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innovation leadership

Understanding Customer Needs

Every new product development professional carries a toolkit for the job.  Just like a carpenter carries a saw, hammer, and clamps, product managers use market research, processes, and planning to finish a job.  Carpenters choose specific saws and blades depending on the fineness of work.  A quick cut of a 2×4 board does not need the same degree of precision or quality as cutting maple veneer for a kitchen cupboard.

Product development professionals select different tools and apparatus to match the outcomes of their job, too.  Market research to gather data on market opportunities is different than the customer insights necessary to establish a pricing strategy (read more here).  While saw blades provide various degrees of fineness and integrity to the carpenter’s job, we similarly use market research tools to better understand specific customer needs throughout the new product development process (see the figure below).

Opportunity Identification

The first phases of new product development focus on opportunity identification.  In early stages of product development – whether you use a traditional staged-and-gated, Agile, or WAGILE approach – you must study and observe customers.  What is the problem they need help solving?  What are the limitations or constraints they face in addressing a given pain point?  What is the solution worth to them?

You may use tools like observation, interviews, or questionnaires during this stage of product development.  Essentially, product managers are researching the needs and desires of customers as well as available product solutions.  If the market is very crowded with competitors, product development may take a different pathway.  Market research is invaluable to determine needs of existing and potential customers.

Design and Development

During design and development of a new product, we begin to identify potential concepts that we feel will address the customer’s pain points.  We specify the requirements and features of that solution, thus allowing the engineering teams to craft a working product.

Market research tools deployed during design and development include concept testing, AB testing, and QFD (quality function deployment – read more here).  The goal is to determine a narrow set of features that will deliver the expected consumer benefit while also creating value (profit) for the firm.

Production

Finished products move into production which includes manufacturing and servicing the product as a normal part of the business.  For example, after a carpenter finishes the job, a homeowner continues to perform maintenance.  We sometimes have to fix things – like a loose knob on the kitchen cupboard – but we also do maintenance to ensure long time enjoyment of the product.  Wiping spills from cupboards keeps them clean and shiny, preserving the wood quality for a long life. 

Likewise, once a product is launched, we perform maintenance to fix bugs or quality issues not identified pre-launch.  Long-term profits are maintained as product managers ensure cost-effective and reliable manufacturing is in place for the product.

During production, market research entails lead user panels, for instance, to identify next generation features.  Focus groups are used to uncover needs of non-users.  For example, how can we transition the product to more markets?  Which market segments demand a premium version of the product?  Can we make it less expensively but still maintain quality and customer satisfaction?

Market Research Tools

Market research tools help new product development practitioners understand customer needs.  We deploy different techniques depending on the stage of development and the desired fidelity for the data.  We use qualitative market research to gather thoughts, feelings, and opinions of customers while we use quantitative market research to validate and verify product specifications statistically.

Learn more in our New Product Development Lunch and Learn sessions.   On 14 March, the free webinar discusses customer insights and market research tools.   Register here.  For more information on Customer Insights, also check out Chapter 2 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition and Chapter 3 of The Innovation QUESTION Book.

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Being Busy

“Busy.”  That has become the American answer to “How are you doing?”  I recently saw a videoblog where they described the two categories of people who are busy.  Low to medium self-esteem people say they’re busy because they want praise from others.   They are doing work for other people and seek reassurance.  Mid to high self-esteem people, he said, are busy because we want to show our work to others by accomplishing much.

But are we really all that busy?

In another post I have written about waiting.  (Read about Waiting and Creativity here).  Many of us consume all our free minutes looking at our cell phones.  Some play games, some read Facebook, others check stock prices, and still others do email.  Yet is that really busy?  Can we use that free time for something else?

Time-boxing in Scrum

One of my favorite tools for managing time, schedules, and busy-ness is time-boxing.  This method is borrowed from Scrum Project Management.  In Scrum, activities are routine and repeated within pre-specified blocks of time.  (Read about Scrum for Product Management in a blog here or in Chapter 3 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition.)  The iterative nature of sprints (time-boxes for doing work in Scrum) help to accomplish more with less “busy-ness”.

