it is important to know both the organizational chart–which officially delineates authority–and the organizational x-ray–where decisions are really made. Research by French and Raven discussed power bases. We have organizational power bases in our formal roles–authority, reward, and discipline. We also have personal power bases–expertise, information, and goodwill. These sources of power can all benefit us, but over-relying on organizational power results in compliance while more heavil...

 TEI 255: The good and bad of being a product manager as an entrepreneur vs intrapreneur – with Montie Roland | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 41:48

How to find your passion in any product management work environment. Our guest for this episode is Montie Roland. Montie used my online training course to prepare for, and pass, the New Product Development Professional exam, earning him the NPDP certification from PDMA, which is the oldest and most established professional group for product managers. After passing, he contacted me to discuss providing training to product managers in his company. This is a topic I always enjoy because I love helping organizations improve their product management capability and helping product managers further their skills and how they work with each other and the product team. As I talked with Montie, I also learned about his background, became fascinated by his experiences, and knew he had to join us here to share his stories and knowledge. Montie has pursued an entrepreneur path, building his own company, and an intrapreneur path working in an established company. He is a mechanical engineer with a ton of design experience. We talked about his experiences, including the pros and cons of working for yourself vs working for an organization. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [3:19] What is your current role as an intrapreneur? I’m on the new product development team at Pentair. If you’ve ever been in a swimming pool, the water probably went through one of our products. I get to do a lot of front-end work in industrial design and the connection between customer and product. The strongest part of my skillset is bridging that gap, and I have the chance to do it on a lot of different projects in a large organization. [5:26] What kind of products did you create as an entrepreneur? I ran Montie Design for about a decade. We started in B2B products and eventually moved into B2C. We made rack-mount servers and packaging electronics. Clients would come to us because they were trying to get around politics in their company or were behind schedule on a project. We developed products that they could transition into manufacturing. On the B2C side, we made in-home air filters that were highly stylized. We tried to make as much as we could locally so that there was a community feeling to it. We wanted people to look at our products and say that’s the way they would have made it themselves. [13:02] What are the advantages of working on your own? I enjoyed the sense of self-determination. You don’t have someone looking over your shoulder like you do in a big corporation. You can explore directions that you might not be able to otherwise. People who work in product development have an inherent sense of adventure, which tends to be more constrained in a corporate environment. [14:40] What are the disadvantages of being an entrepreneur? It requires a lot of work. If you have a spouse or family, you need to have buy-in for your entrepreneurial endeavor at home. You also need to have the funding you need and scale your operation based on the funding you have. I had a great time working on my own, but went back to the corporate world because I needed a lifestyle change. I scaled my business back as a result and now do Montie Gear on the side. [20:45] What are the advantages of working for an organization? I’m part of a large, multi-disciplinary team that has a lot of depth. There are times when you might have to switch projects and hand off what you’re working on to another engineer who is a better fit. Pentair fosters the sense of trust necessary to make those transitions happen. It’s also much closer to a 40-hour work week and I don’t have to worry about everything. I have a lot of people around me who are experienced at product development, which pushes me to keep my skills sharp. My colleagues and I challenge each other, which creates a very collaborative environment.

 TEI 254: The right way to use web-ethnography to learn about customers – with Bill McDowell | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 37:31

You have a lot of tools to help you learn about yours customers, such as customer visits, interviews, and surveys. One of my favorites is ethnography. I find some of the best insights, insights that competitors may have missed, come from observing customers. One form of this is called web ethnography and an expert at it, as well as other customer research tools, is Bill McDowell. He is a research practitioner, conducting customer research for a wide variety of customers in his role as COO of Accelerant Research. In this discussion, Bill breaks down the steps for putting web ethnography into use.

