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

Is it true – you’re doing innovation wrong? “…if we frame innovation as a challenge of discipline—of learning to use the right methods, tools and approaches at the right times—then we quickly focus on very different imperatives…” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/05/12/youre-doing-innovation-wrong/

Innovation case study – reinventing the refrigerator in India. “We imagined we would be making a shrunken down version of a refrigerator. Make it smaller, make it cheaper. And we had preconceived notions of how to build a brand that resonated with these users through big promotions and fancy ad campaigns.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2015/05/13/how-godrej-became-an-innovation-star/

Calling all product managers – check out how you can inspire the next generation. “For those of you that that don’t know about FIRST, a little background. FIRST is an organization that was set up by Dean Kamen 25 years ago to enhance and encourage the love of technology among the youth. Over the years FIRST has built an organization that starts at kindergarten and goes all the way through high school. The goal is to not only allow kids a hands on experience with science and engineering but also to help kids grasp the fundamentals of critical thinking and collaborative creative processes, two things that our American culture severely lacks.” Read more from Louise Musial https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inspiring-our-next-generation-engineers-louise-rainone-musial-npdp

Good at change management – your tips are needed. “I’m looking for a few change management tips and quotes attributable to you (not someone else) to include in the book along with the other best practices and next practices of organizational change that I’ve collected and the introduction to my Change Planning Toolkit™ that I’m preparing. It’s super simple to contribute…” Read more at Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/05/10/help-to-change-change/

3 strategies to time your product launch by watching dominant category labels. “Depending on when a company enters a new industry, Suarez and Grodal’s research suggests three distinct strategies to optimize performance…” Read more at B2B http://www.business2community.com/product-management/optimize-products-entry-new-category-01220425

Brand loyalty is decreasing – what to do now. “The fact remains that the face of customer loyalty is changing dramatically. The new informed and empowered consumer has changed the dynamic and brands now need to understand their ideal customer’s motivation to purchase intimately in order to compete.” Read more at Spin Sucks http://spinsucks.com/communication/customer-loyalty-in-a-changing-world/

The best product validation – paying customers! “Often, finding customers is the last step in our product development process. We think: ‘First I’ll come up with the idea. Then I’ll build it. And then I’ll go find people who want to buy it.’ That process is backwards.” Read more from Justin Jackson http://justinjackson.ca/ultimate-validation/

Q&A on agile product planning and development. “Gil Zilberfeld gave a presentation about the new agile at the Agile Eastern Europe 2015 conference. InfoQ did an interview with Zilberfeld about better ways to do product planning and tracking, his thoughts on #NoEstimates, including value in product planning discussions and how to improve decision making in product development.” Read more at InfoQ http://www.infoq.com/news/2015/05/agile-project-planning

Q&A with a Chief Innovation Officer. “A day in the life of a chief innovation officer.” Read at PYMNTS http://www.pymnts.com/news/2015/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-chief-innovation-officer

9 leadership behaviors that drive innovation. “What do successful leaders do that elevates innovation to a higher level? By parsing out the people who received the highest scores on innovation, we were able to see what other behaviors align with high innovation. Because nearly every organization seeks to escalate innovation, this understanding is a valuable insight.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2015/05/14/9-behaviors-that-drive-innovation/

Still Valuable – Flash from the Past

8 talks on the importance of listening, and how to do a much better job of it. Ted Talks at http://blog.ted.com/8-talks-on-the-importance-of-listening-and-how-to-do-a-much-better-job-of-it/