For example, in a 2-week iteration in Scrum, the team will meet for 4-hours at the start of the “sprint “ to plan and prioritize work tasks.  Each workday starts with a 15-minute “stand-up meeting”.  At the conclusion of the sprint there are 4-hour meetings to review the work and outputs of the sprint, and to conduct a lessons learned review (called a “retrospective”).

Time blocks in Scrum are sacred.  Work should not take longer than scheduled, or else the planning was poor.  With each iteration following the same pattern, a clear flow of work is established.  The work habit becomes ingrained in team members so that productivity improvements naturally occur over repeated sprints.

Of course, sprints are not perfect.  Surprises in technical development and product design occur so that tasks are not completed in the allotted time frame.  These roll over to the next iteration as “backlog” but the number of new tasks for that next sprint are reduced to keep the work manageable.

Scrum teams are busy but they are doing business not just busy-ness.

Time-Boxing for Innovation Leaders

Innovation leaders and product managers can use the idea of time-boxing to improve productivity as well.  The idea of following habits to establish flow is recommended in many, many self-help books.  Habits reduce our decisions and preserve our high-level brainpower for more important tasks.

A good habit is to keep the things you need for each day in the same place.  I have a “purse” table where I store my purse, car keys, and gym bag.  I don’t have to waste precious time in the morning searching for a required item.  Another habit I follow is to select my clothes for the next day each evening.  I put my clothes in the bathroom next to the shower, so I don’t have to make a decision early in the morning.

Time-boxing is a habit for your schedule and can free up “busy” time.  For instance, checking email is a low brainpower activity.  If your inbox looks like mine, there’s only 5 to 10% of email that matters.  There are interesting and educational newsletters to read (like this one!), but there is also a lot of junk.  I time-box email for mid-morning so that I can save my early morning focus for critical work.

You can also use time-boxing for managing innovation projects.  Using a tool like planning poker helps the team to estimate task durations.  Retrospectives, post-launch reviews, or lessons learned conducted at the end of each iteration provide immediate feedback on what to improve for the next phase of work.

Note that if you are using a traditional staged-and-gated process for managing innovation projects, you should still conduct routine lessons learned reviews.  Schedule an extra hour for each gate review and answer these simple questions.  (Read more in Chapter 3 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition.)

  • What was done right?
  • What was done poorly?
  • What can be improved?

While some of your team members may change as you scale-up design and development work for new product development (NPD), the people that stay with the project team will incorporate these learnings as habits and best practices.

Are You Busy?

Being busy really means consuming time – a very precious resource.  I prefer to think of being busy as being productive.  Whether we are low-esteem or high-esteem people, our goals in busy-ness are to create positive change.  Innovation leaders are in a unique position to create change through products, services, and applications.

Do you want to reduce the busy-ness of your product development teams?  Make sure they are working on the right things!  Learn how by joining me for the special PPM in 100 Days workshop starting 7 February 2022.  This intensive, customized, and real-world workshop is only offered once a year.  Feel free to contact me at info at Simple-PDH.com for more information.

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What is Innovation?

Click on the image to watch a short summary video, then read on!

Innovation is one of the most over-used buzzwords of today.  I wrote about this previously in 2013!  (Read Introduction to Disruptive Innovation here.)  Yet, innovation – as a word – continues to be bandied about as a solution to all problems but also as a mysterious, perhaps magical, process.  In this post, I hope to break down the word “innovation” to a set of practical and actionable steps that help businesses accomplish growth without all the hype.

New Way of Doing Something

Innovation encompasses a new way of successfully doing something.  Note the specific use of the word “success”.  If we try a new way to do something and it fails, we are learning but we have not innovated.  Failing is part of the innovation process, yet it is not the end goal of innovation.

Process innovation often involves new ways of doing something.  In manufacturing, we might be able to skip a step by combining forming and assembly or by using pre-printed packaging.  These actions are usually considered “cost-saving”, but when we involve a new way of executing the action, it is clearly defined as a process innovation.

We also see product innovations and perhaps these are the more common goal of corporate innovation programs.  New product development (NPD) is a subset of innovation in which we design and develop new product innovations.  Again, the new product is helping consumers and end-users “do something in a new way,” but is focused on tangible features and product attributes. 

