The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers

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,

I am continuing my series on Design Thinking and talking with Michal Herzenstein, who contributed to writing “Optimal Design for Radically New Products” in the PDMA Essentials book titled “Design and Design Thinking”. Michal is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Delaware and she earned her PhD in marketing from the University of Rochester.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Michal defines radically new products as products that allow consumers to do something that they couldn’t have done before. They are products that create a shift in consumption – how consumers respond to and use products. * Product innovation teams that wish to create radically new products can use six processes to help them. Large companies are better off implementing these 6 process in ascending order and focus on communicating the goal of achieving a breakthrough product to the innovating team. Smaller organizations and startups can pick any process that they feel will help them learn more about developing breakthrough ideas. * Communicate the Challenge Goal Toward Radically New Products – Share the expectation of creating a “10x” product. A product that is a magnitude better than what is currently available requires breakthrough product concepts. At the same time, you want to create a culture within the organization, and especially within the product innovation team, that taking risks and failing is part of the learning that is necessary for new products. * Shift Time Frames to Future and Past – To free the mind of the constraints of the present time and open your thinking to new possibilities, examine what could be possible in the future and how that impacts product concepts the team envisions. Science fiction stories are frequently good examples of shifting time frames, such as technology portrayed in Star Trek that is now a reality (e.g., communicator = flip phone). * Promote an Emerging Technology Focus Across the Consumption Chain – Combine existing technologies with any step in the sequence of product consumption to create new solutions to current problems. This helps to generate ideas for radical solutions by using available technologies. * Promote the Use of Analogical Thinking – Describe the true function and goal behind a product by comparing it to a more common item or idea – an analogy. It helps product innovation teams think about how they can import superior qualities from an existing product or service to address a different problem. * Look for Novel Ways to Solve Simple Problems – Pay attention to the simple problems we face on an everyday basis and explore possible solutions to those problems, producing breakthrough ideas. * Leverage More Ideators Via Crowdsourcing – Use crowdsourcing to motivate new ways of thinking. Companies can invite suggestions from outside of the organization to help generate ideas for breakthrough products. Sometimes innovation teams need someone from the outside to stimulate their thinking.   Useful links: * Michal teaches at the University of Delaware   Innovation Quotes “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways it won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison   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, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

Tim Bates has been taking things apart, fixing them, and building products since he was a kid. He has also been a product creator, founder, and CEO and more recently, an interim executive for hire serving in innovation, product and senior leadership roles. Another interesting thing about Tim is that he lives in Boulder, Colorado, which is an entrepreneur and startup utopia. It is frequently recognized as one of the best places to found a startup, even rivaling San Francisco with a higher per capita percentage of computer scientists and PhDs.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * The agile product owner was originally expected to spend half their time externally in the market with customers and the other half internally with the product team. Very few product managers are able to break free of internal responsibilities to free time for external work. Therefore, companies are trying to find other ways to address both. * Crossing the Chasm is a book by Geoffrey Moore that addresses creating and selling disruptive products. He updated it last year to the third edition and has referred to the new perspective as Crossing the Chasm 2.0. This is a beneficial read for product managers. * One big difference between a startup and an enterprise is in the production of a product. Startups are more experimental while enterprises are more finance focused. Enterprises are less likely to engage in Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). * The make-up of a product from a startup versus a large company is very different because a startup might design the product for a smaller consumer volume while larger companies may be constrained by minimal revenue hurdles. * When a larger company is buying a startup, sometimes they may be buying it for technology reasons that fit into their roadmap of products or they might be viewing it as a disruptive product and they buy it in order to decide what to do with that disruptive product. * When large companies buy startups, the founders often stay with the enterprise as product managers that continue to lead the product work and contribute to future products. * In the book, “Early Exits,” researchers show that founders receive the same amount of money after 4 years or after 14 from inception of the startup. It’s the same amount of money to them because after 14 years, they are more diluted in the company. * Earlier exits are more appealing because you have the opportunity to explore more ideas and projects than you would if you were to spend years trying to grow one idea into a larger organization. * Being an innovation product manager of a larger company has its advantages as it takes some of the administrative functions out of the startup’s responsibility and allows the product manager to be more market and solution focused. * Clayton Christensen, the professor who started the terminology of the “disruptive innovation,” said that if it’s a true disruptive capability, the only model that works is setting it up as an independent business unit and running it in isolation from the existing business. * A key role for an executive for hire is asking questions such as “What are we doing here and how are changes going to affect everything?” * The culture aspect is key and it influences companies more than a lot of people recognize. Culture makes or breaks changes that are needed. * When a large organization purchases a startup, it is important to keep the culture that has developed within the startup as opposed to trying to assimilate it, especially when they have contracted the original staff that worked to build up that startup from the beginning.  

