Global Product Management Talk

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 046 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: When it comes to innovation, there are significant distinctions between startups and large enterprises. Startups have the advantage of agility and ability to rapidly change directions because they are not encumbered with legacy systems and organizational constraints. Large enterprises have access to greater resources and an established brand but also have erected barriers to innovation over time and inertia to change has set in. Such enterprises often reach a point where they realize that their existing culture, processes, and structure have limited their innovation to the point of harming the organization. I frequently have conversations with leaders of companies about these very issues. What should large companies do that wish to be more innovative? A place to start is benchmarking the actions Caterpillar is taking to overcome innovation barriers they created over many years and turn the organization into an innovation machine. To explore their actions, I had the sincere pleasure of talking with Ken Gray, Caterpillar’s global Director of Innovation. Ken has worn many hats at Caterpillar, including mechanical engineer, product manager, global product manager, and leader. He is well suited for the Innovation role. We discussed many aspects of creating an innovation group in a large established company, including the three innovation categories that structure their work.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 045 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: In this episode I’m talking with the creator of an entire category of product innovation – one that significantly changed how I think about the process of innovation. Clayton Christensen said his approaches “bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation.” The category of innovation is known as ODI, Outcome-Driven Innovation, and it was created by Tony Ulwick. When ODI was published in the Harvard Business Review, they declared it one of “the ideas that will profoundly affect business as we forge ahead in today’s complex times.” Tony also authored the best-selling book What Customers Want, explaining how the jobs-to-be-done framework is transformed into practice with ODI. At IBM, Tony worked on the PC Junior as a manufacturing engineer. The team was very excited to launch the product but within a day the Wall Street Journal declared it a flop! It turned out that they were right and the cost to IBM in a failed product was over $1B. This got Tony thinking about the metrics to determine what makes a good product – a product that customers want. This was the start to Outcome Driven Innovation, which has matured over the last three decades.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 044 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: Brian Lawley is the CEO and Founder of the 280 Group, a company that provides product management and product marketing solutions. Brian has a long history in product management, including product manager for the Apple Macintosh OS. He is also the author of “The Phenomenal Product Manager: The Product Manager’s Guide to Success, Job Satisfaction and Career Acceleration.” Brian and his 280 Group team recently conducted a research project titled the “Challenges in Product Management 2015.” We discussed the key findings from the study. How is the role of product manager viewed in companies?  61% are viewed as leaders in their company but 57% are too tactical and not strategic enough. The challenge of product managers is to free up at least 30% of their time to work on strategic activities. Product managers spend too much time managing feature lists and requirements instead of holistically managing the product to optimize value for all stakeholders. What did participants say about improving the product management process their company uses?There was clear recognition that improving processes would increase product success and organizational profitability. How do product managers feel about their competency in the role? Most product managers receive no formal training in their discipline. Across teams, product manager skills vary greatly. Some product managers have very advanced skills. Most respondents shared that their knowledge was average or below.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 043 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: Allan Anderson was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Product Innovation Management conference. For the past 20+ years he has been refining his skills in product development and change management, gaining three perspectives as practitioner, academic, and c-level leader in companies. He earned a PhD in Product Development from Massey University in New Zealand, where he is also a professor. There’s been a tendency for companies to adopt a product development process found in books or provided by a consultant without really understanding why the process was chosen and considering if it is best suited to them. Allan refers to this as a paint-by-numbers approach. Instead, he encourages companies to develop processes that are specifically created for their culture, structure, and needs. Organizations should develop their own product development process built around a model with three components: (1) do the right things – choose the right products to work on with the right focus for the organization, (2) do the right things right – choose the processes and practices that are appropriate for what you wish to achieve and measure their success, and (3) create a culture and working environment that helps you to be successful. The key objective is learning what works for the organization.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 042 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: Larry Marine is a User Experience expert that has helped many companies improve their products as well as design new products. I met Larry Marine at a coffee shop - a great place for innovation. I heard him discussing product design and started talking with him about the innovation research I was doing at the time. We later co-authored chapter 5 in the PDMA Toolbook 3 titled “Integrating User Observations with Business Objectives to Drive Product Design.” Larry redesigned the user experience of ProFlowers– the website for selecting and ordering flowers. The design was different than all the other online florists at the time. The web developers actually didn’t implement the design because it didn’t “look” like the competitors. The ProFlowers leadership team had the developers implement the new design. Their sales surged and ProFlowers.com has been one of the top performing websites for conversions. The other example is a medical device that performed blood screenings. Users were complaining about its use and Larry was asked to redesign the user interface. After investigating how the machine was used in a laboratory, the actual problem was with the lack of integration between five machines. It was a manual process to move from one machine to the next, data had to be reentered, and blood samples could be mixed up. The solution was a new screening control system for the entire laboratory.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 041 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About Our Guest: Mark Zeh was already developing products using a methodology that was very similar to what IDEO was doing when he joined them. The approach has since been coined Design Thinking. He views the use of storytelling coupled with prototyping as the keys that make Design Thinking work so well. Mark started his design career in the US creating custom mountain bike frames in Minneapolis that carried his name. He worked for product design giant IDEO in the US and helped to lead the office in Germany. He also consulted independently to numerous companies, applying Design Thinking, and is now at Bose, the audio technology powerhouse. In addition, he leads the Entrepreneurship program at the Munich Business School. I invited him to share his insights on using Design Thinking, which he recently wrote about in the PDMA Essentials book titled Design and Design Thinking. His chapter is The Key Role of Stories and Prototypes in a Design Thinking Product Development Process.”  

