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

Annual state of innovation report. “However, when we looked a little closer, we found that year-over-year innovation growth has hit the slowest pace since the global economic recession. In fact, total worldwide patent volume growth increased just 3 percent over the last year, the slowest rate since 2009. Even more surprising, the total volume of new scientific research decreased 34 percent over the same period, with the largest declines concentrated in the semiconductor industry.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/basilmoftah/2015/05/28/the-global-state-of-innovation/

How a hotel concept used subtraction innovation to better serve customers. “The men thought that these customers, on arrival, really did not need a porter to pick up their luggage and carry it to their room – after all, they had likely just brought it all the way from the airport on their own. Moreover, when entering the hotel, they would not find themselves in a large lobby with a check-in desk. Instead, citizenM installed check-in machines that dispensed keys when guests inserted their credit card.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/freekvermeulen/2015/05/29/innovation-stop-doing-obsolete-things/

Dean Kamen – Innovation is about finding the right problem. “He noted that it’s important for innovators to be wiling to fail, and to borrow ideas from industries they aren’t really familiar with — particularly when creating something that’s more than an incremental improvement.” Read more at GeekWire http://www.geekwire.com/2015/renowned-inventor-dean-kamen-innovation-is-about-finding-the-right-problem/

The simple rules of disciplined innovation. “Sophisticated innovators, however, have long recognized that constraints spur and guide innovation. Attempting to innovate without boundaries overwhelms people with options and ignores established practices, such as agile programming, that have been shown to enhance innovation. Without guidelines to structure the interactions, members of a complex organization or ecosystem struggle to coordinate their innovative activities.” Read more from McKinsey Quarterly http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/The_simple_rules_of_disciplined_innovation?cid=mckgrowth-eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1506

Jumpstart a stalled corporate culture of innovation. “Companies that are truly innovative are not necessarily consciously doing things to ‘be innovative.’ Rather, they value at their core, certain things that drive innovative behavior and the result is innovation. Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/chriscancialosi/2015/06/01/how-to-jumpstart-a-stalled-corporate-culture-of-innovation/

Avoid the 5 myths of innovation. “(1) Innovation applies to products and technology, (2) Successful innovation is sustainable, (3) An internal team focused on innovation will generate breakthrough ideas, (4) There’s no such thing as a bad idea, and (5) A great idea will create a new market.” Read more at B2C http://www.business2community.com/business-innovation/debunking-5-myths-of-innovation-01238231

When innovation isn’t the answer for a business. “Too frequently, companies decide what they’re going to do before determining why they’re going to do it. That’s challenging, because developing innovations that have a lasting impact requires going beyond doing one single thing. Improving innovation is a system-level issue, requiring a coherent and consistent set of organizational interventions. To begin to determine what set of interventions makes the most sense for your company, first you need to step back and answer a fundamental question: What problem does innovation need to solve?” Read more at Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/06/innovation-isnt-the-answer-to-all-your-problems

The risk-taking aspect of an innovative corporate culture. “As leaders, what’s your threshold for risk-taking in the workplace? Should it be encouraged? Thwarted? Carefully monitored? After all, risks make things unpredictable.They make people uncomfortable. And, they fail … a lot. So often leaders are okay if their people are risk-averse.” Read more at Switch and Shift http://switchandshift.com/on-creating-a-successful-risk-taking-culture

 

Still Valuable – Flash from the Past

How to manage for collective creativity. TED Talk by Harvard professor Linda Hill. Watch at http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_hill_how_to_manage_for_collective_creativity?language=en