Jack and Kim walked back to their offices after meeting with Celia’s innovation team. They were filled with the excitement of the team, jazzed to get started. “That team is great,” said Jack. “They will have an awesome solution built in no time!” Kim gestured Jack into her office. “I think we need to be […]
Measuring Progress of Innovation Using OKRs Read More »
Jack and Kim walked down the hall away from their CEO’s office. They were buzzing with excitement. “Wow, I can’t believe he gave us full reign to build our innovation team!” said Kim. When their CEO had asked if their process of cycling through pain points and potential solutions with customers could accelerate innovation, their
Building a Team of Customer Problem Solvers Read More »
Jack ran into Kim in the hallway outside the CEO’s office. “You too?” he asked. The CEO had requested a meeting to discuss their proposal for investment in the winning team’s innovation challenge. “He said he wanted to do a test, see if we could celebrate a quick win,” said Jack. Kim frowned. “That’s what he
Design Thinking is not “One and Done” Read More »
Design Thinking is a methodology that has tremendous potential to provide corporate strategy development a much needed facelift, a version 2.0 for the 21st century. Yet from my experience, Design Thinking is inconsistently executed, keeping it from reaching its potential and discouraging practitioners, leading to a low perceived return-on-investment. The d.School at Stanford is the
Creating Problem Finders through Design Thinking Read More »
Celia had been thinking all afternoon about Jack and Kim’s presentation on customer-centered innovation at the leadership meeting. She was intrigued. Using the customer as the focal point for determining where to invest their innovation dollars seemed like an approach that could help their strategic decision making. How could this approach help her organization? As
Should Operations Focus on Customer Pain Points? Read More »
I don’t know about you but I’m tired of innovation contests that pursue the next shiny new object. Yes, creating something cool and different generates excitement in employees and inspires their creativity. But if their efforts don’t yield results, like increased customer loyalty, market share, or competitive advantage, then employees and leadership become disillusioned. Is
How Corporate Innovation Can Thump Startup Disruption Read More »
Kim and Jack went into the leadership meeting, ready to present their strategy for the winner of the innovation contest. They were excited and nervous. Focusing the winning team on measuring the value of their service to the customer was different from what they had done in the past. Typically, their innovation efforts were about
Why Long Term Strategy Beats Quick Fix Innovation Read More »
Let’s face it, businesses are tired of the mantra to innovate. My clients often tell me that their efforts focused on innovation have produced mediocre results at best. That their people are disillusioned because innovation is disruptive, an extra they have to fit into their “spare” time. They lament that the things other businesses label
Want to Innovate? Solve a Customer’s Problem Read More »
Jack was in the office early. His mind had worked overtime last night. He had been mulling over the conversation he’d had with Kim, one of his colleagues from the strategy group, about which team entry in the innovation contest to select for investment. He still thought the online customer service idea was the best
Customer Experience: Innovate or Die Read More »