The Innovation Engine Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jennifer Ives
We feature interviews with best-selling authors and innovation experts from around the world. We focus on corporate innovation through the lenses of leadership, company culture, and emerging trends and technologies.
Recorded & produced by 3Pillar Global, a product lifecycle management and software development company based in Fairfax, VA, with offices around the world.
This episode of The Innovation Engine features Part 2 of our interview with Jason Cyr, VP and Head of Product Design at Cisco Security. 3Pillar Field CTO Lance Mohring jumps back into the conversation to talk with Jason about how Cisco is able to acquire the most innovative, cutting-edge cybersecurity startups and then integrate their products into one unified, user-centric platform.
Jason explains that Cisco embeds designers as low in the organizational structure as possible and is big on the concept of integrated teams. He describes the essential product development triad at any level, where everyone has an equal say: product management, engineering, and design.
Then we pivot to AI: how to design for it, how Generative UI may change workflows in the future, and how it could upend user navigation as we know it. Customers aren’t looking for AI chatbots, Jason says. They’re demanding much higher value processes like cybersecurity data and incident analysis. Product designers need to be ready for this future now.
Lance and Jason, who are both musicians, wrap up the conversation talking about the intersection between music, technology, creativity, and more.
Episode Highlights:
- How Cisco integrates design into its product development process through triad teams: product management, engineering, and design
- Jason reports that clients are saying they want more than chatbots from AI
- Why the traditional concept of product navigation might be tossed out the window with AI advancements
Resources:
- Listen to part 1 of the discussion
- Connect with Jason Cyr on LinkedIn
- Connect with Lance Mohring on LinkedIn
- Check out Jason’s blogs on Medium
- Read “About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design” by Alan Cooper
Produced by NOVA Media
How does Cisco produce one of the best-integrated cybersecurity platforms in the world? Jason Cyr, VP and Head of Product Design at Cisco, joins The Innovation Engine to talk with 3Pillar Field CTO Lance Mohring about how design is deeply embedded in Cisco’s product development process.
Jason walks us through the market and organizational context that shapes Cisco’s unified product design process, which frequently involves incorporating new products to the overall product mix in the wake of an acquisition. He then gives some specific details on how product design can improve cybersecurity by preventing everyday configuration errors, while also anticipating zero-day vulnerabilities.
Jason outlines the Cisco product, design, and engineering team’s unique GOAT process, which stands for Give Outcomes A Try and is influenced by Josh Seiden’s book Outcomes Over Output. The GOAT process allows product managers, engineers, and designers to identify and align on end-user outcomes before the iterative development process even begins.
Our conversation is so meaty we had to break it up into two parts. Be sure to stay tuned for Part 2 next week, where we’ll dive into how Jason anticipates AI will impact product design in the near future and much more.
Episode Highlights:
- A firsthand account of the modern history of cybersecurity product design
- Jason explains how product design can reduce cyberattacks
- The story of how the Cisco team created their GOAT process and the impact it has had
Resources:
- Connect with Jason Cyr on LinkedIn
- Connect with Lance Mohring on LinkedIn
- Check out Jason’s blogs on Medium
- Read “Outcomes Over Output” by Josh Seiden
- Listen to Ep. 197 of The Innovation Engine: How to Drive Outcomes Over Outputs, with Josh Seiden
Produced by NOVA Media
According to Gartner, 80% of health system CIOs are actively exploring Generative AI use cases, so we break down the basics that everyone in health IT should know about the technology on this episode of The Innovation Engine.
We cover three main topic areas that will be vital for healthcare leaders to understand the implications of with regards to Generative AI: accuracy, cost, and privacy.
Pankaj Chawla, 3Pillar’s Chief Innovation Officer, and David Evans, 3Pillar’s Director of Global Innovation, join the show to talk with 3Pillar's Healthcare Industry Lead Steve Rowe to give listeners and healthcare leaders a look at how they can and should harness GenAI to be more efficient and effective.
We cover topics including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), data engineering and databases, workflows, Kubernetes, and self-provisioned GPUs, and separate cloud instances.
Episode Highlights:
- 00:00 - Intro to GenAI in Healthcare
- 1:53 - Why hallucinations happen
- 3:56 - Preventing hallucinations
- 11:01 - Cost concerns
- 13:37 - Keeping GenAI cost effective
- 19:25 - Data + privacy concerns
- 21:07 - Protecting data
- 25:30 - Data architecture for GenAI
Resources:
- Read 3Pillar’s white paper: “How Can You Keep Your AI Costs From Spiraling Out of Control?”
- Read about the internal chatbot that JPMorgan Chase developed for employees
- Learn more about 3Pillar’s GenAI Strategy
- Email Steve Rowe: steve.rowe@3pillarglobal.com
- Email Pankaj Chawla: pankaj.chawla@3pillarglobal.com
- Email David Evans: david.evans@3pillarglobal.com
Produced by NOVA Media
In healthcare, it’s the norm for there to be a three-month gap between providing a service and getting paid for it.
Our guest today, Zachary Kelly, talks with 3Pillar healthcare industry lead Steve Rowe about what FinTech innovations can do to help physicians and private healthcare practices close that gap.
Zachary is the Head of Growth for Chello, a credit line product from Oriental Bank that serves small-to-medium sized healthcare businesses. He explains how their market research showed that healthcare SMBs were facing two main pain points: not having a clear picture of their cash flow, and trouble getting timely access to lines of credit.
We then dive into the solutions. We discuss how Chello is bringing the robust use of APIs over from the financial world and integrating it into the healthcare ecosystem. We also discuss how Chello can directly tap into data about claims approval to better underwrite cash injections for practices.
If you currently run a healthcare SMB or have hopes of one day starting an independent practice, this episode will get you excited about the brighter future ahead.
Episode Highlights* Market research findings on the FinTech needs of healthcare SMBs * Developing a tech stack to provide a clearer view of cash flow for practices * How using claims data can lead to better underwriting quick cash injections for independent physicians
Resources* Learn more at chello.bank * Connect with Zachary Kelly on LinkedIn * Follow Zachary Kelly on Twitter * Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn * Read Steve's latest blog posts for 3Pillar
Produced by NOVA Media
According to Gartner Research, 60% of new customer business applications will be built using reusable business services through API-enabled composability by 2025. So what exactly are composable products, how should they be used, and which businesses should use them? Bernie Doone, Scott Young, and Rich Waller join 3Pillar Chief Innovation Officer Pankaj Chawla to break down everything you need to know about the topic.
They explain that composability and composable business products are a foundational architecture approach, essentially modular building blocks of software that can be quickly assembled into internal and external products. They then discuss its long list of business benefits: innovation, agility, operational excellence, accelerated business outcomes, and more.
But before you jump on the composable products bandwagon, they warn, you need to keep a few things in mind. First, only mature companies with multiple products can fully benefit from this internal approach. Second, business outcomes should lead the process–don’t just produce the next shiny product because composability makes it easier to do so.
Take a listen for a full, well-rounded conversation about composable business products to find out if they’re right for your organization.
Episode Highlights:
- A breakdown of what composable business products are and their business benefits
- How large and mature a company should be to consider composable business products
- How composability translates into company culture
Resources:
- Connect with Pankaj Chawla on LinkedIn
- Connect with Bernie Doone on LinkedIn
- Connect with Scott Young on LinkedIn
- Connect with Rich Waller on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
Most healthcare organizations — from payers to insurance companies to providers — are so bogged down with maintaining disparate, decades-old legacy systems that they lack the resources to create the technical solutions they want. That’s where Unqork comes into play.
3Pillar’s Healthcare Industry Leader, Steve Rowe, hosts this episode and talks with Andrew Sullivan, Industry Partner at Unqork. Unqork is a codeless platform for application development that was founded to help companies eliminate the technical debt that accrues any time companies introduce code-based solutions into their technology stack.
Andrew walks us through a few of the challenges commonly seen in the healthcare vertical, including prior authorization systems still being ruled by COBOL and other difficult-to-maintain legacy technologies, client portals that don’t meet customer expectations in 2024, and poorly customized and integrated off-the-shelf SaaS products.
Then, Andrew and Steve dive into how Unqork solves these problems. Unqork is a no-code platform for application development that provides users with an easy, modular, drag-and-drop solution for application development. It enables batch processing, mainframe database connections, and APIs to tie systems together, orchestrate data, and put everything users need in a single application. It comes with a library of components that can be easily selected, visually rendered for review by non-tech folks, and then quickly up and running.
Steve’s conversation with Andrew will resonate with just about any healthcare executive. 3Pillar is an Unqork partner; if listeners are interested in exploring how to use Unqork to explore some of the topic areas covered in this episode, please feel free to reach out to Steve or Andrew!
Episode Highlights:
- Typical use cases for Unqork in healthcare
- Why no-code eliminates technical debt
- How Unqork can integrate AI
Resources:
- Learn more at Unqork.com
- Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn
- Connect with Andrew Sullivan on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
Innovation in Healthcare: Why the Future Has Never Been Brighter
Driving innovation in the healthcare space has traditionally been a challenge to say the least. The good news? Many of the challenges that have stood in the way of unlocking healthcare innovation in the past are now fading into the background. VP of Client Success Carl Rudow and our healthcare industry lead, Steve Rowe, unpack why we may well be entering a golden age of innovation in healthcare on the latest episode of The Innovation Engine.
The reasons why healthcare organizations have been slower to innovate than companies in many other industries are many. Root causes include a dearth of incentives for payers and providers to innovate on their services, an inability to attract engineering and product expertise to the space, and increasingly ossified systems that increase tech debt and hamper innovation.
Recent years, however, have seen a number of positive shifts in the healthcare landscape. These shifts include the emergence of low-code/no-code platforms for application development, the maturation of offerings in the RPA space, and more recently, in areas like generative AI, Vision AI, and machine learning. Each of these trends should give healthcare leaders hope that the industry in general is moving beyond more conversations around healthcare strategy.
Episode Highlights* The healthcare industry faces challenges in driving innovation due to bad incentives, lack of engineering and product resources, and difficulties in implementing new systems and integrating data. * Low code and no code tools are emerging as solutions that empower healthcare organizations to build high-quality custom apps and workflows, enabling engineers to be more productive and improving user experiences. * Investing in good user experience design and product strategy for internal applications can lead to strong ROI and better serve patients and members. * Innovation in healthcare requires innovative solutions to overcome the barriers and challenges in the industry. Emerging tools like robotic process automation (RPA) and AI have the potential to transform healthcare organizations by automating manual processes and improving decision-making. * The ultimate goal of healthcare innovation is to provide better care and improve patient outcomes, and technology plays a vital role in achieving this. * Healthcare organizations need to embrace these emerging tools and invest in the necessary infrastructure and talent to fully leverage their potential.
Resources* Check out the 3Pillar blog * Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn * Connect with Carl Rudow on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we dig into the recent past and upcoming future of innovation in the Financial Services industry. Rob Murray, 3Pillar’s Financial Services Industry Leader, moderates a conversation with Jennifer Mun and Albert Thibault, two integral members of our Financial Services industry team.
The trio discusses some of the key trends they saw shaping the FinServ space in 2023, including the evolution of consumer behavior toward a cashless (and sometimes even cardless) society, and examining how data and personalization are revolutionizing customer experiences.
Looking ahead to 2024, we predict further enhancements in customer and employee experiences, driven by evolving AI applications and data analytics. We stress the importance of ethical AI deployment and data use in a globalized landscape and the strategic decisions between buying or building solutions.
Tune in to this robust conversation as we navigate through these exciting developments and lay out a roadmap for the future of financial services.
Episode Highlights:
- The transition to a cashless economy and its impact on financial services.
- Data-driven personalization as a key to enhancing customer experiences.
- The crucial role of talent in driving innovation in financial services.
- Prospects for AI and data analytics in shaping the future of the industry.
- The balance between innovation, security, and trust in financial services.
Resources:
- Connect with Rob Murray on LinkedIn
- Connect with Jennifer Mun on LinkedIn
- Connect with Albert Thibault on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
In this episode of The Innovation Engine, we're thrilled to welcome Arjun Pillai, the visionary co-founder and CEO of the emerging company, Docket. Arjun, a seasoned entrepreneur with a rich history of successful ventures, delves into the critical concept of Go-To-Market First Product Management (GTM First Product Management). This episode is a deep dive into why it's essential to consider market strategy, distribution, and user acquisition right from the inception of a product.
Arjun brings to light the importance of aligning product features with market needs and ensuring these are effectively communicated to customer-facing teams. He shares valuable insights from his experiences at ZoomInfo, emphasizing the evolution of product management and the pivotal role of product demos. Listeners will gain an understanding of how to empower teams for effective product demonstrations and the significance of setting clear goals for feature adoption.
Join us as we explore Arjun's unique approach to product management at his new venture, Docket, where customer discovery and collaboration are key. His perspective on media consumption and engaging with industry experts offers a glimpse into the mind of a true innovator.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn from Arjun's expertise and understand the nuances of bringing a product to market successfully. Tune in for a masterclass in product management strategy and execution.
Episode Highlights:
- Exploring the concept of Go-To-Market First Product Management (GTM First Product Management) and its importance
- Arjun's experience at ZoomInfo and how it highlights the alignment of product features with market needs
- The evolving role of product management, shifting from holistic approaches to more specific tasks
- Importance and strategies for effective product demos, including the use of synthetic data and maintaining separate demo environments
- Setting and managing goals for feature adoption, with different expectations for different company sizes and markets
Resources:
- Sign up to learn more about docketai.com
- Connect with Arjun on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
On this episode of The Innovation Engine Podcast, we dive deep into the realm of innovation, change, and the human resistance to new ideas with David Schonthal, an award-winning professor at the Kellogg School of Management. David, co-originator of the revolutionary "friction theory," sheds light on why promising innovations often stumble before reaching their full potential.
David and host Scott Varho explore the profound influence of human psychology on the acceptance and adoption of change. Why do people love the idea of innovation but dread the concept of change? David presents insightful real-world examples, highlighting the necessity of understanding the human element for successful innovation.
As the discussion unfolds, listeners will be intrigued by the power of subtle shifts in approach, like shifting change management or marketing strategies to foster self-persuasion. It's an enlightening conversation that delves into the intricacies of introducing change, managing resistance, and ensuring that innovations don't just shine but also find their rightful place in the market.
Tune in to discover the hidden challenges that await new ideas and how to navigate them successfully.
Episode Highlights:
- The challenges faced by promising innovations and the nuances of "friction theory," including the four types of friction
- The significance of empathy in product development and the limitations of traditional marketing personas
- Real-world examples of subtle marketing techniques that can influence consumer perception
Resources:
- Learn more at davidschonthal.com
- Read: The Human Element by Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal
- Connect with David on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
3Pillar’s Financial Services Industry Lead, Rob Murray, joins us on the latest Innovation Engine to share some of the latest insights he’s gleaned from serving 3Pillar clients across the Financial Services space.
Rob and Scott Varho dive deep into what it takes to successfully drive innovation in a tightly regulated industry like Financial Services, where many organizations feel handcuffed by the legacy software and systems that power their customer experiences. In this episode, we explore the myriad of opportunities and challenges that the rapidly evolving banking, insurance and broader Financial Services sector presents, and how institutions are navigating this ever-changing landscape.
Throughout the conversation, Rob sheds light on the pivotal role of innovation in shaping the future of banking. From the adoption of groundbreaking technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence to strategic partnerships between traditional banks and FinTech startups, Rob provides a comprehensive overview of the forces driving change in the industry. He emphasizes the significance of customer-centricity and how banks are leveraging data, analytics, and technology to enhance user experience and meet the rising expectations of consumers in the digital age.
In addition to his work at 3Pillar, Rob has extensive experience in leading digital transformation for renowned banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and he recently co-hosted our episode on Innovation by Design, which featured a conversation with JPMorgan Chase’s Chief Design Officer, Sam Yen.
Tune in to this episode for a deep dive into the state of innovation in Financial Services, where Rob offers valuable insights, discusses future trends, and shares his vision for a more connected and customer-focused banking experience.
Episode Highlights:
- Rob delves into the significance of innovation in the financial sector, discussing how it shapes competitiveness and meets the ever-evolving expectations of customers in the digital age.
- The potential and challenges of blockchain technology, highlighting their impact on trust distribution and the financial industry’s future.
- The shift towards a customer-centric approach in banking.
- The hurdles of digital transformation, including regulatory compliance, cybersecurity threats, and the integration of emerging technologies into legacy systems.
- Future trends and developments in banking, focusing on the integration of new technologies and the emergence of customer-focused business models.
Resources:
- Connect with Rob Murray on LinkedIn
- Read: "The Product Mindset" by David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall
- Read: "Amp It Up" by Frank Slootman
Produced by NOVA Media
In today's transformative digital landscape, what truly defines a tech company? Matt Brandon, the Industry Leader for the 3Pillar Technology Vertical, joins us for a deep dive into the multifaceted world of technology. From the evolution of technology sectors to the omnipresence of data, Matt shares insights on navigating opportunities and threats in this high-paced arena.
Matt's rich background showcases a blend of partnerships with leading tech entities, his impactful journeys at Colego and Gartner, and a pivotal role in Gartner's acquisition of CEB. At Three Pillars, the term "tech company" goes beyond the traditional. Whether it's cybersecurity or even a home relocation firm, if there's a significant digital or electronics-based product or service, you're in the tech space.
This episode provides a holistic view of the opportunities driven by data and AI, the challenges of security, and the ever-present need to innovate. Dive into Matt's perspective on the importance of talent, the essence of agility, and the dual power of quantitative and qualitative data. Matt also highlights the intriguing world of water technology and shares book recommendations that have influenced his career.
Tune in to understand the nuances of today's tech world, where the lines are blurred, the stakes are high, and innovation is at the heart of success.
Resources:
- Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA Media
Digital transformation is a term often tossed around in boardrooms but rarely understood in its full depth and breadth. David Rogers joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine podcast to discuss his latest book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap, and his vast experience advising a bevy of top-tier corporate clients including Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, and Toyota. A renowned faculty member at Columbia Business School, expert in digital transformation, and the brain behind several groundbreaking books on the subject, David is the perfect voice of reason to bring a logical understanding to this vital concept. David underscores the significant differences between a digital-first startup and a legacy enterprise attempting to make its products and services viable in the digital realm. He emphasizes that digital transformation is not a short-term project, but a continuous journey intertwined with both digital strategy and sweeping organizational change.
In David's latest book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap, he outlines the Five Steps for Digital Transformation:
- Define a Shared Vision: This involves crafting a vision unique to the organization. It should be more specific than just wanting to "go digital" and should be commonly understood by everyone in the company.
- Pick the Problems that Matter Most: Prioritize key issues and be willing to say no to less important opportunities.
- Validating New Ventures: Shift from traditional planning-focused models to iterative processes that allow for continuous learning and adaptation.
- Managing Growth at Scale: Adopt different management or governance models that can work across multiple teams and cater to different strategic opportunities.
- Growing Technology, Talent, and Culture: Identify gaps in technology infrastructure, talent, and company culture, and address these.
The process is cyclical, not linear, and the steps should be revisited regularly for continuous adaptation and improvement. Tune in for an insightful journey into the heart of digital transformation with one of the foremost thought leaders in the field. Don't miss David's deep insights, actionable strategies, and a fresh perspective on a topic that's reshaping the global business landscape.
Resources: * Learn more at davidrogers.digital * Read "The Digital Transformation Roadmap" by David Rogers * Connect with David Rogers on LinkedIn * Read "Marketing Myopia" by Theodore Levitt
Produced by NOVA Media
Bernie Doone joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to delve deep into the intricate world of Information Services. Bernie is no stranger to our listeners, having previously co-hosted episodes featuring insightful dialogues with experts like Marianne Johnson of Cox Automotive and Josh Eastright from Bloomberg Industry Group.
At its core, Information Services revolves around B2B companies whose assets lie predominantly in insights and value-added services. These entities play the crucial role of transforming data into insights and content, combining proprietary, third-party, and publicly available data. Companies like Bloomberg Industry Group and Cox Automotive are stellar examples of Information Services companies that have evolved into digital powerhouses, now offering tools and insights right when their customers need them most.
Throughout the conversation, we uncover key developments and trends in the Information Services sector. From building a common data platform to leveraging metadata for intuitive search, and from creating exceptional user experiences to the importance of research insights — we touch on a number of facets that are reshaping the industry.
Bernie brings a fresh perspective to product development that is sure to broaden your own understanding of what it means to innovate. Join us for this in-depth exploration and garner insights into the ever-evolving world of Information Services, the fascinating intersections with technology and AI, and why this industry can serve as an inspiration for sectors far and wide.
Resources:
- Connect with Bernie on LinkedIn
- Read The Product Mindset by David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall
- Read The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
- Read Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth from McKinsey & Company
Produced by NOVA Media
Productizing a services business is no small feat, but the benefits of doing so are vast: improved margins, increased productivity, higher company valuations, and less reliance on increasingly in-demand tech talent. Eisha Armstrong joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to share more about how to turn a services company into a productized business.
Eisha has established herself as an authoritative voice in this space, having authored two compelling books: Fearless: How to Transform a Services Culture and Successfully Productize and Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products. With her deep understanding of the challenges faced by B2B services companies competing against digital-first companies and scaling efficiently, Eisha offers some insightful strategies and tips.
In this conversation, Eisha highlights the importance of setting clear goals to inform your productization approach, treating productization as a portfolio, and overcoming the fear of productization.
Listen in as Eisha and host Scott Varho unpack the essentials of a product-friendly culture, highlighting five levers: vision, organizational structure, governance, talent, and people-related practices. Finally, Eisha introduces us to the 'four horsemen of productization': Knowing, Perfectionism, Scarcity thinking, and Individual heroics. She breaks down this daunting task into something surmountable that anyone in a services organization can’t afford to miss.
Resources * Learn more about Vecteris at vecteris.com * Connect with Eisha on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/eishaarmstrong * Read Eisha's books: "Fearless: How to Transform a Services Culture and Successfully Productize" and "Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products"
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
Sam Yen, the Chief Innovation Officer for Commercial Banking at JPMorgan Chase, joins us for this episode of The Innovation Engine to discuss Innovation by Design and Scaling Innovation. Sam is responsible for JPMorgan Chase’s digital products, platforms, innovation, and product strategy, so there is a massive amount of responsibility that falls under his purview.
We kick off the episode by diving into Sam's guiding principles for leading teams and prioritizing work in a financial institution of JPMorgan Chase's scale. He stresses the importance of being customer or client-centered, maintaining effective communication, ensuring a deep understanding of end-to-end experiences in product delivery, and keeping the bigger picture in mind while fostering a culture of quick learning and iteration.
Sam shares his insights on the power of design in crafting user experiences that are intuitive, delightful, and even "forgettable" in terms of ease of use. We discuss the challenges and constraints of fostering innovation in a large financial institution and how the constraints by which financial services companies are bound can, perhaps counterintuitively, lead to more focused solutions. We also cover Sam's previous work at SAP and the four phases of scaling innovation in large organizations he uncovered with Janaki Kumar and Baba Shiv. The four phases Sam details on the innovation journey run from the "lonely soldier phase" all the way through to a fully scaled culture of innovation.
Tune in to listen to Sam Yen's unique insights on the journey of driving innovation, navigating risk, and why the true importance of design extends far beyond what many people traditionally think of.
