Each week I scour articles, wading through the dogs, and bringing you the best insights to help product managers, developers, and innovators be heroes.

Many companies are creating their own innovation labs – 4 tips to make them work. This article is written in the context of banks that have created innovation labs but the tips apply to any organization. (1) Stay Focused on the Big Picture. (2) Make Sure to Assess the Lab’s Performance. (3) Don’t Forget the [Organization]. (4) Don’t Let Making Overrun Thinking. Read the details at http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/four-innovation-lab-dos-and-donts-1080703-1.html

A 3-box strategy for leading innovation and companies. This short article summarizes the key points of a new book by Vijay Govindarajan that addresses a timely topic leaders often struggle with – how to lead a company and innovation simultaneously. While many leaders recognize the importance of innovation, few are successful making it a valuable aspect of the organization. Even if you are not a company leader, you can learn how to lead within your sphere of influence AND leverage innovation. A 3-box framework is used: (1) Manage the present core business at peak efficiency and profitability. (2) Escape the traps of the past by identifying and divesting businesses and abandoning practices, ideas, and attitudes that have lost relevance in a changed environment. (3) Generate breakthrough ideas and convert them into new products and businesses. Read the summary at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/govindarajan-book-the-three-box-solution/

Interview with GE’s trend master Marco Annuziata. GE’s Annuziata responsibility is to scan the world looking for geopolitical, economic, social, and technology trends. He uses the Global Innovation Barometer to assess innovation attitudes in relationship to these trends. Read the summary and hear the interview at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2016/05/02/ges-chief-economist-on-innovation-around-the-world/#de3593420fec

Platform-based disruptive innovation – its seductive power. An example of a platform is a shared technology or capability among products, such as an automotive unibody frame that is common to several cars, creating manufacturing and service advantages. Some platforms rise to disruptive status, creating new categories and altering existing markets. Platforms are powerful… disruptive platforms are powerful and dangerous depending if you or someone else is doing the disrupting. Read details in this HBR article https://hbr.org/2016/04/why-platform-disruption-is-so-much-bigger-than-product-disruption

Best practices for naming next generation products. iPad 3 or iPad Pro? Which is more effective? Apparently Apple decided the successor to the popular iPad product line was better called “iPad Pro” and most of us would agree with that decision. Product naming is complicated but there are well-research best practices and guidelines to follow for next generation products. Read about them at https://hbr.org/sponsored/2016/05/how-to-brand-a-next-generation-product

6 product management insights from 6 presentations at Mind the Product 2016. (1) Great product managers need to be comfortable in the “uncomfortable.” (2) Product innovation never stops (competitors don’t wait while you write your JIRA ticket). (3) Your customers aren’t “users,” they are people. (4) Are you naughty or nice? Assist your customers to achieving their goals. (5) The experience is the product. (6) Innovation is great, so long as the core mechanics (and language) are familiar. Read the presentation summaries and see the slides at http://www.productplan.com/6-product-management-insights-from-mind-the-product-san-francisco-2016/

3 ways organizations stifle innovation and product management. (1) Giving kudos only for what the organization already does. (2) Allowing layers to accumulate on the organizational chart. (3) Defining innovation as a resource problem. Read about each at http://taskandpurpose.com/3-ways-might-stifling-innovation-organization/

How organizations hold back their everyday innovators. Okay, this article caught my attention because it recognized “everyday innovators” as the key to organizational innovation improvement and my podcast is also called The Everyday Innovator™. Product managers are innovators as are so many other people in organizations – they just need to be properly leveraged. Risk is a key factor in not using everyday innovators properly. Read more at http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/whats-the-risk-of-innovation/

8 rules of building great products in medium to large organizations. This article was written with start-ups in mind, but all the principles apply even better in established businesses.  The first rule is one of my favorites… BFBC, which is (B)uild (F)or your (B)est (C)ustomers. Read about all 8 rules at https://medium.com/@mitchellharper/my-8-rules-of-great-products-1aaa30487058#.1y620y5bc

Product management lessons from a small company selling a product at Apple retail stores. If you have ever watched the TV series SharkTank you have heard the horrors of moving a successful ecommerce product to retail. Most of the Shark’s often recommend against it. However, there is also money to be made in retail if the dangers can be avoided. Learn these valuable product management lessons from a company asked to sell their product at Apple retail stores… http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059462/the-trials-of-designing-packaging-for-the-apple-store