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

 

Which of the 3 types of product mangers are you? (1) Builders – the classic product manager. (2) Tuners – growth metric focused. (3) Innovators – product/market fit creators. Read about the details of each at http://www.sachinrekhi.com/3-types-of-product-managers-builders-tuners-innovators

New book for people in charge of digital products – Strategize. This is an interview with the author, Roman Pichler. The book is designed to help digital product owners, managers, or executives with strategic decisions. Read the interview at https://www.infoq.com/articles/book-review-pichler-strategize

How to successfully run a software product user test the lean way. This is part 3 of an ongoing series and addresses inviting people to participate in the user test. Find it at http://www.business2community.com/product-management/run-successful-user-test-part-3-inviting-interviewees-01574500. The series started at: http://www.business2community.com/product-management/run-successful-user-tests-part-1-question-01529451

A brief introduction to using journey mapping to innovate the customer experience and create disruptive products. Product innovation often begins by recognizing a problem a group of customers have and devising a solution or tool for solving the problem. How the problem is framed makes all the difference for what solutions are considered. Read more at http://customerthink.com/journey-mapping-for-disruptive-innovation/

Comcast innovation theater – oh look, an innovation competition event. It was hard work not vomiting as I read this article. Comcast appears to be proud of its innovation competition, exposing a small group of employees to a BB8 robot, VR headsets, and Leap Motion’s sensor technology to help them think outside the box. Comcast is missing the bigger picture, and unfortunately, they are not alone. Few people will care about any new product innovation until they innovate the customer experience (CX) and create a company to admire instead of one that customers love to post customer support phone recordings showing how terrible their CX really is. See the more positively spun article at http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/techflash/2016/06/comcast-roadshow-aims-to-jumpstart-innovation.html

A look at the AI trail blazers who are innovating the future. Artificial intelligence is a topic frequently in the news this year because of all the advancements in AI technology. Capabilities are increasing while costs are decreasing. This article shares several examples and the people who are leading AI innovations: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/innovation-in-ai

The 6 industries that most need innovation. As a university teacher, number 2 is my favorite. (1) Healthcare. (2) Education. (3) Manufacturing. (4) Real estate. (5) Personal Transportation. (6) Charity. Read about each at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276995

A look at how drink giant Diageo uses its innovation lab. It has cut time to market for new products from 5 years to 3 years and recently to 6 months. It is experimenting with co-developing new spirits by inviting the best bartenders to work with their scientist. It is an interesting look at an innovation lab in the Food & Beverage sector. Read about it at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/19/a-peek-inside-the-secret-innovation-lab-at-drinks-giant-diageo/