Episode Highlights * Why the role of design includes but also extends well beyond delivering a delightful and intuitive user experience * Principles for managing large teams and prioritizing what those teams choose to focus on * The concept of thinking of risk as a line of boxes that gets increasingly larger over time, and the process of de-risking ideas incrementally as they scale * Why innovation requires excelling at both creativity AND execution; you don’t get to pick just one * Sam shares why the emphasis that’s often placed on creative problem solving would be even more productive if it were instead placed on creative problem finding The four phases of innovation readiness: lonely soldier, success in silos, push to pull, and scaled * The value of diverse teams in delivering innovative solutions and the difference between constructive tension and destructive tension
About Sam Yen Sam Yen is an acclaimed design leader who has had an exceptional career trajectory. Prior to his role as Chief Innovation Officer for Commercial Banking at JPMorgan Chase, he served as Managing Director for SAP Silicon Valley and was SAP's first Chief Design Officer. At SAP, Sam led their Design Thinking practice both internally and for customers. With his unique combination of real-world experience and education (Sam has a PhD from Stanford in Design, Mechanical Engineering, and Aero/Astro), Sam offers a valuable perspective on integrating design principles at the highest levels of corporate decision-making and scaling innovation throughout large organizations.
Resources * Connect with Sam Yen on LinkedIn * Read one of Sam’s recent interviews for more on the 4 phases of innovation * Learn more about how JPMorgan Chase Commercial Bank is banking the innovation economy * Read volume 1 of “Payments Unbound,” a partnership between JPMorgan and Wired on the future of digital cash and more * Read volume 2 of “Payments Unbound,” which focuses on the future of commerce
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
Ready to be inspired by a transformation story that propelled a bank to new heights? In this discussion with Paul Cobban, we dig deep into the remarkable business transformation of DBS Bank under his leadership. DBS' incredible journey saw the company go from having the reputation of being known as "D#mn Bloody Slow," as Paul tells it, to becoming a digital powerhouse that regularly earns accolades for its digital experience and transformation. DBS was named "World's Best Bank” by Global Finance 5 times, and it was hailed as one of Harvard Business Review's top 10 business transformations of the last decade, alongside innovation stalwarts Netflix, Amazon, and Adobe. Paul also shares insights from the book he co-authored with Scott Anthony, Eat, Sleep, Innovate which serves as a roadmap for companies and leaders looking to excel with the right mindset, tools, and habits. Join us for this engaging conversation as we uncover the magic behind DBS' transformation journey and gain valuable insights from Paul Cobban's wealth of knowledge and experience.
Resources: * Learn more about Paul and his work at PaulCobban.com * Connect with Paul on LinkedIn * Read: Eat, Sleep, Innovate by Scott Anthony, Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud, and Andy Parker * View the full webinar here: 3pillarglobal.com/insights/learn-from-paul-cobban * Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
On this episode, we're diving into the world of Agile Thinking with our guest, Kevin Philpott, Director of Product Design at Pie Insurance.
Pie Insurance is a venture-backed insurtech startup, having raised over $600 million in funding since its inception in 2017. Kevin, who has been with Pie Insurance from the very start, is now responsible for all B2B, B2C, and enterprise digital interfaces. Prior to Pie, Kevin held senior product design roles at companies such as RapidFinance, part of the Quicken Loans Family of Companies, and GEICO. His experience across small, medium, and enterprise-sized companies gives him a unique perspective on the Agile Thinking challenges that occur in different business environments.
In this episode, Kevin shares his insights on building a culture of Agile Thinking. He emphasizes the "think big, start small, learn fast" mentality and the importance of focusing on outcomes over outputs. He stresses that the role UX can play in developing an Agile Thinking culture extends far beyond wireframes and pixels and reaches into areas like user research and deeply understanding quantitative metrics. Kevin also discusses the value of failure and learning, the power of trust in product development, and the need for a user-centric approach in product design.
Whether you're a product leader looking to shift your team's focus towards Agile Thinking or a UX designer eager to make a bigger impact, this episode is packed with practical insights and actionable advice.
Resources:
- Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn
- Learn more about Pie Insurance at pieinsurance.com
- Read "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we explore the fascinating world of applied innovation and the critical process of testing the commercial viability of ideas. Join us as we speak with Michael Rabjohns, Global Head of User Experience Research and Design at 3Pillar, and Steven Cooper, a Lead UX Designer in Michael's group. Both bring extensive experience in the digital product space. Between them, they have worked with household names like Marriott, Calvin Klein, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google. Alongside host Scott Varho, they share their unique insights and valuable advice on navigating the complex landscape of innovation and product development.
Listen to the full conversation to hear about the importance of understanding users and their needs, the role of execution and the necessity of pivoting or persevering based on user feedback, and various tools and techniques for user research and testing. We also discuss the challenges of communicating with stakeholders, creating safe spaces for unbiased research, and the benefits of using low-fidelity prototypes in the early stages of development. Don't miss this engaging discussion packed with practical knowledge and valuable insights for product developers at any stage of their innovation journey.
Resources: * View the webinar slides and resources: On-Demand Webinar * Key takeaways from the webinar: How to Test the Commercial Viability of an Idea * Connect with Michael Rabjohns on LinkedIn * Connect with Steven Cooper on LinkedIn * Connect with Scott Varho on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
Do you know the difference between focusing on outcomes versus outputs in product development — and why the difference can make or break a product? In this episode, we explore how shifting the focus from churning out features to driving business outcomes can help product teams deliver far greater value to users and organizations.
Our guest, Josh Siden, is a designer, strategy consultant, and author of the book Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success. He spent two years working on a stock trading app that never shipped, which taught him the importance of putting products in users’ hands “unreasonably early.”
Josh presents three “magic questions” to help product teams focus on outcomes and introduces a new behavioral model that suggests teams should focus on changes in user behavior that create business value. He explains the importance of telling a specific story about the user journey, highlighting key moments that make a difference, and building a shared perspective and understanding to make collaborative prioritization decisions. Finally, Josh discusses the benefits of outcomes-based roadmaps, providing context for why the team is doing something and outlining traditional roadmap content, questions, and risks.
Resources:
- Learn more at JoshuaSeiden.com
- Connect with Josh on LinkedIn
- Follow Josh on Twitter: @jseiden
- Read: Outcomes Over Output by Joshua Seiden
- Read Josh’s recommended business book: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
- Read Josh’s recommended book on writing, which he cites as an inherently creative process akin to product development: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Produced by Nova Media
In this episode, we're joined by Teresa Torres, an internationally recognized author, speaker, and coach. With a focus on continuous discovery, Teresa has coached hundreds of product teams of all sizes and industries in a structured approach to infusing customer input into their daily product decisions. Her expertise has helped product teams move away from simply focusing on Agile execution and how they build products towards a more holistic approach to development that places an equal focus on making sure what they build delivers value to the customer and the business.
Teresa’s expertise has helped product teams move away from simply focusing on Agile execution and how they build products towards a more holistic approach to product development where teams place an equal focus on making sure what they build delivers value to the customer and the business.
We dive deep into the key concepts of Teresa's book, Continuous Discovery Habits, in which she introduces a framework for product teams to think about customer discovery. We explore the importance of an outcome mindset, getting good at interviewing to discover unmet customer needs, pain points, and desires, and assumption testing to help evaluate solutions. Episode Highlights:
- How product teams can learn to focus on executing on the right things, not just executing in the right way
- The most vital habits that teams should employ for continuous discovery
- Why following Teresa’s collaborative “product trio” model, where a Product Manager, Design Lead, and Tech Lead all work closely together from the start, leads to far less waste than the traditional product development model and process
- How embracing the creative tension of bringing multiple disciplines together yields better results than the top-down style of decision-making prevalent in many organizations
- The 2 different kinds of product instrumentation — optimization and value creation — and examples of both
- Which companies are positive examples of continuous discovery in action (hint: not many!)
Resources:
- Learn more at ProductTalk.org
- Follow Teresa on Twitter: @ttorres
- Connect with Teresa on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/teresatorres
- Read: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In the first segment of our conversation with Marty Cagan, the celebrated product expert and bestselling author of Empowered and Inspired, we discussed why a roadmap focused on outcomes yields far better results than one based on solutions, the importance of clearly communicating and exhibiting an appealing product vision, and the critical inquiry that a strong product vision must address directly. In part two, we discuss the foundational elements needed for product teams to be successful, and how to identify mission-driven teams.
Tune in to the full conversation to hear how teams can balance the immediate needs of the business with the long-term product vision, the importance of taking ownership of things outside of your control, and why empowered product teams are passionate about solving problems.
Resources:
- Listen to part 1 of our discussion with Marty Cagan
- Learn more at svpg.com
- Read Empowered
- Read Inspired
- Connect with Marty on LinkedIn
- Follow Marty on Twitter
Learn more and get the full show notes at: www.3PillarGlobal.com/the-innovation-engine-podcast/
What separates the most successful product companies in the world — Apple, Amazon, Google —from everyone else? It’s a question Marty Cagan has spent the better part of his career exploring, writing about, and seeking to answer. At least part of the answer lies in the fact that many of these highly successful companies follow a model where product teams are empowered to solve problems and deliver outcomes rather than accept requirements and deliver outputs.
Marty Cagan joins us to discuss the many ways empowered product teams can drive value and growth for companies if only they're allowed to. Marty is a renowned product leader, founder, and partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group. He's the author of two influential books, Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products and Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. Marty has been a prominent figure in Silicon Valley for years, having previously worked at eBay, Netscape, and Hewlett-Packard. Over the past two decades as the founder of Silicon Valley Product Group, Marty has provided consultancy for several significant technology products and established himself as a leading advocate for building customer-centric, product-focused organizations.
Resources:
- Learn more at svpg.com
- See examples of product visions for companies like Airbnb, Apple, Asana, Dropbox, Hubspot, and SpaceX on the SVPG site
- Read Empowered
- Read Inspired
- Connect with Marty Cagan on LinkedIn
- Follow Marty Cagan on Twitter
Learn more and get the full show notes on the 3Pillar website
How can you predict opportunities for massive innovation before they happen? By identifying inflection points before they happen.
Inflection points are moments of significant change for a business, industry, or market. They feature prominently in Dr. Rita Gunther McGrath's latest book, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. Dr. McGrath discusses how to identify and navigate these inflection points in business — so you can position yourself and your organization for success in the age of disruption.
Tune in to the full conversation to hear how to spot inflection points before they happen, how to keep innovating without putting yourself or your business at catastrophic risk, and find out what happens when we let AI take over the interview and ask some questions.
Dr. Rita Gunther McGrath is a leading authority on strategic innovation and growth. She is a professor at Columbia Business School, a globally recognized thought leader, and the author of several best-selling books. Resources:
- Learn more at ritamcgrath.com
- Read Seeing Around Corners
- Connect with Dr. McGrath on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
When it comes to innovation, the education industry typically isn’t the first that comes to mind — but Ron Reed is trying to change that. He’s the Founder and Executive Producer of SXSW EDU, an annual event that fosters innovation and learning within the education industry. SXSW is well-known for its tech conference, music festival, and independent film festival, but it covers a wider range of topics, including the education event that’s held in the days before the tech conference. Ron talks about the role of technology in education, the conversations that are being had ahead of SXSW EDU 2023, and what the future is going to bring to both education and SXSW EDU specifically.Episode Highlights:
- What SXSW EDU is and what it strives to achieve
- The origin story of How SXSW EDU began and how it is continuing to grow and evolve
- How Ron and his partners decided to make alterations and improvements to the event as it grows
- The rise of education technology and how it has continued to evolve since Ron’s days selling educational material on laser video discs
- What’s is coming up in SXSW EDU 2023
- Opening up the discussion around mental health in education
Resources:
- Learn more at sxswedu.com
- Connect with Ronald Reed on LinkedIn
- Follow SXSW EDU on Twitter
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Marianne Johnson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Cox Automotive, where she oversees a team of roughly 5000 people across 700 Scrum teams. She’s responsible for an $8 billion dollar portfolio that includes a number of products that are household names, including Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
On this episode, Scott Varho and Bernie Doone talk with Mariannne about building a culture where rapid innovation and living on the cutting-edge of technology are the norm.Episode Highlights:
- What Marianne’s role at Cox as Chief Product Officer entails (01:13)
- What makes up Cox’s $8 billion dollar product portfolio (9:20)
- Running an AgileGILE culture across 700 Scrum teams (13:20)
- Insights from running the five patterns of Agile (18:47)
- How composability informs what products to launch (24:00)
- Leveraging data to drive value (28:03)
- How Cox Automotive uses AI for growth (32:31)
- Speed round, which covers Marianne’s boat, what to look for in new hires, and the most impactful business or tech book she’s ever read (33:31)
Resources:
- Learn more at coxautoinc.com
- Follow Marianne Johnson on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Sejal Amin is the newly-named Chief Technology Officer at Shutterstock where she has a broad mandate to drive Shutterstock’s digital transformation into a full-service creative platform for hundreds of thousands of creative professionals around the world. She talks with 3Pillar’s Scott Varho and Elisabeth Beller about moving from software project to product on this episode of The Innovation Engine.
Tune in to the full conversation to hear how Shutterstock is making the leap from project to product, what a value stream is and how to manage it within a company, and why using a body of metrics is vital to drive decision-making during digital transformation.
Resources:
- Connect with Sejal on LinkedIn
- Read: Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole Forsgren, PhD, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim
- Read: Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework by Mik Kersten
- Read: Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart
- If you have any feedback about the podcast or guests you’d like to hear interviewed, send your suggestions to info@3pillarglobal.com.
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
When you think of financial services and healthcare, ease of transformation likely isn’t the first to come to mind. There are privacy concerns, compliance issues, and security responsibilities. So how does a company that sits at the intersection of those two tackle radical digital transformation—all while already sitting at the top of its field? For this episode, we speak with Cory Gundberg about driving digital transformation in large organizations. Cory is the COO of Optum Financial, where he’s driven their transformation strategy for close to a year. Prior to that, he was the Chief Digital Officer at Optum Rx, and he also held several leadership roles at Walmart, including SVP of Health and Wellness, SVP of Walmart Labs, VP of Walmart Technology, and Senior Director of Innovation. We discuss what drives innovation within his organization, how he filters through the noise to find where transformation is truly needed, and how UnitedHealth channels its digital innovations budget into new technologies that help its consumers.
Resources:
- Learn more at Optum.com
- Connect with Cory on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In this special episode of The Innovation Engine, we’re joined by Jessica Hall, VP of Design at CoStar Group, alongside 3Pillar Global CEO David DeWolf. Three years ago we spoke with them both about their book, The Product Mindset: Succeed in the Digital Economy by Changing the Way Your Organization Thinks. This time around, we take a look at what they’ve both learned in the years since, how Jessica’s perspective of The Product Mindset has changed since working at CoStar Group, and what they would change or add to the book today.
Episode Highlights:
- Jess discusses her role at CoStar Group, a new addition to the S&P 500 that provides a number of data-related digital products to customers mostly in commercial real estate (1:46)
- The three characteristics of a digital product and the three guiding principles of success that make up The Product Mindset (08:35)
- How Jess’ personal experience with The Product Mindset at CoStar Group has shifted her perspective (12:24)
- Changing the conversation from what are we doing? to why are we doing it? (21:10)
- Connecting the dots between a digital product and the company’s success (27:28)
- The continual decision-making process (29:31)
- Leveraging insight to see beyond what is being said (44:07)
Resources:
- Learn more about The Product Mindset at productmindset.com
- Buy The Product Mindset on Amazon
- Visit Jessica’s LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicashall
- Visit David’s LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddewolf
- Learn more about Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, by Dan Heath
- Learn more about Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Dr. Nicole Forsgren
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Bloomberg Industry Group CEO Josh Eastright talks with us about putting CX innovation into practice for this episode of the podcast. We discuss why when you’re running a digital business a product is never done, why providing your customers with answers at their point of need is a sign of an evolved customer experience, and why AI and machine learning are still heavily reliant on the human component to deliver valuable content to consumers.
Resources:
- Learn more at bloombergindustry.com
- Visit Josh’s LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/josheastright
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Episode Highlights:
- [01:09] The origins of Bloomberg Industry Group and who they serve
- [04:45] Solving for your customers’ needs begins with the onboarding process, and understanding that technology buyers and users are often different audiences
- [07:42] Transitioning from traditional publishing to digital product innovation
- [17:50] How Bloomberg Industry Group drives innovation at a high level
- [20:52] Leveraging 90 years of history to create a business advantage
- [22:51] Providing answers at your customers’ point of need
- [27:33] The rate of digital adoption and how the pandemic impacted it
- [31:33] The struggles that come with using AI and machine learning
What do you do when changes in competition and customer expectations necessitate a radical change to your business model? Kevin Turpin is President of The National Journal, where he’s seen a complete overhaul of the company’s business model—from a traditional media advertising model to an advisory and information services company with an ever-growing number of digital products and services. He joins us to discuss the process of this digital transformation, how long new products take from idea to launch, adapting to your customers’ or members’ ever-changing needs, and how National Journal is continuing to evolve today.
Resources:
- Learn more at nationaljournal.com
- Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
It’s undeniable that Apple is at the top of its game—yet despite its overwhelming success, Apple has also fundamentally changed in the last decade without the innovative leadership of Steve Jobs. For this episode of the podcast, we speak with Tripp Mickle, a reporter with The New York Times and the author of 'After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul.' Tripp discusses how the absence of Steve’s balancing role led to an imbalance between Apple’s creative innovations and its operational excellence, and how the company’s incredible growth has necessitated a new approach to product design and product development.
Resources:
- Learn more about After Steve on Amazon
- Read Tripp’s articles in The New York Times
- Read Tripp’s articles in The Wall Street Journal
- Visit Tripp’s LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/trippmickle
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
The pandemic forced a lot of innovation on corporations but didn’t give us much time to carefully consider how to best implement those changes. Now that it feels like we can take a step back, what can we do to utilize the recent digital transformations to their fullest potential? Ben Chodor is the president of Notified and host of the Insights with Ben Chodor podcast. He’s been guiding corporations as they adapt to the rapidly accelerating digital landscape forced onto them by the pandemic. He promotes how organizations can create engaging online experiences as the co-author of “Transitioning to Virtual and Hybrid Events.” And that’s our topic for the day; how companies can make the most of their forced innovations before higher expectations become the norm. Tune in.
Resources:
- Listen: Insights with Ben Chodor
- Read: Transitioning to Virtual and Hybrid Events
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
The cloud is the future, that much is clear. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with some bumps in the road along the way. Yun Freund is the Senior Vice President of Platform and Product at Equinix. Yun’s career has been spent bridging the gap between corporate physical infrastructure and its digital future. As a seasoned industry executive, she’s ushered in the cloud renovation of her engineering, communications, and data services employers, and is currently advising Google on hybrid multi cloud industry trends and platform strategy. Yun shares what companies can expect going through digital transformation, some of the hurdles that hold businesses back, and ensuring that the cloud future is safe, secure, and reliable.
Resources:
- Yun Freund on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Ian Wright is Chief Insights Officer at Equifax. But what does that actually mean and what insights can he give us into the current (and future) state of the marketplace? Do you wish there was an easy way to access data and see insights into what it means all in one go? That’s one of Ian’s main roles along with keeping track of the market and its trends. When it comes to innovation, you have to know exactly where you are before you can decide where you want to go and how you want to get there.
Equifax provides marketing solutions to help businesses achieve more targeted, meaningful interactions across the customer journey. They believe that understanding household economics is critical to marketing success, and that’s where a Chief Insights Officer comes in.
Listen for a more thorough explanation of Ian’s role along with his view of the state of the market, and even his takes on things like getting the work/life balance right and handling imposter syndrome.
Resources:
- Ian Wright on LinkedIn
- Equifax
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We’ve assembled some of the sharpest minds from 3Pillar Global for a discussion of everything to expect in the marketplace in 2022. What trends are we currently watching and what should we be looking out for as the year rolls on? Making up our panel are Scott Varho (Vice President of Product Development), Margaret Irons (Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications), Jamie Whitacre (Chief People Officer), and Kim Mirazimi (Senior Vice President of the Commercial Services Portfolio).
Between them, you couldn’t ask for a more qualified group to explore where we’re headed. First, we look at the takeaways that leaders need to be aware of when it comes to product design and development. Then, we move into the three major differentiators of 3Pillar.
Other topics include working from home, how to get messaging effectively out into the marketplace, data collection, and the increasingly digital landscape businesses and their leaders must traverse on the way to employee wellness.
Resources:
- Scott Varho on LinkedIn
- Margaret Irons on LinkedIn
- Jamie Whitacre on LinkedIn
- Kim Mirazimi on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Almost any stat you can find on the subject suggests that Americans are worryingly lacking in financial literacy. Only about 6% of the nation’s employees are positioned to prepare for retirement on their own and only half of those will succeed in doing so. That leaves 97% in need of help.
Financial education isn’t a new concept, but it’s only now that it’s finally starting to gain traction as a legitimate avenue for businesses to explore for their employees – in part thanks to the work of people like Whitney Queen and mindful financial brands like Mentoro.
President of Mentoro, a turn-key financial wellness service provider, Whitney explains that the firm’s aim is to empower employees to focus on their financial journeys and, in turn, create a happier, more productive workplace for everyone.
Our conversation covers financial literacy shortcomings we see on a day-to-day basis, actions that individual companies and organizations can take to cultivate financial wellness within their workforce, and the tangible benefits they’re likely to see by doing so.
Resources:
- Mentoro
- Whitney on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
One of the biggest, most visible impacts of the pandemic was the massive disruption of supply chains across the globe. It led to shipment delays and product shortages across multiple industries. The problem is that this data can be hard to visualize when you’re trying to solve complicated disruptions.
We’re sitting down with a dynamic woman leading a dynamic company doing incredibly relevant work in the tech space, Jennifer Bisceglie. She’s the founder and CEO of Interos, a supply chain management company that developed powerful artificial intelligence tools which empower companies to quickly identify and respond to rapid changes in their supply chains. Instead of endless spreadsheets, Interos provides clients with a live, global visualization of their supply chains, making it that much easier to protect and improve them.
We get her perspective on everything from modern logistical challenges, to what makes a successful leader, to women in technology. We also discuss Interos’ recent successful funding event where they raised $100 million in investments.
Resources:
- interos.ai
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennifer-bisceglie-3328b2
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
How do you take your disruptive ideas and quickly turn them into products consumers want?
Bob Moesta is a one-man innovation engine. He’s the principal architect of the jobs-to-be-done theory along with Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. He’s Founder, President, and CEO of the Rewired Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping companies innovate better, cheaper, and faster. They’ve done so for over 3,500 products and services across countless industries.
We speak about the challenges he faces in helping companies rethink how they do business, and his new book, Demand-Side Sales.
Resources:
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bobmoesta
- Read: Demand-Side Sales
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Few retail industries were disrupted by COVID as much as the fashion industry. And yet, many of the biggest brands out there have managed to weather the storm and create digital transformations that kept them agile and relevant.
Joanne Joliet is currently Head of Worldwide Fashion and Apparel at Amazon Web Services and has had a long career in research and analytics in the retail industry. Previously, she was senior research director in retail at Gartner and has led digital innovation in executive roles at Belk and Family Dollar Stores, Inc.
She shares her take on how retail has digitally transformed, how the COVID pandemic affected that transformation, and where we go from here.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/joanne-joliet-8b3815
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We’ve seen rapid digital transformation over just a few short years, from digital being an afterthought to becoming the primary way customers engage with brands.
