The Productive Innovator: Recent Episodes

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In today’s episode I’ll share more about the business model and why it is your go to tool to identify and describe how your idea will create, deliver, and capture value.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Today’s Topic

00:01:25 - The Basics

00:02:49 - The Steps

00:06:20 - Business Model Canvas

SHOW NOTES

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

Business Models

A business model describes how your organization creates and delivers value to your customers, and how you capture value. This can be for a new business, business unit, or a new or modified product.

I suggest that you start looking into your business model as early as you start ideating and when you have a clear concept/product that emerges from your many ideas.

Your business model should have three components:

• the Value Creation Model,
• the Profit Model, and
• the Logic of the Business (or why the business model is going to work)

The Business Model Canvas …

is a tool and template for entrepreneurs and innovators. It allows you to describe design, challenge, invent and iterate your business model. You can find detailed description and templates at strategyzer.com.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

• Business Model Canvas by Strategyzer & Google Docs template version

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s quick-fire episode I share basic definitions that I consider essential for every innovator and entrepreneur. Part three covers entrepreneurial mindsets.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Today’s Topic

00:00:30 - Entrepreneurial Mindsets

SHOW NOTES

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

Essential Entrepreneurial Mindsets

• (Develop a true and deep) Passion
• Curiosity
• Resilience
• Growth Mindset & Willingness to Learn
• Agility

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Related content:

Companion article: “11 Tips On Starting Your Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey”

Blog post “Essential Skills That (Almost) Guarantee Your Success In The Long Run”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI002: Why You Need to Balance Work Life and Passion in Line with Your Priorities”

Here’s an interesting read about “The four elements of entrepreneurship” from Seth Godin’s on seths.blog.

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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EPISODE SUMMARY

In today’s quick-fire episode I share basic definitions that I consider essential for every innovator and entrepreneur. Part two covers entrepreneurship basics.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Today’s Topic

00:01:01 - Entrepreneurship Basics

SHOW NOTES

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Learning resources, books and course that I can recommend to you:

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries

Sprint by Jake Knapp - How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

The Age of Agile by Stephen Denning - How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done

The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith

Business Model Canvas by Strategyzer & Google Docs template version

Related content:

Companion article: “11 Tips On Starting Your Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI005: The Productive Innovator Journey Begins”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI006: How to Become Good at Innovation”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI010: Innovation Basics Quick-Fire Episode Part 1”

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s quick-fire episode I share basic definitions that I consider essential for every innovator and entrepreneur. Part one covers innovation basics.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Today’s Topic

00:00:52 - Basic Definitions

00:02:02 - Innovation Basics

SHOW NOTES

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

Related content:

Companion article: “11 Tips On Starting Your Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI005: The Productive Innovator Journey Begins”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI006: How to Become Good at Innovation”

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s show I share my reflections and guidance for innovators and entrepreneurs that choose the same path.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Choosing Innovation and Entrepreneurship

00:03:57 - A Life and Career Path

00:05:43 - Learning Strategies

00:14:00 - Overcoming Fear To Change or Starting Over

SHOW NOTES

Choosing Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Are you choosing the path of the Innovator and Entrepreneur? This choice is a choice for a life and career path that has many avenues ready for you. You can equip yourself with essential skills that set you up for success in the long run independent from your job, life circumstances and how you progress in your career. It doesn’t matter if you start a corporate career, build your own business, or otherwise start a career of your own design.

What is an innovator? You are a pioneer and you push the boundaries as you challenge the status quo. You put your users, your customers, your patients, you put whoever you serve first. You get excited exploring new ideas with a beginners mindset, and you do not shy away from failures but you see it as a learning experience that is required to get better.

What is an entrepreneur? You are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities. You know what it takes to take an idea all the way to implementation and you do not shy away from politics or angry customers to build the support and find the value in those ideas. And you turn them into products that customers actually need.

Learning Strategies

Start with mindsets:

• Read the blog post: “Essential Skills That (Almost) Guarantee Your Success In The Long Run”
• Start with these skills and mindsets:
• Develop a passion and drive to start new endeavours. It is not enough if you put a few hours on the side and keep in mind that things will be fuzzy, no clear path, no clear script to success. It’s not a project with a known outcome.
• Use your Curiosity to explore and experience innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Develop a Willingness to Learn new things and to unlearn so that you can constantly adapt.
• Develop and practice Resilience. You cannot succeed without it. Every innovator and entrepreneur has to build experience by going through many failure and learning cycles.

Do not wait long and start exploring your ideas. Innovation can be practiced as a process and you can learn the skills and mindsets that made other innovators and entrepreneurs successful.