 TEI 253: How product managers can influence quickly – with Bridget McMullan | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:38

Understand motivation, customize communication, and build trust to be an effective product manager. During each podcast episode, I always share that this podcast is… “where product leaders and managers make their move to product masters, learning practical knowledge that leads to more influence and confidence so you’ll create products customers love.” That’s an important relationship: knowledge, influence, and confidence. We need those three things to be successful creating products. So, it’s not surprising that when I saw an article on the Mind the Product blog titled, “5 Tips for Product Managers Who Want to Influence Quickly,” it caught my attention. The author is Bridget McMullan, and she is here to discuss how we can quickly influence others whom we need to support our product ideas and plans. She is a partner at Upfront Work, a product management consultancy, and has spent more than 10 years developing and manufacturing innovative consumer products with Fortune 500 companies, including Foot Locker, Craftsman (Sears), Johnson & Johnson and others. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [6:35] How does influence relate to individual motivation? For a while, people called product managers mini-CEOs, but the reality is that product managers help create clarity across multiple teams and provide speed. As products become more complex, there needs to be someone to connect the dots across multiple teams, personalities, and skillsets. One of the things I realized was that I treated everyone individually. You really need to understand each person you’re working with in the same way you understand your customer. [9:50] How do you understand someone’s motivation? I always set up one-on-one meetings. Be a human and explain what your background is and where the connection is to them. You need to understand who the person is and how you’ll interact with them. What makes them get stuff done? What makes them shine? If you can understand those things, it will benefit them and the team. [14:50] How do you customize communication to each person you’re working with? If someone’s individual motivation is to get promoted because they’ve been at the company for five years, you can think about how you can advocate for them. Maybe you invite them to present to leadership or lift them up in another way. You need to apply that to anyone you’re working with, or even to a whole team. Be open to what’s really happening and how you can help people while still getting the work done. [21:00] How do you use repeated stories? When you are customizing communication to individuals, you need to constantly remind people about the overarching goals for the project and the product. You need to hammer home what the vision is. It needs to be engaging, which is why storytelling works so well. Everyone needs to know what they’re driving to, and the best way to do that is to say it over and over again. [25:34] How do you build trust? Establishing trust means advocating for individuals to others, and staying true to your word. Trust means blending credibility with being human. The human part means advocating for others and lifting them up among peers and leadership. It’s not always easy and you have to use your personality to build the human side before you can bring trust into the equation. Useful links: * Bridget’s article on Mind the Product, 5 Tips for Product Managers Who Want to Influence Quickly * Connect with Bridget via LinkedIn * Bridget’s group,

 TEI 252: Data does not speak for itself; It needs a story – with Nancy Duarte | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 29:43

How product managers make better use of data to tell a story and gain support. I bet you use data to support your suggestions. But guess what–you are probably not using data well. By itself, data does not communicate what we want others to do. Instead, it needs to be wrapped in a story — sort of a data-story sandwich! The person who knows how to do this is also one of the most recognized communication and persuasion experts around. We first talked with her back on episode 76 about how to structure your communication to make it easier for others to support your ideas. Her name is Nancy Duarte and she has been featured in numerous publications including Fortune, Forbes, and Fast Company, and Wired. She is the person behind numerous TED talks and keynotes, helping people prepare for important presentations. Today we discuss the concepts from her new book, Data Story: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:10] What are the elements of a good story? When I say story, I’m talking about the three-act structure and the power story has as a framing device. Data can be used to identify a problem we have or something we can improve upon in the future. Our brains light up when stories are told and the information becomes much more actionable. [3:49] What are the three parts of a story? It’s the classic beginning, middle, and end. Act one sets the stage, the action happens in the middle, and there’s resolution at the end. When you’re crafting data stories, the beginning is where you report what you found in the data, the middle is identifying what you want to change that requires human action, and the ending articulates the actions that need to be taken. [5:20] How do you make data likable? In the data, you state the current reality and the current world you’re in, the second act presents the opportunity, and the third act provides the actions that need to be taken to achieve the desired outcome. An example is that the demand for microchips has slowed down, the middle is that we’re still paying too much for them, and the end is that we should negotiate contracts with suppliers to pay less for them. [13:15] Shouldn’t the data stand on its own? There are people who are in a well-worn groove of data. They get it ready and hand it to someone else for decision-making. The ability to observe data is now happening in AI and all of that work will eventually be replaced. What AI can’t do is explain the data and encourage action. By moving in that direction, you can go from individual contributor to trusted advisor and strategist. [14:55] What is the data point of view and how can product managers utilize it? The data point of view is the third act of the data story. It’s deciding what actions someone needs to take based on a point of view you’ve formed about the data. For example, changing the shopping cart experience and shipping policies could increase sales by 40%. [20:12] How does the audience figure into a data story? Audience empathy is huge. You need to go back into the data and try to prove yourself wrong and be your own skeptic. Anticipate what people might do and what their objections might be. When you’re talking with executives, they care about money, market, and exposure. They’re trying to increase revenue, market share, and the company’s reputation. If your data story doesn’t fit into one of these three categories, it won’t get their attention. [24:15] Can you share an example of this framework in action? I run a creative firm with 20 project managers. I never imagined that we would be consumed with data to the point where we are. Even our creative director works in data. One of the things that is lost on us is how much intuition we need when working with data.

