This is the first in a three-part commentary addressing how consumer firms can leverage a new approach to “Agile” innovation to reduce their cycle time from consumer insight to market launch, and create a steadier stream of higher-value new products. In this post, I'll describe how the current... Read More

Lately, it seems like most innovation writers scorn sustaining innovation, those incremental product changes that enable marketers to flag their products as New and Improved! Apple is everyone's poster child for its mastery of disruptive innovation and its ability to repeatedly invent new markets.... Read More

Since the very beginning in the 1980s, Stage-Gate has evolved many times. At the beginning, Stage-Gate was a process to ensure project teams did their projects right. One important finding from the early days has been the significant emphasis on the early or “homework” stages. Over time, the gating... Read More

I have heard some great stories over the last few years about how companies have leveraged top-down resource planning and “what if” portfolio optimization techniques to quickly and more confidently make decisions that deliver better product, portfolio and shareholder value. In the past, companies... Read More

It's fair weather season once again in Minnesota. In preparation for the auto racing season, I was writing my to-do list of activities needed to perform on my Mazda Miata in preparation for the autocross racing events. I've got wheels and tires, suspension parts, radio, timing electronics, trailer... Read More

During the webinar The Five Most Important Drivers of Success in Product Innovation – That Most People Get Wrong! with Dr. Bob Cooper, he fielded a number of audience questions. Bob is also the founder of the Stage-Gate® system, the widely used innovation and new product development process and... Read More

I've seen many leaderboards used in idea management systems through the years that promote things like the top idea contributor or who has the best reputation and the like, all with the hope of driving or encouraging user participation. I won't say that these tools can't deliver value, but when... Read More

Focusing and Amplifying Innovation Product Line Strategizing and Roadmapping (PLSR) is a powerful process. Smart managers use this process to coordinate and accelerate work that pulls together and creates critical insights related to a line of products. This might sound simple and straight-forward,... Read More

When most organizations with an idea management system run into an obstacle and/or opportunity that needs to be resolved or addressed they run an idea campaign. A lot of people with different perspectives and experiences are invited to collaborate on the topic and asked to generate creative ideas.... Read More

What's your definition of innovation? I've seen a lot of definitions, all sounding something like “…generating value from something new” be it a new product, service or even a process. It's all about the implementation of the new. Creativity on the other hand is the process of coming up with the... Read More