If you are ready to take on serious innovation and entrepreneurship knowledge and learn techniques and practical examples that you can start applying tomorrow. Take a look at the professional online and onsite education offered by Stanford University and MIT.

My recommendation for you is based on my own experience with it.

• Innovation & Entrepreneurship Postgraduate Professional Certificate from Stanford University. You’ll discover innovation and entrepreneurship as practiced at Stanford and in Silicon Valley. It includes hands-on experience and a global community of innovators and entrepreneurs that you can get in touch with. The good thing is that you can also take single modules in case you are not sure yet how far and deep you would like to go.
• Entrepreneurship Courses at MIT - I have not taken one myself but learned from friends that they are on par with the Stanford programs. They may be focussed on a specific part of the innovation & entrepreneurship journey. So take a look at what works best for you.

You can complement your knowledge with bite-sized online courses that you can find on platforms such as Coursera and LinkedIn Learning. And you can invest in specific methodologies depending where you are on your journey. For example, if you are heavily involved in the early part of the innovation process and you would like to hone in to human-centered design and Design Thinking there are plenty of courses or certificates you could look into. Here is one course (part of the Stanford I&E certificate) which I found super helpful: “Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking“ offered by the Stanford d.school. It’s hands on and you get everything you need to start through with Design Thinking.

Overcoming Fear To Change or Starting Over

Let’s face it. Starting something new, outside of our comfort zones is difficult and feels intimidating.

It’s important that you overcome your fear. You have to try something small and approach with the beginner’s mindset. You want to make failures. Only through failures can you learn something new. If you stick to what you are good at then you do not develop or only in very small steps.

You can with one idea, a problem that you are somewhat familiar with. Do not limit yourself by current constraints and processes that are in place. Cost or monetization is not a constraint in this early stage. First explore the problem, then build your prototype and finally validate your idea before committing to the solution (perfectionizing it) or building out your business.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship Postgraduate Professional Certificate offered by the Stanford Business School

Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking offered by the Stanford d.school

Entrepreneurship Courses at MIT

Related content:

Companion article: “11 Tips On Starting Your Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey”

The Productive Innovator Teaser (YouTube)

The Productive Innovator blog post: “Essential Skills That (Almost) Guarantee Your Success In The Long Run”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI005: The Productive Innovator Journey Begins”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI006: How to Become Good at Innovation”

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s show I share examples of how you can upgrade your home office no matter if you have a separate office or just a desk in a corner of your room.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Why You Should Invest In Your Home Office

00:03:39 - Home Office Essentials

00:10:22 - Ergonomics Equipment

00:11:36 - Additional Home Office Gear

00:14:40 - Home Office Automation

SHOW NOTES

Why You Should Invest In Your Home Office

I probably waited too long before I made some investments in my home office space. As many of you, I started out with my laptop. First I thought it’s best if I can be flexible and sit anywhere with my laptop. But as the home office became the new normal I realized that I should invest in my home office space. Two years later I’m quite happy with what I have available, even though I still work at a desk crammed on one side of our bedroom. And I was positively surprised how much you can do with a small space.

You can use other parts of your home as flexible workspaces. Consider doing light work on your dining table or at the kitchen counter. Or move outside on your patio. You do not have to convert those into office space, these are spaces you can use to move and have a change of scenery during your workday and when you do not need your main computer or monitor for productivity reasons.

How to set up an ergonomic workspace guide from IKEA.

How to determine the proper monitor height by The Office Oasis.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Home office equipment and gear that I use (have used) and which I talked about in this episode:

Home Office Essentials

• Motorized standing desk - My current desk. Alternative 1.
• External 27 inch monitor (Dell U2722DE 27 inch works with M1 Macs) or Apple iMac 27 inch - I use it as an external monitor to my work Macbook Pro and as my main device for everything else. I recommend you wait for the new version which is expected to come out mid 2022.
• Laptop stand - just enter the search term in Google or Amazon, there are plenty of choices available. I can recommend Twelve South for high quality accessories.
• Desk shelf unit that serves as storage and as monitor stand. My current stand. Alternative 1.
• External keyboard and mouse. My current devices: The Apple Magic Keyboard (buy this version if you are using a Mac with M1 chip - it includes a fingerprint reader) and the Apple Magic Trackpad.
• External webcam (Elgato FaceCam or Logitech Brio 4K Stream Webcam) or webcam software to use your smartphone as webcam (example: Elgato EpocCam)
• Headset - Bluetooth option: Jabra Evolve2 65 Wireless Headset or Wired: Jabra Evolve2 40 Headset.
• External USB microphone - Elgato Wave 3 Microphone with integrated stand or Samson Q2UHD Microphone which comes with a mic stand. Alternative: Rode SmartLav Plus lavalier microphone

Ergonomics Equipment

• Adjustable office chair - My current chair: Songmics height adjustable office chair with arm rests. Also IKEA has a few good choices.
• Sit/Stand support - I use the IKEA Nilserik. The IKEA Lidkullen gives you a sturdier option with the same functionality.
• Standing desk mat - just enter the search term in Google or Amazon, there are plenty of choices available.