 TEI 251: Use Airbnb’s customer experience journey to create an outstanding experience for your products – with Joseph Michelli, PhD | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:33

Product managers can build trust and provide “service with heart” Dr. Joseph Michelli joined us a couple years ago in episode 147 to tell us how to create a great customer experience. This is his area of expertise and he has helped many organizations make better customer experiences. He is known by his many books examining the companies that are the best at this, including Mercedes-Benz, Starbucks, Zappos, Ritz-Carlton, and others. Now, his latest book examines one of the new economy unicorns, Airbnb and the book is titled The Airbnb Way. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [3:36] What makes Airbnb a successful product? People have been sharing homes for a while, but it was hard to find a network of people to do it. Airbnb understood consumer behavior and identified a need in the marketplace. The hotel chains put themselves in a rut by focusing on keeping all of their rooms the same. Airbnb realized that people wanted to get out of high-traffic areas where hotels traditionally are and experience the local culture. [6:35] How does Airbnb compare to the other brands you’ve worked with? Mercedes was a step in this direction; I looked at how dealers distributed their cars. Airbnb has the same challenges on a much greater scale. Every host represents the brand, but some hosts have never done anything like this before and do not have an entrepreneurial mindset. If a host fails to deliver a positive experience, it decreases the likelihood someone will use Airbnb again. This is the direction that the economy is going in the 21st century. It’s a place to be aware of and maybe position yourself. The main point from the book is that we all rely on other people to help deliver our brand. How do you influence a customer experience when you can’t control it? [9:52] How does Airbnb create a consistent customer experience? There are a lot of things they do in terms of their platform to build trust. You also need to share your vision through the lens of the customers. The more you can talk about the impact of your design based on customer input and the results the customer will see, the better. Airbnb does this well. They talk about what it looks like when you exceed customer expectations when you meet them, and when you fail to meet then. [12:24] How did Airbnb build trust with its users? We tend to overplay the amount of distrust people have in strangers. We hand our credit cards to waitstaff all the time and have been trusting cab drivers forever. For Airbnb, the communication that happens before the booking is essential. If people share too much information or too little about themselves before the booking, it decreases trust. Sharing the right amount of information can spark conversation. Airbnb’s founders also rented their own place and found that people behave fairly well when their reputation is at stake. [18:24] What else did Airbnb’s founders learn from renting their own property? They thought it would be a transactional relationship, but what they started to see was that they became tour guides and friends for their guests. They realized there was more than just a marketplace economy. They also realized there was a lot of anxiety on both sides of the relationship. The first time someone seriously damaged a property, they weren’t prepared to deal with it. After that, they built an insurance process. [23:55] What other shortcomings did Airbnb have? They didn’t do an effective job at getting their reputation system going. Airbnb had many inherent biases in their reputation system. They didn’t account for retaliatory bias. If one party got a bad rating, they would be inclined to do the same to the other. They eventually got to the mutual reveal strategy through iterative change. [26:02] What kind of culture did Airbnb create?

