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

How product managers can create a simple and effective customer feedback flow. The pillars of the system discussed are Intercom, Trello, Slack, and Lookback. The context is a software product, and a similar system could be created for other feedback flows. Take a look at https://thinkgrowth.org/how-to-set-up-a-customer-feedback-flow-that-works-1955f9aed109

Yet another post on tools product managers use. This is great timing – a popular question I have received over the last couple months is what tools product managers use and now it seems that every blog is compiling a list. Most be something in the water or everyone is using the same content marketing strategy. Find this list at https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-management/which-tools-do-product-managers-use

Steps for adopting a product lifecycle management (PLM) approach. The right product process can change everything. You’ll need to gain support for it and build momentum around it. Read how at http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/04/28/transformational-plm-is-hard-its-time-to-rally-the-troops/

Introduction to the phases that occur after a product is launched. Products generally progress through expected stages known as Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. We could add Retire to the list, which is a proactive step more organizations should use. Not to be confused with “product lifecycle management” (PLM-see above), this is generally called “product life cycle” (PLC) management. Yes, that is confusing, but this short video lecture describes PLC https://youtu.be/rkzuWURHWY0

6 questions product managers can consider before creating a business plan for a product concept. (1) Can it be done, (2) Should it be done, (3) How should it be done, and 3 more, with details, at https://www.forbes.com/sites/tendayiviki/2017/04/30/six-questions-every-innovation-team-must-answer-to-succeed/

10 flavors of corporate innovation programs. I like this approach to creating a taxonomy for company innovation programs. While some of the flavors can certainly co-exist under a larger umbrella, it’s a useful model for considering how larger organizations can improve their innovation capability. Read about the flavors at https://medium.com/@jowyang/corporate-innovation-programs-come-in-ten-flavors-choose-wisely-9238934dc8b6