Additional Home Office Gear

• Microphone boom arm for external microphone (works for example with Samson Q2U). My current boom arm: Rode PSA-1.
• Whiteboard - I use this whiteboard/flipchart easel. Alternative online shop.
• iPad Air 4 + Apple Pencil 2 + Logitech Folio Keyboard Case as versatile digital notepad and for light home office work. And I recommend a draft table to position the iPad next to your monitor.
• Cable management - My current gear: Cable basket (alternative) and adjustable cable duct with two sides (white and black).

Home Office Automation

• Smart bulb - What I use: Philips Hue White Ambiance E27 LED Bulb, Dimmable, All Shades of White
• Light strip - What I use: Philips Hue Light Strip
• Elgato Stream Deck - My current device: Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 with 15 LED-lit and programmable buttons

Related content:

• The Productive Innovator blog post: “Boost Your Resilience With Healthy Home Office Routines”
• The Productive Innovator blog post: “Why Flipcharts and Whiteboards are Important for Your Creativity”
• The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI001: What is a Productive Innovator and how to find time for your passion?”

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s show we take a look at time blocking and task management based on priorities and commitments.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Why You Should Manage Your Time

00:01:52 - Priority-based Task Management

00:04:03 - Tools for Tasks and Time Management

00:06:03 - Time Blocking

SHOW NOTES

Why You Should Manage Your Time

Time Blocking can set you up for success. It helps you to be clear and focussed on what is ahead. The sweet spot probably lies in doing it well enough so that you can keep peace of mind and by keeping the effort to the minimum so that you do not have to constantly tweak and adjust your task and time management system.

Priority-based Task Management

The root cause of too much work lies in us as we often give in and say yes too quickly. Saying yes in most cases means that we have made a commitment with consequences.

The first part of your time and task management is that you use your priorities as a guide to decide if a task is important. This can be life priorities combined with priorities you have determined for your business, your work and some are externally determined, for example, by your manager.

Secondary to this is the time component. How soon a task is expected to be completed by you or in a collaboration with others. You should challenge yourself if a date by when a task is due is truly critical or if it is made up.

I tend to only add larger tasks or sometimes even entire projects with their due date in my task management app. This approach works very well especially if you make use of time blocking.

Tools for Tasks and Time Management

OmniFocus is a powerful task management tool with tons of customization features. But I spent too much time tweaking and adjusting things and I moved to the Things task manager next.

Things is much easier to set up and have just the right amount of features. But I felt the urge to go even a step further in simplifying.

Then I landed at Apple Reminders which seamlessly syncs between my Apple devices. Reminders has quite a few shortcomings and lacks a few features. But then I discovered the app GoodTask which is a task manager that sits on top of Apple Reminders. It basically adds functionality and features that allow for more granular sorting, tagging and scheduling of tasks.

Time Blocking

If you work with Google Calendars you have a lot of the needed features already. Just keep using the native apps if you are happy with it.

I use Fantastical which is a powerful but simple calendar management app.

Time blocking means that you schedule blocks of time for certain tasks and purposes. I have time blocks for private commitments and I block off time for basic needs such as time in the morning hours for my morning routine, lunch time, and time in the evening that is strictly reserved for private life.

During my weekly reviews I go through my week or two weeks ahead and confirm that I have sufficient time for what I have to work on and for a few things that I would like to spend time on.

I also keep an eye on how many meetings I have during each day and I tend to block time if there are too many meetings or I may even move them to ensure there is enough time left to work on the important things and to keep room for creativity which cannot be scheduled or planned.

