This blog is all about making product developers, managers, and innovators more successful and their organizations successful with them. 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 – and sometimes controversial ideas.

Around the Web

Minimum Viable Innovation – Build an innovation engine in 90 Days. “Most executives will freely admit that their innovation engine doesn’t hum the way they would like it to. But turning sundry innovation efforts into a function that operates consistently and at scale feels like a monumental task.” Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2014/12/build-an-innovation-engine-in-90-days

If IP is important to your innovation strategy, read these 8 steps to create an IP culture. “Companies can and should adopt techniques to create a pro-patent culture in which engineers not only recognize the importance of patent protection, but also become patent savvy and play an important role in building a robust patent portfolio that ensures a strong competitive advantage in the market.” Read more from Inside Counsel http://www.insidecounsel.com/2014/11/14/8-steps-to-establishing-a-corporate-ip-culture

Agile is for the whole organization, not just software product development. “When I ask managers if their organizations practice ‘agile’ they almost always say yes. Probing a bit deeper reveals that most of this agility starts and ends with the product development teams – specifically software engineering. Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2014/11/bring-agile-to-the-whole-organization

We all know we can’t just ask customers what they want  – now learn why. “Listed below are the three primary reasons why asking customers direct questions can be a very dangerous endeavor.” Read more from Tech Crunch http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/15/3-reasons-why-you-cant-just-ask-customers-what-they-want/

Innovation and industries will drastically change with connected products. “Once smart, connected products take hold, the idea of an industry as being defined by the product alone ceases to have meaning.” Read more form Wired http://www.wired.com/2014/11/smart-connected-products/

Marketing starts with asking what people what, not with a product launch. “Setting your business up for this kind of success requires asking one fundamental question before you begin building a new product or service: What do people want?” Read more from the Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2014/11/17/brian-honigman-build-marketing-into-product-development/

A secret weapon for product managers – ridiculously good content. “Before Ann Handley became a globally-recognized speaker and content marketing guru, and well before she staked her claim as the world’s first Chief Content Officer, she was something much simpler: A writer.” Read more from Openview Marketing Lab http://labs.openviewpartners.com/ann-handley-formula-for-creating-great-content/

10 steps for learning what your customers want. “…the insights you’ll gain about your customers’ behaviors will drastically supercede anything you’d learn from focus groups or online surveys.” Read more from Inc. http://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/behavioral-insights-customers.html

Use prototypes to test your ideas for an app and create a valuable customer experience. “A good user experience doesn’t get delivered just like that. It’s the result of the countless hours of efforts spent in the product development process, from conceptualization to the final delivery. It involves designing and redesigning your product or app based on a series of exhaustive user testing sessions, and let’s face it, you cannot perform a user testing session with static assets like wireframes or visual mockups.” Read more from UX Magazine http://uxmag.com/articles/what-a-prototype-is-and-is-not

Interview with Halil Aksu, founder of a trends think tank. “You have advised companies on innovation for years, and in several key capacities. In today’s context, what is it about innovation that gives a company a genuine competitive advantage?” Read more from Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherskroupa/2014/11/20/leveraging-innovation-today-for-tomorrows-company/

Forget asking employees for ideas to foster innovation – create a competition instead. “Having helped over two hundred companies and large organizations deploy internal and external competitions, we’ve found four elements that will lead to success…” Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2014/11/to-encourage-innovation-make-it-a-competition

Validate before developing the product. “…your goal should be: How can I determine that there is significant interest in this idea as soon and as cheaply as possible?” Read more from Inc. http://www.inc.com/stephen-key/what-most-first-time-innovators-get-wrong.html

 

 

 

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