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

Are you listening to this valuable Product Manager podcast – it was on the top-10 3 times. Whoo hoo! 3 of the top-10 articles at Innovation Excellence are from The Everyday Innovator™ Podcast!  Find the list here http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/06/01/top-20-innovation-articles-of-may-2015

Apple underspends the industry in R&D – does it matter? “Even Apple’s less innovative smartphone rival, Samsung, outspent Apple on research last year, reporting $13.4 billion spent in 2014, more than double the $6.04 billion Apple spent.” My take – they use their clout to get more R&D out of suppliers/partners. Read more at International Business Times http://www.ibtimes.com/why-apple-inc-spends-less-research-development-you-think-1954667

Innovation, risk, and failure – frequent bedfellows. “Innovative companies recognize that failure is an important step in the process of success. They understand that with each failure, the company moves one step closer to success. In this way, failure is given a positive value. For example, if a successful product brings in $1 billion in sales, and it takes 9 failures to achieve each success, each step in the process (including the 9 failures) can be viewed as bringing the company $100 million in additional business – a positive way to look at failure.” Read more at Huff Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ira-kalb/the-secret-to-successful-innovation-not-being-afraid-to-fail_b_7523784.html

Watching trends in IoT – here you go. Mojix, Intel, Pebblebee and more. Read more at IoT Journal http://www.iotjournal.com/articles/view?13121

Top innovation articles of May at Innovation Excellence. Check out the top-20 articles – Whoo, hoo , 3 of mine are in the top-10!  Find the list here http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/06/01/top-20-innovation-articles-of-may-2015

The elephant is out of the room – traditional HR best practices kill innovation. “Despite what HR often says, it is incredibly important to have high levels of diversity.  It’s the only way to avoid becoming myopic, and finding yourself with “best practices” that don’t matter as competitors overwhelm your market.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2015/06/07/how-hr-best-practices-kill-innovation/2/

Create a culture of innovation with people, environment, and systems. “In my experience, failure to address even one of these makes the creation of a genuinely innovative culture all but impossible.” Read more at the Independent http://www.independent.ie/business/small-business/advice-centre/its-not-about-encouraging-innovation-you-cant-stop-it-31283414.html

Interview with Starwood CIO Martha Poulter on innovation. “Martha Poulter joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide just over a year ago after spending 19 years with General Electric, most of it in the financial services side of GE” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2015/06/08/starwood-cio-martha-poulter-fosters-a-culture-of-innovation/

5 habits of effective product managers. “Goal, first, know the customer, be open, take blame, throw credit.” Read more at Huff Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-de-haaff/5-essential-habits-of-hig_b_7550754.html?utm_hp_ref=technology&ir=Technology

Still Valuable – Flash from the Past

Customers need to fire something before they can hire your product. “Last week, I had the honor of co-hosting a joint Running Lean + Switch workshop with Bob and his team (Chris Spiek and Ervin Fowlkes) here in Austin, TX. Our goal was exploring the intersection of jobs and lean, and from the reaction of the audience I’d declare it a success.” Read more at Lean Stack http://leanstack.com/customers-need-to-fire-something-before-they-can-hire-your-product/