Time blocking keeps me in 90% of the situations focussed and allows me sufficient time to approach work in my way and how I can deliver my best work. Being in control makes life much less stressful. It will be easier for you to say no I have a commitment and I can’t meet this week and it will be easier to judge if you can work on something different than what you had planned because you can see if there is time available the next day when you may have more energy to work on this difficult task. Take control and block time in your own systems based on your own priorities and rules.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Apps that I use and which I talked about in this episode:

• Google Calendar - The native app (browser-based or for your mobile OS) from Google for the calendar that comes with your Google account
• Fantastical - I have tried endless calendar apps and finally found one that I may keep for the long run. Fantastical keeps expanding functionality and integrates nicely with calendar services and the major video conferencing services. I like the natural language interface, the 100% customizable calendar views and the advanced scheduling features that can help find group meeting time slots no matter what app the participants use.
• GoodTask - This is my latest addition. I like that I finally have full control over customization features for my task management system based on the Apple Reminder app. If you use Reminders but struggle with its limited features, try this app.
• Things - Flexible and feature rich task manager that offers everything that most of you will need.
• OmniFocus - A powerful task manager that lets you dial into your tasks and projects. It is tailored towards the Getting Things Done system but also comes with modern features such as tags.

Related content:

This article explains the full extent of time blocking but I recommend you start small and limit how deep you go into time blocking - Clockify blog: “Time Blocking: what it is and how to do it”

The Productive Innovator blog post: “5 Workflows That You Should Simplify or Automate”

The Productive Innovator blog post: “Boost Your Resilience With Healthy Home Office Routines”

The Productive Innovator podcast episode “TPI003: How Personal Productivity Systems can help you with a Healthier and more Meaningful Life”

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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In today’s show we take a look at innovation frameworks and how you can approach innovation as a process, which helps you to move and learn in small steps, breaking down seemingly big problems and design challenges into manageable chunks.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Innovation As A Process

00:05:14 - Innovation Frameworks

00:12:49 - A Practical Example

00:18:44 - Learn, Grow and Adapt

SHOW NOTES

Innovation As A Process

Innovation is a big word. It can mean everything and also nothing. Innovation is the combination of creativity and a process that leads eventually to an implementable solution. Although it is hard work and takes time to practice, everyone of us can become good at it. This simple formula (Creativity + Implementation = Successful (Innovation) describes the mindsets and rigor needed to become good at it.

Innovation Frameworks

Innovation frameworks help us to break down the complex tasks and steps required to move through the phases of the innovation process. On the most simple level it means that you start with the problem, build your solution in iterative steps and eventually bring it to your customers. What often gets overlooked is that it requires multiple loops of experimentation, testing and pivoting where ideas are sorted out and solutions are thoroughly tested with customer input. On top of this you start building a first hypothesis which you develop into a business model/case which you validate as you learn about cost, effort and market size. The most obvious methods and toolsets are Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Design Sprint and Agile (including Scrum).

IMPORTANT! Moving From Idea to Implementation Requires Getting Your Hands Dirty. Watch this funny video with an ironic take of it.

Learn, Grow and Adapt

If you start adopting this process, the required mindsets and skills, you will soon learn exponentially, grow and be able to constantly adapt to new situations. You may first start tackling ideas in your well known area of expertise, then you start to learn about connected skills and expertise, and you will soon be able to leverage your learnings and connect the dots. You become faster and increase the likelihood of success of yourself as an innovator, your ideas, your products and your career progression.

Advice: Do not skip these steps if you tackle new ideas, especially if it is something untested, an innovation. Use this framework as a guide that reminds you of the necessary steps to take and to ensure you first understand the problem, build a testable solution, and only then, you go and implement it. Keep in mind that success does not mean that you go and implement every idea. Not every idea can and should be implemented. Success means you develop the ability to innovate repeatedly and success will follow eventually. You want to remain open to change course when needed. Your initial idea may not survive but you may still be able to iterate until you find fit with what your customers need.

I suggest you first evaluate where you stand, how much you know, and consider if you already have a problem or an idea where you can practice the innovation process and tools. As always, I recommend that you start by applying the Design Thinking method. But even if you do not want to invest the time to learn the entire Design Thinking toolkit, take the basic framework that I shared today and make an effort to follow the steps.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Learning resources, books and course that I can recommend to you:

Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg teaching cards from the Stanford d.school

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley

The Productive Innovator blog post: “Essential Skills That (Almost) Guarantee Your Success In The Long Run”

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries

Sprint by Jake Knapp - How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

The Age of Agile by Stephen Denning - How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done

Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking offered by the Stanford d.school

UPS Commercial "Consultants" video on YouTube

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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Today we dive into The Productive Innovator journey and I will share a basic framework which you can use to determine where you are today and where you want to go eventually. Then we will walk through the most important steps that every innovator and entrepreneur moves through … one way or another.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - A Lifelong Journey

