TEI 086: Manufacturing serendipity, open innovation, and product management – with Kevin Stark, PhD

Summary: You’ve likely heard of the curse of knowledge or sometimes it is called the curse of the expert. It occurs when our knowledge leads us down predictable paths, likely not considering other possible solutions to problems but only those that are familiar to us. This is cognitive bias and is the topic I asked my guest about, which lead to discussing open innovation and how to manufacture serendipity. His name is Kevin Stark and he is the VP of Technology Solutions at NineSigma, a global innovation firm. They have helped Kraft, NFL, NASA, L’Oréal, Unilever, PepsiCo, Pfizer and other companies create an open innovation workplace, leading to breakthrough products.<br> <br> As you will hear towards the end of the interview, many of these companies share their stories using open innovation on the NineSights website - a great resource for learning what they did. The link is below.<br> <br> In this discussion, product managers can learn:<br> <br> - how to identify and avoid cognitive bias,<br> - how to create an open innovation workplace,<br> - problems to anticipate and avoid.