Nathan Rosenberg is the person who executives turn to for advice. He has worked with more than 100 of the 1000 largest companies in the world and has been founder or CEO of 5 companies. As an example of his experience, he provided innovation consulting that led a well-known consumer goods company to add $200M of revenue in year 1 of acting on his advice. He is co-authoring a chapter in PDMA’s “Design and Design Thinking” book titled “Leading for a Corporate Culture of Design Thinking.”   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Corporate culture plays a key role in the function of an organization and can determine whether an organization may or may not succeed. * It is important to be aware of your organization’s corporate culture in order to have the ability to change or transform it to make it better serve the organization’s goals. * Four pillars that help organizations enable design thinking: * Leadership Mandate: Design thinking is a source of competitive advantage for companies. Make sure the reigns leading any innovation are strong and well supported. * Dedicated Infrastructure: Visible resources, processes, and structures are needed to help those who have ideas for innovation and don’t know how to move it forward. Keeping a scoreboard or metrics system can help you evaluate whether you’re being productive (or not) with your innovation efforts. * Proprietary Process: The innovation process that a company has for taking an idea and turning it into a product. Innovation has to be a fit for the company and the company has to be a fit for innovations. That is why it is proprietary. The need here is to align with the culture that you have. Not all innovation processes are equal nor do they create equal results for all organizations. * Supportive Culture: The more sense of “touch, taste, feel, and smell” that employees have for their customers, the more that corporate culture is going to be supportive of design thinking. * Nathan describes 4 stages of transforming corporate culture to enable design thinking: * Stage 1: Reveal the already existing culture in your organization and analyze it thoroughly. * Stage 2: Unhook from the existing culture. The company has the ability to let go of things that are not helping the organization as a whole. * Stage 3: Pay attention to the market space and where it is heading. Don’t try to adapt your company to what the market looks like at the present time because the market is always shifting. * Stage 4: Implement the new culture through new processes, systems, and structures. Useful links: * Nathan works for Insigniam. * Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn   Innovation Quotes “Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.’”  – W.H. Murray (—from the Scottish Himalayan Expedition, published 1951)   Listen Now to the Interview

I am bringing back my guest from episode 17, which was about creating the ProdBOK – The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge and how Greg Geracie led that effort. I also shared on that episode that he is a co-author of the annual Study of Product Team Performance and the 2015 report is now available. Greg joined me to share the key findings from the study and help all of us better understand team performance and changes that could improve performance of product teams.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * To date, a total of 19 factors have been identified to be strongly associated with product team performance. * Product management was directly impacted in three areas – requirement backlog ownership, time spent in the field with customers, and accountability metrics. Only 29% of respondents associate backlog ownership with product managers. Interestingly, customer satisfaction is the most commonly used metric to judge product management performance. Only about 20% of product managers have financial accountability for product. * A correlation was found between product development method and product profitability with agile/scrum being most associated with higher product profitability and waterfall being least associated with profitability. * The product development methods organizations are using breakdown as: 43% blended methodologies (waterfall plus agile), 26% agile/scrum, 14% waterfall, 11% did not know what they were using, 3% kanban, and the rest chose “other.” * 39% of product team members indicated that they deliver value consistently on scope, schedule, and cost (up from 12% in 2012) while 47% reported that they deliver value inconsistently. * 1100-1400 people have participated in the survey each year. People on and associated with product teams complete the survey. This includes product managers, product owners, project and program managers, engineers and development managers, UX professionals, quality assurance professionals, business analysts, and product marketers.  Organizations from small to very large were represented. * 4th year for the annual Product Team Performance report. Twenty factors to date have been associated with highly productive product teams. * 4 new factors were added in this year’s study that are associated with product team  performance. * Strategic decision-making — product teams that develop their capacity for strategic decision-making and following strategic objectives are aligned with higher performance. * Standup frequency – teams that regularly and frequently hold standup meetings are much more likely to be higher performing. * Quick problem recovery – teams that are nimble and can adapt to unforeseen issues quickly are correlated with higher performance. * UX collaboration – active and early participation and product development with user experience professionals leads to more successful product teams.   Useful links: * Product Team Performance Report * Accompanying Infographic * The report is created by Actuation Consulting   Innovation Quotes “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” – Elon Musk   Listen Now to the Interview   Thanks! Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators,

