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

 

How do you know if you innovation strategy is working? “Beneath that question is a very real worry. If this new crop of Chief Innovation Officers, company-bred venture capitalists, and creative catalysts can’t prove that they’re moving the needle on things that actually matter to their employer, their jobs will almost certainly evaporate. When my publication, Innovation Leader, surveyed 198 senior innovation executives late last year, in partnership with the consulting firm Innosight, we found them using two different kinds of measures.” Read more from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/05/what-big-companies-get-wrong-about-innovation-metrics

The guide to the product management and marketing body of knowledge. “Yet, the profession has lacked a clear description of product management as a discipline. This changed when the Association of International Product Marketers and Managers (AIPMM) sponsored the creation of the ProdBOK – The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge. Greg Geracie, an experienced product manager, teacher, and author of the best selling book Take Charge Product Management, served as editor and chief of the project.” Read more at Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/05/01/the-guide-to-the-product-management-and-marketing-body-of-knowledge/

What businesses can do to make innovation happen. “However, the HP-Aecus study also shows that innovation isn’t just one thing. It’s a spectrum of ideas that might affect how an individual team functions, through big IT projects, to major scientific or technological breakthroughs.” Read more at ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/article/what-can-businesses-do-to-make-innovation-happen/

Innovation defined. “So, innovations must be new and useful. Anything else? Yes. There’s at least one more concept we should add to our definition, and it’s a big one. Innovations must also be real.” Read more at ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/article/innovation-defined-new-useful-real-and-critical-to-long-term-success/

How Agile and other fixed methodologies broke product management and its future. “Rich Mironov, author of The Art of Product Management, agrees that rigid frameworks have alienated product managers from their end users.” Read more at The Next Web http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/05/05/the-future-of-product-management/

4 actions to take when dealing with too many product requirement requests-not just for startups. “Balancing this constant product feedback with your limited resources is one of the most important thing an early stage startup does.”
Read more at B2C http://www.business2community.com/startups/startup-overwhelmed-product-requests-now-01218206

Updating the build-measure-lean process. “Build, Measure, Learn sounds pretty simple. Build a product, get it into the real world, measure customers’ reactions and behaviors, learn from this, and use what you’ve learned to build something better. Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love.” Read more at Steve Blank http://steveblank.com/2015/05/06/build-measure-learn-throw-things-against-the-wall-and-see-if-they-work/

What does a product manager do at a startup? Read Lucy Minott’s example.  “Her day is divided into three different areas: planning for software product that are launching weeks or months in the future, dealing with support tickets for Enterprise Product Management and analytics. At the beginning of every quarter, a roadmap is devised for her team in terms of what they want to accomplish, with very clear metrics.” Read more at BostInno http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/05/07/boston-startup-jobs-a-look-at-working-at-startup-hourlynerd/

Product managers meet lots of people in large organizations – learn how to be memorable. “Instead of introducing yourself a couple dozen times (and running the risk of being annoying), here are some things you can do to get noticed and be remembered.” Read more at Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/3045762/work-smart/how-to-make-yourself-unforgettable