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

Insights into frugal innovation and the precious resource called creativity. “Navi Radjou is a champion of frugal innovation, or ‘jugaad’ — a Hindi term meaning a cleverly improvised solution to a problem. He says that jugaad can be cheaper, smarter and use fewer resources, and that Western companies can learn from the frugal innovation developed by companies in India and China. He and his co-authors wrote the best-selling book Jugaad Innovation.” Read more from NPR http://www.npr.org/2015/07/17/421495817/can-limited-resources-lead-to-better-innovation

9 tools for agile product development teams. “For your development team to be as productive as possible you need to invest in the right tools. These are the digital platforms our product development team uses to innovate, create and ship.” Read more at Entrepreneur http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248366

Want to foster Innovation – two CEOs share how in this interview. “They share insights about an important innovation they helped lead, the connection between culture and innovation and their advice to CEOs.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertreiss/2015/07/20/top-ceos-share-how-to-shepherd-innovation/

Validate radical new product ideas with rigorous testing. “The simple reason why companies choose not to test out their risky overhauls is that most of them are reluctant to fund proper business experiments and, even if they do so, face considerable difficulty in executing them. Although the process of experimentation seems straightforward, it is surprisingly hard in practice. To ensure that business experimentation is worth the effort, companies need to ask themselves the right questions: Does the experiment have a clear purpose? Are stakeholders committed to abide by the results? Is the experiment doable? How can one ensure reliable results?” Read more at Business Standard http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/better-innovation-115071900627_1.html

Designing projects to free innovation by maximizing learning. “Because they often have to collaborate across units or functions to achieve their objectives, they become more skilled at leading without formal authority. And they learn how to make it safe to fail in small, fast ways to discover the best solutions. Designing projects as learning tools is a fairly straightforward process. You’ll want to…” Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/07/how-to-design-work-projects-for-maximum-learning

3 reasons startups and all businesses must have product managers. “Here’s why you need a project manager to spearhead your product development… (1) product managers translate your vision, (2) product managers keep the project focused, and (3) product managers are the glue that holds your team together.” Read more at Entrepreneur http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248679

3 ways IT leaders can encourage organizational innovation. “Organizational climate refers to employee perceptions of their work, which are influenced by factors such as process and practices, signals from leaders and the permissions managers grant. We have found that when those signals and processes emphasize openness rather than standardization and risk-aversion, IT is three times more likely to deliver value to the enterprise.” Read more from FCW http://fcw.com/articles/2015/07/15/comment_ceb.aspx