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

Leveraging marketing, customer service, and customer communities to build better products. This is a brief but helpful look at Belkin and how they use insights from multiple sources to create new products. As you might expect, they want to be close to the customer and market trends. Read their story at http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/cmo-spotlight-kieran-hannon-belkin-international/305828/

Use collaboration to create better products. Innovative products occur more times than not from collaborators who have different perspectives of a problem as well as solutions. Harnessing these perspectives and leveraging the power of collaboration can transform a good idea into a great idea. Read how at https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Management-Blog/2016/09/Group-Flow-the-Genesis-of-Innovation

16 guidelines for product managers. I love number one… “Approach all PM advice with some skepticism.” Read all 16 and the details of each at https://medium.com/@johnpcutler/16-quick-product-management-tips-292373151e7d

Profit & loss analysis for product managers. The cost structure of your product directly influences its profitability. Understanding the costs incurred to date, future cost obligations, revenue generated, and revenue expected provides product managers with a product’s financial health assessment. Read more at https://www.actuationconsulting.com/profit-loss/

A look at a Product Manager summer internship – the experience at Square. Tyler Sanchez shared his experience applying for and working as a product manager summer intern for Square. He is earning his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management. The other PM interns Square accepted were in graduate programs at MIT Sloan, Dartmouth Tuck, and Wharton. Read about Tyler’s experiences… https://medium.com/square-corner-blog/a-brief-guide-to-squares-product-manager-intern-program-2992753c12c8

Stop these 10 things that cause your most innovative employees to leave. Two types of organizations exist. One attracts the best people – creative, curious, competent employees. The other drives out the best people, leaving behind employees that are too lazy to look for other options or really don’t have other options. Which organization do you want to work in? This article address 10 mistakes leaders make that drive away their innovative people. You can apply these to any level of leadership.  Read about each at http://www.forbes.com/sites/tendayiviki/2016/09/12/10-things-companies-do-that-make-their-innovative-employees-leave/

How to use Amazon’s flywheel concept as an innovation engine for your organization. Amazon leaders have talked about the ‘flywheel’ effect in the past. In this article, their CTO, Werner Vogels, describes how they use it to explore a new area, develop the core platform, and then quickly innovate on it. Read about using the flywheel at https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/10/at-amazon-the-flywheel-effect-drives-innovation/

Organizational survival with radical innovation. This is the third article in a series addressing how companies should and can use radical innovation to prepare for a successful future. It rightly notes that there is no one-size-fits all model but there are patterns to apply. Read the details at http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhinssen/2016/09/08/how-to-protect-innovation-from-corporate-death-organizing-for-the-day-after-tomorrow-3/