With the shift to digital comes the opportunity to craft better storytelling and customer experiences. So what do we do to win customers in a digital age?
Howard Tiersky provides perspectives on the digital media landscape and the critical role that unique content plays in driving audience engagement today. He’s started internet, intranet, and other digital media pages for his previous companies, including Ernst & Young and Capgemini. He’s also the author of Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance.
We’re going to discuss the benefits of democratized storytelling, how to speak to your customers and make them fall in love with your brand, and what’s holding you back from changing at the rate of your customer.
Resources:
- from.digital/howard-tiersky
- Read: Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tiersky
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
COVID-19 has caused disruption like we’ve rarely seen. Media companies have had to adapt fast in our changing environment.
Edwin Wong provides a unique perspective on the media landscape. He’s led research and data-driven B2B strategies for various companies over the past 20 years, working with the likes of Pinterest, Yahoo!, Buzzfeed, Nielsen, and now Vox Media as their Senior Vice President of Insights & Innovation. He helps their advertising partners understand the value proposition of Vox Media, what’s happening in society, and why consumers behave in the way that they do.
We explore the ways in which media companies have remained relevant over the past year, and how brands are leveraging those communication channels to reach their customers in new and innovative ways.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/edwinhwong
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Insurance is one of those things that customers don’t really like to think about buying. They know they need it, but they don’t really want to pay for it and that leads to a fractured experience. How can digital transformation be used to create stronger customer relationships and engagement?
Monica Caldas has spent much of her career creating digital solutions and influencing innovation at one of the world’s largest companies, GE. In her role as global CIO for GE Transportation, she’s helped drive how the transportation industry uses data and digital services to grow revenue. Now, she’s helping shape the future of insurance as EVP and Chief Information Officer, Global Retail Markets at Liberty Mutual.
She talks about what digital transformation means to her, how Liberty Mutual is trying to change customers’ relationships with insurance, and the role of AI in digital transformation.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/monicacaldas
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
If there’s one positive thing to come out of this pandemic, it’s that technological advancements that were expected to take years to adopt happened in a matter of months. Is that trend going to continue? Will that be the expectation, or will innovation slow back down?
Eileen Mahoney has been leading digital innovation in the retail industry for decades. She’s the Chief Information Officer at PVH, the parent company of household brand names such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, IZOD, Geoffrey Beene, and more.
Eileen shares her perspective on the many shifts in retail technology, not just in the last year, but over the span of her career.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/eileen-mahoney-b02b86
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Technology can solve nearly every business problem; we just need to know how to use it. It’s up to leaders to keep up with that technology and take advantage of what’s available — to see around corners to how they can apply the latest innovations to their business.
Joining us is Sheila Jordan, Chief Digital Technology Officer at Honeywell. She is an IT executive who excels at solving complex business problems. She understands how technology can add value to a business, and how it can define the IT vision and strategy that leads teams to a successful execution. With this approach, she considers herself to be an agent of change.
Sheila explores Honeywell’s goal of creating future shapers in its industry, the necessity of trusting your team to innovate, and the importance of data in digital transformation.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/jordansheila
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Our guest today is Riddhi Gupta. She is an agile transformation leader focused on people, products, and organizations, and she’s held senior roles at Wells Fargo, AIG, and Bank of America. She's also done a lot for the community as a founding board member of Agile Week Charlotte and a leader in Women in Agile, Charlotte Metro. Hear Riddhi talk about the importance of the human factor in successful transformation, and why grounding those humans in purpose and alignment is the first stage to the most successful transformations. If you're looking for a new set of tools to add to your digital transformation toolbox, you're about to get them.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/riddhigupta
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
What role does security play in the growth of a business?
Sam Curry is a podcaster, the Chief Security Officer of Cybereason, and a visiting fellow at the National Security Institute. Sam has been through a lot of growth in his career, working for two startups in the 90’s, one of which sold to security giant McAfee. Hear Sam talk about the importance of breaking out of your box and becoming a lifelong learner to make an impact at the leadership level, and how investing in security is not about making a return on your investment but making a sound investment in what you’ve already built.
Resources:
- cybereason.com
- linkedin.com/in/currysam
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Productivity is one of the keys to growth, but it can be hard to remain productive when processes are rapidly evolving and changing.
Joining us is Andy Glover, the Director of Productivity Engineering at Netflix. Hear what it means to operate in an organization undergoing constant change and get the inside scoop on whether the Netflix culture deck is real. We discuss the importance of productivity in innovation, the pains that come when a business grows rapidly, and having empathy for the end user of your product.
Resources:
- linkedin.com/in/ajglover
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
You’re about to hear about the challenge of getting calorie counts into digital menus, and what it’s like to live between a fast-moving non-digital business and a digital transformation challenge.
Joining us is Rob Tedesco, a digital strategist who spearheaded the digital transformation of Subway, the world’s largest restaurant chain. We discuss how a franchise business went on to prioritize its digital transformation, getting leadership buy-in, and all the unforeseen challenges that are involved with taking an existing franchise and adapting it to a digital platform.
Resources:
- Learn more: www.equilibriaservices.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robertcharlestedesco
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We discuss customer development in existing markets versus new markets, how those journeys are different, the potential dangers of data in consumer insight, and some fun stories from Silicon Valley along the way.
Joining us is the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship, Steve Blank, who is credited with launching the Lean Startup movement. Most of you listening are probably already familiar with Steve’s work, and as you might expect, he has some fantastic insights to share.
Resources:
- Twitter: @sgblank
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steveblank
- Why Companies and Government Do “Innovation Theater” Instead of Actual Innovation
- Ardent War Story 4: You Know You’re Getting Close to Your Customers When They Offer You a Job
- Removing the Roadblocks to Government/Corporate Innovation – When Theory Meets Practice
- How To Keep Your Company Alive – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act
- Steve Blank Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus
- Steve Blank Building Great Founding Teams
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Today you’re going to learn a practical approach to inventing the future. That may not seem like a particularly practical thing to do, but once you learn the models, all you have to do is take action and trust the process.
Joining us is Alexander Osterwalder, inventor of the Business Model Canvas and co-founder of strategyzer.com. Alexander recently released a new book — “The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration From the World's Best Business Models” — and it’s a fantastic resource for any organization struggling with a prioritization roadmap.
Resources:
- Alexosterwalder.com
- Strategyzer.com
- Read: “The Invincible Company"
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
You’ve done a lot of work to get yourself and your business to where you are today. You’ve learned new skills, implemented new systems, and started working with new people — but that’s not necessarily going to get you over the next hurdle.
Joining us to talk about what WILL get your organization over its next hurdle is Andrea Goulet, who is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Corgibytes and a prominent thought leader in the technology industry around three ideas: legacy code, communication, and empathy-driven development. Andrea is also the founder of LegacyCode.Rocks and the host of Legacy Code Rocks, a podcast dedicated to changing the way we think about legacy code.
Resources:
- Andreagoulet.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andreamgoulet
- Twitter: twitter.com/andreagoulet
- Corgibytes.com
- Take the course: Agile Software Development: Creating an Agile Culture
- Take the course: Agile Software Development: Remote Teams
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Join us for a fun and enlightening conversation with Lisa Schneider, Chief Digital Officer of Merriam-Webster.
You’ll learn about how Lisa lead a true digital transformation at a company best known for their physical dictionary, the value of leveraging mission and transparency, and how letting the world see who you truly are can be a catalyst for transformation. Plus, you’ll hear about Merriam-Webster’s new Puku app for kids.
Resources:
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lisaschneider64
- Twitter: twitter.com/lisaschneider64
- Puku app
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Startups, by their very nature, experience a lot of growth and evolution over a relatively short period of time — and if they don’t, they fail. But simultaneously planning for growth and change, both internally and externally, is a difficult task for even the most experienced product managers.
Luckily, our guest today is not just an experienced product manager but also a growth specialist: Jaffrey Ali, Chief Product Officer at FranConnect.
Resources:
- www.franconnect.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jaffrey-ali-604245
- "Franchising wasn't ready for COVID-19. Will you be ready for the recovery?"
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
This show focuses on how you can steer a team or organization through growth and change, and one common form of growth — explosive growth, in some cases — is when two companies merge or one company acquires another. In these instances, you have to combine not just different platforms or technologies but different groups of people who have different processes, philosophies, and perspectives.
So, in this episode, we’re joined by someone who has already gone through a big merger: Dominic O'Connor, the current CTO of EmployStream and formerly of InterFolio, where he led the engineering team from startup to M&A and growth. We learn what the transformation looked like, what he learned as a leader, what went well and, more importantly, what Dominic would do differently if he had to start again today.
Resources:
- www.dominic-oconnor.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/dominicoconnor
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominicoconnor
- www.employstream.com
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We feature interviews with best-selling authors and innovation experts from around the world. We focus on corporate innovation through the lenses of leadership, company culture, and emerging trends and technologies.
Recorded & produced by 3Pillar Global, a product lifecycle management and software development company based in Fairfax, VA, with offices around the world.
Today we discuss the transformative potential of design systems and how they can help accomplish alignment and the integration of different silos — key ingredients to any successful transformations or turnarounds.
Joining us is Art Rivera, a former member of the 3Pillar UX team and current Director of Product Design for Mobile Posse. In addition to offering his insight on business transformation, Arty shares the story of his personal transformation from designer to design leader to business leader, and what he’s learned along the way.
Resources:
- Mobileposse.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/artemiorivera
- Read: “Human-Centered Design lets carriers unlock the door to the Experience Economy”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We’re continuing our series about transformation and turnaround with an episode focusing on how you can get engineering and the business to better understand each other and better solve problems, including how to deal with some nasty technical debt. Our guest also has some thoughts about microservices, a technical transformation strategy that’s still gaining popularity — but probably shouldn’t be.
Joining us is Daniel Greene, VP of Engineering at X-Mode. Dan has 22 years of software development experience with everything from big data analysis to cloud computing, including some time at 3Pillar Global working on product architecture. Dan offers a unique combination of strategic and tactical, and in this episode, he shares some valuable insights learned from tackling real-life transformation problems.
Resources:
- Xmode.io
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielngreene
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In the last episode, we started a conversation about transformation and turnaround, specifically regarding what you can do when you’re thrust into a new role, you’re in a tight spot, and you need to create a plan to dig yourself out.
Joining us again for part two of this conversation is Tiffany Kleemann, former CEO of Distil Networks (which was acquired) and current Senior Vice President at Imperva. While episode 158 focused on how Tiffany made plans for transformation after she was brought into Distil, this episode focuses on creating a go-to-market strategy, why what got you here won’t get you there, and what it’s like to go through a significant transformation on a personal level.
We will be continuing this Transformation Turnaround series next week with new episodes and new guests, so stay tuned!
Resources:
- www.imperva.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-olson-kleemann-cissp-cipp-8b7315/
- What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
For the next few episodes, we will be talking about transformation and turnaround with a variety of guests who have gone through a wide range of transformations.
So often, we hear about the methodologies and the practices of transformation; what it's like to go from the garage to the fancy building. But I think a lot of people wonder about what happens after you've taken a new role. You're in a rough spot, you've possibly even created the rough spot, so how do you start to dig yourself out of it?
Joining us is Tiffany Kleemann, former CEO of Distil Networks (which was acquired) and current Senior Vice President at Imperva. You will learn about the importance of alignment in leadership and throughout the organization, the value of listening both to others and to your gut, and what it takes to ensure transparency along the way from someone who has been there and done that. At the same time, you’ll learn a little bit about what it’s like to go through a significant transformation on a personal level.
Resources:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-olson-kleemann-cissp-cipp-8b7315/
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
- The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this special edition of the Innovation Engine Podcast, David DeWolf, Founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, and Jessica Hall, 3Pillar's Vice President of Product Strategy and Design, discuss their new book, The Product Mindset: Succeed in the Digital Economy by Changing the Way Your Organization Thinks.
During our discussion, we'll unpack the key characteristics of successful digital products and the three core principles that drive their creation: minimizing time to value, solving for need, and excelling at change. We'll also talk about the challenge of an antiquated IT mindset and how leaders can embrace company-wide thinking that leads to great products and thriving businesses.
We are also joined by Shawn DuBravac, Founder and President at Avrio Institute and author of the New York Times bestseller Digital Destiny, who will moderate the discussion.
Resources:
- Learn more about The Product Mindset at productmindset.com
- Connect with Shawn at shawndubravac.com
- Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate by Shawn DuBravac
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We discuss whether to view innovation as a top-down or bottom-up function, why innovation measurement is a mirage, and why places like Google X believe that rewarding failure is a way to fuel future successes.
Joining us to talk about all of that and more is Taylor Ryan, the CMO of Valuer.ai, which helps corporations, accelerators, and investors find high-potential startups that specifically fit the corporation's strategic innovation requirements. In order to achieve this, Valuer has developed a platform that uses crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence to detect, predict, evaluate, and select startups that are particularly relevant to large companies.
Resources:
- Learn more at Valuer.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorryan/
- Watch: “Astro Teller: The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure | TED Talk”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, we’ll be talking about the growing importance of the role of the Chief Product Officer at driving innovation in many companies. Among the topics we’ll discuss are the most important functions the CPO should perform, what kinds of companies are best suited to hire CPOs, and how you’ll know if your company is ready for one.
Joining us to talk about all that and more is Ben Foster. Ben is the Chief Product Officer at GoCanvas and an Executive Product Advisor to more than 50 product companies. His career includes 4 years in product positions at eBay, as well as VP level product positions at companies like AdChemy and OPower. Among the more than 50 product companies he has advised since his days in the Bay Area are well-known innovative software companies like Contactually, Aquicore, StoryBlocks, and many more.
Resources:
- Visit the GoCanvas website: https://www.gocanvas.com/
- Connect with Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfoster/
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In this episode, we'll be looking at Loonshots and how to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and most importantly here on The Innovation Engine, transform industries. Among the topics we'll discuss are why structure eats culture for breakfast, how and why phase transitions make the perfect environment for innovation to flourish, and the difference between P-type and S-type Loonshots.
Joining us for this episode to talk those topics and more is Safi Bahcall. Safi is the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases,and Transform Industries, which published the very same day this episode airs. The Washington Post named Loonshots one of the 10 Leadership Books to Watch in 2019 and Business Insider called it one of the 14 Books Everyone will be Reading this Year.
Resources:
- Read: Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
- Learn more at https://www.bahcall.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SafiBahcall
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/safi-bahcall/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loonshots/
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we discuss how to become an insights-driven business and how what we at 3Pillar call the Product Mindset can set you on the path to becoming one. Among the topics that we'll discuss are what it means to be insights-driven, the advantages that are inherent in focusing your efforts on driving business outcomes, and the (possibly surprisingly) role that is becoming the driving force behind this shift within organizations.
Joining us on this episode to talk those topics and more is Tyler McDaniel, Vice President of Buyer Experience Analytics at Forrester. Tyler manages a team of product managers and analytics insights professionals who help Forrester clients understand technology adoption trends, buyer behavior, and customer journey information for purchases of products and services.
Resources:
- Learn more at https://go.forrester.com/
- Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-mcdaniel-b53213/
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at unlocking the customer value chain. Among the topics we'll discuss are why companies need to be thinking more about business model innovation than technology innovation, why they should focus far less on the competition and far more on their customers, and what we really mean when we talk about the concept of digital disruption.
Here with us today to talk about all that and more is Dr. Thales Teixiera. Thales is a professor at the Harvard Business School and HBS's marketing unit, and his focus is researching digital disruption and the economics of attention. He's also the author of the soon-to-be-published book Unlocking the Customer Value Chain, which focuses on decoupling disruption and innovation, helping readers uncover the true drivers of change in business today, and why the answer isn’t technology (as we're so often led to believe).
Resources:
- Learn more at https://www.decoupling.co/
- Pre-order: Unlocking the Customer Value Chain (Feb. 19, 2019)
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThalesHBS
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thales-teixeira-391587/
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In this episode, we'll be looking at what the future of digital healthcare holds. We'll cover the role AI and chatbots will have in the future (and are already having, in some cases), some of the inherent challenges in innovating in the healthcare space, and how one leader at a Fortune 100 company in the healthcare space views the intersection of digital and healthcare.
Joining us for this episode to talk about those topics and more is Greg Fitzgerald, the Staff Vice President of Digital Product Engineering at Centene. Greg is responsible for the strategic direction and development of the consumer technology products emerging from the Digital Product Engineering team at Centene. His career has included leadership positions in a number of successful healthcare startups, including running engineering teams for LiveHealthier, a digital wellness company acquired by Centene, and HealthCentral, a social community of patients and experts acquired by Remedy Health Media.
Resources:
- Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-fitzgerald-576b333/
- Read the whitepaper we discuss on the episode: “Artificial Intelligence and Conversational Agents in Healthcare”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we take a look back at the year’s biggest consumer technology show, CES, which just wrapped in Las Vegas. Among the topics we cover are whether AI lived up to the massive hype at this year’s show; why Allstate’s CEO’s says “mobility is the new transportation” and data is Allstate's key differentiator; and why podcasting – yes, podcasting! – is poised to make a big splash in 2019. We also get the latest from David on his upcoming book, The Product Mindset, to get the Cliff's Notes recap of the book and when it will be hitting bookshelves.
Joining us to talk about all that and more is returning guest David DeWolf, the founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global.
Resources:
- Learn more at https://www.3pillarglobal.com/team-member/david-dewolf
- Connect with David: Twitter | LinkedIn
- Read: “WHAT’S NEXT IN AI? THE ONE THING I’M LOOKING FOR AT CES 2019”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
For this very special episode of The Innovation Engine, we talk about a new way of measuring podcast analytics that was recently unveiled by NPR called Remote Audio Data, or RAD for short. Among the topics we cover are why RAD was created, what the process was like for bringing it to life, and what comes next now that NPR is opening RAD up to the open source community.
Stacey Goers, a Product Manager for Podcasts and Social at NPR, joins us to discuss those topics and more. For the last year, Stacey has been leading the team responsible for developing RAD. That meant working with a wide range of podcast publishers and media companies to determine what RAD should become.
The media companies that support RAD and were instrumental in its development include Cadence13, Edison Research, ESPN, Google, iHeartMedia, Libsyn, The New York Times, New York Public Radio, Voxnest, and Wondery. There are also numerous organizations committed to using RAD, such as Acast, AdsWizz, Art19, AllSound, Blubrry Podcasting, Panoply, Omny Studio, Podtrac, PRI/PRX, RadioPublic, Triton Digital, WideOrbit, and Whooshkaa. Among the organizations responsible for helping bring RAD to life was 3Pillar.
For more information on RAD, you can read this blog post Stacey wrote on NPR's website announcing RAD's release.
Resources:
- Learn more at rad.npr.org
- Are you a podcaster? Start adding RAD tags at radeditor.io
- Check out the RAD code: https://github.com/npr
- Connect with Stacey: Twitter | LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, we'll be looking at choosing the right tech stack to fuel innovation in your company. We'll talk about why the technologies your teams use matter, what the most successful product teams do to ensure the work they're doing has an impact, and how to avoid shiny-new-toy syndrome when it comes to adding new tools to your tech stack.
Joining us on this episode is Latif Nanji, the co-founder and CEO of Roadmunk, a road-mapping enterprise SaaS platform that serves thousands of product innovators. Roadmunk's customers include Amazon, The New York Times, Nike, Coca-Cola, Bloomberg, Adobe, and Citibank. Prior to Roadmunk, Latif was a senior product manager at Miovision Technologies and the co-founder and CFO of Pokerspace.com.
Resources:
- Learn more at https://roadmunk.com/
- Connect with Latif: LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium
- Listen to Roadmunk’s Podcast: Product to Product
- Read Latif’s article: “How poker helps you win at product management”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
For this episode, we're talking about innovation and the evolution of the Common Application, a nonprofit membership organization composed of more than 800 colleges and universities around the country and around the world with a common mission of promoting access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process.
Among the topics we discuss are how the Common App has reinvented itself for the digital age, how they prepare to handle a seasonal rush that leads to massive spikes of usage and traffic, and what happens behind the scenes over the course of a year for a company that winds up having just one big release every year.
Joining us today to talk about those topics and more is Jenny Rickard, the CEO of the Common Application. Jenny has been the CEO of the Common Application for the last two years and her experience embodies each area of the college enrollment management process, including admissions, marketing communications, technology, and financial aid.
Resources:
- Learn more at CommonApp.org
- Connect with Jenny on Twitter: @JennyCommonApp
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, we'll be looking at “cost-ovation,” or innovation that gives your customers exactly what they want – and nothing more. We'll look at how companies like Planet Fitness have become wildly successful by challenging long-held assumptions about what their customers actually want and need, the three core traits shared by companies that excel at costovation, and why setting a vision with strategic objectives is such a key component for any innovation effort.
Joining us for this episode to talk about all that and more is Stephen Wunker, the Managing Director and US Market Head of New Markets Advisors. Stephen combines world-class strategy consulting and entrepreneurial skills, and he's the author of Costovation: Innovation that Gives your Customers Exactly What They Want and Nothing More. He's also the author of Capturing New Markets: How Smart Companies Create Opportunities Others Don't, which was named one of the five Best Business Books of 2011, and the co-author of Jobs to be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation, which was one of four finalists for Best General Business Book of 2016.
Resources:
- Learn more at Costovation.com
- Costovation: Innovation that Gives your Customers Exactly What They Want and Nothing More
- Capturing New Markets: How Smart Companies Create Opportunities Others Don't
- Jobs to be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, we'll look at how to decipher the secret code giving companies like Apple, Google, and Uber their edge. We'll also talk about what it means to go through a digital transformation, how you'll know when you've successfully come out on the other side, and why you don't have to work at one of the world's most well-known tech companies to carve out a place for yourself in the digital world.
Here with us today to talk all that and more is Pascal Finette, an expert on topics that include digitization, entrepreneurship, open innovation, technology trends, leadership, and cultural transformation. Anchored in more than 20 years of experience in the IT and internet industry with a vast network of subject matter experts, he regularly consults and delivers deeply engaging, refreshingly honest, direct, thought-provoking, and motivational experiences.
Called a "prophet" by Germany's leading TV station ARD, featured in a prime-time documentary about Silicon Valley, on the cover of Brazil's leading business magazine, voted one of the top 100 internet influencers in the country by one of Germany's leading economic weeklies, and one of the 45 global leaders included in The GuruBook, Pascal's work is recognized for being on the edge of technology, entrepreneurship, transformation, and global impact.
Pascal’s newsletter, The Heretic, is read by tens of thousands of changemakers globally, and he recently started putting out a mini-podcast of his own titled The Heretic Semi-Daily Briefing.
Resources:
- Learn more at Finette.com
- Connect with Pascal: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
- Sign up for Pascal’s newsletter: The Heretic
- Listen: The Heretic Semi-Daily Briefing
- The GuruBook: Insights from 45 Pioneering Entrepreneurs and Leaders on Business Strategy and Innovation by Jonathan Løw
- Check out Singularity University: su.org
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at how to go from idea to inception. We discuss how to evaluate which ideas to actually act on, whether there is such a thing as bad feedback, and whether voice technology is an antidote to screen-based thinking that may help save us from ourselves.
Joining us again to talk about those topics and more is Golden Krishna, a Design Strategist at Google who works on a “horizontal future team” across all variants of Android and Chrome to push computing forward with new ideas that can ship in the next two to three years. Part of Golden's charge in this role is to bring cohesion, innovation, and long-term strategy for the world's most popular operating system.
