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

Product Innovation Tips Around the Web

Having trouble describing product management – create an elevator speech – see how. “An elevator speech (a.k.a. elevator pitch or elevator statement) is a simple, clear, brief, and carefully constructed statement that describes and defines an idea, person, company, product, or just about anything. In the context of business, the elevator speech often contains a value proposition but the value offered could be inferred from or explicitly stated in the elevator speech.” Read more at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/elevator-speech-product-management-gabriel-steinhardt

Portfolio management for small to mid-sized companies-a look at Nupe. “…the tool allows you to create an online portfolio that consists of multiple projects.” Read more at New Product Visions http://newproductvisions.com/blog/?p=693

Motivate your product team with small wins. “We then interviewed 25 people from early stage startups and all 25 love their boss and enjoy what they’re doing. When we asked why?, they replied with something along the lines of, ‘because it’s fun and challenging.’ They felt that they were making progress within the startup daily and achieving small wins.” Read more at Daily Pulse http://blog.dailypulse.io/how-small-wins-can-help-you-motivate-your-employees/

Green and local – the millennial product development way. “And these young entrepreneurs aren’t using their principles just as a selling point, or viewing them as a drag on their bottom line, to be minimized and eventually jettisoned. What I learned in that meeting is that, for a lot of millennials, principles like ‘make it local’ and ‘take care of your workers and your environment’ are simply viewed as the cost of doing business.” Read more from Wired http://www.wired.com/2015/02/millennials-changing-product-development/

California’s ban on non-compete agreements help innovation. “California banned non-compete agreements in 1872 — over a hundred years ago — and many economists point to the free movement of talent between companies and to new startups as one of the most important enablers of California’s massive lead in the global innovation economy.” Read more at GeekWire http://www.geekwire.com/2015/non-competes-help-innovation-state-bans-kick-everyone-elses-ass/

Trello – simple collaboration tool for managing projects of all types. “A Trello board is basically a web page containing lists laid out horizontally on the page so you can get a bird’s eye view of your project. Items within the lists, called cards, can be dragged and dropped onto other lists or reordered within lists.” Read more at Life Hacker http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-trello-to-organize-your-entire-life-1683821040

3 principles for innovating a brand. “First, no single innovation should be expected to transform the fortunes of the brand alone. The aim is momentum, not immediate world domination.” Read more at Marketing Magazine http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1331381/three-principles-will-drive-innovation-brand

Why Samsung is developing a dedicated innovation team. “Instead, the tech giant has to explore new ways to improve upon technologies and generate fresh revenue streams, and emerging industries such as the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, smart vehicles and intelligent appliances could be the way forward.” Read more at ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-launches-dedicated-innovation-team/

Highlights of annual product management and marketing salary survey. “Experience mattered. Respondents with 11 or more years’ experience in the industry earned $17,000 more on average.  Those with less than two years’ experience in the industry earned $24,000 less.” Read more at News Wire http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1484541/15th-annual-product-management-and-marketing-salary-survey

Consider 3 questions to build support for innovation in your company. Why, What, and How. “Identify a why for innovation that goes beyond the legitimate fears of getting put out of business by an upstart competitor, and relate corporate progress to a broad context of social and personal benefits.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2015/02/10/was-2014-the-year-innovation-jumped-the-shark/

Still Important – Product Management Flash from the Past

Lean product thinking meets the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. “In my book, Running Lean, I advocate for using customer problem interviews and observation techniques for this but I have recently been experimenting with another approach called jobs-to-be-done.” Read more at Practice Trumps Theory http://practicetrumpstheory.com/customers-need-to-fire-something-before-they-can-hire-your-product

Agile Innovation – Book online. Read the book chapters at http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2015/01/12/agile-innovation-the-revolutionary-approach-to-accelerate-success-inspire-engagement-and-ignite-creativity/