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

5 secrets to successful product presentations with managers. “Presentations die a thousand painful deaths, but these are the most common reasons I see them go down in flames…” Read more at Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-de-haaff/5-secrets-of-all-successful-product-presentations_b_8052404.html

 

Woot woot – The Everyday Innovator™ podcast episode on Design Thinking Culture was the #1 article for Innovation Excellence in August. Check it out at http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/09/01/top-20-innovation-articles-of-august-2015/

Bring maker labs to companies to increase innovation. “‘The Garage’, as it’s affectionately known, is just one component of the company’s strategy for innovation – the physical space enabling the creation of prototypes – bringing to life the ideas created to solve client problems, which could encapsulate everything from data visualisation to everyday consumer gripes.” Read more at The Drum http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/09/02/inside-elusive-agency-innovation-lab-embracing-maker-culture-prototypes-and-3d

Beyond the buzzword ‘innovation’ – what components are needed. “For me, innovation is at its most powerful when it’s born out of a need to help someone. A business, a department, a team, an individual — whoever is having problems out there, let’s bring our minds together and find a new or more efficient way to solve those problems.” Read more at Entrepreneur http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249408?ctp=BizDev&msc=Feedly&src=Syndication

Steps designers can take to create disruptive innovations. “Designers are at the heart of the innovation process and their ideas contribute to the innovation process starting from the research stage through to the analysis of consumer feedback and experience regarding new products.” Read more at Designorate http://www.designorate.com/disruptive-innovation/

The 7 waves of innovation and the current one is Crowd-led – 4 crowd models to consider. “The crowd is loose and decentralized, but has also enormously different skills and resources and an astounding motivation, seldom found within the corporate staff, which is just moved by salary, bonus and career. It’s true that managing crowd-innovation is very difficult and protecting intellectual property is sometimes impossible, but on the other hand the huge benefit of crowd-innovation is widely documented and it’s becoming a well-established management trend.” Read more at Crowdfund Insider http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2015/08/73568-crowd-innovation-how-to-exploit-the-power-of-the-crowd-innovate-products-processes/

How large companies innovation labs contribute to the top line – LEGO, Walmart, The Guardian. “If you work as a developer or strategist in an established company, look for ways to extend your company’s core value. For example, a successful initiative at Lego was to build a brand extension called Lego Architecture for adult builders. These sets could sell at a higher price point and discovered a new market of older Lego fans.” Read more at http://makeitwithmichael.com/how-some-of-the-worlds-brightest-innovation-labs-solve-complex-business-problems/

38% of the world’s top 200 companies have innovation labs. “They are particularly strong in the manufacturing and telecom sectors. The most popular locations are Silicon Valley (53), London (10), Paris (9) and Singapore (7).” Read the study summary at Innovation Excellence  http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/09/02/the-rise-of-the-corporate-innovation-unit/

Beating burnout as a product manager. “Product managers should be the happiest people on earth — but often are not. Even great product managers sometimes find themselves beaten down and looking for a way back to happiness. They are natural problem-solvers, so they make it work. But this job is definitely not for wimps.” Read more at Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-de-haaff/how-successful-product-ma_1_b_8073518.html

Open innovation trends and tips for packaging developers. “The idea of open innovation (OI) is becoming more mainstream, but the ways in which OI is implemented continue to evolve.” Read more at Packaging Digest http://www.packagingdigest.com/optimization/open-innovation-trends-and-tips-for-packaging-developers1509

How to drive innovation as a CFO. “Innovation is an important – but often overlooked – responsibility of the finance department. As accounting and finance professionals, if we want to be known as strategic leaders within our organizations, we need to see more than dollars and numbers.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffthomson/2015/08/31/how-to-drive-innovation-as-cfo/