In addition to being deemed one of the World's Best Designers by Fast Company, Golden is the author of The Best Interface is No Interface, a wildly funny and illuminating read that makes a very persuasive case that "there’s an app for that" is the most insidious advertising tagline ever written. And no, it's not just because he works at Google and is an alumnus of Samsung. If you'd like to hear more from Golden on why that is, check out Golden’s previous appearance on The Innovation Engine: “A world without interfaces” – we promise you won't be disappointed by the episode!
Resources:
- Learn more at goldenkrishna.com
- Connect with Golden on LinkedIn
- The Best Interface is No Interface
Learn more and get the full show notes here: https://www.3pillarglobal.com/insights/successful-product-launch-how-to-go-from-idea-to-inception-with-golden-krishna
On this week's episode, we look at designing the future and the future of work. Among the topics we'll cover are how we are all capable of designing a better future, how to drive innovation in a global software giant, and what emerging technologies (and human behaviors) our guest believes are set to have a major impact on the way work happens.
Joining us to discuss all that and more is Martin Wezowski, the Chief Designer and Futurist at SAP. As the head of SAP's Innovations Center Networks and Chief Innovation Office, Martin crafts future outlooks, strategies, and products, as well as designing and running innovation frameworks to find out what's next for SAP.
In 2017, Martin was named one of the 100 Most Innovative Minds in Germany by the prestigious Handelsblatt Financial Magazine. And if you've been a longtime listener of the Innovation Engine, you may recognize him from our episode at South by Southwest back in 2017.
Resources:
- Learn more at ICN.SAP.com
- Read SAP’s 2018 Emerging Technology Trends Report
- Connect with Martin: LinkedIn | Twitter
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, David DeWolf and Jonathan Rivers join us to share an overview of all of the news that was fit to print at this year's Fortune BrainstormTech Conference. We discuss what the prevailing wisdom was in Aspen when it comes to artificial intelligence, how the gig economy is driving a wave of acquisitions and the two-way street of innovation some of those acquisitions have opened up, and what you can expect from an upcoming book called The Product Mindset.
David DeWolf, the Founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, lives at the intersection of business, technology, and leadership. After starting 3Pillar almost by accident at the age of 26, he has grown the company to nearly 1000 employees around the globe. 3Pillar has won numerous awards for rapid growth, including being recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S. for seven of the last eight years.
Jonathan Rivers is the CTO at 3Pillar. He leads our product and engineering teams, which include more than 750 software engineers, product consultants, product managers, quality assurance, and user experience professionals. Prior to joining 3Pillar, Jonathan was the interim CTO at Telegraph Media Group and served as its Director of Service Delivery and Operations. As Senior Director of Web Operations and Customer Support at PBS, Jonathan helped transform PBS into a digital leader.
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at the connection between story and innovation, why story can be a powerful tool to get teams in the right state for creating the new and novel, how you can learn to tell stories (whether you think you're good at it or not), and how to make sure your stories actually get heard in a world that's increasingly noisy.
Here with us again to talk about all that and more, including his new book Storytelling for the Revolution, is Mitch Ditkoff. Mitch often speaks, conducts workshops, and provides private consulting, all in the name of empowering people to become more innovative.
Resources:
- Learn more at mitchditkoff.com
- Connect with Mitch: Twitter | LinkedIn
- Storytelling for the Revolution by Mitch Ditkoff
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
We just concluded the second and last - for now - stop of The Innovation Engine’s Spring 2018 tour, from the floor of Collision in New Orleans. Collision is North America’s fastest growing tech conference, bringing together over 3,000 companies from over 120 countries to see how tech intersects in their lives and businesses.
- [1:20] Anaid Chacon is a product manager at Dropbox, a secure file hosting service that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.
- [12:15] Christopher Carmichael is the Chief Technology Officer for the Stennis Space Center, which is NASA’s largest rocket testing facility.
- [21:50] Mercedes Soria is the VP of Software Engineering for Knightscope, a startup that utilizes autonomous robots, analytics, and engagement to predict and prevent crime.
- [31:10] Andrew Macharg is Head of Technology at Haymarket Consumer Media & Haymarket Network, one of the largest content marketing networks in the U.K.
- [37:45] Yoshi Tsuji and Tom Kruse join us from Win-Kel, a storage startup that participated in the startup competition hosted by Collision.
- [44:20] Jonathan Block-Verk is the coFounder & CEO of coParenter, an online dispute resolution platform that uses AI, machine learning, and live mediators to help separating, divorced, and never married parents save money and time by staying out of court.
Learn more and get the full show notes at 3PillarGlobal.com
For the second part of this double feature of The Innovation Engine, we have six more insightful conversations from Dig South 2018, a conference bringing together more than 2,500 people who are building digital products that will change the way people live, work, and play.
As we mentioned in the last episode, The Innovation Engine’s Spring 2018 tour is still going! We recorded even more conversations from the floor of Collision in New Orleans, and you can look forward to those in the near future.
On this episode, we chat with:
- Susan Engelson, Senior Director of Product at comScore, who took part in a session titled 'The Future of TV Advertising in Today's Digital World'
- Jeff Perkins, Chief Marketing Officer of Parkmobile, which was recently acquired by BMW. Jeff spoke about his journey to the C-Suite and what it means to be a CMO in the digital age.
- Cori Banyon, the Founder & CEO of AndMe.TV, a platform she created to virtually connect artists with their most passionate fans.
- Cleveland Brown, the Founder & CEO of Payscout, a global payment processing provider that allows, among other things, creators of Virtual Reality content to take payments in the virtual world.
- Dr. Brian Sullivan, a clinical psychologist and the Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer of Morphii, a digital tool for ratings scales that looks to humanize digital communications with fun and engaging methods.
- Eli Calderón Morin, Founder of All_ebt, a "smart wallet for food stamps" that Eli hopes will help alleviate some of the common difficulties associate with actually using food stamps as a means of payment.
Learn more, listen to part 1 of the DigSouth podcast episode, and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this special two-part episode of The Innovation Engine, we’re coming to you with conversations from the floor of DigSouth 2018. DigSouth is the largest annual tech conference in the South, bringing together more than 2,500 people who are building digital products and experiences that are changing the way people live, work, and play. DigSouth took place in Charleston, SC from April 25-27.
For this first episode, host Julia Slattery speaks with:
- Soon Yu, an international speaker and best selling author on innovation and design. Soon gave the keynote, in which he shared some insights from his forthcoming book on becoming an iconic brand.
- Megan Oepen, an award-winning Creative Director and Live Action Director who currently leads Under Armour’s content house. Megan took part in a panel titled 'Storytelling and Content Creation in the Digital Arena.'
- Jason Feifer, the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine and the host of two podcasts: Pessimists Archive, about the history of unfounded fears of innovation, and Problem Solvers, about how entrepreneurs solve unexpected problems in their business.
- David DeWolf, Founder & CEO of 3Pillar Global, who was on a panel at DigSouth to talk about building purpose-driven software.
- Jocelyn Mangan, former COO of Snag. Jocelyn gave a talk titled The New CMO: Why Product Development Experience Now Defines the Role.
Learn more, get the full show notes, and listen to the second part of the DigSouth episode at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this special episode of the podcast, we're honored to be talking to the brains behind one of the winners of this year's 1776 Challenge Cup. 1776 is a startup incubator headquartered in D.C. with offshoots around the country, and they recently held their annual startup competition, The Challenge Cup, at Anthem, the freshly opened music venue on the wharf in Southeast D.C. We talk about one founder's successful entrepreneurship journey, how an app called Airside Mobile can help you breeze through customs, and much more.
We’re joined by Hans Miller, the CEO of Airside Mobile, a company that works with leaders in the travel industry to create innovative mobile apps that make travel faster, easier, and more efficient. Airside Mobile's collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, HMSHost, MasterCard, and others have generated numerous awards and international press coverage from outlets like Wired, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Huffington Post, CNN, and many others.
Resources:
- Download Mobile Passport: mobilepassport.us
- Learn more at AirsideMobile.com
- Connect with Hans on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this week's Innovation Engine, we're pleased to welcome Alex Tapscott back to talk about unlocking the blockchain. Among the topics we'll discuss are how far blockchain technology has come in just a few short years, what your company may be able to learn about organizing teams from a company called Consensus, and why blockchain may represent the “Internet of value.”
Alex last joined the podcast about two years ago, when the book he co-wrote with his father Don had just been published (Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World). Alex and his father Don also co-founded The Blockchain Research Institute and, in 2014, Alex wrote the seminal report on governing digital currencies for the Global Solutions Network program at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Resources:
- Learn more online:
-
- The Blockchain Research Institute
- A16z on Cryptocurrency & Blockchain
- Jason Lopp’s Bitcoin Resources
- Read up on the blockchain:
-
- Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World by Alex Tapscott and Don Tapscott
-
The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order by Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna
-
The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything by Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Today on The Innovation Engine, we look at how you and your teams can start Running Lean with the man who wrote the book of the same title. Among the topics we discuss are why practice trumps theory, why your actual product is not really your product, how long it should take to figure out whether you have product-market fit, and why constraints can actually be valuable for anyone looking to innovate successfully.
Our guest, Ash Maurya, is the Founder and CEO of LeanStack, a company that focuses on teaching practices that lead to continuous innovation through workshops, books, a web curriculum, and more. He's the author of Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works, an "iterative book" that breaks down the process of building a successful company from the ground up, and also looks at how those same lessons can be applied by product professionals at more established companies. Ash is also the author of Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth.
Resources:
- Learn more at LeanStack.com
- Connect with Ash: LinkedIn | Twitter
- Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works
- Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
In today’s Innovation Engine, we’re looking at how we can set our product teams up for success in 2018. We discuss the top three things your product team needs to do in 2018, why you and your teams should start viewing the world with a product mindset, and what constitutes a modern day product team.
Joining us to talk about those topics and more are Jonathan Rivers and Jessica Hall. Jonathan is the Chief Technology Officer at 3Pillar, a role in which he leads more than 700 software engineers, product consultants, product managers, quality assurance, and user experience professionals. He works with 3Pillar team members in each of our locations throughout the world to foster product development best practices that lead to business value for clients. Jessica Hall is 3Pillar Senior Director of Product Strategy and Design. She helps clients build great products and more customer-focused teams.
Resources:
- Learn more about QA Automation: 3pillarglobal.com/qa-automation
- Learn more about Docker and containers: “Docker - A Different Breed of Virtualization”
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at the evolution of media. We discuss how media companies, or any company really, can make the leap to becoming a digital-first organization, why now is actually a good time to be in the media business (despite everything you may read and hear to the contrary), and what media consumption will look like a decade from now – or our assumptions about what that consumption will look like.
Joining us to talk about that and more is Shelby Coffey, now Vice Chair of the Newseum. Shelby has had a long and distinguished career in the news business: he was Executive Vice President at ABC News in New York, News Chief at CNNfn, Editor of The Los Angeles Times, and held editorial positions with the Dallas Times Herald, U.S. News and World Report, and The Washington Post. In 2001, he was named a Fellow of the Freedom Forum, the parent organization of the Newseum, where he has studied and written about the media and First Amendment issues.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS What does a company need to thrive in the increasingly competitive media space?
- An element of visionary leadership. People like Jeff Bezos are interested not just in solving a problem, but in exploiting an opportunity. The opportunity focus characterizes a lot of the people who are the winners in the digital space.
- Nimbleness (or agility): speed in adapting, and a willingness to change if adaptation is wrong.
- Individuals from old media companies will have different assumptions about consumption and the media than individuals from native digital companies – this gives native digital companies a considerable advantage.
- At the same time, the digital native employee is becoming increasingly valuable. Some people are able to adapt as the world shifts, but it’s not necessarily the same.
- Studying the competitors, and also having a future-focused mindset, is extremely important.
- Every company should consider itself a media company because of the vast range of platforms and methods of communicating. You have to be out telling your story or your competitors will exceed you, and maybe tell your story in a negative way.
Monetization for media companies is changing – how is the industry shifting, and what can companies do to adapt?
- The old gatekeeper world of big networks, big television, and big newspapers depended happily on a near-monopoly ability to funnel in a high-demographic audience.
- Now there are so many competitors, on so many different levels, competing for “the precious commodity of attention and it's handmaiden persuasion.” The result is a revenue world that is mutating almost as fast as the media themselves because advertisers are looking at what will continue to draw specific attention.
- One challenge for the news media world is that the creativity and range of how to get advertising-supported news coverage is not consonant with the actual news-gathering abilities – We need new specialists.
- No matter how brilliant you are, or how nimbly you adapt, you can't outrun the market. This article from Business Insider highlights how the digital world is affecting advertising: “In 2000, ad revenue at newspapers was $63.5 billion. It fell to $23 billion by 2013,” while Google’s ad revenue grew from less than $1 billion to over $50 billion in that same time.
Resources:
- Check out the Newseum
- Connect with Shelby on LinkedIn
- Best Practices: The Art of Leadership in News Organizations: Insights from the careers of 20 news executives by Shelby Coffey III
Today we'll be talking about why becoming an anticipatory organization just may be the key to long-term business success. We'll look at why companies like Sony, Dell, BlackBerry, and Blockbuster (all of which were led by talented executives that knew how to be agile and execute strategy) fell behind the competition; how to anticipate and pre-solve problems before your company has them; and how to use hard trend certainties to accelerate innovation and drive results.
Joining us today to talk about those topics and more is returning guest Daniel Burrus. Daniel recently published his new book, The Anticipatory Organization, in which he shows that the future is far more certain than we realize – and knowing where to find certainty in an uncertain world provides a big advantage for those who know how and where to look. Using the principles of this unique model of thinking, planning, innovating, and taking action, readers will learn how to pinpoint and act upon the enormous opportunities of tomorrow by identifying a number of factors that help predict future events, and planning accordingly.
Resources:
- Get your free hard copy of The Anticipatory Organization at TheAOBook.com
- Learn more at DanielBurrus.com
- Connect with Daniel: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode, we talk about how to start flexing what is likely an underused muscle, if you're like 98 percent of the population over the age of 31: the creative muscle. Among the topics we'll discuss are why creativity gets to be so difficult with age, five activities you can undertake regularly to make sure your creative capacity doesn't wane, and how IdeaToValue.com can help you make sure your next great idea doesn't fall by the wayside.
Here with us today to talk about all that and more is Nick Skillicorn, Chief Editor of IdeaToValue.com, Founder & CEO of Improvides Consulting, and a Manager in Deloitte’s Strategy Consulting Division working out of Sydney, Australia. Nick helps individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities so that they can develop the next breakthrough idea that their customers will love.
Resources:
- Learn more at IdeaToValue.com
- Listen to the Idea to Value Podcast
- Connect with Nick on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Today we examine the dearth of female leaders in technology, and how we can mentor and encourage more female computer scientists. Among the topics we discuss is a new curriculum at Northeastern University, and how that curriculum is evening the demographic playing field.
Our guest is Carla Brodley, Dean of the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University. Dean Brodley's interdisciplinary machine learning research led to advances not only in computer and information science, but also remote sensing, neuroscience, digital libraries, astrophysics, chemistry, evidence-based medicine, and predictive medicine. She's currently serving on the board of directors of the Computing Research Association (CRA), the Executive Committee of the Northeast Big Data Hub, and as a member-at-large of the section on information, computing, and communication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Resources:
- Learn more about Carla: carla.ccis.northeastern.edu
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Today we’re talking about the (underutilized) power of listening. Our guest, Bob London, shares why listening is such a powerful tool in a world that won't stop talking, key questions you should ask when you get the opportunity to talk to customers, and why you should (metaphorically, at least) burn the white board.
Bob is a pioneer in the marketing world – he created the outsourced Chief Marketing Officer concept more than a decade ago – and now he’s out to change the world by evangelizing the incredibly valuable insights that come from something shockingly simple: listening to the customer. Bob serves as an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and he is an international mentor at 1776, the global startup incubator.
Resources:
- You can find Bob’s listening process, questions, and more detailed in his FREE ebook at chieflisteningofficers.com/free
- Learn more at ChiefListeningOfficers.com
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at why innovation and healthcare do indeed belong in the same sentence, which technology trends are driving innovation for the industry as a whole, and how startups in the healthcare space can (and should) position themselves for success when approaching venture capitalists for funding or partnerships.
We’re joined by Irem Mertol and Anahita Nakhjiri of McKesson Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund that helps innovators build and scale businesses that will lead to a stronger and more sustainable future for healthcare. Irem is a Director at McKesson Ventures, where she invests in early to growth-stage companies across health care technology and services. Anahita is a Strategy & Portfolio Development Associate, who is focused on identifying and commercializing opportunities between McKesson Ventures portfolio companies and the larger McKesson ecosystem.
Resources:
- Learn more about McKesson Ventures: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn
- Connect with Irem on LinkedIn
- Connect with Anahita on LinkedIn
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this special episode of The Innovation Engine, the 3Pillar team interviews many of the speakers and attendees at Industry Summit 2017, a product- focused conference that features talks from a wide range of product leaders and tech visionaries.
We chat with…
- [00:50] Nancy Kramer, Founder & Chairman of Resource/Ammirati
- [07:20] Jim Foxworthy, President & CEO of Pragmatic Marketing
- [14:35] Ellen Fink, a consultant for Chick-Fil-A who owns a tool that tracks internal customer data from the mobile ordering app
- [18:45] Lior Abraham, Co-Founder of Interana
- [33:05] Jonathan Rivers, CTO of 3Pillar
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this special episode of The Innovation Engine, the 3Pillar team interviews many of the speakers from the recently-completed Industry Summit, a product-focused conference that featured talks from a wide range of product leaders and tech visionaries.
Industry Summit is one of the biggest multi-day product management summits in the country each year, with over 600 attendees converging to learn about and discuss the latest disruptive trends in the product industry. The conference followed four content tracks over two days: Ideation, Design, Development, and Growth.
Tune in to hear conversations with:
- [1:20] Blade Kotelly, Leader of the Advanced Concept Lab at Sonos
- [11:00] Josh Anon, Director of Project Management at Magic Leap
- [24:00] Melissa Perri, CEO of Produx Labs & Product Institute
- [31:30] Bob Moesta, President & CEO of the Re-Wired Group
- [46:30] Anthony Marchionda, Associate Producer at Purple Films
- [50:00] Vern Kennedy, President of ActiveWrite
- [1:02:30] Nancy Kramer, Founder & Chairman of Resource/Ammirati
- [1:09:00] Jim Foxworthy, President & CEO of Pragmatic Marketing
- [1:20:30] Lior Abraham, Co-Founder of Interana
- [1:35:00] Jonathan Rivers, CTO of 3Pillar
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Jennifer Ives and Julia Slattery join us on this episode of the podcast to discuss the upcoming Industry Summit conference taking place in Cleveland this week. Industry Summit is a product-specific conference that will take place on September 14th and 15th and will see talks from product leaders like Bob Moesta, creator of the Jobs to Be Done framework; Jason Fried, the founder of Basecamp; Nancy Kramer of IBM iX; and many others.
3Pillar is one of the event's sponsors, and Julia will be taking The Innovation Engine on the road to Cleveland to record the next episode of podcast. In addition to that tidbit of news, we're also happy to introduce Jennifer Ives to listeners and to share the news that Jennifer will be guest hosting episodes in the future with guests like Shelby Coffey of the Newseum and Carla Brodley of Northeastern University.
Tune in to this episode for a preview of what Jennifer and Julia are most looking forward to seeing and hearing at Industry Summit, as well as to hear more about Jennifer's background and her Talent is Transforming podcast.
Show Notes * Learn more about Industry Summit * Connect with Jennifer Ives on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter * Listen to Jennifer Ives' Talent is Transforming podcast * Listen to Julia Slattery's Take 3 podcast, a sister podcast to The Innovation Engine
Today we’re looking at how to build a powerful Customer Experience, and why it is imperative for any company that hopes to find long-term success. We cover why short-term profit seeking can negatively impact customer experience, the DO MORE framework for building positive customer experiences, and how the on-demand economy is changing customer experience as we know it.
We’re joined by Blake Morgan, a Customer Experience futurist, keynote speaker, and the author of More is More: How the Best Companies go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences. Blake also hosts The Modern Customer podcast and a weekly customer experience video series on YouTube.
Resources:
- Connect with Blake: BlakeMichelleMorgan.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram
- Listen to The Modern Customer Podcast
- Pick up your copy of More is More: How the Best Companies go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at blockchain in the advertising space, why there is currently a staggering amount of waste in the ad tech supply chain, how a new consortium called AdLedger and a company called MadHive are working to combat that waste, and why we may be entering the golden age of personalized advertising.
Our guest Stacy Huggins, co-founder and CMO of MadHive, is an entrepreneur, seasoned marketing executive, and thought leader in applying blockchain technology to media and ad tech. MadHive is a blockchain-based advertising platform and a founding member of AdLedger, a consortium of advertising and publishing executives with the purpose of bringing transparency and data security to the ad tech supply chain by harnessing a blockchain backed peer-to-peer network.
Resources:
- Become a founding member of AdLedger
- Learn more about MadHive
- Connect with Stacy: stacy@madhive.com
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Jonathan Rivers joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to explain why innovation labs usually fail. We'll look at why innovation labs often have the opposite effect from what's intended, why Jonathan shut down 3Pillar's Advanced Technology Group (or 3Pillar Labs) within a few months of being hired, the vast difference between tweaking and transforming, and what you can do if your organization already has one.
Jonathan Rivers is the CTO of 3Pillar. He leads 3Pillar's product and engineering organizations, which includes more than 600 software engineers, product consultants, product managers, quality assurance, and user experience professionals. Jonathan also works with 3Pillar team members in each of our locations worldwide to foster product development best practices that lead to business value for our clients.
Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com
Resources:
- Learn more about Jonathan Rivers
John Sonmez joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to discuss whether coding is a skill everyone should learn, how to lead a team of developers when you find yourself in a leadership position, and what the programming language (or languages) of the future will be.
John is the Founder of Simple Programmer, a website where he tirelessly pursues his vision of transforming complex issues into simple solutions, and the author of newly-released The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide. He also helps software engineers, programmers, and other technical professionals boost their careers and live more fulfilled lives.
John is launching The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide at a special price of $0.99 for the Kindle version on launch day, July 19th, 2017. Go to SimpleProgrammer.com/careerguide to get something special in addition to the $0.99 price.
Resources:
- Learn more at Simple Programmer
- Read John’s books:
- The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide
- Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual
For a very special episode of The Innovation Engine, we're bringing you a number of interviews from the floor from last week's TechCrunch Disrupt New York. TechCrunch Disrupt is a bi-annual event that features panel discussions with some of the leading minds in the technology space and serves as a launching pad for the next great batch of tech companies looking to change the world.
3Pillar was a sponsor of this year's conference, so we had a prime location on the showroom floor, which gave us the opportunity to talk with the winners of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon about their VR app to help diagnose ADHD, the co-founder of a company that's making bike helmets that can be condensed to the size of a water bottle, the founder of a company who's looking to make filing your tax returns as easy as sending pictures of your w-2 to a certified CPA, and many more.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extended episode of The Innovation Engine!
