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

The difference between innovation and execution metrics for product managers. Applying traditional organization performance metrics to innovation projects is the preverbal square peg in the round hole problem. Metrics are to encourage more of what we want, and that means innovation metrics must be specific to innovation objectives. This will stimulate ideas for your innovation metrics http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2017/11/20/innovation-metrics-vs-execution-metrics

Lessons from the mobile product management roadshows. (1) No matter the app, it all comes down to improving the lives of customers. (2) Waterfall is on its way out—Agile is on its way in. (3) Effective mobile product management requires continued learning. (4) The “HIPPO Drive-by” can derail your progress, but only if you let it. (5) Feedback: Use it to figure out what’s valuable and what’s noise. Details at https://www.apptentive.com/blog/2017/11/21/takeaways-mobile-product-management-roadshows/

How innovation projects create tension in established organizations. While CEOs overwhelmingly share the need for their organizations to be more innovative, making it happen is the challenge. Organizations are wired to resist innovation and efforts to change this creates tension. Thinking about innovation projects in stages as they impact the organization can help. Read how at http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/11/17/crossing-the-internal-chasm-in-corporate-innovation/

Effective product management and innovation requires critical mass. Organizations that want to accelerate their product capability run into several barriers that I attribute to a critical mass problem. Not enough people in the organization truly understand product management and innovation. Further, it takes a surprisingly small number of people to create critical mass. Start by finding your innovation agents… http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2017/11/20/want-to-build-a-culture-of-innovation-then-seek-out-your-innovation-agents/

What to avoid if you are starting an innovation lab. Innovation labs should not merely operate like startups. They need to be aligned with the organization’s strategic imperatives. Read about pitfalls to avoid at https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbtucker/2017/11/20/starting-an-innovation-lab-avoid-these-pitfalls/#75ff827d7a2b