 TEI 250: High velocity innovation – with Katherine Radeka | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:34

Combine learning and doing to create better products more quickly Every company is wanting faster innovation, yet they often have systems that actually slow and limit innovation.  The framework and systems needed are a topic of a new book written by our guest, Katherine Radeka, and titled High Velocity Innovation: How to Get Your Best Ideas to Market Faster. The foreword to the book was written by the SVP of Product Design and Engineering at Keurig Dr Pepper, who shared that this book is for you “If you strive for more relevant innovation or want to outpace your competition.” That’s a good endorsement, and in our discussion, Katherine shares her innovation framework to make that happen Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:13] Can you give us an example of how a company has used High Velocity Innovation? Sun Power is a company known for making very efficient solar panels. Their product development process is infused with High Velocity Innovation. They can recognize which decisions need to be made well because they can’t be revisited later, and when those decisions need to be made. The ability to recognize when decisions need to be made has helped them accelerate product development. A lot of innovation programs get stuck because we make decisions too early and then get stuck in rework loops when new information comes in. To me, that’s a sign the right decision is not being made at the right time. [5:41] What are the roots of this system? Ten years ago, I was working as a Lean product development consultant, but I also have a background in Agile. Companies came to me asking if we could combine ideas from Lean and Agile to improve the “fuzzy front end” of product development and help get the right products to market more quickly. I was working with four different companies and trying things at each one. The roots of the rapid learning cycle framework emerged from that work. We looked at where Agile was working and where the assumptions were breaking down. We also found that one of the things that was missing was a core hypothesis that comes from the Lean Startup framework. [12:53] What are Rapid Learning Cycles? They’re designed for things that have high uncertainty and high cost of change. The decisions we make in product development are not easily changed. The Rapid Learning Cycles framework is intended to help teams understand what decisions they need to make, when they need to make them, who needs to be involved, and what data they need to make informed decisions. We prioritize learning early and making decisions later so there’s less opportunity for error and less likelihood of needing to redo something later. [17:51] How does the Rapid Learning Cycles approach differ from a sprint-based model? Traditionally, in an Agile-based organization, they’re going to be focused on code to achieve specific tasks. It’s much more difficult to do that in the hardware space because everything is interconnected. We focus on learning what you need to build a better system. At the end of the project, an Agile group will come together to talk about what work they accomplished, while a Rapid Learning Cycle group will come together to discuss what they learned and what they need to learn in the next cycle. [21:48] Where does strategy fit into this framework? The most important thing strategy does is helps pull innovation out of the organization. It tells people in the organization what to be looking for. For example, Sony’s decision to go into pro audio gave everyone on their team the opportunity to see how their own work might fit into that market. It helps everyone focus and be creative when they are coming up with new ideas. [25:29] What team structure needs to be in place? Innovation is one of the most cross-functional things an organization does.

 TEI 249: Which is the most powerful of the 6 principles of influence – with Matt Barney, PhD | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 33:30

Successful product managers wield influence and this is how they get it. Influence and persuasion is a core competency of successful product managers. It is also something that most product managers want more of — influence. You need it to get others to support your ideas and plans for improving products and making great new products. You also need it to make a larger impact on the organization. To make that happen, you need to understand and apply the six principles of influence. The person you would want to talk with is Dr. Matt Barney. He has over 25 years of experience leading the science and technology of leader development in senior global roles at multinationals such as Infosys, AT&T/Lucent Technologies, and Motorola. He is also the only Ph.D. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist to earn the Cialdini Method Certified Trainer certification, demonstrating his expertise in influence and persuasion. And that is why he is talking with us now, so you can improve your influence and have more impact on your organization.   Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [5:05] What is your leadership philosophy? True leadership is not about being the boss. It’s about convincing people to follow you because your message is so compelling. The best leaders don’t use power as much as they use influence. The best product managers figure out how to convince their audience, rather than forcing them into doing something. [6:07] What are the principles of influence? Influence is an interpersonal process and there are three principles that deepen our relationships: reciprocity, liking, and unity. Once you have established a relationship, two other principles come into play: consensus and authority. Product managers should focus on authority. Everyone wants to follow the guidance of credible experts, and we need to become credible to gain influence. Finally, there are two principles to motivate action: consistency and scarcity. All of these principles are best done proactively. You need to have these tools at your disposal so you’re ready to use them when you need them. They seem simple, but require practice and real-world applications to work well. [14:32] How do you build influence? Doing homework is key. Look for things about that person you can praise, or things you have in common to break the ice. Praise can start reciprocity and cause people to like us as long as it’s sincere and genuine. You can’t always do that ahead of time, but you can listen carefully in the moment and proactively look for ways to connect and praise them. We like to work with people we like and who like us. That happens whenever we build connections and uncover shared values and goals. [20:20] What the relationship between group participation and trust? This goes back to families and small groups working together for survival. For WWII, Jews and Japanese ended up becoming allies because they were united against the Nazis. The more groups you are part of, the more likely you are to build trust among others. This applies to the workplace and non-work organizations like churches and sports leagues. [22:13] How do you build consensus? By doing the homework, you can find out what the people you’re trying to influence value and tailor your message to them. When people are unsure about disruption, the social proof becomes very relevant. However, you can’t draw on that proof unless you know who the person you’re trying to influence follows or finds credible. [26:29] How do we improve our credibility? Testimonials, awards, and credentials are all great examples social proof that you can use to build credibility. They show that third parties recognize the work you’re doing and demonstrate a sense of expertise. This is especially important for individual contributors like product managers.