Show Notes In order of appearance, the guests who joined us for this episode of the podcast and their companies are:
- Ruth Chandler Cook, Founder & CEO of HireHer, an HR tech company focused on connecting top female STEM talent with employers
- Paulina Chapa, Director of Business Development at Paranoid Fan, an app and SDK that digitizes venue management and navigation
- Akshaya Dinesh, Sowmya Patapati, and Amulya Balakrishnan, the team behind the Hackathon-winning VR app, reVIVE
- Steven Radley, the SVP of Product Innovation at iHeartRadio, who talks about areas like AI and the connected home that iHeart is currently working on
- Nick Titus, founder of Myonic, a hardware company looking to help those with paralysis move their limbs again
- Jordan Zucker and Jordan Schuetz of PubNub, which they describe as "back-end as a service"
- Bobbie Carlton, the founder of Innovation Women, an online speakers bureau for entrepreneurial and technical women
- Richard Bezjian, President & CEO of vQuick, a mobile video creation platform for creating short video clips
- Jason Frishman, Founder & CEO of NetCapital, a service that allows founders to sell equity in their companies to pools of individual investors
- Jordan Klein, Co-Founder & CEO of Park and Diamond, a company that's making bicycle helmets that can be condensed to the size of a water bottle without sacrificing safety
- Sama Jashnani, Founder of Down to Dash, a mobile app targeted to college students that connects people with similar interests
- Alice Chang, Founder & CEO of TaxDrop, a service that connects individuals to CPAs to easily file their taxes by just submitting photos of their tax documents
- Barika Edwards, Co-Founder & CEO of OweYaa, a company that connects veterans looking for work with employers
- Francesca Lubbock and Michael Leviev of iSwile, a company that makes a battery-powered motor with a number of different possible applications, from skateboards to shopping carts to strollers
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we bring the podcast inside the Refraction headquarters to talk again with Rachael Stott on how place and space interact with and influence employees. Rachael joined us for a previous episode of the podcast, where we talked about her co-working space, Refraction, and how the physical environment of a workplace can have a marked impact on the performance of the teams in it. We decided to bring the podcast into the space to see how she put her ideas and designs into practice.
Rachael Stott joins us again to lead us through the Refraction headquarters and show us how her ideas have come to life. Rachael is the Director of Refraction, a co-working space in Reston, VA for business leaders, creatives, and philanthropists. Refraction is a curated hub of creativity, collaboration, and innovation that helps businesses build more dynamic teams and grow their company.
Show Notes * Follow Rachael Stott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachaelstott * Visit the Refraction website: http://www.refractionpoint.org/ * Follow Refraction on Twitter: https://twitter.com/refractionpt
Scott Bales joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to dive into the concept of "innovation wars." Among the topics we'll discuss are what corporate strategy lessons can be borrowed from the battlefield and applied in the boardroom, why trust is an essential element within any innovation team, and why anyone in the product space should get a little more familiar with the concept of lead users.
Scott Bales is the author of the forthcoming book Innovation Wars. He is a global leader in the arena he calls "The Digital Shift," encompassing innovation, culture, design, and mobility in a world gone digital. Over the course of his career, Scott has built companies on four continents in industries including insurance, payments, financial inclusion, and consumer products. In addition to Innovation Wars, Scott is the author of Mobile Ready: Connecting With the Untethered Consumer.
Show Notes * Visit Scott's websites at scottebales.com and innovationlabs.asia to read his writings * Follow Scott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottebales * Pre-order Innovation Wars: https://publishizer.com/innovation-wars/ * Buy Mobile Ready: Connecting With the Untethered Consumer on Amazon
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at the importance of cause with Dr. Jackie Freiberg. Among the topics we'll discuss are how one insurance company, National Life, managed to change their industry at least in part thanks to being a cause-driven company; why it's vitally important to define your business' "why" in this day and age; and why employee behavior and overall attitude tend to be wildly different in cause-driven companies when compared to their counterparts.
Dr. Jackie Freiberg joins us on this episode to discuss all that and more. Dr. Freiberg, who along with her husband Dr. Kevin Freiberg, has written numerous books about how some of the world's most successful companies build cultures that thrive on innovation. Their most recent book, Cause! A Business Strategy for Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness, was recently published and can be found in bookstores around the country. In addition to being best-selling authors, Drs. Jackie and Kevin are both sought-after speakers on the subjects of innovation, execution, and corporate leadership development.
Show Notes * Visit Drs. Jackie and Kevin's website: http://www.freibergs.com/ * Buy Cause! A Business Strategy for Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness on their website: https://store.freibergs.com/ * Follow Drs. Jackie and Kevin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinandjackie
On this episode, we talk with the entrepreneur behind a newly released tool called Bisualizer. Bisualizer was created to help small business owners and entrepreneurs visualize the gears and levers that drive any business forward. We discuss how energy, information, and rules are the 3 constants that move any business forward; the three other constants that they are more commonly known as; and the benefits any corporate leaders stand to gain from modeling the operations of their business.
Mark Rubin, the founder of Bisualizer and a serial entrepreneur who was born with an uncanny talent for visual thinking, joins us on this episode. Mark has owned and grown several successful national franchises and credits his achievements to his innovative method of business visualization. He has worked directly with business coaches and consultants to develop their own Bisualizer diagrams, and as you will hear on this episode he has spent a number of years working on the software-powered version that he just launched to the public.
Show Notes
- Find out more about Bisualizer: http://www.bisualizer.com/
- Follow Mark Rubin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markianrubin
- Watch a short video on how Bisualizer works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztWEtaeS8ic
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we'll be looking at the importance of place and space with Rachael Stott of Refraction. Among the topics we'll discuss are how the physical environment of a workplace can have a marked impact on the performance of the teams that work in it, some of the research Rachael conducted over the course of a 3-year period to come to some of these conclusions, why the angle at which a chair can recline can actually influence the way meetings unfold, and how all of these ideas are being put into practice at a co-working space in Northern Virginia called Refraction.
Rachael Stott joins us to talk about all of this and more. Rachael is the Director of Refraction, a co-working space in Reston, VA for business leaders, creatives, and philanthropists. Refraction is a curated hub of creativity, collaboration, and innovation that helps businesses build more dynamic teams and grow their company.
Show Notes * Follow Rachael Stott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachaelstott * Visit the Refraction website: http://www.refractionpoint.org/ * Follow Refraction on Twitter: https://twitter.com/refractionpt
For a very special episode of the podcast, we're giving you a look inside the 2017 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. SXSW celebrates the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. SXSW Interactive focuses on emerging technology and has developed a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. The festival includes a trade show, speakers, parties, and a startup accelerator.
We took The Innovation Engine on the road to Austin for this episode, where we got the chance to speak with a number of people whose work we found interesting. Subjects include:
- Martin Wezowski, the Chief Designer & Futurist of SAP, who was at SXSW to speak about the future of work. Martin shares a window into his day-to-day working world and talks about why he is passionate about working with others to create a future we all want to live.
- Jen Dante, who leads product innovation for children and family in member experience at Netflix, talks about the culture of A/B testing at Netflix and what those tests have taught their team about how good or bad humans are at predicting features users will like (hint: not that good)
- Conor Egan, Chief Product Officer at Brandcast, who talks about their newly launched product that just came out of beta. Brandcast is a tool designers and creative professionals can use to create eye-catching websites, digital portfolios, and other branded web experiences, without writing a line of code.
Show Notes Audio wasn't the only thing we had rolling at SXSW! We also compiled a 360-degree video documenting the experience that you can find on:
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqOfOvRK8f8
- Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/3pillarglobal/sxsw2017
If the video quality on YouTube looks grainy, be sure to set it to the highest 4K resolution!
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we look at building the Internet of Things - why it, in many ways, represents the next generation of the Internet, the implications that has for companies in a wide range of industries, and some words of wisdom for those looking to dip their toes into the IoT waters for the very first time.
We're joined by Maciej Kranz, the author of the recently released book Building the Internet of Things: Implement New Business Models, Disrupt Competitors, Transform Your Industry. The book hit the New York Times Business bestseller list at #3 in December 2016, and it was named a "must-read book for entrepreneurs in 2017" by Fortune. Maciej is the Vice President of the Corporate Strategic Innovation Group at Cisco Systems.
He leads the Cisco team focused on incubating new businesses, accelerating internal innovation, and driving co-innovation with customers, partners, and startups through a global network of Cisco Innovation Centers. Prior to this role, Maciej was General Manager of Cisco's Connected Industries Group, where he drove IoT business for key industrial markets. Maciej has been involved in the IoT space since the mid-2000s, helping Cisco lead the way at enabling innovative IoT solutions in areas like smart cities, manufacturing, and many more.
Show Notes:
- Visit Maciej's official website: http://www.maciejkranz.com/
- Read Maciej's posts on the Cisco blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/author/maciejkranz
- Follow Maciej on Twitter: https://twitter.com/maciejkranz
- Buy Building the Internet of Things: Implement New Business Models, Disrupt Competitors, Transform Your Industry on Amazon
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we look at the upcoming O'Reilly Design Conference, which will run from March 19-22nd in San Francisco, CA.
We'll take a look at who the conference is for, explore some of the most topical points in the design space attendees can expect to hear about, and discuss what the future of design holds beyond the traditional user interfaces we've all become accustomed - and in some cases addicted - to.
We're joined by Mary Treseler on this episode to discuss all that and more. Mary is the Strategic Content Director at O'Reilly Media and the Co-Chair of the O'Reilly Design Conference. In this role, she helps shape the agenda for the conference by helping choose speakers and topics for the 4-day conference, creating tracks for the Design Training Courses that make up the first 2 days of the conference, and much more.
Mary has been with O'Reilly Media for more than 10 years. She has been a key part of the company's mission to spread the latest knowledge on cutting-edge topics in the technology space like artificial intelligence, Big Data, design, security, software, and more.
Show Notes:
- Learn more about the O'Reilly Design Conference and register to attend using the above discount code: http://www.oreilly.com/designcon
- See what other conferences and events O'Reilly has coming up: http://www.oreilly.com/conferences/
- Visit the O'Reilly website: http://www.oreilly.com/
- Follow Mary Treseler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryTreseler
- Subscribe to listen to the O'Reilly Design Podcast that Mary hosts on iTunes
On this week’s episode, we’ll be learning how to think like innovators by exploring the importance of lateral thinking. Among the topics we’ll discuss are how lateral thinking can be applied in a business context, what the famous Fosbury flop can teach us about thinking like an innovator, and much more.
Joining us on this episode of the podcast is Paul Sloane, author of Think Like an Innovator: 76 Inspiring Business Lessons From the World's Greatest Thinkers & Innovators and How to Be a Brilliant Thinker, among others. Paul was a top salesman with IBM, as well as the Marketing Director, Managing Director, and CEO of various software companies like Ashton-Tate and Mathsoft. Among the many companies who have benefited from Paul’s innovation workshops are Nike, Novartis, Microsoft, and Glaxo Smith Kline.
Paul is the author of over 25 books on leadership, innovation, lateral thinking, and puzzles, and he specializes in speaking and teaching on lateral thinking and innovation in business. He blogs often on his website at www.destination-innovation.com, where you can also find information on the many books he has written and get your hands on a number of resources like lateral thinking puzzles, an innovation audit and more. Paul Tweets on innovation-related topics regularly at @PaulSloane.
Show Notes * Read Paul's blogs on his website: http://www.destination-innovation.com/ * Buy Think Like an Innovator on Amazon * Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulSloane
Braden Kelley joins us on this episode of the podcast to talk about how to make change efforts stick within any organization. Among the topics we discuss are how non-software companies can still benefit from Agile methodologies, how to develop actions when the desire to make changes reaches a groundswell, and ways to make changes seem less overwhelming and more human.
Braden Kelley is a co-founder of InnovationExcellence.com and the author of Charting Change: A Visual Toolkit for Making Change Stick and Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire: A Roadmap to a Sustainable Culture of Ingenuity and Purpose. Braden advises companies on how to grow revenue, cut costs, and build sustainable innovation cultures. He is also a popular keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and thought leader on the topics of continuous innovation and change. He works with his clients to create innovative strategies, digital transformations, and increased organizational agility.
Show Notes * Visit the site Braden co-founded, InnovationExcellence.com * Buy Charting Change on Amazon * Visit Braden Kelley's website: http://bradenkelley.com/ * Connect with Braden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradenkelley
For a special episode of The Innovation Engine, we pass the mic to Julia Slattery of our sister podcast, Take 3. We've been hard at work recently helping get Take 3 published to iTunes, so we wanted to share the latest episode of Take 3 with you here in the spirit of cross-promotion.
On this episode of Take 3, Julia talks with Oana Stinga and Daniel Markovitz about DL Labs, an initiative that 3Pillar client Decision Lens has undertaken to help fuel innovation across teams and disciplines. Listen to hear how Decision Lens uses these annual events to drive innovation, source fresh product ideas, and give multi-disciplinary teams the opportunity to work together. You'll find out more about Decision Lens as a company, hear how Decision Lens runs the DL Labs initiative each year, and find out some of the benefits they've seen from doing so.
Show Notes * Visit the Decision Lens website: http://decisionlens.com/ * Subscribe to Take 3 on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/take-3/id1175033982 * Visit Take 3's home on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/take3pillar
On this episode, we look at the importance of narrative in helping companies and organizations crystalize their message and their identity. Among the topics we discuss are why narrative will only continue to become a more valuable commodity in the world of social media and 24/7 news cycles, why it's imperative to understand the importance between narrative and story, and what some of the component parts of a Narrative Design Session Series should be.
Toby Trevarthen, co-author of Narrative Generation and Chief Narrative Officer at Sparkpr, joins us to talk about those topics and more. Along with Ann Badillo and Tim Donovan, Toby wrote the recently-released book Narrative Generation: Why narrative will become your most valuable asset in the next 5 years. Toby is a visionary executive with a track record for innovating new concepts into living outcomes. His ideology is shaped by a "probable, plausible and possible" lens, and his core career skill delivers monetization in a cross-channel, cross-device world.
Show Notes
- Buy Narrative Generation on Amazon.com
- Visit the Narrative Generation website at www.narrativegeneration.com
- Read about the creative process behind the book at www.narrativeproject.net
- Follow Toby Trevarthen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tobinw
- Follow Narrative Generation on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/narrativegen
Laura Roeder joins us on this episode to talk about "the art of the pivot." We start with looking at some of the pivots Laura has made over the course of her career to go from Junior Designer to CEO of Edgar. Edgar's SaaS social media product, available at MeetEdgar.com, allows users to get more mileage out of their social media posts. We also look at the types of questions the leader of a business like Edgar is considering when looking to make a big change in pricing, as recently happened with MeetEdgar.com. On a more micro level, Laura talks about how frequently changes are being made to the end product at MeetEdgar and how involved she is - or isn't - in those decisions.
Laura Roeder is the founder of Edgar, a new social media automation tool designed to prevent updates from going to waste. Since 2009, she’s been teaching entrepreneurs how to harness the power of social media marketing and create their own fame at LKR Social Media. Laura was named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 35 in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and spoke at the White House about the value of entrepreneurship. Laura has spoken at numerous influential industry conferences including, BlogWorld, The South by Southwest Interactive Conference, Real Estate Connect, The Social Communications Summit and Blogher, discussing online marketing, social media, and personal branding. Laura has been seen on Fox News, Forbes.com, CNET, the Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Mashable, Yahoo Finance and many more influential publications and media channels.
Show Notes * Hear more from Laura on social media strategy: http://meetedgar.com/edgar-on-air/ * Visit the MeetEdgar website: https://meetedgar.com/ * Follow Laura on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lkr * Follow MeetEdgar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeetEdgar
The concept of an 'Innovation Burst Event' is the topic of discussion for this episode. Mike Shipulski joins us to talk about how to know whether an IBE is right for your company, why it’s important to go off-site with your IBEs, and who should be there when you roll up your sleeves and start getting to work designing the future of your company.
Mike Shipulski is a Product Development Executive with 15+ years of experience leading product development efforts. In 2014, he was named the #1 innovation blogger in the world at InnovationExcellence.com. Mike blogs regularly on his website at www.shipulski.com, where he has published a new article on innovation each and every Wednesday night for the last 7 years.
Show Notes * Visit Mike Shipulski's website: http://www.shipulski.com/ * Follow Mike Shipulski on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeShipulski * Read Mike Shipulski's posts on Innovation Excellence: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/author/mike-shipulski/
Dr. Max McKeown joins us on this episode to talk about his latest book #NOW: The Surprising Truth About the Power of Now. Among the topics we discuss are what research has shown about impulsivity and how we make decisions, some of the qualities that make "nowists" different than "thenists," and the concept of anti-goals and how to avoid them.
Prior to #NOW, Dr. McKeown wrote The Strategy Book and The Innovation Book. He is an expert in strategy, leadership, innovation, and how to create a better future. Dr. McKeown works with some of the world’s most successful global brands, helping leaders across sectors develop innovative cultures, products, and services. You can find out more about him and read his latest writings on his website at www.MaxMcKeown.com.
Show Notes * Follow Max McKeown on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxMckeown * Buy #NOW on Amazon
Jeremy Caverly joins us on this episode to talk lean product and customer experience management. We cover some of the forces at play that have brought the lean approach to the forefront in the world of software development, the skill sets and mind sets a team needs to be able to implement lean product methodologies successfully, and why customer experience entails so much more than the more commonly discussed topic of user experience.
Jeremy Caverly is an Intraprenuer, product manager and mobile strategist at In-House Realty, part of the Quicken Loans family of companies. In addition to digital marketing & growth-hacking, Jeremy’s areas of expertise include Mobile Product Development, Enterprise Mobility, Digital Content Distribution, and Blockchain technologies. Just a few of the companies with whom he has worked over the course of nearly two decades are Nike, Whole Foods, Universal Music, PBS, and Visa.
Show Notes * Follow Jeremy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JeremyCee * Follow Jeremy on Snapchat at ItsJeremyCee * A recent TechCrunch article on designing for voice: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/21/designing-for-voice-differs-from-traditional-ux/ * The Robert Scoble interview with Noelle Lacharite from the Amazon Echo team that Jeremy mentions in the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/videos/10153811243564655/ * A "This Week in Startups" episode with Intercom's Des Traynor, which Jeremy references in the podcast: http://thisweekinstartups.com/launch-incubator-des-traynor/ * Slides from Des' presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7NE0AvrKPFyR25XZnozU19KUkU/view
On a very special episode of the podcast, we take The Innovation Engine on the road to attend the first annual RightsTech Summit in New York. The RightsTech Summit took place on July 26th and brought together a cross-section of companies, associations, and industry leaders to discuss innovation in rights management from Blockchain to Enterprise. Panel discussions included topics like Machine Readable Rights, The RightsTech Technology Stack, and RightsTech in the Enterprise. 3Pillar's Adi Chikara was a panelist on what turned out to be one of the more lively discussions of the day, on Crypto-currencies, Side-Chains, and Fiat Portals.
Over the course of the episode, we have a conversation with the creators of the RightsTech Summit, and select clips from a number of panels that took place over the course of the day. We also had the opportunity to interview a few panelists who are looking to change the way compensation works for artists in the music space. We also had the 360-degree camera rolling during Adi's panel discussion and will have that available on 3Pillar's YouTube channel shortly, in addition to the "regular" video that is already live!
Show Notes * Visit the RightsTech Summit website: http://rightstechsummit.com/ * Visit 3Pillar's YouTube channel to watch videos of Adi Chikara's session: https://www.youtube.com/c/3pillarglobal
On this week’s episode, we take a look at security in the software development space. Among the topics we discuss are why security is of paramount importance when it comes to developing software, how a company called Codiscope is working to help developers of all stripes build more secure software from the start, and the role their new developer tool called Jacks plays in that mission.
Gary Jackson, CEO of Codiscope, joins us on this week's episode. Gary has over 25 years of software leadership experience. He grew Shunra Software to become an industry-recognized authority in network virtualization and application performance engineering before being acquired by HP in 2014. He also spearheaded the growth and sale of Ounce Labs to IBM, whose technology has become IBM’s flagship enterprise code scanning tool. Gary has previously held leadership positions at a variety of high-tech companies including Quova (an IP geolocation service), Ozro (contract negotiation software), and Vantive (CRM Software).
Show Notes * Visit the Jacks website: https://jacks.codiscope.com/ * Visit the Codiscope website: https://codiscope.com/ * Follow Codiscope on Twitter: https://twitter.com/codiscope
On this episode of the podcast, we talk with the founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, Perianne Boring, about the promise of blockchain technology and how regulatory actions in the financial services space will either accelerate or suffocate the next wave of tech-fueled innovation in the sector.
Among the topics we discuss are the role of government here in the U.S. in fintech as compared to other countries, how public policymakers are approaching and learning about financial innovation, and why creating a friendly regulatory environment for financial innovation is one of the most important initiatives in policy today.
Perianne Boring is the founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, which first opened it’s doors in July 2014. She currently oversees the Chamber’s operations and government affairs and public policy initiatives. Perianne previously worked in network broadcast news and as a Forbes contributor, after beginning her career working on Capitol Hill as a legislative analyst advising Representative Dennis Ross on finance, economics, tax, and healthcare policy.
Show Notes * Visit the Chamber of Digital Commerce's website: http://www.digitalchamber.org/ * Follow the Chamber of Digital Commerce on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChamberDigital * Follow Perianne Boring on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerianneDC
For a very special episode of The Innovation Engine, we welcome 3Pillar CEO David DeWolf back into the studio for our 100th episode. David was the very first guest to appear on the podcast, and he has been on the podcast numerous times to discuss technology trends and corporate leadership.
On this episode, we talk about David's journey as an entrepreneur and the path he has taken over the course of the last 10 years to go from a company with fewer than 10 employees at the outset to one that now has more than 700 employees worldwide. Among the keys David cites as critical to his success are a true passion for what he does and the ability to hire the right people and then trust them to do their jobs well. We also discuss some of the trends that were the hottest topics at this summer's major technology conference, including the invasion of the bots, the connected home, and how advances on both fronts are bringing us closer to the concept of having "relationships" with technology.
David DeWolf is the Founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, one of the Mid-Atlantic’s fastest growing technology companies. Since founding 3Pillar in 2006, David has guided the company to a leadership position in the Product Development Services sector, establishing 3Pillar as the go-to innovator for content, information, and data-rich companies looking to grow revenue through software. David is passionate about software product innovation, entrepreneurship, and principled leadership. In 2012, he was named one of SmartCEO Magazine’s “Future 50.” In 2011, he was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as one of “40 Under 40” who are Washington, D.C.’s brightest young business leaders. David writes frequently about leadership, business, life and technology at DavidDeWolf.com. David and/or his writing has appeared in publications like Fortune, Fast Company, Investor’s Business Daily, Pando Daily, ZDNet, and many more.
Show Notes * Visit David DeWolf's website: http://www.DavidDeWolf.com * Follow David DeWolf on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ddewolf
On this episode of the podcast, we look at the concept of "visual intelligence" and discuss how to see and communicate more clearly in all aspects of life. We talk about how to benefit from looking at the world around you the way you look at a piece of art, the three questions you can ask yourself to immediately make sense of a situation, and how one word can drastically change the way we understand a situation.
Amy Herman joins us to talk about those topics and more. Amy is the author of the recently released book Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life. She is a lawyer and art historian who uses great works of art to systematically sharpen observation, analysis, and observation skills. Amy has instituted a multitude of programs to help medical students and members of the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the armed forces improve their observational skills so they can recognize and synthesize the most useful information in any given situation. She was also the Head of Education at The Frick Collection for over 10 years, where she oversaw all of the Collection’s educational collaborations and community initiatives. Amy's work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on CBS This Morning, and on NPR, among others.
