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

10 questions to expect in a product management interview – with answers. This is a helpful collection of questions hiring managers ask product manager candidates: https://280group.com/product-management-blog/10-revealing-interview-questions-from-product-management-executives/. If you want even better help with interviewing, checkout my podcast – an interview focuses on this topic in a few weeks.

New products fail because product teams don’t understand how customers evaluate them. Product managers know the importance of providing value to customers through the products they create. Yet, products still fail and a key reason is not understanding how customers decide to buy.  This article sheds light on two processes customers use – search and inference:   http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-great-new-products-fail/

Hot job for MBA grads is product management. I’m starting to see a few articles like this. The product manager role is going mainstream – about time!  Read about it at http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2016-03-18/explore-upcoming-hot-areas-in-b-school-hiring

3 ways good design influences innovative products. (1) Combining existing elements, (2) building in flexibility, and (3) eliminating pain points. Read about each at http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/thoughtful-design-drive-innovation-future/303165/

Interview with author Pagan Kennedy on the secrets of innovation. Kennedy wrote The New York Times Magazine column “Who Made That” and has published the book Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World.  Read the interview at http://theweek.com/articles/612248/inventology-author-pagan-kennedy-opens-about-secrets-innovation

Is Apple suffering from a “perfectionist” reputation that has stopped innovation? I saw this short article and recognize that Apple has always been a fast-follower, recognizing how to design better products that currently exist. Product managers should consider how striving for perfection stifles innovation. Read more at http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/24/apple-lacks-innovation-it-copies-expert.html

Winners of the Forbes CIO innovation awards. This is a new award for Forbes and winners must have created revenue not just cut cost. The winners are… (1) John Marcante, the CIO of Vanguard, who developed a “Digital CFO” tool for the company. (2) Federico Flores, the Chief Information and Innovation Officer of Ferrovial, who developed a flexible tolling system for highways. (3) Michael Macrie, CIO of Land O’ Lakes, who developed a tool to conduct digital land analysis for farmers. (4) Kim Stevenson, the CIO of Intel, who developed a big data analytics platform that is expected to yield $1 billion in value for the company. http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2016/03/21/introducing-the-winners-of-the-forbes-cio-innovation-awards/#48d54beb3088

Study results show US companies’ struggle with innovation is only increasing. This quote sums up the results well, “A significant gap exists between what US companies want to achieve in the innovation arena versus what they are able to do.” Read the findings at http://betanews.com/2016/03/21/us-businesses-strugle-to-innovate/