The guest for this interview came from the recommendation of a listener. Thank you! Keep the quality recommendations coming. Nir Eyal has been a startup co-founder, a CEO, and now helps product teams build habit-forming products. He is also the author of the book “Hooked,” which tells you how to create products that capture the attention of consumers and create engagement.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Nir’s interest has been in the intersection of human behavior and products that hook customers’ attention. He gained insights from his involvement in gaming and advertisement. Sometimes the techniques these industries used to influence human behavior worked and sometimes they did not. Those involved in the industries did not necessarily understand why certain techniques worked and others did not. He created the “Hooked” model to explain what does work. * The “Hooked” model applies best to products that require repeat engagement. This is clearly appropriate for many software applications (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google) but can also be incorporated in the service aspects of other products. * Even if your product does not require a habit – repeated engagement – there still is much to learn from the study of human behavior and thinking in terms of hooks for building habits. * Any business can benefit from helping customers take the key action you want them to take by making it as easy as possible – decreasing the distance between problem and solution – need and reward. * The 4-step hook model is: * Trigger: a cue to action  that tells the user what to do next (e.g., “You got to see this video!”). A trigger leads to an action. * Action: the simplest behavior done in anticipation of the reward (e.g., clicking on the link to see the video). * Variable Reward: satisfies the customer’s curiosity or need for taking action. Adding a bit of variability creates surprise and enhances anticipation that keeps customers returning (e.g., mailing video updates weekly but varying the day they are mailed). * Investment: for customers to be truly hooked, they must have some investment in the product themselves – some work they perform that helps create attachment to the product (e.g., enhancing or completing their customer profile). * A case study of a habit-forming product YouVersion — the most downloaded Bible app in existence — illustrates the use of the Hooked model: * Trigger: after installing it, the app asks you to start a Bible verse reading plan. Later the plan sends you a notification telling you what to do first. * Action: open the app to be taken to the verse in the reading plan. * Variable Reward: the reward is in the content of the reading plan itself – what you will find or discover by reading the next verse and seeing what is in it for you. Variability is added by sending notifications on an irregular schedule. * Investment: you are shown a progress meter of your advancement through the reading plan and given the opportunity to choose additional reading plans. Your progress influences the notifications you receive, encouraging you based on your pace through the reading plan. * A tweetable phrase from Nir… “Monetization is the result of engagement.”   Useful links: * Nir’s blog with numerous details and examples about the Hooked model. * Nir’s book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.   Innovation Quotes

