Making Products is Easy, Making Product Decisions Are Hard
The saying is ‘Hardware is hard’, but it isn’t really. Companies continuously strategize, develop and launch successful new products in every category in existence. This can only happen if the skills, process and tools to innovate are widespread and mastered by many. Ever since my first foray in innovation, sewing and selling duffel bags to […]
When it is better to buy or build innovation?
When large companies need to solve a consumer problem often the fastest route to market, with the lowest risk, is to buy a company that already has a solution. However, when consumer behavior has changed rapidly and getting to market with the right solution is critical, I believe building innovation is the better choice. There […]
This is Why Innovation Teams Lose Money
Corporate innovation teams are money losers because innovation teams are not using analytical simulations to make investment decisions the way fund managers do.
How do you innovate for the unknown?
What confidence do you have in decisions for an innovation that will launch into a market undergoing such dynamic change? How do you create alignment to act when investing in innovation is even more risky than normally?
Should innovation teams put time to learning over time to market?
Giving innovation teams more learning cycles increases new product adoption by enabling a larger range of concepts to be tested for best product-market fit.
Does a corporation need to innovate during a crisis?
Many companies are reducing their innovation costs as they see sales declines and are laying people off. The COVID crisis, like every one before, is creating significant and long-lasting changes to our everyday lives.
A Proposal for a Corporate Innovation Mission Statement:
Before any function can be created it needs a definition of its purpose, a Mission Statement. The Mission Statement Statement must clearly communicates what it is going to do, defines success, and sets limits to its scope.
Why a Learning Strategy is Needed When Launching Innovations
Everyone thinks the greatest risk of innovating are either coming up with a great idea, solving technical challenges, or overcoming the challenges of manufacturing. Not to discount them, these issues are tough to overcome the first few times. Of course, through experience companies can become expert at them because in each of these three stages […]
How a Learning Mindset is needed to grow a new market
There’s always been a stream of thought that believes consumer research should be ignored, or maybe not conducted at all. Without a doubt, the results from consumer research can be wrong, misleading, or worse, make company risk-averse and their products mediocre. I have product successes that went against consumer feedback, and others that based every […]
Why you must always listen to consumer research even if Steve Jobs didn’t
There’s always been a stream of thought that because Steve Jobs didn’t conduct consumer research the average customer can’t describe the future until it’s created. Without a doubt, the results from consumer research can be wrong, misleading, or worse, make company risk-averse and their products mediocre. But Steve Jobs and Apple used consumer research to take risks and make their products insanely great.