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

Hacking corporate innovation to add an innovation culture. “Innovation in an existing company is not just the sum of great technology, key acquisitions, or smart people. Corporate innovation needs a culture that matches and supports it. Often this means a change to the existing company’s culture. Persuading employees to let go of old values and beliefs, and adopt new ones can be challenging.” Read more at Steve Blank http://steveblank.com/2015/09/09/hacking-a-corporate-culture-stories-heroes-and-rituals-in-startups-and-companies/

Why and how to treat innovation as a science. “Innovation has a lot to do with the scientific method and can be practiced scientifically.  This statement may not chime well with people who believe it’s more of an art than a science; an inspirational “Eureka” moment where creativity is unconstrained and the driven genius launches the breakthrough market disruptor. Scientific breakthroughs are often reported as being innovation.” Read more at Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/09/10/what-innovation-can-learn-from-science/

6 ways to keep good ideas from dying at your company. “Spinning up new innovation initiatives is exciting, but changing the environment those new ideas are born into is really difficult. The former you can do with a few staffers and the CEO’s blessing, but the latter requires broad organizational support and ongoing effort. The result is a lot of innovation programs that can build fantastic concept cars, but have a tough time getting production vehicles onto the road. Here are six ways to change that.” Read more at Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/09/6-ways-to-keep-good-ideas-from-dying-at-your-company

Lessons learned about communication moving from engineer to product manager. “Unlike engineering, I had to put more effort into communicating with various groups to understand what they wanted and why. I needed to turn those ideas into products but not in the way which I was used to. As an engineer I focused on how; in product management I had to focus on why.” Read more at WITI http://www.witi.com/articles/445/5-Things-I-Learned-about-Communication-Moving-from-Engineering-to-Product-M/

Empowered teams instead of product roadmaps? “I have always loved the General George Patton quote: ‘Don’t tell people what to do; tell them what you need accomplished, and you’ll be amazed at the results.’ Unfortunately, typical roadmaps do just what the General warned against – they tell the team what to do.  Usually that’s in the form of a prioritized list of features or projects that someone believes will actually solve some problem (even if that problem is often not explicitly stated or understood).” Read more at SVPG http://www.svpg.com/the-alternative-to-roadmaps

Differences between Product Manages and Product Owners. “First, I’d like to point out that this is largely a theoretical debate. The role of a Product Manager has multiple dimensions to it and responsibilities of a PM differ across companies and industries. Product Manager is the original title of someone responsible for understanding the people (the market), their problems, and accepting the product as developed by R&D.” Read more at ProductBoard http://blog.productboard.com/post/128460010900/product-owner-vs-product-manager-is-there-a

4 things that make a good product manager. “A fantical devotion to the customer, the power to facilitate effectively, a humanizing trait called humility, and become the corporate polyglot.” Read more at The Clever PM http://www.cleverpm.com/about-the-clever-pm/

15 commandments for UX. “…we need to see our team and our company as resources, not obstacles. If you feel like the person sitting next to you is a burden to your greatness in UX, you’re doing it wrong. With that as an introduction, I give you these 15 rules to live by, slightly adapted from the originals, as commandments for being the best UX leader you can be, especially if you’re just starting your career.” Read more at the Hipper Element http://thehipperelement.com/post/128705195169/15-ux-commandments

4 walls that block innovation in organizations. “Process, incentives, fear, and focus diffusion.” Read more at CIO http://www.cio.com/article/2984073/it-strategy/the-four-walls-trapping-innovation-in-your-it-organization.html

With innovation labs all the rage, they are failing at the handoff. “There are many challenges for these labs not only to survive but to yield new business ideas that truly matter to the parent company. This post will focus on just one of those challenges: the handoff.” Read more at NEO http://neo.com/2015/09/17/where-innovation-labs-fail-the-handoff/

Case study – 7 mistakes integrating new product development processes into an organization. “Because the need to develop and enhance process maturity is constant and ever present, what are some of the common mistakes or hurdles management teams might find themselves confronting when integrating sub processes into the full architecture of NPD processes? Here are seven mistakes that commonly occur and some tips to help you avoid or at least address them.” Read more at IT Online http://it-online.co.za/2015/09/14/mistakes-in-integrating-new-product-development-processes/

3 steps for prioritizing product management feature decisions. “But here’s the tricky part of the prioritization equation: in 42 interviews with product managers, the most common frustration was not how to stop these suggestions from coming in, it was how to prioritize the feature suggestions they receive.” Read more at B2C http://www.business2community.com/product-management/every-busy-product-manager-needs-know-prioritization-01324996