Show Notes * Visit the Artful Perception website: http://aop.artfulperception.com/ * Buy Visual Intelligence on the Artful Perception website: http://aop.artfulperception.com/courses/book * Watch Amy's TEDEd video, How Art Can Help You Analyze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubEadhXWwV4
Understanding blockchain technology is the focus of this episode of the podcast. We start with an introduction to blockchain technology before talking about why it just may represent the internet 2.0, or "the internet of value." We also talk about why blockchain is a technology that companies not just in the financial services space but in a wide variety of industries should be evaluating to see how it will impact their business.
Alex Tapscott joins us for this week's episode of the podcast to talk about those topics and more. His just-released book, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World, looks at blockchain in-depth. It is co-written with best-selling author Don Tapscott and is based on interviews with a wide range of technology pioneers that includes Marc Andreesen, Tim Berners-Lee, and Vint Cerf, among others. Alex is the CEO and founder of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm that builds blockchain companies. In 2014, Alex wrote the seminal report on governing digital currencies for the Global Solutions Network program at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Show Notes * Visit the Northwest Passage Ventures website * Visit the Blockchain Revolution book's website * Follow Alex Tapscott on Twitter * Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter
Mitch Gelman joins us on this episode of the podcast to talk about what to expect from the brave new world of virtual reality and the first wave of headsets that are hitting the market. Mitch walks several of us through the virtual reality experience using the HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR. Tune in to this episode to hear why billions of investment dollars are being poured into VR, why Mark Zuckerberg thinks it represents the next big computing platform, and to hear the reactions of several people going through their first experience with the HTC Vive.
Mitch Gelman is a Senior Fellow in Media & Technology at the Newseum. He was previously VP of Product at Gannett, where he oversaw digital product development in key areas for properties that included more than 90 national and local news entities across the USA Today Network. Mitch was the Executive Producer on USA Today’s award-winning Harvest for Change VR series and has won awards including the Pulitzer, the News Innovation Award from the Knight Foundation, and the Best Use of Technology in Journalism from the National Press Foundation. Mitch was one of the co-authors of the Knight Foundation’s recently released whitepaper, Viewing the Future of Virtual Reality in Journalism.
Show Notes In addition to the usual podcast audio, we also recorded this episode of the podcast in 360-degree spherical video. You can step inside 3Pillar's Innovation Lab to watch Mitch Gelman and Will Sherlin talk about the future of VR via YouTube (https://youtu.be/NXTl3mfduEs) or 3Pillar's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/3PillarGlobal/). At around the 9-minute mark you can see footage of Andy Zipfel, Tony Orlando, and Michael Lisse narrating their close encounters of a virtual kind.
For this episode of the podcast, we're bringing you another episode of 3Pillar's new audio endeavor, Take 3. This episode of Take 3 centers around virtual reality, and we are using it to set the stage for the next episode of The Innovation Engine podcast, when we'll be getting hands-on with several of the latest and greatest VR headsets courtesy of VR luminary Mitch Gelman. On this episode, Chris Graham and Will Sherlin talk about the wave of virtual reality devices and content that are set to hit the market and some of the industries beyond just Media and Entertainment that are likely to see a sea change thanks to virtual reality technology. Julia Slattery hosts and produces Take 3 on a bi-weekly basis. To listen to previous episodes of Take 3, please visit http://www.soundcloud.com/take3pillar.
On this episode of the podcast we'll look at the present and future of streaming analytics & data visualization. We talk about a tool that a 3Pillar Global team built for digesting vast quantities of streaming video analytics data and for visualizing that data in a meaningful way. The tool we'll discuss was built as a proof of concept for a major public television network, and you’ll hear about the motivation behind its creation and other potential applications for the data visualization aspect of the tool.
The guests on this episode of the podcast are Dan Greene, Chris Graham, and Sayantam Dey. Dan Greene is the Director of Architecture at 3Pillar Global. He has 18 years of software design and development experience, with software and product architecture expertise in areas including eCommerce, Geospatial Analysis, SOA architecture, Big Data, and Cloud Computing. Chris Graham leads the Media & Entertainment vertical at 3Pillar Global. He works with clients across the Media and Entertainment space including Broadcast Media, Online Media, and Publications and Newspapers. Sayantam Dey is the Director of 3Pillar’s Advanced Technology Group. He has been with 3Pillar for a decade, delivering enterprise products and building frameworks for accelerated software development and testing in various technologies. His current areas of interest are data analytics, messaging systems and cloud services.
Show Notes * Read Sayantam & Dan's piece on the technology behind the POC: http://www.3pillarglobal.com/insights/real-time-analytics-visualization-apache-spark * Follow Chris Graham on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisGraham * Follow Dan Greene on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrDanGreene
William Duggan joins us on this week's episode of the podcast to talk about "the Seventh Sense" - what it means, how to harness it, and the impact doing so can have. Among the topics we discuss are how Howard Schulz tapped into the Seventh Sense to start a little coffee empire called Starbucks, the four elements that are necessary for the Seventh Sense to swing into effect, and the importance presence of mind plays in harnessing one’s Seventh Sense.
William Duggan is the author of three recent books on innovation: The Seventh Sense: How Flashes of Insight Change Your Life (2015), Creative Strategy: A Guide for Innovation (2012), and Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement (2007). In 2007 the journal Strategy+Business named Strategic Intuition “Best Strategy Book of the Year.” He has BA, MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University, and twenty years of experience as a strategy advisor and consultant.
Professor Duggan teaches innovation in three venues at Columbia Business School: MBA and Executive MBA courses, and Executive Education sessions. In 2014 he won the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He has given talks and workshops on innovation to thousands of executives from companies in countries around the world.
David Burkus joins us for this episode of The Innovation Engine to talk about corporate management and how some of the world's leading organizations are working to upend business as usual for their employees, and in so doing for their customers as well.
Among the topics we discuss are why you're likely to get better results by being employee-centric rather than customer-centric, how scrapping performance reviews has helped companies like Adobe reach new heights, and what the org chart of today should look like.
David Burkus is the author of the just-released book Under New Management: How Leading Organizations are Upending Business as Usual. He's an assistant professor of management at Oral Roberts University, where he teaches courses on organizational behavior, creativity and innovation, and strategic leadership. David is also the founder and host of Radio Free Leader, a podcast that shares insights on leadership, innovation, and strategy.
Episode Highlights Among the highlights of this week's episode are:
- We talk about some mind-boggling stats about email in the workplace, including this one: more than 108 billion emails were sent and received every day in 2014
- David shares his thoughts on why annual performance reviews do very little to improve performance and can be detrimental to employee morale
- We break down an interesting statistic that Google uncovered based on a careful review of their hiring process - after 4 interviews, they had an 86% chance of making the right hiring decision, with additional interviews only adding 1% more certainty
Show Notes * Visit David Burkus' website: http://www.davidburkus.com * Follow David Burkus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidburkus * Read about Under New Management: http://davidburkus.com/books/under-new-management/ * Read about David's previous book, The Myths of Creativity: http://davidburkus.com/books/the-myths-of-creativity/ * Listen to the previous podcast episode we recorded with David Burkus on The Myths of Creativity: http://www.3pillarglobal.com/insights/getting-past-the-creativity-myth-with-david-burkus-2
On this episode of the podcast, we look at what "taking the long view" can teach us about the innovator's mindset and imagining the future. Among the topics we discuss are why being able to think deeply into the future helps us make it reality, why we're all designers in some form or fashion whether we know it or not, and what the "Halloween asteroid" can teach us about probability, chance, and playing the Powerball.
Pete Kale joins us in-studio for this episode. Pete is an innovation expert who works for a federal government agency in the DC area. Over the course of his career, Pete has worked with a number of leaders in the field of design thinking. He has a special interest in envisioning what the world will be like many, many years from now and applying that thinking to solving problems in today's world. He writes about this and much more at www.PeteKale.com. Pete is also a long-time listener and friend of the podcast who has suggested a number of guests for us along the way!
Adarsh Desai, the head of the World Bank Group's Innovation Labs, joins us to discuss innovation and international development on this episode of the podcast. Among the topics we cover are how the Innovation Labs are working to help the World Bank meet its goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, how they are using big data and open data to fuel that mission, and why innovation and social entrepreneurship at the local level are more critical now than ever before.
As the head of the World Bank Group's Innovation Labs, Adarsh oversees a variety of programs, ranging from innovations in Big Data Analytics and Social Enterprise to the Open Aid Partnership and Human Centered Design. He is passionate about leveraging technology and data-driven innovations for international development and has managed programs on big data analytics, ICT-enabled citizen engagement, Open Innovations, Geospatial data, eLearning and other technology enabled platforms.
Show Notes * Follow Adarsh Desai on Twitter: http://twitter.com/adarshdesai * Read Adarsh Desai's latest blog posts on the World Bank's website: http://blogs.worldbank.org/team/adarsh-desai
We look at Innovation in the Sports & Fitness Space with Simon Ogus of SportTechie.com on this week’s episode. Among the topics we discuss are how virtual reality will impact the sports experience and the fan experience in the years to come, what the future holds for the next generation of wearable devices, and what some of the hottest products were on the floor of this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
Simon Ogus, COO of SportTechie.com, joins us to discuss those topics and more. SportTechie is a website dedicated to covering the intersection of sports and technology. The site covers the latest technological innovations, ideas, and products that impact the fan experience, player performance, and the sports industry as a whole. Sport Techie reports on cutting-edge developments in the sports industry with in-depth analysis and exclusive interviews. To find out more about the site or subscribe to receive their daily newsletter of the latest goings-on in the world of sports technology, you can visit www.SportTechie.com.
Show Notes * Follow Simon Ogus on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonOgus * Visit the SportTechie website: http://www.sporttechie.com/ * Follow SportTechie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SportTechie
For this episode of the podcast, we give listeners a sneak peek at a new audio endeavor from 3Pillar called Take 3. Take 3 is an audio series from 3Pillar that covers the trends, technologies, and tools that are changing the way business gets done in the digital age. It touches on key topics that are influencing the way technology-powered products are conceived, designed, developed, and launched.
For Take 3, Scene 1, host Julia Slattery is joined by Dan Greene and Jessica Hall to talk about Product’s Role in DevOps. Among the topics they cover are why DevOps has become the hot topic du jour in the world of product development, why having the ability to deploy to production multiple times a day isn’t for everyone, and the motivation behind Dan Greene’s 2015 TechCrunch article titled ‘What is DevOps?’.
Jessica Hall is the Director of the Innovate practice at 3Pillar, where she specializes in bringing new ideas to market through rapid prototyping. Previously she built the UX team at CEB and led the creation of the Newseum’s interactive exhibits and websites. Her work has been recognized by the Web Marketing Association, American Association of Museums, The Webby Awards, Time, Graphic Design USA, Forbes, and The Washington Post.
Dan Greene is the Director of the Advanced Technology Group in the US at 3Pillar Global. Dan has 18 years of software design and development experience, with software and product architecture experience in areas including eCommerce, B2B integration, Geospatial Analysis, SOA architecture, Big Data, and Cloud Computing. He is an AWS Certified Solution Architect who worked at Oracle, ChoicePoint, and Booz Allen Hamilton prior to 3Pillar.
On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we talk with Canvas CEO James Quigley about the power of the corporate why. Among the topics we discuss are why establishing and communicating your corporate why is vital if you want to have inspired team members, how knowing what the corporate why is can fuel innovation on an individual level, and how a company called Canvas is revolutionizing the way data is submitted and collected through mobile forms.
James Quigley is the CEO & Co-Founder of Canvas. He has a long history of building successful wireless companies. Prior to Canvas, he was Vice President and Managing Director at inCode Wireless, which was later acquired by VeriSign. Other successful start-ups with which he has worked include Aether Systems, Orbcomm, and Peak Technologies (formerly a division of R.R. Donnelley). James has won numerous awards for corporate leadership, including being named one of 2012’s Top 50 CEOs by the Center for Innovative Technology, one of the top 20 global executives in his field by CLO Magazine and the World Supply Chain Forum, and one of the top 15 DC start-up CEOs to follow on Twitter. In 2007, his team designed and delivered a mobile solution that was used for tracking deadly global pandemics, an application that ultimately won the Motorola Wireless Solution of the Year Award.
For a special holiday episode of the podcast, we go back into the vault of 2015 episodes to find some never-before-aired innovation advice. Tune in to hear fresh takes from David J. Bland of Neo Innovate, author David Burkus of Oral Roberts University, Scott Anthony of Insight, and Mitch Ditkoff of Idea Champions.
David J. Bland, a pioneer in the Lean Startup movement, shares advice on what to do when testing results come back mixed or inconclusive. David Burkus, author of The Myths of Creativity, talks about why we're hard-wired to understand life through the power of story and why that can be a problem in the business world. Scott Anthony shares an anecdote about the Manila Water partnership and how it's an example of an organization using a Minimum Viable Innovation System to great effect. Mitch Ditkoff tells a story meant to illustrate the importance of taking the road less traveled.
We'll also share just a few examples of things that can go wrong during the course of recording an episode, with hiccups on recordings with Nir Eyal, Greg Bandeau, and Mitch Ditkoff. Last but not least, we put a bow on the episode with a reading of the email from November 2013 that launched The Innovation Engine podcast.
On this week's episode of the podcast, we talk about growth through innovation with Mark Schaefer. Among the topics we cover are the concepts of the Alpha audience - or apostle audience - and why they're important concepts to understand, essential marketing strategies that are vital for any company looking to grow exponentially, and why Mark believes that there truly is a Tao of Twitter.
Mark Schaefer joins us on this week's episode to discuss those topics and more. Mark is the founder and Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, a marketing company that helps businesses grow through social media, content, and strategic marketing. His portfolio includes seven patents, two graduate degrees, a mentorship with Peter Drucker, and five best-selling marketing books, including The Content Code, The Tao of Twitter, and Return on Influence. Mark is a regular blogger at {grow}, one of the top marketing blogs in the world, and he teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University. He has been a keynote speaker at a number of well-known events worldwide, including SXSW, Marketing Summit Tokyo, and the Institute for International and European Affairs. He’s also the co-host of The Marketing Companion, one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on iTunes.
Show Notes * Follow Mark Schaefer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/markwschaefer * Visit Schaefer Marketing Solutions' website: www.businessesgrow.com * Browse Mark's books on Amazon
Mitch Ditkoff joins us on this episode of the podcast to talk about storytelling at work. Among the topics we discuss are why creating a culture of storytelling is important for any company, which functions of a company it’s most imperative to have master story-tellers in, and how to go about facilitating a story-telling circle at work.
Mitch Ditkoff is the co-founder and President of Idea Champions and the author of the just released Storytelling at Work: How Moments of Truth on the Job Reveal the Real Business of Life. Among the companies with which Mitch has worked over the course of his career to improve their innovation capacity are GE, Merck, AT&T, NBC Universal, and Coca-Cola. He blogs frequently at the Heart of Innovation blog on the Idea Champions website, as well as for outlets like the Huffington Post.
Show Notes: * Visit The Idea Champions Website: http://www.ideachampions.com/ * Read Mitch Ditkoff's articles on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitch-ditkoff/ * Follow Mitch Ditkoff on Twitter: @MitchDitkoff
Monica Phillips joins us this week to talk about the art of the launch and how to launch the right mix of products to stay competitive. Among the topics we discuss are the importance of getting ideas off the page and into the real world, why the elevator pitch is not one size fits all, and how putting an emphasis on launching new products or services can help you and others break habits that may be keeping you locked into the same old way of doing things.
Monica Phillips is a motivational speaker, leadership coach, and the President of Spark Plug Labs, a consulting organization that provides coaching and training to leaders at startups and companies across a wide range of industries. She's an active member of the startup community in Silicon Valley, where she works closely with The Coaching Fellowship, a community of advisors that help female entrepreneurs bring their visions to life. Monica is also the host of Powerful Conversations, a podcast and radio show on the Voice America Network that features talks with thought leaders across industries and locations on a variety of business-oriented leadership and entrepreneurial topics.
Brant Cooper joins us this week to talk about the concept of "lean entrepreneurship" and why he believes visionaries are made, not born. Among the topics we discuss are why you should never, ever tell anyone to follow their passion, why having a vision doesn't always mean you'll be successful, and the logic behind McKinsey's "three horizons of growth" theory.
Brant is the co-author of The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets. He is a Lean Startup thought leader who travels the world speaking to entrepreneurs at conferences, hackathons, and workshops. Among the companies he has spoken to or consulted for are Qualcomm, Intuit, Capital One, and Hewlett-Packard. Brant's startup career includes stints at Tumbleweed, Timestamp, WildPackets, inCode, and many others. He has over 20 years of experience in IT and bringing technology products to market. He is also the author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development, which has over 50,000 copies in circulation.
Show Notes * The Lean Entrepreneur website: http://leanentrepreneur.co * Brant Cooper's website: http://market-by-numbers.com/ * Brant Cooper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brantcooper
For a very special episode of the podcast, we talk with some of the team behind the forthcoming iOS app for The Innovation Engine podcast. We talk about where the idea and inspiration for the app came from in the first place, what the process of developing the app has been like, and when you can expect to see it in the App Store.
Guests on this week's episode include 3Pillar’s Kevin Boyle, Matt Sich, Paul Axente, Chris Graham, and David DeWolf. Kevin Boyle talks about the origins of the app and the void he and colleagues experienced that it could help fill. Matt Sich, a “unicorn” designer/developer, talks about trial and error during the development process and why iterative design is additive rather than subtractive. Paul Axente is a UX Engineer who took Matt's first concepts and built upon them. Paul talks about 3D Touch interactions in iOS 9, how he envisions future versions of the app employing 3D Touch, and the inspiration for the visual treatment he gave the app. Chris Graham, of episode 78 fame, helped shape the vision for the project. He narrates a walk-through of a demo version of the app once it’s nearly ready to submit to Apple for approval. 3Pillar CEO David DeWolf, who has appeared in numerous previous episodes, closes out the episode. David talks about why he green lit the app’s development in the first place and the benefits of getting outside your comfort zone to do something different.
On this week’s episode of the podcast, we look at productivity in the workplace and beyond — how changing your personal rhetoric can help you refocus your efforts, how much more leisure time you have than you think you have, and why having partners in crime can make any hill “look less steep.”
Laura Vanderkam joins us on this week’s episode to discuss those topics and more. Laura is the author of, most recently, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time. She’s also the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think and the What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast series of ebooks. Laura is a frequent contributor to Fast Company.com and is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors. Her work has appeared in publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Fortune, and she has appeared on the Today Show, Fox & Friends, and on numerous other TV outlets to discuss her ideas on time management, productivity, and more.
On this week's episode of the podcast, we take a look at how to build high-performing teams and cultures through the science of "total motivation." Among the topics we discuss include how to spot the worst motivation for getting your job done, why culture might not want to eat strategy for breakfast anymore, and how to help employees long for the sea in their own ways.
Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor join us on this episode of the podcast to discuss all that and more. Neel and Lindsay are co-founders of Vega Factor, a company focused on unlocking human potential to build the most adaptive organizations. Prior to founding Vega, Neel was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, as well as CTO and a founding member of Genesant Technologies. Lindsay is a former consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she led strategic and operational projects for Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, media, nonprofit, and education sectors.
Show Notes * Visit the Primed to Perform website to take a ToMo survey to see how your company fares * Follow Neel Doshi on Twitter * Follow Lindsay McGregor on Twitter * Follow the official Vega Factor on Twitter
On this week’s episode of the podcast, we look at how to use the tenets of disruptive innovation to chart one's own optimal career path and improve performance in the workplace. We talk about how listeners can use the S-curve to understand their own career trajectory, why you should allow your brain to create obstacles for you rather than decrying the fact that it does, and the importance of learning to plan not to plan.
Whitney Johnson joins us on this episode of the podcast to discuss those topics and more. Whitney's latest book, Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work, will be published on October 6th. Whitney is a Founder and Managing Director of The Springboard Fund, a for-profit investment firm that invests in selected women-led, high growth businesses. She is also the co-founder of Rose Park Advisors, where she and co-founder Clayton Christensen led the seed round for Korea’s Coupang, currently valued at $2.2 billion.
In addition to her books, Whitney is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and is quoted frequently in publications like Fast Company. Whitney has received widespread recognition for her work and ideas, including being named one of Fortune’s 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter in 2014. This is Whitney's second appearance on the podcast, having joined us for the 23rd episode of The Innovation Engine last year to talk about driving disruptive innovation and her first book, Dare, Dream, Do.
Show Notes * Visit Whitney Johnson's website * Follow Whitney Johnson on Twitter: @JohnsonWhitney * Share the "Thunderclap" for Disrupt Yourself to spread the word about the book
On this week's episode of the podcast we'll be looking at disruptive innovation in the media and entertainment space. We'll talk about why the definition of what it means to be a media company is rapidly changing, how media companies are dealing with the advent of live streaming and incorporating it into traditional broadcasts, and the future of advertising in a world of Everything-on-Demand.
Chris Graham joins us on this week's episode to talk about those topics and more. Chris is the Client Executive in the Media & Entertainment vertical here at 3Pillar Global. Chris works with clients across the Media and Entertainment space, including Broadcast Media, Online Media, Publications and Newspapers, Gaming, Music, and Sports. You can follow him on Twitter at @ChrisGraham for his takes on all things Media & Entertainment-related.
On this week’s episode of the podcast we take a look at the Hub of All Things (aka HAT) project. We’ll talk with Irene Ng about what exactly the HAT is, why you shouldn’t be alarmed to hear that it will make corporations out of everyone, and how it will help put control of personal data back in the hands of consumers.
Irene C L Ng is a Professor of Marketing and Service Systems and Director of the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation at WMG, University of Warwick. In addition to her role at IIPSI, Irene also leads the £1.2m UK government-funded HAT research project. She has published numerous articles in a multitude of domains, including management, marketing, engineering, information systems, economics, education, and sociology. Irene is also the author of two books, The Pricing & Revenue Management of Services: A Strategic Approach, and the highly acclaimed Value and Worth: Creating New Markets in the Digital Economy.
On this week's episode we welcome Jo Golden to the studio to talk about the 2015 UXDC Conference. Among the topics we discuss are the evolving and expanding role of UX, some of the talks and topics attendees at the conference can expect to hear, and why content strategy is increasingly an area of importance for UX professionals.
UXDC 2015 will be held in Washington, DC on October 9th and 10th, and will feature 35 hours and over 30 sessions. The conference will include UX professionals, junior designers, students, and a multitude of experts from UX-related fields coming together to discuss UX strategy, deliver results, and help UX professionals get ahead.
Jo Golden is a member of the DC Chapter of the User Experience Professionals' Association (UXPA), a highly active local nonprofit association that represents community of individuals interested in usability, user experience design, interaction design, and their many related fields. She is also on the Organizing Committee of UXDC 2015, which is being hosted by the UXPA DC chapter. Jo is a social scientist who works at the intersection of strategy, sense-making, story, and meaningful experience design.
Show Notes * Visit the UXDC website * Follow UXDC on Twitter * Follow Jo Golden on Twitter * Connect with Jo Golden on LinkedIn
3Pillar CEO David DeWolf joins us for the 75th episode of the podcast to talk about the 2015 Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference and more. David shares some of the trends and topics that were on everyone's minds at this year's conference, why software will continue to play an important role for companies of all shapes and sizes, and the importance creating a great culture has in creating great companies.