In recent times, product innovations have begun to incorporate the changes and additions in software code.  Almost all tangible products also include software in some capacity.  Coding introduces changes in how a product (hardware or software) functions, and thus, can be innovative.  However, we must be very careful to not confuse bug fixes as “innovative”.  End-users don’t want mistakes in the product in the first place, so a bug fix is not adding value.

Social and Political Innovations

Some innovations cause us to do something in a new way because society expects it or because government regulations restrict the old way of doing something.  As an example, the US Government restricted the sale of incandescent light bulbs a few years ago.  Consumers were certainly not clamoring for a new way to light their homes, especially since incandescent light bulbs are cheaper than alternatives.  Yet a change in government policy forced to change in behavior; this defines a “political innovation”.  Such innovations may not add value to either the consumer or producer but are necessary for the business to sustain itself.

Adoption of New Technology

Many process and product innovations result from the adoption of new technology.  Advances in technology allow producers to manufacture goods in more cost-effective ways and to add features to products.  Technology allows processes to become more efficient, so that manufacturers can make products with fewer quality defects and at increased rates.  Technology has served to stimulate innovation significantly.

For instance, computer-controlled manufacturing processes allow assembly lines to move at a quicker pace.  Technology, such as lasers and cameras, can evaluate quality of products during manufacturing without the cost of destructive testing.  Increased resource utilization by managing the supply chain and distribution with technical innovations also result in cost-savings shared between consumers and manufacturers.

Application of New Knowledge

Finally, innovation involves the application of knowledge to new situations as well as the growth of knowledge.  When we apply a solution from one domain to another, by transferring knowledge, the result is innovation.

One of my favorite examples of innovation from new knowledge is Velcro.  Legend has it that the inventor studied lizards and other critters that creep and crawl in vertical surfaces.  Transferring knowledge of how their little feet are able to “stick” to these surfaces allowed him to conceive a new way to attach two items together.  What knowledge are you holding that contained a product or process?

Defining Innovation

Innovation is a new way of doing something by application of technology or knowledge to improve a process or product in such a way that it adds value for both the end-user and the producer.  Innovation is a new way of doing something but that “something” doesn’t have to be radical or unique.  Transferring our knowledge and experience between and among industries often leads to a new way of doing something.

Do you want to learn an effective process for design of innovation?  Join me, starting on 1 December, for the by-request Creativity Master Class.  Register here.

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Creative Perspectives

Many of us don’t believe we are creative.  After early elementary school, we have learned there are rules, and we spend a lot of time complying with those rules.  Not only are there rules about spelling and arithmetic, but there are societal “rules” about the clothes we wear and things we say.  All these rules serve to stamp out creativity. 

Yet, we need creative solutions to the many challenging problems we face in business today.  Creativity is not just painting a new scene or writing a novel; creativity is finding unique alternatives and expressions to address real-world discomforts.  For product innovation professionals, we must find creative solutions to customer and end-user problems that deliver value to them and profit to our firms. 

Creative Solutions

In new product development (NPD), the first place to start to identify a creative solution is to understand the problem.  Very often, we assume that we know what challenges and difficulties our customers face.  And, very often, we are wrong.  

Understanding customer problems means we need to spend time with them and to follow their actions.  Design Thinking offers several tools and a methodology to build empathy with customers and end users.  The methodology is reflected in the simple, two-step process shown in the figure.  (Read about Design Thinking in Chapter 2 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition.)  Empathy means we understand their thoughts and feelings as much as we understand the technical points of their problems. 

An Example

To find creative and empathetic product solutions, we have to fully identify with the customer and end-user.  Most people working in NPD are in the prime of their life, maybe 30 to 50 years old.  Suppose you are designing and developing products for the elderly.  How can you build empathy for their problems?

Using Design Thinking tools, product innovation professionals observe the customer.  You can spend time with your grandma or an elderly neighbor and watch as they prepared dinner.  Are jars difficult to open for someone with arthritis?  Does she have trouble reading small print on the recipe?  Can she safely lift a heavy pan from the oven?