 TEI 248: Do these things to make your presentations more effective – with Nils Davis | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 37:00

How product managers can combine influence and storytelling to achieve success. The author of The Secret Product Manager Handbook, Nils Davis, joins us to discuss his tips for better presentations. He knows a lot about product management and communication, leveraging his experience as a tech writer before becoming a product manager. I expect you’ll enjoy the discussion and find tips you can put into immediate use to better influence through presentations. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [12:01] How can product managers communicate more effectively through presentations? The fundamental thing we do as product managers is influence. You can only get things done if you can influence others, whether it’s pitching an idea to the executives or helping the sales team improve their skills. Stories become engaging to an audience in a situation where facts might not. It’s not about you, it’s about what your users need. I use stories to help open up someone’s brain, humor to keep them engaged, and try to remove things that will cause problems like spelling errors and inconsistent fonts. You also need to remember that people’s brains are slow by nature and pace your presentation accordingly. [19:20] How can you overcome objections your audience might have? The type of presentation you give depends on how much time you have to prepare and your skill level when it comes to things like humor. You also need to pre-handle objections to keep the audience on your side. As you practice it a few times, you can start to understand what problems people might have and work those objections into your presentation. You can apply the same thing to writing a functional spec. You want to give people a reason to solve the problem and make them feel like the work they’re doing is important. [ 24:13] What’s the relationship between product management and sales? Product management has one of the biggest impacts on salespeople making their quota, but product managers often don’t see it that way. As product managers, we have three big constituencies — our customers, our dev teams, and our go-to-market team. We can create a great product, but it’s not effective if no one knows about it or has a way to buy it. Useful links: * Nils’s book, The Secret Product Manager Handbook * Training videos for product managers Innovation Quote “When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don’t really understand the complexity of the problem.  Then you get into the problem, and you see that it’s really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s sort of the middle, and that’s where most people stop… But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem – and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works.” -Steve Jobs 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, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

 TEI 247: How to manage your career to get the promotion you deserve – with Farnoosh Brock | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 37:09

What was your last performance evaluation discussion like? Did you get the raise you wanted? What about a promotion negotiation? I've messed that up more times than I want to admit. I expected my work to speak for itself. I wasn't actively managing my career. For product managers, you can think about managing your career like you would a product, navigating a path that best positions yourself for recognition, raises, and promotions that you deserve. That also means you are able to work on the projects that most interest you, participate in training opportunities, attend conferences, and get other resources you want. A properly managed career gives you control. To share how you can better manage your career, Farnoosh Brock joins us. After starting her corporate career at Cisco, she has become an expert on career management and growth as well as a personal coach who has helped many people build their careers. She shares valuable and specific tips so you can better manage your career.

 TEI 246: Spur your creativity with these ideation tools – with Chad McAllister, PhD | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:45

If your go-to tool for generating ideas with a group is traditional brainstorming, it is time to learn some new tools. Ideation tools are specifically for generating new ideas, such as ways to create additional value for customers, how a problem could be solved, or exploring directions for radical innovation. Some ideation tools can be used alone, but most are intended for small groups. In the discussion, you will learn several tools, including: SCAMPER Brainstorming Mind mapping Storyboarding Brainwriting Six thinking hats SWOT PESTLE Delphi

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