I recently visited Peoria, Illinois, the global headquarters of Caterpillar. Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. They make a lot of really big things and innovation has been important to their 90 year history. However, we know being an innovator is not all roses – at times you feel like a square peg in a round hole. This is especially true of serial innovators, a term popularized by the book of the same name written by Abbie Griffin and two co-authors. A serial innovator is often on the cutting-edge if not the bleeding-edge, in mature organizations. They are the problem-solvers that substantially contribute to their company’s financial value. I found just such a serial innovator to interview at Caterpillar, Steve Pierz.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Innovation is looking at things differently and questioning traditional wisdom. * Innovators can be irritating to experts in the organization who do not welcome having the way things work being questioned. * Serial innovators’ reputations for discarding old ideas and promoting new ideas can create uncomfortable first meetings. Steve often receives an “Oh, I have heard about you” when meeting people in the organization for the first time. * Innovators fail – just don’t fail spectacularly. Quickly run experiments and learn. * There are many types of innovation beyond product innovation, and process as well as business model innovation are key opportunities to consider. * An example of process innovation was creating a database of common part failures that was expected to reduce material testing cost by at least 50%. * However, as serial innovators know, not all good ideas move forward and a recession stopped the development for creating the system. * The core idea for process innovation has been repeated many times – applying technology to dramatically improve a process. Recognizing trends and executing at the right time is important to success – the timing must be right for the organization to embrace innovation. * Employee performance reviews must be structured to recognize contributions innovations make to the organization. * The paradox of innovation is that we ask incumbents to innovate, yet their basis of knowledge only supports incremental innovation, not radical innovation. It takes new ways of thinking for radical innovation. External influences are needed. * Steve started a weekly webinar for anyone at Caterpillar to learn more about innovation, called Friday Morning Coffee and Disruptive Technologies. Each week attendance has dramatically grown. Participants are from a wide variety of functions, not just engineering. Frequently, external experts join the webinar to present ideas and processes. * While Steve has always had the mindset of a serial innovator at Caterpillar, it took 24 years before Steve was given the freedom to control the innovation efforts he gets involved in. He encourages serial innovators to not give up! * A key to innovation is simply observing people and asking if there is a better way to solve the problems they deal with. * Best advice for product managers – embrace ideas and never turn someone away who brings you an idea. The answer may be “not yet” but never say “no.”   Useful links: * “Moonshot Thinking” video from Google X * Steve works for

Jeff Honious is the VP of Innovation at RELX Group, which you may know as Reed Elsevier, a multi-billion dollar international publishing and information company. To provide some context for this, the company bio shares that it helps scientists make new discoveries, lawyers win cases, doctors save lives and executives forge relationships with their clients. Jeff’s background is in technology and web-based product development. Previous to his innovation role he also contributed to his company adopting agile development practices.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include… * Jeff has been with the RELX Group for 18 years and in a technology startup before that. * He innovated the product development process by bringing agile practices into the company. * Before RELX had an innovation group, a team was created to benchmark the best innovation practices at other companies. * It was determined that a one-size-fits-all innovation approach would not work across the organization given its decentralized structure. Instead, a small team was created to share best practices and tools across the organization. Jeff became the leader of this group. * The innovation team has two primary responsibilities: * (1) build innovation capability across the business by helping groups set up their innovation process, provide training, and use tools. * (2) provide resources for strategic projects with specific expertise and added capacity for developing products. * Jeff’s team is very small – it acts as a catalyst to leverage innovation occurring throughout the organization. * A key activity for Jeff is making connections across the organization – connections between people that can lead to improved products and new products. * Jeff’s success often begins with the synergy of existing capabilities, additional smart resources, and  business champions who have a problem that needs to be solved. He then uses the combination to investigate the possibilities, reduce risk, understand priorities, and create proof of concepts that reduce uncertainties. * What has not yet been successful is the application of systems that allow employees to submit ideas for new products – internal crowdsourcing. Getting ideas from employees was easy, but determining how to synthesize and act on the ideas was overwhelming. Key lessons learned from the process include: * communicating with those who submitted ideas, * asking for ideas around very specific business challenges as opposed to general innovation possibilities, and * creating a clear process for acting on submitted ideas. * Jeff’s advice to new product managers is to engage customers throughout the product development process, not just in the beginning.   Useful link: * Jeff is the VP of Innovation for the RELX Group Innovation Quote “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.”   -Niccolo Machiavelli   Listen Now to the Interview   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,

