This blog is all about making product managers, developers, and innovators more successful. As I do each week, below is a roundup of articles around the web with insightful product development, management, and innovation practices, tips, and examples.

Around the Web

Innovation podcasts you should hear – add mine to the list for 2015 at TheEverydayInnovator.com. “They are listed below in no particular order but most are short (about 10-12 minutes long) and packed full of tips on Innovation Management and Leadership from the world’s best and brightest, Innovation (unsung) Heroes.” Read more from Front End of Innovation http://frontendofinnovationblog.iirusa.com/2014/12/podcasting-phenomena-12-innovation.html

Using information technology to drive business innovation. “Building an IT organization that supports innovation, agility and growth is essential, and the right framework can unleash opportunities for business success.” Read more from Baseline http://www.baselinemag.com/innovation/using-technology-to-drive-business-innovation.html

Why product managers should report to the CEO. “[Product managers] need to be the hub around which all the spokes of the organization rotate, and they need to be empowered to tell people ‘No’ when and where the need arises. They need to be able to push back on agendas, challenge ideas that don’t fit the strategic goal of the company and the product, and to have someone at their back to whom everyone else in some way, shape, or form, must bow.” Read more from LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141204171144-345527-who-watches-the-watchmen-where-should-product-managers-report

Creating flexible “why-based”  product roadmaps. “Where the view of what to build gets fuzzier as you move from the present to the future, the view of why you build gets clearer as you move from the present to the future.  This is the exact opposite of rolling-wave planning, and that’s not only fine, it is good.” Read from Java Code Geeks http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2014/12/opposite-views-of-a-product-roadmap.html

How to get the right Product Market Fit. “In other words, the best marketing decision you can make is to have a product or business that fulfills a real and compelling need for a real and defined group of people—no matter how much tweaking and refining this takes.” Read more from GrowHack http://www.growhack.com/2014/12/08/it-begins-with-product-market-fit/

What it takes to succeed as a Chief Innovation Officer. “In contrast, the successful innovators I have worked with don’t rely on process measures alone. They focus relentlessly on creating real, bottom-line impact, and they often go out of their way to find ways of measuring it.” Found at Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2014/12/what-it-really-means-to-be-a-chief-innovation-officer

Product blunders of 2014 product managers can learn from. “With all the focus, around this time of year, on blockbuster products—the latest smartphones, TVs, video games, and albums—it’s easy to forget the products that didn’t get the hoped-for reaction. Here are some of the most interesting product controversies of 2014…” Read more at The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/2014-year-review-product-controversies

4 steps for B2B companies to apply Open Innovation. “For B2B companies who face unique additional challenges, identifying and achieving value can be especially difficult. If your company sees the value and is ready to get started, here are four critical steps that will help ensure success.” Read more from Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/12/07/open-innovation-practical-first-steps-for-b2b-companies/

A requirement refresher for product managers. “The primary objective of product requirements development is to translate customer and user wants and needs into a definitive description of new product capabilities. The most effective product requirements describe the product’s functions and attributes using unambiguous language with terminology that is meaningful to the customer or end user.” Read more from Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/12/09/between-the-gates-vol-2-product-requirements/

Scientific management dogma and ‘prove it’ mentality kills innovation. “The implicit logic behind the scientific management doctrine is that you must prove — analytically, and in advance — that a decision is correct before making it. To be clear, it is not the explicit doctrine — few managers think this themselves, but they’re swayed by their training to be scientifically analytical.” Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2014/12/two-words-that-kill-innovation

What, 4 shades of gray for product innovation? “A comprehensive approach to innovation should yield all of the following, and the benefits seem to appear in this order: 1. Cost Reductions…” Read more from Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymyler/2014/12/09/innovation-comes-in-4-shades-of-gray/

Use story telling to provide form to fuzzy front-end innovation. “The approach includes a definition of innovation and briefly explains the role of strategic foresight in innovation. It characterises imagination as the most pertinent dimension of creativity for innovation/foresight practitioners, and demonstrates the importance of ‘story’ as a form of cognition for both foresight and innovation.” Read more from Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/12/10/imagination-and-story-in-the-fuzzy-front-end/

Map trends to create market-winning products. “In this post we look at a simple way to collaborate with teams to explore multiple trends and use them to create innovative products.” Read more from Alessio Bresciani http://www.alessiobresciani.com/foresight-strategy/mash-trends-create-winning-products/

Innovation trends for 2015. “We’ve also come up with a massive list of sightings about what’s next, which we’ll release in January but are previewing in a series here for the next six days. Many of them have obvious implications for marketers, and some are simply amusing.” Read more from Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/mariansalzman/2014/12/10/next-year-in-business-innovation-and-social-responsibility/

 

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