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

 

4 traits great product managers have. (1) Vision, (2) Motivation, (3) Prioritization, and (4) Transparency. Product managers set the direction for product strategy. They earn influence and become leaders in organizations. Use these traits to move to product mastery. Read about each at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283258

What a product manager learned being part of a company that scaled from 5 employees to 650 – Pinterest. Last week I highlighted an article from a Slack product manager that saw the company scale from 30 employees to 300. I suppose not to be out down, this one provides lessons scaling from 5 to 650 employees: https://news.greylock.com/five-lessons-from-scaling-pinterest-6a699a889b08

Create more slack and have fewer meetings to increase innovation. In a recent study that examined innovation in farmers, those who were more innovative had more slack time. Purposeful slack time is not new. This was the idea behind Google’s now gone 20% project time – giving employees 20% of their time to work on their own project. Read more about how slack time promotes innovation at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jwebb/2017/03/31/how-to-create-more-innovation-in-your-team-fewer-meetings-and-more-slack-time/2/

Organizational culture can make a company great and bring innovation. Competitors can copy your processes and your technology, but copying culture is very difficult. Culture is what can make a company outperform its competitors. Think Zappos or SAS. Building a culture that embraces innovation can supercharge performance. Read a 5-step formula for accomplishing that http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/a-five-step-formula-for-fostering-a-culture-of-innovation/article34531036/

4 obsessions to avoid if you want to improve organizational innovation. (1) Obsession with low-cost reduction programs. (2) Obsession with listening to the customer. (3) Obsession with incrementalism. (4) Obsession with acquisitions. Read about each at https://hbr.org/2017/04/4-things-your-innovation-efforts-shouldnt-focus-on

7 tips for creating and using teams wisely for more innovation. Teams are a reality in organizations but most people can point to some poor experiences with teams. However, innovation rarely (if ever) occurs in a vacuum. We need teams. Read these tips for making teams work https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2017/04/05/collaboration-across-time-and-space-leads-to-innovation/