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

 

Product Innovation Tips Around the Web

Woot Woot! The Everyday Innovator™ podcast did it again, with 2 of the top-20 articles featured on Innovation Excellence in June. “5 Keys to creating an Innovation Culture” and “Create the Right Product in Less Time Using Lean Experiments.” Check it out… http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/07/01/top-20-innovation-articles-of-june-2015 and Listen at www.theeverydayinnovator.com/interviews

The main ways people screw up using the Lean Startup methodology. “When the methodology is repackaged it is oversimplified. The drive to be minimal can lead to entrepreneurs to consider sacrificing on quality when they shouldn’t. The drive to eliminate uncertainty can kill artistic vision.” Read more at The Next Web http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2015/07/05/whats-wrong-with-the-lean-startup-methodology/

Having more ideas (good or bad) helps you stumble upon a great idea. “If you strain over every bad-seeming idea and try only for ones that seem world class from the beginning, you’re hurting your progress. Researchers from the Wharton School and INSEAD studied idea generation in research subjects organized into two groups. They found that the group that produced more ideas also produced better ideas.” Read more at iDoneThis Blog http://blog.idonethis.com/bad-ideas/

It’s not the free food, it is the collaboration it creates that helps innovation at Google. “…the purpose of the cafes and microkitchens (smaller areas stocked with food and drink closer to work stations) is to create a place for employees to leave their desk and interact with other people whose desks are not near theirs.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidburkus/2015/07/02/the-real-reason-google-serves-all-that-free-food/

Necessity + 5 other mothers of invention. “In reading the stories behind hundreds of innovations, some patterns surface, and they’re captured here in six categories. I concede to the existence of reasonable arguments for seven or five, or different categorizations altogether. I offer this list to seed your thoughts on what paths to innovation are in front of you now.” Read more at Scott Berkun http://scottberkun.com/2015/many-mothers-of-invention/

4 advantages of innovation Disruptors, with lots of examples. “While there are many reasons why large, complex companies have a hard adapting to today’s much faster cycles of change, the root cause stems from core management practices that were designed for a much slower moving age.” Read more at Thought Works http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/disruptor-advantage-culture-empowerment

IT can help drive innovation in a company – 5 habits to make it happen. “In my discussions with IT leaders I discovered common qualities that have made innovation thrive at companies like Google, Nordstrom, Johnson & Johnson and Lego. These companies and others that have excelled at innovation share five common habits…” Read more at CIO http://www.cio.com/article/2944064/cio-role/five-surprising-qualities-of-innovation-cultures.html

Is the new innovation approach ‘emergent innovation’? From MIT Media Lab Director. “In essence, Mr. Ito is advocating for emergent innovation, one where we ‘intuitively connect the dots’, where we ask more questions instead of believing we already know the answers. For as a challenge grows more complex the need for questions and experimentation increases, that means focusing on testing hypotheses in the present to be less wrong over time.”  Read more at Game Changer http://www.game-changer.net/2015/07/08/bottom-up-innovation-is-the-new-normal/#.VZ7UaflVhBc