David DeWolf is the Founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, one of the Mid-Atlantic’s fastest growing technology companies and the generous sponsor of this very podcast. Since founding 3Pillar in 2006, David has guided the company to a leadership position in the Product Development Services sector, establishing 3Pillar as the go-to innovator for content, information, and data-rich companies looking to grow revenue through software. David is passionate about software product innovation, entrepreneurship, and principled leadership. In 2012, he was named one of SmartCEO Magazine’s “Future 50.” In 2011, he was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as one of “40 Under 40” who are Washington, D.C.’s brightest young business leaders. David writes frequently about leadership, business, life and technology at DavidDeWolf.com, and he or his writing has appeared in publications like Fortune, Fast Company, Investor’s Business Daily, Pando Daily, ZDNet, and many more. You can also follow him on Twitter at @DDeWolf.
Show Notes * Video with interviews of CVS Health EVP Helena Foulkes and Fitbit Founder & CEO James Park * More information about the findings of the original Product Development Success study and PDSI
On this week's episode of The Innovation Engine podcast, we focus on the progress principle. Among the topics we discuss are:
- The groundbreaking study that led to a number of insights about motivation in the workplace
- The concept of "inner work life" and why it's important to get right in any company
- Why progress checklists and daily journals can be powerful tools for anyone looking to build high-performing teams.
Dr. Teresa Amabile, co-author of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, joins us this week to discuss those topics and more.
Dr. Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. She is also a Director of Research at the school, where she teaches courses on creativity, leadership, and ethics. Dr. Amabile has spoken to a range of groups around the world about her research, including giving a TedX talk on the Progress Principle in 2011. Dr. Amabile was also the host and instructor of Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, a twenty-six-part instructional series originally broadcast on PBS.
Show Notes * Follow Dr. Teresa Amabile on Twitter: http://twitter.com/teresamabile * Visit the official website for The Progress Principle to buy the book and explore related resources: http://www.ProgressPrinciple.com
On this week’s episode, we take a look at how to build the perpetually innovative company – the five areas to focus on for improvement in innovation performance, the cornerstones of creating an innovative culture, and how to avoid the dreaded “not-invented-here syndrome.”
Kai Engel and Violetka Dirlea join us on this week's episode to discuss those topics and more. Kai and Violetka are partners & Global Innovation Leaders at A.T. Kearney and two of the co-authors of Masters of Innovation: Building the Perpetually Innovative Company. Kai Engel leads A.T. Kearney’s Innovation Practice for Europe and founded the annual Best Innovator Competition in 2003. He regularly chairs top executive roundtables and is a frequent presenter at business and industry conferences. Violetka Dirlea is an industrial manufacturing expert and head of A.T. Kearney’s Innovation Practice for the Americas. She has extensive consulting experience, with a focus on development competitive advantages, delivering tangible results, and improving overall business performance. A. T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their most mission-critical issues.
On this week's episode of the podcast we take an early look at the 2016 Digital Entertainment World Expo with the event's co-founder, Ned Sherman. Among the topics we discuss are the startup competition at the 2016 DEW Expo, what Ned's hands-on experience with the Oculus Rift was like, and what some of the most notable Media & Entertainment companies from the 2015 DEW Expo have been up to since.
Ned Sherman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Media Wire, a media company that provides strategic consulting, manages marketing campaigns for digital media brands, and owns and produces industry conferences. Digital Media Wire publishes daily newsletters and operates the popular DMWMedia.com news and community portal. Ned currently sits on the board of The Technology Council of Southern California and the NAB Show Advisory Council. He is founder and creator of the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards, which he sold to VNU/Nielsen in 2006, and is co-founder and co-creator of Digital Entertainment World, a joint venture with IDG World Expo. You can follow Ned on Twitter at @NedSherman, and you can learn more about the DEW Expo at http://www.dewexpo.com/.
On this week's episode of the podcast we talk with Mike Bearman and Andrea Bennetti of Sapienza Consulting about innovation in the space industry. We talk about topics including the future of space travel, whether the next generation of innovation lies in private industry or the government space, and what has changed with project management in the space industry in the last 20 years.
Sapienza Consulting is a leading provider of space mission and project support through people, software, and services. The company has been a supplier to the European Space Agency since 1994. Mike Bearman is the Managing Director and Founder of Sapienza. His background in project management led him to found Sapienza, which specializes in Internet-based project management solutions for space agencies. Andrea Bennetti is the Commercial Director at Sapienza, where he is responsible for the company’s commercial strategies and activities for mission-critical applications. He leads the company’s Innovation and New Product Development strategies and oversees Marketing and Sales across all business streams.
Jeff B. Cohen joins us on this week's episode to talk about the Art of Dealmaking and his recently published book, The Dealmaker's Ten Commandments. Among the topics we discuss are:
- Why dealmaking is an important skill for anyone in the business world
- Why asking yourself ”So what?" can be a powerful question any time you feel stuck
- How you can use a Motivation Mosaic to understand all the different angles that may eventually impact whether or not a deal gets made
Jeff Cohen is a Founding Partner of Beverly Hills-based Cohen Gardner LLP, an entertainment law firm whose specialties include Entertainment Finance; Intellectual Property & New Media; and Development, Production & Distribution. Jeff has written numerous articles on business, technology, and entertainment matters for CNBC, The Huffington Post, Backstage, Lawyerist, and others. Among Jeff’s claims to fame is that he starred in the beloved 1980s film ‘The Goonies’ as Chunk. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at @Jeff_B_Cohen.
Dr. Fred Kiel joins us on this week's episode to discuss the business benefits of corporate leaders behaving with moral character. We talk about Dr. Kiel's recently released book, Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders & Their Companies Win, which draws on a 7-year research study of 84 companies and their leaders from a wide variety of industries. Dr. Kiel is the co-founder and a principal of KRW International, a consulting firm committed to raising society's standards for great leadership by combining skills and character to drive results. For more information on the book, you can visit the book's website at ReturnonCharacter.com. You can also follow Fred Kiel on Twitter at @FKiel.
On this week's episode we look at the intersection of innovation and marketing. Among the topics we discuss are:
- Why marketing touches more areas of a business than ever before
- The concept of "the visual web" and why looks matter when it comes to marketing
- How to go about reverse engineering your company’s social media strategy
Dr. Leigh George joins us to discuss those topics and more. Dr. George is the Founder & CEO of Freedom, a boutique consulting company that helps organizations that feel stuck clear the way for innovation. She was previously the Director of Marketing and Communications at URAC, the VP of Social at Ogilvy, and the Director of Strategy at R2Integrated. Dr. George is one of the few people in the country with a PhD in Branding History and Theory, which she earned from Binghamton University. To learn more about Dr. George and her company, please visit www.findfreedom.co or follow Leigh on Twitter at @LeighGeorge.
On this episode, we look at how to craft a successful innovation strategy. Among the topics we discuss are why strategy and planning are decidedly not the same thing, how the future impacts strategy and vice versa, and why you have to be comfortable incorporating change into your innovation strategy. Dr. Max McKeown, award-winning author of The Strategy Book and The Innovation Book, joins us to discuss those topics and more. Dr. McKeown works with some of the world’s most successful global brands to help leaders across sectors develop innovative, cultures, products, and services.
Looking to turn your company into an innovation factory? Scott Anthony, Managing Partner of Innosight, joins us on this week's episode to discuss how to build your company's very own innovation engine. We talk about the 4 component pieces that drive an innovation factory, what the first 90 days of building your innovation engine should look like, and why it's important to kill "zombie projects" that drain valuable time and resources. In addition to serving as Manager Partner at Innosight, Scott is the author of a number of books, including The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas Into the Market, The Little Black Book of Innovation, and the Harvard Business Review Single Building A Growth Factory. Scott is a frequent speaker on the topics of innovation and success, having delivered keynote addresses on five different continents. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @ScottDAnthony.
"Riding the innovation cycle" is the topic of discussion on this week's episode of the podcast. Dr. Christopher Wasden, Executive Director of the Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation at the University of Utah, joins us to talk about:
- Why fast, frequent, frugal failure can be a recipe for innovation success
- The types of brain waves necessary for any of us to innovate successfully
- What to expect from the next wave of innovation in the world of health care.
As a global thought leader on Innovation and Digital Health, Dr. Wasden has written and published over 60 articles, book chapters, and reports on the topic. He speaks often on how Innovation and Digital Health are transforming the practice of medicine, the delivery of care, and the creation of an entirely new wellness paradigm. Dr. Wasden is a named inventor on 11 issued patents and has been a leader in 10 different startups, where he developed many of his ideas around the innovation cycle and lifecycle and which he outlines in his forthcoming book, Tension: The Energy of Innovation – How Harnessing Tension Fuels Your Creative Genius.
On this week’s episode of the podcast we take a look at why it’s important to get past some of the most common myths surrounding creativity in order to drive innovation. Among the topics we discuss are why creativity isn’t merely limited to those with “the creative gene,” the 4 conditions that must be met for creativity to flourish, and why the quest to build a better mousetrap is a mousetrap in and of itself.
David Burkus joins us to discuss those topics and many more. David is the author of The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas. He is also an assistant professor of management at Oral Roberts University, where he teaches courses on organizational behavior, creativity and innovation, and strategic leadership. David writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, PsychologyToday, and 99U. His writing has also appeared in Fast Company, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and an assortment of author publications. He’s also the founder and host of LDRLB, a podcast that shares insights on leadership, innovation, and strategy.
On this week's episode of the podcast, we look at our collective obsession with "screen-based thinking" and how to get past it. Among the topics we talk about are:
- Why “There’s an app for that” are the 5 most insidious words in the English language
- 3 principles anyone can follow to create products that don’t force us to interact with yet another screen
- Why it's important to establish and understand the difference between User Experience and User Interface.
Golden Krishna, author of the recently released design manifesto The Best Interface is No Interface, joins us to discuss all that and more. For more than a year Golden has been at Zappos, where he works with small teams in the company’s research and development labs to "build & explore new opportunities to push one of the world’s greatest customer service companies toward new directions that deliver happiness." Prior to Zappos, Golden served as a Senior Designer at Samsung, where he worked in their innovation lab alongside engineers, industrial designers, and business strategists to create new products and services that could ship within 18-24 months.
Show Notes: * Follow Golden Krishna on Twitter: @GoldenKrishna * Visit the website for Golden's book: www.nointerface.com/book * Visit Golden’s website: www.GoldenKrishna.com
Organizing for innovation is the topic of discussion on this week's episode of the podcast. We talk about why corporate innovation is fundamentally broken on a number of levels, what you can do to fix that within your own organization, and what a typical “innovation team” should look like. David Bland joins us this week to discuss those topics and more. David is a Principal at Neo, a “full-stack innovation consulting firm,” where he advises corporations and startups alike on how to create and deliver value to their customers. Prior to Neo, David was a pioneer in lean startup and innovation services at BigVisible, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies to establish entrepreneurial teams within huge companies. He worked with Lean Startup author Eric Ries to start FastWorks at GE and is an author and speaker who helps turn the concepts of lean startup, business model generation, and customer development into actions. You can find him on Twitter and Medium and @DavidJBland.
On this week’s episode of the podcast we look at innovation and haptic touch. We talk about why touch is a powerful untapped sense, how touch technology may eventually enable entirely new forms of communication, and why you shouldn’t be alarmed to hear that your clothes may soon reach out and touch you.
Chris Ullrich, Vice President of User Experience at Immersion Corporation, joins us to talk about these topics and more. Immersion is one of the worldwide leaders in haptic touch technology. At Immersion, Chris is responsible for ensuring that haptic products and technologies designed by the company are highly valued by users, developers, and OEM customers. Since joining Immersion in 2000, Chris has worked across departments to innovate, develop, and bring to market a variety of technologies. He has also directed software research and development in 3-D, directed the medical simulation engineering team, and led the design and development of next-generation surgical instruments.
Managing innovation is the topic of discussion on this week's podcast. We discuss what network science tells us about corporate hierarchies, how to know what kind of innovation your company is best equipped to pursue, and what “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” means. Greg Satell joins us to talk about these topics and more. Greg's work is published frequently on sites like Forbes.com and InnovationExcellence.com, and in publications like the Harvard Business Review. He also blogs often on issues at the crossroads of media, marketing, and technology at www.DigitalTonto.com.
- Read Greg's work on Forbes.com
- Read Greg's work on the Harvard Business Review
- Read Greg's work on Innovation Excellence.com
On this week's episode, we discuss why we'll soon find ourselves in the “post-development language” world, what it means when we talk about being in an age of micro-framework systems, and what skill sets will be most important for developers, product managers, marketers, and members of the C-suite to possess 5 years from now. 3Pillar's Adi Chikara joins us to talk about these topics and more. Adi is part of the Advanced Technology Group at 3Pillar Global. In his role with the Advanced Technology Group, Adi is responsible for helping drive 3Pillar’s R&D efforts, providing technical mentorship across the organization, shaping our technology strategy, and executing on technical consulting engagements for clients. Prior to joining 3Pillar, he held key research and consulting roles in European Union-funded research endeavors. In the private sector, he has served in various technical roles at Reuters and product roles at multiple startups. When he’s not creating world-changing products, you can find him at the local motor race tracks breaking lap records.
Entrepreneur, innovator, and MIT Sloan Fellow Stephanie Rowe joins us on this week's podcast to talk about creating organizational change that lasts. We talk about why it's important that companies be able to implement change successfully at scale, the role of design thinking and human-centered design in bringing about lasting organizational change, and what anyone in the government space should know about affecting change at government organizations. Stephanie Rowe is the founder of the Design Thinking: DC Meetup, which has more than 2000 members with backgrounds in business, design, technology, and beyond. She has more than 20 years of management experience, including 15 years as a Senior Executive at Accenture, where she specialized in managing complex, large-scale transformation initiatives for Fortune 100 companies across multiple industries. Stephanie also spent just over 3 years at the TSA, where she led a complete re-engineering of the passenger screening process and culturally transformed the 50,000-plus TSA security operations workforce.
Jane McDonnell & Trevor Knoblich of the Online News Association join us on this week's podcast to discuss the future of media. We talk about the myriad ways the media & entertainment landscape has changed in recent years, as well as how emerging technologies and social media platforms are changing the way we both consume and create the news. Jane McDonnell is the Executive Director of the ONA, where she manages the day-to-day operations of the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists. Trevor Knoblich is the Digital Director of the ONA, where he connects journalists to emerging tools, technology, training and resources, and leads programming for the ONA’s annual conference. You can follow Jane on Twitter at @JaneONA and Trevor at @MobileTrevor.
Dr. Timothy Chou joins us to discuss his recently published Cloud Computing Trilogy. We talk about ways cloud computing is enabling a new breed of software applications and why he thinks you should know that "service is the delivery of information that's personal and relevant to you." Vince Vasquez also joins us for this episode of the podcast. Vince is the founder of Cloudbook, which published Dr. Chou's Cloud Computing Trilogy. Dr. Timothy Chou is an author, cloud computing expert, and lecturer at Stanford University. Between 1999 and 2005, Dr. Chou served as President of Oracle On Demand, the fastest-growing business inside Oracle during that time. Dr. Chou is also the author of The End of Software: Transforming Your Business for the On Demand Future. His thoughts have been cited in popular publications like Forbes, the New York Times, NPR, Business Week, and The Economist. You can follow Dr. Timothy Chou on Twitter at @timothychou.
Mike Shipulski, the #1-ranked innovation blogger of 2014, joins us to talk about starting the innovation process. We discuss the concept of an Innovation Burst Event, why extreme time limits can spark creativity, and why the 2 most valuable phrases in the corporate lexicon are "Thank you for your amazing work" and "What kind of pizza would you like?"
Mike Shipulski is a Product Development Executive with 15+ years of experience leading product development efforts. In 2014, Mike was named the #1 innovation blogger in the world at InnovationExcellence.com. He was a Six Sigma at GE when the company started its Six Sigma efforts. Mike writes about innovation every week at www.shipulski.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @MikeShipulski.
On this week's episode of the podcast we discuss "The Innovator's Method." We cover topics like how lean start-up principles and design thinking can help accelerate the innovation process, the 4-step process that makes up the innovator’s method, and the merits of using Minimum Awesome Products to test out concepts and validate ideas.
Nathan Furr joins us to discuss those topics and more. Nathan is an author, speaker, and Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Strategy at Brigham Young University. His most recent book is The Innovator’s Method: Bringing the Lean Start-Up Into Your Organization, which he co-authored with Jeff Dyer. Nathan is also the co-author of Nail It Then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation, which he wrote with Paul Ahlstrom. Among the outlets in which Nathan's writing has appeared are Forbes.com and the Harvard Business Review.
Best-selling author and innovation expert Rowan Gibson joins us for the 53rd episode of the podcast to discuss his latest book, The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking. Rowan shares examples of companies like Dell and Rolls Royce that have found success by challenging orthodoxies, talks about how the concept of seeing the future in the present applies to innovating successfully, and discusses the 3 distinct phases in the act of creation.
Rowan Gibson is a world-renowned innovation expert who has served as a keynote speaker on the subject of innovation in 60 countries around the world. Rowan is the internationally bestselling author of two major books on corporate innovation and business strategy: Innovation to the Core and Rethinking the Future, both of which are published today in over 20 languages. Rowan is also the co-founder of Innovation Excellence.com, the most popular innovation website in the world, built on an international group of over 22,000 members from 175 countries.
Best-selling author and innovation expert Rowan Gibson joins us for the 52nd episode of the podcast to discuss his latest book, The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking. We talk about each of the four lenses and how they can be used to drive innovation, how the four lenses can be employed to emulate the mind of the innovator, and what we can learn about innovation from the greatest minds of the Renaissance. This is the first part of a 2-part interview, the 2nd half of which will air next week.
Rowan Gibson is a world-renowned innovation expert who has served as a keynote speaker on the subject of innovation in 60 countries around the world. Rowan is the internationally bestselling author of two major books on corporate innovation and business strategy: Innovation to the Core and Rethinking the Future, both of which are published today in over 20 languages. Rowan is also the co-founder of Innovation Excellence.com, the most popular innovation website in the world, built on an international group of over 22,000 members from 175 countries.
On this episode of the podcast we look at the Internet of Things and how connected devices will change the way we interact with the world around us. We look at how the Internet of Things will eventually mean that the Internet as we know it fades into the background of our everyday lives, how mobile and the Internet of Things will feed off of one another symbiotically, and what a typical "day in the life" might look like thanks to the IoT in 5-10 years.
Alex Besen joins us to discuss these topics and more. Alex is the Founder & CEO of The Besen Group, a consulting organization with expertise in the mobile data industry. Alex has over two decades of experience in the mobile industry, managing a network of independent consultants and channel partners. He also provides advisory and training services to corporate executives in the mobile data industry. Alex is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has spoken at events like the Sprint Mobility in Action Summit 2014, MVNO World Congress 2013, and CCA Global Expo 2013. He has also been quoted in leading publications like USA Today, the New York Times, Business Week, Computerworld, the Chicago Tribune, and Information Week.
3Pillar Global CEO David DeWolf joins us for a very special episode of the podcast - episode number 50! David plays host on this episode of the podcast and interviews the regular host of the podcast, Will Sherlin. David and Will talk about the 3 main innovation lessons Will has learned from podcast guests, some of the highlights and lowlights from the first year of "The Innovation Engine" podcast, and what training to dunk a basketball and innovating successfully have in common.
Tim Hurson, one of the world's leading experts on corporate innovation, joins us to talk about the power of productive thinking. Productive thinking is the innovation and problem-solving construct that Tim created and teaches alongside his colleagues at ThinkX, an innovation consulting firm that he co-founded. Among the topics we talk about on this episode of the podcast are why the act of thinking can actually be physically demanding, the 6 steps in the productive thinking process, and how to avoid pitfalls like Monkey Mind, Gator's Brain, and the Elephant's Tether.
Tim is the author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking and co-author of Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself. Throughout his career, he has helped Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 organizations in the US, Canada, and the UK create innovation, marketing, new product, and workplace transformation programs. He’s a Founding Partner at ThinkX Intellectual Capital, an innovation consulting firm that teaches Productive Thinking, a core skill for developing new products and processes, new organizational structures, new marketing and business strategies, and solve problems in general.
Nir Eyal joins us to talk about how to build habit-forming products. We discuss his recently published book Hooked, which debuted on the Wall Street Journal best-seller list. Among the topics we discuss are his 4-step process for building products that keep users coming back, how tools like the scarcity heuristic can be used to drive intended behaviors, and what the framing effect tells us about the importance of perceived value. In addition to his writing, Nir speaks frequently at industry conferences and Fortune 500 companies. Among the outlets for which he writes frequently are TechCrunch, Forbes, and Psychology Today. He has co-founded 2 start-ups, including AdNectar, which was funded by Kleiner Perkins, and he has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Elliot Susel of AOL joins us to talk about agile, the Lean Startup movement, and the evolution of software development on this week’s episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast. Among the topics we discuss this week are the "Three Ring Theory" of modern-day product development, the concept of validated learning and why it's so important to startups and, increasingly, large organizations, and why information radiators can be a powerful way to get a team to coalesce around shared goals. Elliot Susel is the Head of Product for Paid Services at AOL. In this role, he leads a team that performs Lean Startup-style concept validation and delivers products using agile methodologies. He previously spent 2-plus years at Curb, formerly known as Taxi Magic, where he was a Senior Project Manager and VP of Technology.
On this week's episode of the podcast, we look at keys to leading innovative companies. Among the topics we cover are why innovation leaders should be ringleaders and referees more than visionaries; the importance of creative abrasion, creative agility, and creative resolution to the innovation process; and why it's imperative to establish a company culture with a sense of community and psychological safety to foster innovation. Greg Brandeau is the co-author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, which was named one of "The 20 Best Business Books to Read This Summer" in 2014 by Business Insider. He is the former COO & President of Maker Media and former CTO of the Walt Disney Studios. He also spent the better part of a decade as an executive at Pixar before the company was acquired by Disney, and he started his career at NeXT, where he worked with the late great Steve Jobs.
eTrans Systems CEO John Estrada joins us to talk about the coming revolution in the transportation space that will be brought about by connected cars. We discuss what barriers need to be overcome before driverless cars will be available to the general public en masse, when we can expect to start seeing connected cars hitting the highways, and how driverless transportation will impact our everyday lives in terms of safety, mobility, and the environment.
Author and innovation guru Mitch Ditkoff joins us to talk about the power of storytelling and the parallels between being able to tell a story successfully and being able to innovate successfully. Among the topics we tackle on this week's episode are why it's important in the corporate world for you to be able to tell a compelling story, why humor is an effective tool for connecting with audiences of all shapes and sizes, and how to get started crafting your own personal narrative.
Mitch Ditkoff is the co-founder and president of Idea Champions. For the last 2 years, he has been named one of the top 5 speakers on innovation by one of the leading speaker’s bureaus in the US. In 2010 and 2011, he was voted the #1 innovation blogger in the world. He has worked with companies including GE, Merck, AT&T, NBC Universal, Coca Cola, and many more to improve their innovation capacity. Mitch blogs frequently at the Heart of Innovation blog as well as for outlets like the Huffington Post. He has been an adjunct faculty member at leadership development programs at schools like Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, GE’s Crotonville Management Center, and the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management.