Once you have some clues to the real problem from observation, you can begin to develop creative solutions.  You can test your prototypes under simulated conditions to quickly evaluate concepts to move forward while eliminating the less – then – promising ideas. 

For the elderly person, you can wear gloves or tape your fingers to mimic arthritis.  Put on a scratched-up pair of sunglasses and try to read the recipe yourself.  Simulate the relative “heaviness” of a pan with a 40-lb. bag of sand.  Your own frustrations will translate to better product solutions for this customer! 

Learning Creativity

It seems somewhat odd that actually need to “learn creativity”.  Society force fits uniformity and often discourages creative interpretation.  Yet, as product innovation professionals, we need to approach problems from new perspectives and with open viewpoints.  Especially if the customers’ needs are far from our experiences and background, we need to apply Design Thinking tools to build empathy.  We really need to understand the thoughts and feelings of the end-user. 

Do you want to learn to be more creative?  Join our creativity master class starting on 1 December.  Register Here.

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, speaking, 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 [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

This was first published on the blog at www.Simple-PDH.com. Follow me on Twitter @globalnpd.    

Four Elements of Creativity

Product innovation is a fabulous field in which to work.  Innovation mixes several interesting ingredients – markets, technologies, creativity – to generate products that are valued by customers.  In turn, companies generate profits when they deliver products and services to consumers that delight and inspire them.

Researching markets and technologies is deliberate and structured within product innovation.  Product managers use inquiry tools and statistical analysis to understand categories of customers as well as to pinpoint areas of opportunity.  R&D practitioners analyze experiments and data to design novel technical solutions.  Market research and technology development both follow specific processes with known performance metrics.

Yet, creativity if often shrouded in mystery.  Many people assume they are not creative because they don’t view themselves as “artists”.  Others claim that only wild-eyed scientific geniuses are creative, coming up with ideas like a lightning strike.  In truth, creativity for product innovation is also a structured process with four key elements.

Cross-Functional Teams

There are two elements to creativity from a people perspective – individual and team creativity.  As individuals we all have different experiences and bring that diversity when generating ideas for new products.  Individuals with various work skills and backgrounds “see” the problem differently.  For example, a marketing specialist might define the problem in terms of product awareness while a technology specialist might see the problem as a set of puzzles and a technical code that will unlock the solution. 

Higher levels of creativity occur, however, when we collaborate as a team.  The marketer cannot successfully deliver innovation on his own by simply raising product awareness.  The technologists cannot deliver a new product by simply designing a great piece of hardware.  Instead, when we combine the viewpoints of a cross functional team, we can generate truly radical innovations.  Sharing the different perspectives of a problem – from the customer’s viewpoint as well as from each team members standpoint – enhances creativity and the end solution. 

Boundaries

While it seems counter-intuitive, creativity increases when we place reasonable constraints around the problem.  You might dream about your weekend plans if you had infinite money and no restrictions on your time.  Perhaps a trip to an exotic beach or taking in a Broadway show would be on the agenda?  Yet our dreams of limitless wealth are not actionable. 

Teams are most successful in identifying creative product solutions when there are some boundaries around the problem space.  Having infinite funds or unlimited time opens every possibility and too many choices can be overwhelming.  Instead, your weekend plans must be creative if you can only spend $100 and have two fixed time commitments.  Maybe you take the kids to the zoo just after their Little League game.  It’s a fun and unusual family activity while solving the problem within the given constraints. 

Curiosity

It goes without saying that curiosity must be a key element of creativity.  The status quo cannot serve to grow a business or to generate innovative products over the long-term.  Creative curiosity is a desire – a passion – to figure out how things work.  In new product development, the marketing representative is curious about the problems consumers face and the technical representative is curious about how to build a widget to solve that problem.  Creative curiosity is always looking for ways to improve a system and searching for the “real” problem. 

Are you curious?  How do you approach a new opportunity?  Creative curiosity involves jumping in to quickly learn the who, what, why, and how of a problem. 

