Will your company be transformed right out of business, or will you bust out of the constraints of today and allow your team to envision the crazy ideas that will become the “of course” products of the future?
Newsletters tagged "Innovation"
Volume 15, #1, January 2017
The future of innovation belongs to those who can dream in their customers’ worlds
You can check all the usual boxes—great execution, solid management, well-integrated teams, stellar new product development processes. Yet if you can’t see what’s coming in three, five, or ten years, you not only risk losing market share but also suffering the complete disintegration of your company, your industry, and your business model.
Volume 14, #7, November 2016
Understanding the zeitgeist of product development (and the electorate)
Conducting a survey before understanding the requirements—and without an image of what it is like to be the voter—gets the flawed results we saw in this year’s polls. Diving deeply into the populace enables far more accurate predictions.
Volume 13, #5, September 2015
Hint: There is no one-size-fits-all definition of innovation
Rankings and ratings (of companies, schools, products, or anything else) can be interesting to consumers and potentially distressing to those who don't make the list or are near the bottom. We look at the recent Forbes list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies and why these rankings don’t give much concrete direction to companies interested in improving innovation.
Volume 12, #7, November 2014
Expand your ideas about how to collaborate, empathize, and innovate
The biggest payoff in product design lies not in solving a known problem in a new way, but in discovering a completely new problem. Design thinking can be a great tool in that regard, but sometimes you need to extend your view a bit.
Volume 12, #3, April 2014
Why not rely on CRM systems for product input?
Opening the floodgates to let customer comments stream directly to the development team is the equivalent of a restaurant deciding to do without waiters, a maitre d' hotel, and a kitchen manager.
Volume 12, #1, January 2014
Stop the insanity of measuring percent of sales from new products
You’ve heard the saying “use it or lose it.” We’d like to propose a variation for the New Year: “lose it AND use it.”
Volume 11, #3, May 2013
Why you need an attitude change about the what, who, and when of research
Making new stuff is exciting. We talk about inspiration, creative sparks, and brainstorms; we celebrate debuts and unveilings. But while launch celebrations are common, nobody ever throws a research party. It’s easy to neglect the R part of R&D amidst all the attention to the D.
Volume 11, #1, February 2013
Four insights for product developers from the movie business
Filmmaking, as an artistic endeavor, differs in one important way from producing a product. But there are similarities, too, which we explore here.
Volume 10, #5, October 2012
Cultivate beginner’s mind for customer-focused innovation
Here's a reminder of what works—and of what you should pay attention to if you want to create a world-class customer-focused organization. At a recent conference, we explored best practices for finding new sources of VOC data, determining what matters to customers, and institutionalizing the process.