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 040 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About this Interview:  Innovation is a part of LEGO’s DNA, but this has not always been the case. In the 90s, the company’s sales were declining. They hired innovation consultant after innovation consultant, trying practices that worked for others but were not a good fit for them. In 2003 the company lost $300 million dollars. Then a few things changed, with a focus on creating “enhanced play” experiences. Today, 60% of their annual revenue comes from new products – innovation is at the core of their successful business.  Part of their turnaround is because of how they leveraged their loyal fans, creating a community that promotes the brand and extends what you can do with LEGOs. When I asked LEGO who I could interview to discuss innovation, their response was interesting, but not surprising given how their community of fans has influenced their success. They said to talk with “bazmarc” – at least that is how he is best known in the LEGO community. Bazmarc, who is Marc Andre Bazergui is an IBM Remote Technical Support Specialist by day, and a LEGO Robots Expert by night. He is one of the 12 members of the official LEGO Mindstorms Expert Panel (LMEP) that has been actively involved in the design, testing, and development of the product. My interview with Marc uncovers community-building practices product managers can put into action.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 039 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Patents, trademarks, and copyrights make my head spin. But, any good product manager or innovator needs to consider the intellectual property issues when developing a product. Consequently, I asked patent attorney Dan Brean of the Webb Law Firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to help all of us Everyday Innovators navigate the IP issues with new product development. Dan is an experienced patent litigator and prosecutor, primarily working with mechanical, electrical, and software technologies, so he brings a good mix of hardware and software IP experience. He also teaches at the University of Pittsburgh school of law. Of the many topics covered, one question asked is... What are the forms of IP protection and how do product managers know which ones they should consider? Utility patents are most common and cover the utilitarian value of a invention – something that performs a useful process. Design patents cover the ornamental appearance of a object or user interface – the aesthetic aspects of a design. Many inventions fall under utility patent and design patent protection. Trade secrets is anything that is kept confidential and has a commercial advantage to it. A famous example is the formula for Coca-Cola’s Coke beverage. Trademarks protect brand names or logos or other characteristics that specify a brand. Copyright protection is for artistic works.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 038 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest:  I met Michael Graber at Innovation Excellence, the online home of the global innovation community, where we both contribute innovation insights regularly. Truth be told, I was giving in to my vanity and checking out the top-20 posts for the month. My record is three posts in the top-20 in one month. For the month I was checking, Michael's name took the spotlight, and of course, I immediately thought he would be a great person to interview. When I did, I was not disappointed. Michael has more than twenty years of experience leading marketing and innovation efforts. As an expert in marketing and user interface, he has become an accomplished brand strategist. And, this is what really made me curious to talk with him – he is also a published poet and musician – creative forces that compliment his analytical side. Even when he is talking about innovation and brand strategy, he does so poetically and effectively. Organizations seeking to improve their innovation culture need three things: The full support and backing of the executive team in ways that are visible to the organization. Building multidisciplinary innovation teams that understand how to lead innovation efforts. These teams then help others in the organization, being Sherpas to show methods, teach, and walk alongside those learning the new techniques.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 037 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Luke Hohmann was recommended by the VP of Global Innovation of the RELX Group, Jeff Honious, who was my guest in episode 28. Consequently, I knew I had to interview Luke to learn about his tools for innovators. Luke is the founder and CEO of The Innovation Games, which is now known as Conteneo. His past experiences include computer scientist, engineer, and product manager. Luke is serious about the smart application of games to optimize decision making in innovation, product development, and market research, and numerous companies use his tools. He is also the author of “Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play.” My favorite line from his profile is: “Luke’s an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building a company to flip, he’s building a company to change the world.” Buy A Feature is an example of an innovation game. It helps the group decide which projects are most important and makes the best use of their available resources. To use it, say you have: 20 possible projects and the total budget for all them is $20M But you only have $8M available for new projects Instead of creating a competitive environment for selecting the projects, you create a collaborative environment. This could be accomplished by telling eight decision-makers that they each have $1M to allocate to projects. They must work together to determine the projects of highest value.