Learning

The final element of creativity is learning – learning from failure and learning from each other.  Not every idea works out as we planned.  Sometimes our ideas are too radical for an existing market.  Oftentimes, we cannot find the cost-effective technology to scale for commercial application.  These are “failures” by one definition, yet there are also opportunities for learning.  Each piece of knowledge stacks up to help us solve the next problem, even if one particular approach didn’t work out perfectly. 

Another aspect of creative learning regards quality.  A lot of us are perfectionists because of our passion and love for our customers and career.  Yet, sometimes, good enough is good enough.  When a famous artist changes his style from realism to abstract, he might learn new techniques and learn to be satisfied with the quality of each new painting, even though it isn’t perfect.  A mystery author can add new twists and turns to the story line, depth of characters to her text, but the book must be written in order to be read and appreciated.  Learning to define “done” is an important feature for creativity within the bounds of product innovation. 

Four Elements of Creativity

A lot of people I know claim they are not creative.  This is troubling since I know a lot of people working in new product development.  Everyone can be creative.  I suggest you start with these four key elements of creativity. 

  1. Use a cross-functional team to build empathy across many different perspectives. 
  2. Place loose boundaries around the problem space to enhance creativity. 
  3. Encourage curiosity by offering new options and seeking to deeply understand the problem. 
  4. Practice continuous learning and accept failure by recognizing that good enough is good enough.

Creativity starts with leadership.  Please join our best practices Master Class on Leadership for Project Managers starting 18 August.  Register here. 

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4 Critical Skills Every Innovation Leader Must Master

Watch the 20-second summary and then read on!

Innovation managers are outliers in a world of functional managers.  An engineering manager hires and grooms talent to design safe and reliable manufacturing processes.  A business manager balances administrative tasks to maintain operational efficiency, and a sales manager ensures customer visits are scheduled as continued touchpoints.  Each of these roles includes measurable performance indicators:  safety incidences, organizational productivity, and sales revenues. 

In contrast, innovation and product development managers have no certain goals and their output is fuzzy.  Innovation leaders integrate skills of the functional managers:  talent management, safety, reliability, manufacturing productivity, customer interactions, and sales revenues.  Yet, innovation leaders face higher levels of technical and market uncertainties. 

So, which skills are absolutely critical to success in innovation?

What is Innovation?

First, let’s take a step back and define innovation.  If I were to ask 25 people what innovation means, I would get 35 different definitions!  For our purposes, let’s assume innovation means the creation of a new product, service, or program that brings value to the producer and to the consumer.  Thus, we include sales revenues as value to the company and utility, functionality, and convenience as values to a customer. 

The Four Critical Skills

Knowing that innovation is fraught with risk, innovation leaders must master four critical skills to succeed.  These are:

  • Business knowledge,
  • Talent acquisition,
  • Process capability, and
  • Strategic decision-making. 

Business Knowledge

Successful innovation leaders process information from a variety of internal and external sources.  They must understand the business from a technical perspective and understand customers from a market perspective.  Traditional business goals, like financial analysis and productivity studies, are a factor in mastering the business.  Innovation managers must use this information to prepare a profitable business case for any new product or service. 

Business knowledge extends to trends, fads, and emerging technologies.  Innovation relies as much on learning and change as it does in building efficiency into a current model.  Successful innovation leaders study adjacent markets and industries and apply world-class best practices to compete over the long-run. 

Talent Acquisition

Because new product development (NPD) is inherently risky, innovation project team members use different tools to work together.  A successful innovation manager builds a team that balances creativity, operational expertise, and customer interactions.  Persuasion, negotiation, and conflict management are capabilities of an innovation manager who recognizes diversity of functional experience to commercialize a profitable new product. 

Process Capability

It goes without saying that any manager must be organized and efficient with his or her time.  Innovation managers use NPD processes and product portfolio management (PPM) to drive product development.  Choosing and adapting an appropriate process is a hallmark of a successful innovation manager. 

NPD processes range from conventional phased-and-gated waterfall systems to agile methodologies with hybrid systems like WAGILE becoming more popular today.  (Read more about WAGILE here.)  Understanding the organizational culture, executive risk tolerance, and the business model allows an innovation manager to select an effective NPD process.  Of course, the execution of a product development project within the NPD process is linked to effective collaboration of team members – a direct link to talent acquisition as a key skill for the innovation leader to master. 

