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

 

Using the “jobs-to-be-done” framework for better products. I’m a big fan of the jobs-to-be-done tool for deeply understanding customer problems and motivation. The approach asks “what job did you hire a product to do” to understand the motivation of product purchases. An example is buying a shovel to dig a hole – you don’t want a shovel, but you need a hole.This article is a review of the new book Competing Against Luck, which tells the story of the JTBD framework… http://www.strategy-business.com/article/The-Jobs-to-Be-Done-Theory-of-Innovation

The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers – 10% more than software developers. Analysis from Hired, it is a good time to be a product manager… http://qz.com/766658/the-highest-paid-workers-in-silicon-valley-are-not-software-engineers/

Product managers – how to get the best ideas from your teams. There is a collective genius to teams, a phrased used by Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, to describe the power of teams. If you think you have the best ideas in the room, you’re not using those around you well. This article comes from a writer who was inspired by one of my little posts – thanks for sharing your insights Conaway… https://www.getflow.com/blog/crickets-crumbs-the-art-of-startup-team-leadership

How product managers should handle the 7 worst customer feedback scenarios. (1) Your biggest external customer demands a feature that doesn’t belong on your product roadmap. (2) Your biggest internal customer (your CEO) demands a feature that doesn’t make sense. (3) Your colleagues believe their feedback has been ignored. Follow the link to read about all 7… https://community.uservoice.com/blog/customer-feedback-nightmares/

Applying Deming’s 14 Points for Management to the process of innovation. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points help organizations with process improvement, but can also be applied to product management and innovation. Read how for all 14 at http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/lean-column/082516-deming-s-14-points-innovation-outcome.html

What is and is not innovation – a useful exploration. Professor Mark Dodgson of the University of Queensland says innovation is a terribly vague word. Yep, that it is. He shares he’s “heard it described as an ‘aerosol’ word which you spray in the air and everyone smells it and it smells great and lovely but you can’t grab hold of it.” Find what it is and isn’t at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/getting-real-about-innovation/7781168

7 steps established companies must take to not become a [dead] dinosaur in rapidly changing markets. British Home Stores shut down last week after 88 years of business. Ouch. They are not the only well-established business to lose their way. Innovation is truly the answer. CEOs know this, yet do so little to make it happen. Read this article to learn the 7 actions they (and you) need to take: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tendayiviki/2016/08/30/pirates-in-the-navy-the-seven-paradoxes-of-innovation