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 036 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Jeremy Dillingham has a long list of skills and experiences as a seasoned product manager, including leading teams, roadmap planning, portfolio management, Lean Startup, Customer Discovery, Agile Development, and SaaS architectures. He is a mentor at Techstars, an accelerator for technology startups. He currently serves as a Senior VP at Return Path, a company that helps organizations promote and protect their brands. Some favorite product management tools: Discovery – the process of talking with customers and validating what you are learning about the problems and needs. This involves writing a script of interview questions, prioritizing the questions, talking with customers to gain responses, and analyzing the data. Discovery sessions with customers should be done by two interviewers so one can focus on asking questions and the other can focus on taking notes. Experiment – one pass through the build-measure-learn loop (per Lean). Metrics – dashboards, KPIs, another important indicators. Lean Canvas – see TEI 010 episode with the creator of the Lean Canvas.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 035 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in developing and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Professional associations provide value to career development. The first professional association I was involved in was the Project Management Institute, and I eventually became certified as a Project Manager Professional (PMP) because I recognized its value in helping me improve my project management capabilities while also helping me to stand out with future employers. Another association I have valued, as well as contributed to, is specific to product managers, marketing managers, and innovators. It is AIPMM, The Association of International Product Marketing and Management. I interviewed the president, Therese Padilla, to learn more about this important organization.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 034 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in developing and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Michal Herzenstein, who contributed to writing “Optimal Design for Radically New Products” in the PDMA Essentials book titled “Design and Design Thinking”. Michal is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Delaware and she earned her PhD in marketing from the University of Rochester.   Highlights from the discussion include… Product innovation teams that wish to create radically new products can use six processes to help them. Large companies are better off implementing these 6 process in ascending order and focus on communicating the goal of achieving a breakthrough product to the innovating team.  Communicate the Challenge Goal Toward Radically New Products  Shift Time Frames to Future and Past Promote an Emerging Technology Focus Across the Consumption Chain Promote the Use of Analogical Thinking  Look for Novel Ways to Solve Simple Problems Leverage More Ideators Via Crowdsourcing

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 033 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in developing and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Tim Bates is a product creator, founder, and CEO and more recently, an interim executive for hire serving in innovation, product and senior leadership roles. Another interesting thing about Tim is that he lives in Boulder, Colorado, which is an entrepreneur and startup utopia. It is frequently recognized as one of the best places to found a startup, even rivaling San Francisco with a higher per capita percentage of computer scientists and PhDs. Highlights from the discussion include… One big difference between a startup and an enterprise is in the production of a product. Startups are more experimental while enterprises are more finance focused. Enterprises are less likely to engage in Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). The make-up of a product from a startup versus a large company is very different because a startup might design the product for a smaller consumer volume while larger companies may be constrained by minimal revenue hurdles. When a larger company is buying a startup, sometimes they may be buying it for technology reasons that fit into their roadmap of products or they might be viewing it as a disruptive product and they buy it in order to decide what to do with that disruptive product.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode 032 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in developing and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Nathan Rosenberg is the person who executives turn to for advice. He has worked with more than 100 of the 1000 largest companies in the world and has been founder or CEO of 5 companies. As an example of his experience, he provided innovation consulting that led a well-known consumer goods company to add $200M of revenue in year 1 of acting on his advice. He is co-authoring a chapter in PDMA’s “Design and Design Thinking” book titled “Leading for a Corporate Culture of Design Thinking.” Nathan describes 4 stages of transforming corporate culture to enable design thinking: Stage 1: Reveal the already existing culture in your organization and analyze it thoroughly. Stage 2: Unhook from the existing culture. The company has the ability to let go of things that are not helping the organization as a whole. Stage 3: Pay attention to the market space and where it is heading. Don’t try to adapt your company to what the market looks like at the present time because the market is always shifting. Stage 4: Implement the new culture through new processes, systems, and structures.