Strategic Decision-Making

Finally, innovation leaders act strategically as well as tactically.  We have discussed the tactical and operational skills of acting on business knowledge and deploying an appropriate NPD process already.  But, knowing “how” is very different than knowing “why”.

Successful innovation managers use decisions as opportunities to increase product knowledge and to improve customer service.  Strategic decisions include which markets are attractive, what technologies are appropriate, and what products ought to be developed.  This focus on specific growth objectives and competitive analysis differentiates a successful innovation leader from other functional managers.  Check out our new virtual Master Class on Leadership, starting 18 August here.  This course is specifically geared to the challenges of innovation, product, and project managers.

Four Critical Skills that Innovation Leaders Must Master

Innovation leaders must be adaptable, flexible, knowledgeable, and expectant.  All managers must know their trade and be ready to measure performance outcomes.  Yet, successful innovation leaders balance risk, investment, markets, and talent in a unique stew to produce customer satisfaction.  Mastering the skills in business knowledge, talent acquisition, process capability, and strategic decision-making differentiates the successful innovation leader. 

Learn More

I highly recommend New Product Development Professional certification for any innovation manager.  You will learn how strategy, portfolio management, and NPD processes guide decisions for innovation with best practices tools and techniques in process design, market research, and team-building.  Register now for the next session of the NPDP workshop here.

What Word Will Describe 2021?

I think we can all agree – with a giant sigh of relief – that 2020 is behind us.  Yet, to succeed with personal and professional growth, we must look ahead.  What will 2021 bring for you?

While I believe that some world events and forces engulf us in ever-growing avalanches of events, we do have much control over our everyday lives.  We make choices – to keep or change jobs, to invest in new technology or to adapt existing systems.  The selections we choose help us to achieve our goals. 

Each year, I choose a single word to help me guide my decisions and choices throughout the year.  I ponder my word of the year on a daily basis and I consider my short-term and long-range goals in light of my word of the year. 

Outreach

For 2019, I chose the word outreach as my word of the year.  I spent a lot of time developing new relationships and making the effort to rekindle old relationships.  Reaching out to others was my mantra for the year – how could I help my family, friends, and clients?

I used the word outreach to guide decisions for my business and to increase my network of professional colleagues.  Each day I considered how I could reach out to others and help them increase their success in innovation and management? 

Economical

In December of 2019, I chose the word economical for my word of the year in 2020.  As I described in another post here, I never imagined that “economical” would mean searching for toilet paper at the supermarket.  As 2020 dawned, I wanted to optimize (economize) my use of all resources. 

In the end, the word economical served me well in 2020.  I optimized both business and personal relationships, streamlined processes and systems, and added new time management programs to my daily routine.

In my personal life, my husband and I temporarily moved to an apartment much smaller than our house, so I have learned to economize space as well.  (Though, the local Goodwill employees started frowning when I showed up – I guess they didn’t want to sort through another hundred items of my barely-worn shirts and skirts…)

Willingness

So that brings us to 2021.  I learned a lot about myself in 2020 with the relocation in the middle of a government lockdown causing shortages at the supermarket.  Economizing was important.  But I also learned that I needed to be patient, flexible, and continue to optimize my time.  Thus, my word of the year for 2021 is willingness. 

Willingness will help me focus on goals and objectives.  This year, my business goals include expansion of course offerings – check out my 1Q 2021 classes here.  I also want to continue growing my network and helping others connect.  These goals lead to the initiation of the Creative Cafe. 

Creative Cafe

In the Creative Cafe, we can share ideas on innovation, leadership, and engineering management while growing our networks.  We’ll meet about every two weeks for an hour for a completely open discussion.  Our first introductory session of the Creative Cafe is Friday, 8 January 2021 at 10:00 AM CST.  Here’s the Zoom link.  Join the fast-paced hour-long conversation at no cost. 

What is Your Word for 2021?

Share your word for 2021 in the comments and come to the Creative Cafe on Friday, 8 January to share your word.  My goal is to go above and beyond your expectations this year – willingness!