Innovation and business transformation is the topic of discussion on this episode of the podcast. We talk with Dr. Sunil Mithas of the University of Maryland about what companies can learn from the Tata Group's ascension to becoming one of the world's most well-known - and profitable - businesses in the world. Dr. Mithas has studied the Tata Group's success in-depth for his just published book, Dancing Elephants and Leaping Jaguars: How to Excel, Innovate, and Transform Your Organization the Tata Way. On this episode we discuss the Malcolm Baldridge framework for measuring innovation, why it's important to have a long-term vision for innovation, and a number of different innovation competitions that Tata has set up to encourage innovation within its companies.
Modev founder Pete Erickson joins us for the 42nd episode of the podcast to discuss Modev's recent Wearables + Things conference, their upcoming ModevCon event, and the evolution of the DC tech scene since Pete started Modev in 2008. We discuss some of the hacks that came out of the Wearables + Things Hackathon, Pete's own experience with wearable devices like the Pebble Watch, and the different tracks available at ModevCon, which will take place on December 11th and 12th.
See the following links for more information on Pete Erickson and Modev:
- Modev website: http://gomodev.com
- Pete Erickson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/peteerickson
- Modev on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gomodev
- ModevCon website: http://modevcon.com
We look at innovation and breakthrough thinking on this week's episode of the podcast. We'll talk four great ways to make breakthroughs when you find yourself stuck in neutral, why "expertise is the enemy of innovation," and what we can all learn from the thought process of magicians when it comes to innovation.
Stephen Shapiro joins us to discuss those topics and more. Stephen is a best-selling author and keynote speaker who has worked with companies like 3M, Procter & Gamble, Marriott, Nike, and Microsoft to improve their innovation practices. His fifth and most recent book is titled Best Practices are Stupid, which was named the best innovation and creativity book of 2011 and is an international #1 business best-seller. Stephen is also the author of Personality Poker, The Little Book of Big Innovation Ideas, Goal-Free Living, and 24/7 Innovation.
Among the networks and publications Stephen has appeared on or in are CNBC, CBS, ABC, USA Today, Fortune, and Wall Street Journal. During his 15-year career at Accenture, he led a 20,000-person innovation practice. You can find out more about him on his website at www.stephenshapiro.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @stephenshapiro.
The Future of Payments is the topic of discussion on the 40th episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast. Kenal Shah and Brian Oh join me to discuss how the payments ecosystem will change over the short and long term and how technology will fuel consumer adoption of new payment platforms. We talk about the hot and heavy battle currently taking place between Apple Pay and the Merchant Customer Exchange, how we’ll all be parting with our hard-earned money 5 years from now, the Poynt point-of-sale system, and whether there’s actually pent-up demand from consumers for new ways to pay.
Gill Haus, CTO of Paid Services at AOL, joins us to talk about the commonalities he has seen on high-performing teams. We talk about the concept of the pivot and how to manage it appropriately, the next steps in the evolution of agile, and the Jeff Foxworthy approach to determining if the team you're working on or with is truly innovative. In addition to AOL, Gill has held leadership positions at companies that include BillMeLater, PayPal, and Taxi Magic. At PayPal, he served as Director of Development Engineering and Senior Director of Product Development, roles in which he oversaw large development and architecture teams working on one of the most well-known electronic payment platforms in the world. At Taxi Magic, Gill was SVP of Technology and was responsible for all aspects of technology, including Product Development, Technology Strategy, Software Architecture, and more. In his role at AOL, Gill is responsible for Paid Services development and engineering. You can follow him on Twitter at @OronHaus.
On this episode of the podcast we look at innovation lessons that companies of all shapes and sizes can take from the groundbreaking animation studio Pixar. We talk about why the black sheep in your company may just be the keys to unlocking innovation success, the importance of lifelong learning in creating a culture that thrives on innovation, and the 4 common proficiencies to making art - and innovation - a team sport. Bill Capodagli, author of Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons from the World's Most Creative Corporate Playground, joins us to discuss these topics and more.
Innovation & the Laws of Subtraction is the topic of discussion on this episode of the podcast. We talk about how companies and individuals can engage in addition via subtraction by employing tools like "stop doing" lists instead of to-do lists. The episode covers 6 simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything, why multi-tasking isn’t just ineffective but may be downright hazardous to your health, and why what isn't there is sometimes more important than what is. Matthew E. May, author, keynote speaker, and founder of EDIT Innovation joins us to talk about his book, Innovation & the Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess everything.
On this week's episode of "The Innovation Engine," we look at the neurophysiology of innovation with Dr. John Kenagy. In Dr. Kenagy's 2nd appearance on the podcast, we talk about what's really going on behind the scenes during the decision-making process and why humans are often anything but rational, how that impacts the ways to influence change in any organization, and why habit and singular focus can be powerful tools for any business looking to improve overall performance.
On this week’s episode of the podcast we look at ways companies can make the innovation process simple. We discuss the key structural elements that all innovation efforts should include, the importance of nurturing the front end of innovation and where innovative ideas should come from, and why it's important to create a balanced innovation portfolio. Dr. Kevin McFarthing joins us to discuss those topics and many more around the structure and strategy of innovation. Dr. McFarthing is the founder of Innovation Fixer and a top innovation blogger who has 2 decades of experience at the heart of innovation. He spent 17 years in an innovation leadership position with Reckitt Benckiser (www.rb.com), one of the top 20 companies on the UK FTSE. Dr. McFarthing has led product development efforts in a variety of areas, including consumer healthcare, household products, prescription medicines, diagnostics, and molecular biology. For the last 3 years he has been named one of Innovation Excellence’s top 40 innovation bloggers.
Lisa Bodell joins us for the 34th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. On this episode, we talk about the concept of “killing the company” and how it can lead to an innovation revolution. We discuss some unconventional ways you can ensure your company does the work that really matters - including regularly killing the meetings, processes, or habits that make the least sense. Lisa has helped thousands of senior leaders ignite innovation at organizations like the New York Stock Exchange, Pfizer, Google, Lockheed Martin, and many others. She is an inspiring speaker who has brings her message to nearly 100,000 people in more than 30 countries each year, and she was recently awarded the Top 5 Speaker Award by Speaking.com. She is also the author of the best-selling book Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution, which won the 2014 Axiom Best Business Book Award and was voted Best Business Book by USA Book News and Booz & Co.
Dr. Kevin Freiberg joins us for the 33rd episode of the podcast to talk about innovation and the power of cause. On this episode of the podcast, we talk about why it’s important for everyone in your company to know exactly what your cause is, why we fear living insubstantial lives more than we fear dying, and why it still pays to be a little nuts in the airplane industry. Along with his wife, Dr. Jackie Freiberg, Kevin has written numerous books about how some of the world’s most successful companies have built cultures that thrive on innovation. Their most recent book, "Do Something Now: Be the One Who Makes Something Happen," came out in June of this year. Kevin and Jackie are now working on their next book, "Company with a Cause: Live an Insanely Great Life While Doing Meaningful Work." In addition to being best-selling authors, the couple are sought after speakers on the subjects of innovation, execution, and corporate leadership development.
On this week’s episode of the podcast we’ll be looking at why innovation should be everyone’s job – how leaders can create a culture where everyone owns innovation, why you should empower all employees to become part of the innovation process, and pitfalls and roadblocks to avoid when doing so. Dr. Jackie Freiberg joins us to discuss these topics and more. Dr. Freiberg, along with her husband Dr. Kevin Freiberg, has written numerous books about how some of the world’s most successful companies build cultures that thrive on innovation. She was recently named one of the Top 30 Best Minds on Leadership by Leadership Excellence Magazine. Her and Kevin’s most recent book, Do Something Now: Be the One Who Makes Something Happen, came out in June, and the couple is now working on their next book, Company with a Cause: Live an Insanely Great Life While Doing Meaningful Work. In addition to being best-selling authors, Jackie and Kevin are both sought-after speakers on the subjects of innovation, execution, and corporate leadership development.
Chief Research Officer and Principal Analyst at Innovation Excellence Doug Williams joins us to talk about the language of innovation on the 31st episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. We discuss what companies stand to gain by creating a common language for innovation, the top sources of waste created by uncertainty around innovation endeavors, and the difference between ideas, invention, and innovation. Innovation Excellence is the world’s leading online gathering place for innovation professionals, with more than 1.3 million page views per month and close to 25K members in their LinkedIn group. In his role at Innovation Excellence, Doug writes research reports like the one we discuss on this episode, "The Role of Communication in Successful Innovation." He also writes for Innovation Excellence on topics like New Product Development and innovation in the health care space, as well as for outside publications like the GE Ideas Lab website. Before joining Innovation Excellence, Doug was an analyst at Forrester who covered open innovation, co-creation, and new product development.
For the 30th episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast, we dug into the podcast archives to put together a hodgepodge of clips that have yet to see the light of day. Horace Dediu talks why designers and developers need to have a deep understanding of human psychology and rewards systems to build successful products. Warren Berger discusses the connection between Zen, the art of questioning, and the concept of “The Beginner’s Mind.” Best-selling author and keynote speaker Rowan Gibson talks about the importance of giving employees discretionary time to pursue innovation initiatives and strategies like the 70/20/10 rule. Innovation pioneer Russ Schoen shares some common elements of the most successful brainstorming sessions. 3Pillar CEO David DeWolf talks about what it was like to see the CEOs of some of the most well-known companies in the world take the stage at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference.
Why creativity is necessary for innovation and how to channel your own creativity are 2 of the topics of discussion on this week's episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. Michael Gelb joins us to discuss his soon-to-be-published book, Creativity on Demand: How to Ignite and Sustain the Fire of Genius. Michael is the world’s leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development. He is an acclaimed speaker and the author of 14 books, including How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci.
Gijs van Wulfen, top LinkedIn influencer and author of the innovation best-seller “The Innovation Expedition,” joins us for the 28th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. On this episode, we look at what to take into consideration when planning your very own innovation expedition. We discuss the types of thinkers the Mayo Clinic recommends every innovation team have, why 12-14 is the perfect team size for innovation efforts, and what famous explorers throughout time can teach modern-day innovators. Gijs van Wulfen is the founder of the FORTH Innovation method, which is used to create new products, services and business models. The FORTH method has had more than 35 successful implementations in Europe. Gijs was one of the first 150 influencers chosen by LinkedIn, where he currently has close to 200K followers and posts frequently on innovation-related topics. For the last 2 years he has been named one of the top 40 innovation bloggers in the world by Innovation Excellence.
Physician, healthcare executive, and author Dr. John Kenagy joins us on this week’s episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast to discuss using Adaptive Design as a means to fuel innovation efforts. Adaptive Design is Dr. Kenagy’s method for business improvement that puts the power to make change in the hands of those closest to the customer. Adaptive Design was influenced by tenets of the Toyota Production System and Clayton Christensen’s teachings on disruptive innovation. On this episode of the podcast, we discuss how businesses of all stripes can use Adaptive Design to drive innovation, how a life-changing experience led to the formation of Adaptive Design, and the 5 characteristics of great adaptive leaders.
Author and journalist Warren Berger joins us for the 26th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast to discuss the transformative power asking the right questions can have for businesses. We take a look at the five most important questions any business leader should know the answer to and discuss examples of billion dollar companies that were borne from seeking answers to seemingly simple questions. Warren's most recent book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, was named one of Business Insider’s “20 Best Business Books to Read This Summer.” It has received acclaim from NY Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Daniel Pink and pioneer of the Lean Startup movement Eric Ries. Warren’s thoughts on innovation and related topics can be found in notable publications like Wired, the New York Times, Fast Company, the Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal. He’s also the author of CAD Monkeys, Dinosaur Babies and T-Shaped People: Inside the World of Design Thinking and How It Can Spark Creativity and Innovation and Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your World.
On the 25th episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast, we discuss the future of software and how it will continue to be the driving force behind innovative new products and services. We look at how software is driving results in industries we never could’ve foreseen, the impact software will have on the next generation of smart products, and talk about trends that were being discussed at the recent Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen. David DeWolf, Founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, joins us to discuss these topics and more. He shares his thoughts on some of the trends prevalent in the industry like digital currencies, the Internet of Things, and the coming boom of big data that will enable entirely new applications, products, and services. David is passionate about software products, entrepreneurship, and principled leadership. His thought leadership has appeared in publications like Fast Company, Pando Daily, ZDNet, and many more. In 2012, David was named one of SmartCEO Magazine’s “Future 50.” In 2011, he was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as one of “40 Under 40” who are Washington, D.C.’s brightest young business leaders.
Lecturer, author, and cloud computing expert Dr. Timothy Chou joins us for the 24th episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast to discuss how advancements in cloud computing and the dramatically different economics will fuel the next generation of data-intensive software applications. We also look at how the cloud has already changed the way many current business and consumer applications are packaged, sold, hosted, and maintained.
Dr. Chou has been a pioneer in the enterprise's move to the cloud for the better part of 2 decades. From 1999 to 2005 he served as President of Oracle On Demand, who delivered Oracle business applications as a cloud service, using modern terminology. For the last 8 years he has been a lecturer at Stanford University, where he created Stanford’s widely acclaimed Cloud Computing course, CS309A. He’s also taken on the role as a member of the board of two new application cloud service companies: Burstorm, a provider of CAD applications for cloud architects and Cloudbook, a provider of storytelling software. He has appeared in numerous publications, including Forbes and The Economist, as well as delivered keynote speeches on cloud computing on six continents.
Author, investor, and innovation expert Whitney Johnson joins us to discuss how listeners can drive disruptive innovation both professionally and personally. On this episode, we discuss the meaning of disruptive innovation, the importance of taking market risk versus competitive risk, why it’s important to fight entitlement within corporations, and much more. Whitney Johnson is the author of Dare, Dream, Do; Remarkable Things happen When You Dare & Dream. She co-launched Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm that had $75 million under management when she left in 2012, with innovation guru Clayton Christensen. Whitney was named one of Inc. Magazine’s “12 People to Follow on Twitter in 2012,” Business Insider’s “54 Smart Thinkers to Follow” and Huffington Post’s “100 Business, Leadership and Technology People to Follow on Twitter.” You can find her online at whitneyjohnson.com, and on Twitter at @johnsonwhitney.
Innovation and the future of mobile is the topic of discussion on the 22nd episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. Among the topics we tackle are what the "post-mobile" world will look like; how Apple, Google, and others are shaping the mobile experience of the future; and the next frontiers of mobile after health and fitness. Joining us to discuss those topics and more is Horace Dediu. Horace is a noted Apple analyst, a prolific writer, a student of innovation pioneer Clayton Christensen, and since 2010 the proprietor of Asymco. Horace writes often about innovation-related topics at Asymco.com, and along with Moises Chiullan he hosts the Critical Path, a talk show contemplating the causality of success and failure in the evolving story of mobile computing and related industries.
On the 21st episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast, we look at the connection between innovation and customer experience. Among the topics we discuss are how to create the optimal customer experience in a world where interactions between company and consumer increasingly occur online; what customer experience means for companies in the services space, which account for 80% of the American economy; and why it is so important for any company looking to achieve long-term success to leave a lasting impression with their customers.
Jeneanne Rae, Founder and CEO of Motiv Strategies and a widely recognized expert on customer experience and services innovation, joins us as this week's guest. Bloomberg Businessweek named Jeneanne one of its “Magnificent Seven Innovation Gurus” and “Best Leaders of the Year” based on her groundbreaking work in the study of service innovation. Jeneanne writes frequently for the Harvard Business Review, and her work has also appeared in publications like Design Management Review and Fast Company. Over her more than 20 year career she has worked with some of the most beloved and well-respected companies both large and small, to help deliver meaningful innovation in their respective markets.
Innovation pioneer Blair Miller joins us for the 20th episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast to discuss how companies can keep their product pipeline full of innovative offerings. Among the topics we discuss are how to keep a steady flow of innovative ideas flowing, the metrics that any company needs to track when launching new products to the market, and learning how to have the foresight to know when it's time to put existing products out to pasture.
Blair Miller has served numerous Fortune 500 companies since founding Blair Miller Innovation in 1990. Companies with which he has worked include Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Dupont, Deloitte, and Kodak. Among Blair's most notable contributions to the innovation field is the creation and publication of his one-of-a-kind diagnostic tool Foursight: The Breakthrough Thinking Profile. Foursight has offered thousands of individuals and teams the ability to see how their personal approaches to problem solving affects their creative output.
We are in a day and age where Gartner's so-called Nexus of Forces - cloud, mobile, social, and big data - is fundamentally changing the way we interact with the world around us and standing traditional industries on their heads. Shubber Ali, VP of Strategic Innovation at SalesForce, joins us on the 19th episode of "The Innovation Engine" to discuss some of the ways this "Nexus of Forces" is disrupting business as we know it, and how to harness this sea change for competitive advantage.
Renowned technology futurist and best-selling author Daniel Burrus joins us for the 18th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast to talk about why anticipating the future can be the difference between companies that stand the test of time and those that collapse over time. On this episode of the podcast, we discuss the difference between Hard Trends - trends that will happen - and Soft Trends - trends that might happen, how you can harness that knowledge to anticipate cyclical business trends and opportunities, and why you're sometimes better off skipping your company's biggest problem rather than solving it.
Daniel Burrus is the author of six books, including the #1 Amazon bestesller Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible. He started Burrus Research 31 years ago and is one of the most popular Influencers on LinkedIn, with more than 370,000 followers of his profile page as of this writing.
Seth Berenzweig and Frank Gulino of Berenzweig Leonard and Clyde Findley of Cloudigy Law join us on this week's episode of the podcast to talk about innovation and the law. We discuss whether patents mean anything anymore, get a primer on the net neutrality debate, and talk about the broken nature of the government procurement process for projects like Healthcare.gov and countless more. Berenzweig Leonard and Cloudigy Law are Northern Virginia-based law firms that specialize in intellectual property, entertainment and music industry law, government contracts, and more. The 2 firms recently launched GovConIP.com, a site where they will write about intellectual property law and the government contracting process.
The most obvious candidates aren't always the best when it comes to innovation in a business setting. Jeffrey Phillips of OVO Innovation joins us to discuss common traits of the most successful innovators, how to spot the true innovators in your midst, and what's at stake for your organization.
Jeffrey is the author of "Relentless Innovation: What Works, What Doesn't - And What That Means For Your Business" and an award-winning blogger at the Innovate on Purpose blog. OVO Innovation recently released its OVO InnoTraits™ Assessment, which is based in part on findings in the white paper we discuss on the podcast, "Unusual Suspects: Identifying High Capacity Innovators in Your Organization."
What are some of the common roadblocks on the path to innovation and how can companies get past them? That's the question we look to Tom Agan to help answer on the 15th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast. Tom is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Rivia, a global innovation and brand consultancy with clients across an array of industry verticals. Tom writes regularly about innovation for outlets like the New York Times, Fast Company, the Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
How can companies and individuals employ design thinking to fuel innovation and creativity? Dr. Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, Deputy Director of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) at Stanford University & Lecturer at Stanford's d.school, joins us for the 14th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast to answer this question and many more. Listen to hear about the importance of physical space in an office environment, the necessary mindset for anyone looking to practice design thinking, and the importance of empathy in using design thinking to solve big problems.
How can companies formulate a long-term blueprint for innovation, and what should one look like? Rowan Gibson, internationally acclaimed speaker and bestselling author of Innovation to the Core and Rethinking the Future, joins us to answer those questions and more on the 13th episode of The Innovation Engine podcast.
Openness and innovation are 2 words that we often hear mentioned in the same breath. Why is being "open" so crucial for companies and individuals looking to boost their innovation capacity, and how can you ensure openness between individuals, departments, and teams? Russ Schoen of Foursight and Mindgarden Innovation joins us on the 12th episode of the podcast to help answer these questions and more.
Why is process so vital for driving innovation and keeping companies on the path to sustained profitability? That's the topic of discussion on the 11th episode of The Innovation Engine podcast, with in-studio guest Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at George Mason University.
For a very special episode of the Innovation Engine podcast, we walk the floor of the 2014 NAB Show to speak with companies demoing innovative products that could fundamentally change the way content is consumed, distributed, and shared. From multi-screen viewing to using drones to record news footage, hear how companies like AccuWeather, Verizon, DTS, and several others are poised to launch innovative media products with the potential to disrupt the media and entertainment landscape. Recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in technology!
Jessica Hall, Director of 3Pillar's Innovate Practice, joins us on the 9th episode of "The Innovation Engine" podcast to discuss content monetization, the workshop on that subject she'll be presenting at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 9th, and why prototyping can be the best way to test out innovative new ideas.
Business model innovation is the topic of discussion on the 8th episode of the The Innovation Engine podcast. Mike Maddock, Founder & CEO of Maddock Douglas, joins us to discuss real life examples of companies who have undergone business model innovation, what to ask yourself if you find it's time for your company to change its business model, and much more. Since 1991, Maddock Douglas has helped more than 25% of the Fortune 100 launch new products, services, and business models, leading to billions of dollars in revenue.
How important are a company’s leaders to ensuring that innovation prospers within their organizations? New & Improved CEO Bob Eckert joins us to talk about the impact C-level executives have on innovation within companies, the importance of continual training for executives and other employees, the benefits it can have for employees in areas of life that extend far beyond the workplace, and the most important traits for innovation leaders to have.
Gregg Fraley of KILN Ideas joins us for the 6th episode of "The Innovation Engine" to discuss Creative Problem Solving (CPS), how to strike the necessary balance of science & creativity to drive innovation, and the importance of measuring innovation. Gregg is an internationally-known speaker who has presented at conferences including TEDxNASA, TEDxStorment, FUSE, and the Creative Problem Solving Institute. He blogs on innovation-themed topics regularly on his own website at www.greggfraley.com, as well as on Kilnco.com, and for the last 2 years he has been named one of the top 40 innovation bloggers in the world by Innovation Excellence.com.
Jon Fawcett of [Fuse] Chicken and Fawcett Design joins us to talk about building innovative physical products. [Fuse] Chicken which was hatched on the strength of a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $200,000, makes iPhone and Android accessories like TŌGŌPOWER and Une Bobine.
Among the topics we discuss on this episode of the podcast are the benefits of innovative marketing, crowdfunding as a new form or market research, the impact 3-D printing will have on the world of manufacturing, and how [Fuse] Chicken applies agile software development methods to the world of product manufacturing.
Everybody has ideas, and plenty of them. Humans have on average 50,000 thoughts every day. How do you go from ideas to innovation? And how can you generate more, better ideas? Keith Harmeyer, co-author of "SmartStorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas" and co-founder of SmartStorming, comes on the podcast to talk about those topics and more.
On the third episode of the podcast, we talk with the Center for Creative Leadership's Jonathan Vehar about how organizational leaders can establish a culture of innovation. Jonathan Vehar is a Senior Faculty Member at the Center for Creative Leadership. He has advised companies like Clorox, Disney, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Pfizer, and Volvo on how to help their workforces become more innovative. Jonathan is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University and the Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY Buffallo State College.
The 2nd episode of The Innovation Engine Podcast, in which we discuss how the Internet, infrastructure advancements, decreased barriers to entry, and the onset of agile has fueled innovation throughout the business landscape. Starring our very first guest, 3Pillar’s Dan Klaussen.
The first episode in 3Pillar Global's "The Innovation Engine" podcast, in which we discuss our raison d'être, whether innovation is an overused word in the business world, look back at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, and attempt to answer the age-old question, "Is innovation something you can taste?"