I love to travel. I enjoy seeing new places and trying different foods. It is fun for me to learn what is unique about a city or town. I also enjoy visiting familiar places – in Seattle, I have a favorite coffee shop and in Phoenix, I must go to a special place for tacos!
Travel incorporates the lessons of creative leadership. As innovation professionals we trial, test, and enjoy both the new and the familiar. The three common themes between travel and innovation are: vision, learning, and decision.
Vision
When you visit a new place, you see it differently than if it is familiar. You may notice that street names change every few blocks or that the city has a lot of billboards. When you are familiar with the town, these elements fade into the background.
As an innovation leader, you must envision your products and services with fresh eyes. Imagine that you have never considered buying your own product. Does the packaging strike you as interesting or is it boring? Does the product name describe what it does? Is the product unique or are there lots of competitors?
A drawback of working within one brand or category is that we become too familiar with our products and services. We need to see features and benefits as if we’ve never seen the product before. One way to get a fresh vision for your products and services is through a focus group or lead user group. Real customers provide the feedback that an internal new product development (NPD) team may miss.
Learning
And with vision comes learning. When I first visit a new place, I like to get a road map. I’m old fashioned and like to have a paper street map. It gives me the whole view of a town or city instead of turn-by-turn directions. I get a sense of what is to the north or east, as well as how far away different attractions are.
But as I walk around for a few hours (or days), I find that I don’t need the map anymore. I have learned where to turn and how long it takes to get somewhere.
Innovation leaders also focus on learning – not simply to transfer a vision into the boring and familiar. Yet, learning as a method of transforming customer needs into features and attributes brings satisfaction to consumers and profits to companies.
Learning, in innovation, is crucial. They say that whoever is not innovating is dying. A harsh statement. What it means is that successful leaders are constantly identifying needs and pain points while working to resolve them. It is easier and quicker to navigate without a street map – when the route is familiar. Our job, as innovation leaders, is to make product selection and use as quick and as easy as possible for our customers.
Decision
Vision and learning are important, yet without action you don’t go anywhere. I often daydream about where I want to go on vacation. I research places on the internet and buy travel books to learn about parks and attractions in a new area. But, until I buy an airline ticket, I have not committed to the travel. When I book my air travel, I demonstrate a decision to visit one place over another. Effective decisions are crucial for innovation leadership. One arena in which I see a lot of failure in NPD is a failure to make a decision. Many, low-value projects linger on the books. These projects consume valuable (and scarce) resources. Worst, ho-hum projects do not invigorate your customers or your team members.
The best way to make new product decisions is through portfolio management. Join me in 2021 for a special hands-on, interactive course to streamline your product innovation portfolio – 100 Days to PPM. You will learn to make the critically important decisions necessary to compete effectively. Join as an individual leader or bring your whole team!
The Traveling Innovator
Whether you love to travel (like me), or you’d rather be a hermit, innovation professionals must practice the three critical skills: vision, learning, and decision. With vision, you view a product or service from your customer’s perspective. You learn what is easy, or difficult, for consumers so you can improve new product designs. And, finally, you act by making prudent and efficient decisions with product portfolio management.
Don’t forget to register here for 100 Days to Effective Product Portfolio Management. Space is limited.
About Me
I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching. I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith. It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders. Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making. My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator. Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.
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In addition, goals fit within three categories: strategic, tactical, and operational. As new product development (NPD) managers and innovation practitioners, our goals – both professional and personal – must straddle the three categories to ensure success and creativity in building new knowledge. We’ll next discuss what these three types of goals are and how you can apply them to renew your joy in practicing innovation.
understand the problem. Closing a budget or schedule gap first involves gathering data on the costs to-date and evaluating the work accomplished thus far. Once we have historical data in hand, we can interpret the size of the gap as well as begin to formulate changes and corrective actions to keep the project on plan.
“Flow” is a concept in which are working on tasks or activities that are so motivation and engaging that we don’t even notice the passage of time. These are often the activities we daydream about or find ourselves planning for free or quiet time. Flow is “being in the zone,” sort of like Steph Curry hitting dozens of consecutive three-pointers from the half-court-line. You feel connected to and inspired by the work. You are so embedded in your work, you might forget to stop and eat a meal. And while it is hard to describe “flow,” we’ve all been there and recognize the positive and rewarding feelings that come from “being in the zone”.
Engineering, project, and product managers deal with a wide variety of stakeholders. Some stakeholders are customers or clients, receiving the products and deliverables of our work. Other stakeholders are fellow team members, working with us to achieve project objectives and business goals. Finally, other stakeholders serve in functional and support roles with whom we negotiate for resources and guidance to reach desirable outcomes.
is further behind schedule will suffer a greater cost hit than will a project that is just slightly delayed.
Any of a number of general project management textbooks provide guidance on managing stakeholder expectations and customer requirements, including 
You see, I usually ride my bike to the gym. It’s a short distance and gets me warmed up before a workout. It also saves gas, and therefore, saves money. When I got to the gym one recent evening, I saw a cable and padlock lying on the ground at the bike rack. There aren’t many of us who ride to the gym, and I thought I recognized the lock and bright blue cable. Unfortunately, it had been cut and there was no bicycle nearby. I took the damaged cable and lock to the front desk.
at the gym. I use a “Krypton” lock with an excessively thick cable, unlike his smaller and thinner cable. I hope my bike will be safe with this lock. Second, I park my bike closest to the main traffic lane. Mike typically parked his bike closest to the gym’s secondary exit where less people walk or drive by. Although, my bike is more likely to get bumped by a careless driver or inconsiderate pedestrian, it is more visible. I’m willing to take that risk.
I was recently teaching a Project Management Professional (PMP®) prep course to a group of 15 experienced project and program managers. The gray hairs in the room attested to the years of experience, and all of the participants actively described their current project work and challenges. Several of the attendees were employed by a government agency working on capital construction projects – roads, bridges, and drainage.
quality, and risk managers. Looking at a problem from a new perspective can help us generate new insights to a better solution. Even more important is to view the problem from the customer’s perspective.