See you soon!

To define yourself as a transformative innovation leader, you need to sustain continuing education.  Innovation is learning!  For more information on open courses and customized learning for innovation best practices, please contact me at [email protected] or area code 281, phone 787-3979. 

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

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 [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Lessons for Creative Leadership

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 [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

What Innovation Leaders Do Differently

In a lot of ways, innovation is a mystery.  It does not happen spontaneously, but it occurs in an instant.  Innovation is not the work of a lone genius, but it requires independent hard work.  It is not easy, but it is rewarding. 

Because it is so hard to characterize, innovation is also hard to define.  Is innovation just something new?  Or is innovation only a new use for something old?  Does innovation make life easier for some and bring profit to others?  Can innovation happen on the micro-scale as well as in the macro-environment? 

The answer is “Yes” – yes, to all these questions and more.  Innovation is the art and science of creating a new product, service, or technology that brings value to both customer and provider.  Innovation is leading greatness. 

Leadership and Innovation

While companies often struggle with repeatable innovation success, I argue that success with innovation is bound by leadership.  True leaders recognize and nurture the growth of innovation in their teams.  Innovation leadership is more than funding R&D or designing a clever marketing program.  Leadership in innovation requires an in-depth understanding of the organization’s culture, your customers, and even of yourself.  There are four levels to building innovation leadership:  learning, adopting, transforming, and sustaining. 

Learning

A learning organization is one that recognizes the importance of long-term, sustained innovation.  Yet, they don’t know how to get there.  These organizations inherently appreciate that standing still and hoping for our “old normal” isn’t going to happen.  But they don’t know what to change to take advantage of the next phase of economic growth. 

Learning organizations focus on strategic development, opportunity identification, and market insights.  Strategy integrates vision, mission, and values of the organization.  Where do you want to go, how will you get there, and what are your common beliefs?  Market insights mean you have an in-depth understanding of customers, trends, markets, and competition in your industry. 

Adopting

Once you understand the market space and your unique approach to customer needs, then you – as an innovation leader – make decisions about projects and pathways to achieve goals.  We all have more ideas than time, resources, and money.  Adopting innovation leaders apply tools, like new product development (NPD) processes, to frame decisions for generating value.  Great leaders are willing to accept calculated risk.  Winning the war is more important than 100% success in every small battle.  Failure in innovation is treated as learning and not as a time to blame or punish.  (Note that NPD processes cover a wide range of frameworks and approaches.  Read more in The Innovation ANSWER Book, Chapter 3.)  

Transforming

Many organizations stop once they have systems and processes in place to manage product innovation projects.  That’s okay but it’s not leadership.  Innovation leaders seek to transform the organization to drive higher level creativity and more satisfaction with customers.  Again, this is a decision-making process, but instead of focusing on each step in executing a project, transformative leaders aim to drive change in the culture and behaviors of team members.  Open cultures that tolerate constrained risk and defined exploration tend to be more innovative.  Train your teams in creative processes (like design thinking) and allow them freedom and autonomy to discover new and interesting relationships among customer needs, technologies, and market trends.  (Join our virtual Design Thinking workshop here.) 

Sustaining

One success is good.  Two or three successes is great.  Repeatable innovation success is terrific!  The way to achieve fantastic results in satisfying customers with continued innovation is by sustaining learning and growth.  Innovation leaders and teams need ongoing support and challenge for continued success. 

Because product innovation is often an isolated role within companies, many innovation leaders use a master mind or other peer support group to challenge their growth and curiosity.  Master mind groups allow innovation leaders to share with like-minded peers to speed learning for implementation success.  Trust among members allow you to go beyond your own constraints and boundaries as you both give and receive help. 

Innovation Leaders are Different

Operational managers and functional department heads are judged on hitting easily measurable targets, such as cost of production or number of widgets manufactured.  Success of innovation leaders is not as clear cut and success is defined by strategic objectives and customer satisfaction.  Thus, the goal posts are constantly moving. 