I have the pleasure of interviewing people in all types of roles that can help product managers, developers and innovators. And today I get to bring you a discussion with the Chairman of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), Charlie Noble. I’ve been wanting to do this interview because PDMA is the professional association that first opened my eyes to the discipline of product management. Charlie is also an award-winning professor at the University of Tennessee where he teaches design, innovation, and new product development. He has helped many organizations with product development and marketing issues as well as contributing to research in these areas.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from Charlie’s background… * Charlie’s first formal experience in entrepreneurial and innovation activities was as a college student at Boston College as a founding member of an incubator for new businesses. He started four new businesses while at college. * Quirky is a company that crowdsources the front end of product development by allowing anyone in the world to submit a product idea to a community for refinement and possible development. Charlie is working with a dissertation student on researching the decision-making process of selecting winning product ideas and discarding losing product ideas based on data captured from Quirky’s process. The results can help improve the managerial process of new product development. * The biggest challenge companies face is balancing innovation actions, seeking radical innovations and continuing incremental innovations. Balancing the portfolio of projects is a challenge and companies typically are being too risk adverse and modest in their efforts. * An exercise Charlie uses highlights the customer journey aspect of innovation. He asks students to dump the contents of their backpack and examine each item for how well it performs the function they use it for. This leads to appreciating customer experience in the value of products. The same exercise can be useful with your colleagues.   Highlights about PDMA… * PDMA is about 90% practitioners and 10% academics. Charlie is the first Chair from academia in the last couple decades. His objective is to create value for both practitioners and academics. * The Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), published by PDMA, is the leading academic journal of new product development and innovation. * Visions is a magazine published by PDMA that contains practitioner insights as well as actionable summaries of key JPIM articles. * PDMA is driven by the objectives of learning and connecting, which reflects the needs of its members. * Connecting is the network element that connects people so they can share ideas, explore other industries, and improve their careers. The national conference, the Product Innovation Management Conference, provides connecting opportunities as well as learning opportunities through keynotes and workshops. Regional conferences are also being created and several regional chapters already exist. * Other learning opportunities occur through their publications, JPIM, Vision, and edited books; as well as the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification. They also provide on-site workshops for companies. * PDMA also performs a large-scale study every few years on the best practices of product management in companies. * PDMA is a volunteer-driven organization and is glad to hear from anyone interested in helping the organization.   Useful links: * PDMA’s website

If you have listened to other episodes of this podcast, you likely have heard me say that the challenges with product management and creating products customers love is not actually development – while it’s not easy, we generally know how to get a product developed. The real challenge is knowing what product to develop. This is the realm of designing for the user, and specifically, the user experience. Consequently, I’m pleased to interview Mark Capper, an expert in designing user experiences.  Mark has over 20 years of experience refining his craft of user-centered product development and innovation across the spectrum of organizations from startups to several Fortune 100 companies, including PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft. He is the founder of Kompas Strategy, an innovation agency located in Santa Monica, CA.   Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators Highlights from the discussion include: * While functional and usable products may achieve some success in the market, the objective is to design truly meaningful products and experiences for customers. Such products are difficult for competitors to overtake. * Meaningful products achieve a higher price point, greater loyalty, and more referrals. * How do you create meaningful products for customers? Some tools and steps include: * Identifying cultural trends and movements. Consider the driving forces impacting the target market using environmental scanning (such as PESTLE analysis). Reviewing social media content is helpful for identifying emerging trends and themes. * Interviewing customers and discussing what cultural trends are important to them and how they feel about the context of a product. * Creating market segments based on customer mindsets, attitudes, and the information collected from environmental scanning and customer interviews. * Designing the product to a specific segment. * Once the Rejectors have been identified, perform ethnographic research to identify the attributes a product needs to satisfy them. * For breakthrough innovation, it is more challenging to find customers to interview. Seek those people who want the benefits from of a product category but who are rejecting the current alternatives. These are the Rejectors. A screening questionnaire can be used to identify potential Rejectors who have the unmet needs you are trying to solve. * Mark shared the example of a Panasonic electric women’s shaver and how it was enhanced to create a meaningful experience for customers that resulted in market share growth. The work began with ethnographic research to understand the shaving process of women and what made a shaver work or not work. Then a segmentation strategy was created to segment customers based on their motivation for shaving. Additional research was done on focused segments that were best aligned with a wet/dry electric shaver. Industrial designers were involved to enhance the product based on new design directions from the research.   The 6 steps for creating more meaningful products are: * Focus.  Select a specific focus, such as in the Panasonic example of increasing market share of an electric women’s shaver. * Cultural scanning.  Perform cultural scanning by searching topics in social media and identify the cultural themes that impact the product. * Ethnography.  Conduct ethnographic research with potential customers to understand which cultural themes are most meaningful to them – understand their aspirations and emotional point of view. Tools to understand their ideal experience are helpful, such as a visual collage. * Data analysis. Organize the information gained from the research and identify key themes and cluster related information into what Mark calls platforms.