However, innovation leaders can build success for themselves, their teams, and their organizations by creating a framework for long-term change.  Innovation cultures learn from the opportunities presented to them, adopt industry best practices, and transform their organizations with defined decisions.  Truly successful innovation leaders continue the journey by sustaining growth and learning to establish cultures and relationships that support creativity and freedom. 

What is Your Level of Innovation Maturity?

Take the Innovation Health Assessment™ to identify your organization’s innovation maturity level.  (Free registration here to maintain integrity of the database.)  If you are a learning organization, what is your strategy?  If you are an adopting organization, what are your decision-making processes?  If you are a transforming organization, how can you further build teamwork and creative collaboration?  If you are a sustaining organization, how do you give your innovation leader support? 

One way to gain cross organization knowledge of product innovation is through the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification.  Register here for our next course in January 2021. 

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 [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

This was first published on the blog at www.Simple-PDH.com. Follow me on Twitter @globalnpd.

Wagile Leadership

I became interested in leadership when I was first appointed to a supervisory position.  My first exposure to leading a team was negative – from my perspective – but my management saw a different view.  I thought that being a manager meant I was not smart enough to continue on the technical ladder.  Little did I know that most technical answers are easy compared to motivating a team toward a common goal. 

Innovation leadership takes many forms.  In all cases, there must be a follower for a leader to exist.  Leaders engender willing followers.  We want to learn from others who have been successful.  We want to take direction from someone who has demonstrated skill at problem-solving.  We want to mimic the behaviors of inspiring people. 

What is a Wagile Leader?

Before we discuss Wagile leadership, I want to take a quick detour to define Wagile.  Wagile is a product innovation process to create and launch groundbreaking new products and services.  The word Wagile comes from a combination of the terms “waterfall” and “agile”.  Waterfall approaches to project management use upfront planning while agile project management acts on an evolving scope of work. 

The Wagile philosophy thus integrates the best of both project management approaches.

  • Move fast
  • Practice discipline
  • Understand risk
  • Engaged customers
  • Provide autonomy

Wagile Roles in Leadership

Each Wagile role serves as a leader.  Being non-hierarchical and flexible, Wagile does not specify one person, one role, or one organization as a primary decision-maker.  Rather, all roles act as leaders to ensure customer satisfaction with new product development (NPD).  As described in detail here, the Wagile roles include:

  • Project leader,
  • Customer representative,
  • Team leader, and
  • Cross-functional team. 

Wagile leadership characteristics focus on engaging customers to deliver high-quality products and services that meet market needs while generating profit for the firm.  Servant leadership traits of putting the team before self are important as are elements of Emotional Intelligence (such as self-awareness and self-control).  I have observed that the most successful teams are mission-oriented to create a common good rather than egocentric to promote a manager’s self-interest. 

In my practice of innovation teaching and coaching, I often used work style assessments to drive the leadership conversation.  An important starting point for product innovation teams is the Innovation Health Assessment™ to benchmark your organization’s NPD maturity against industry standards.  (Take your complimentary Innovation Health Assessment here.)   

Another work style assessment I use is called the Team Dimensions Profile.  As a DiSC-certified management facilitator, I prefer the language of Team Dimensions for innovation team growth.  We identify individual working preferences as Creator, Advancer, Refiner, or Executer.  Note that these are not the same as ingrained personality because each of us can stretch to different work roles as needed to accomplish the project goals.  (Learn more about Team Dimensions here where I spoke with the Everyday Innovator podcast.) 

In fact, it is the capability of team members on a Wagile project to stretch and serve as generalist-specialists that make each of us leaders.  Generalist-specialists are people who have a deep knowledge and expertise in one arena (specialist) but also a desire to learn and help across the board (generalist). 

Learn More

If you want to know more about Wagile and how to apply it in your own organization, join me for a short seminar on 10 November 2020 (2-4 pm CST).  Upon completion of this course, you will be equipped with a set of tools to speed product to market for innovation success.  Register here.  To investigate and expand your personal development style, please join me for the Life Design Master Mind Q&A on 11 November 2020 at 11 am CST (free), followed by subsequent in-depth workshops over the next six months.  Register here for the free webinar.  Contact me at [email protected] with questions about these workshops. 

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

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 [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.