00:02:21 - Find Your Sweet Spot

00:06:08 - The Productive Innovator Journey

00:08:02 - What You Are Passionate About

00:10:30 - What You Thrive At

00:14:28 - What Eventually Pays Off

00:16:10 - What Your Customers Need

SHOW NOTES

Find Your Sweet Spot

There are multiple areas where you can move into and focus on as you grow and develop, but very often people move between until they eventually settle down in one area. I see two major pathways: The innovation and creativity focussed pathway & the business owner and entrepreneur focussed pathway. Just to be clear, the available choices and focus areas are not black and white. There is quite a bit of overlap and you may develop skills and become good at both. The Productive Innovator combines a balanced set of skills and mindsets. This is the concept that I explore with you throughout this podcast series. This toolkit equips you with the universal and transferable skills and mindsets that help you thrive.

The Productive Innovator Journey

Focus Area 1 - What You Are Passionate About

The initial steps are all about finding your passion, experimenting with your ideas and exploring your passion with them. Play with your ideas and eventually share them with the world, with your friends, with your customers.

Recommended learning:

• Explore the Design Thinking methodology and toolkit. You can use it to develop any kind of solution, for yourself or for others (customers), by taking your hunches and moving them through a fun process where you explore, experiment, test and eventually find out what you or your customers need.

Focus Area 2 - What You Thrive At

In this phase of your journey you shift your focus on learning new knowledge and you develop the critical skills meaning you get good at what you do. Now is a good time to start building your productivity system around your idea and process of exploring, testing and working on your product.

You may encounter first successes, your product finds more customers and gets positive feedback. Very important!! - Do a thorough analysis of the situation. Do you still feel joy in what you do? Is it sustainable or was it a one off success? Have you collected enough feedback from your customers? If you answer no, consider a pivot and change your approach or strategy but keep true to your vision and purpose.

Recommended learning:

• Focus on building the critical, transferable skills which many innovators and entrepreneurs share. You can learn more about such essential skills in this blog post.

Focus Area 3 - What Eventually Pays Off

Now you start exploring the innovation and/or entrepreneur pathways in more depth. For some of you this means starting your own business for the first time. You invest in your skills, develop the capabilities and you slowly start focussing on how you can get a reliable source of income from your passion and ideas that you have tested and iterated.

I can recommend the following books. They offer rich insights to learn more about creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship:

• Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley from IDEO, the renowned design agency in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
• The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries, the movement that has spurred many startups and founders.

Focus Area 4 - What Your Customers Need

In this phase of your journey you should have developed abilities that allow you to repeat success. Capture your most important assets, invest more in your productivity system and find ways to delegate and automate repetitive work that your customers do not see and which does not give you joy. And do not forget the importance of your health and happiness! You can reassess your life priorities, what you have achieved and how everything fits into your current life situation. Then adjust as needed.

Recommendation:

• The online Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship Postgraduate Professional Certificate was an eye opener for me. I got inspired by the Silicon Valley vibe and I enjoyed connecting with a community of innovators, entrepreneurs and business owners.
• If you prefer to do a single module instead of the entire certificate, I can recommend the Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking module taught by Perry Klebhahn and Jeremy Utley, with rich insights and tools that are taught in the renowned Stanford d.school.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE:

Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg teaching cards from the Stanford d.school

The Productive Innovator blog post: “Essential Skills That (Almost) Guarantee Your Success In The Long Run”

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries

Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship Postgraduate Professional Certificate offered by the Stanford Business School

Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking offered by the Stanford d.school

Stanford d.school

DISCLAIMER

Product linkages in the show notes of this or other episodes may contain affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates. I’d also like to state that I do not have any relationship to companies or affiliates beyond my participation in a generic affiliate program like the ones offered by Amazon or Audible.

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Dominique talks about Trello Kanban Boards and how you and your teams can use them to manage your workflows and deliver results repeatedly. Learn about practical use cases during the step by step walkthrough of my podcasting and blogging Trello board and workflow.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Managing Workflows with Trello Kanban Boards

00:02:30 - Trello Use Cases

00:04:30 - Introduction to Kanban

00:06:18 - Trello Kanban Board for Podcasting and Blogging

00:12:07 - Ideal Week Plan

00:14:02 - Automation with Trello

00:15:31 - Get Your Free Trello Template

SHOW NOTES

Trello Use Cases and Managing Workflows with Trello Kanban Boards

Trello helps me get work done, helps me remember my ideas, activities and workflow steps and activities without being intrusive. A few examples how I use Trello:

• Visual boards for life priorities and goals
• Agile project management with backlog, work in progress and reference lists
• Kanban boards to move work through your work processes where each major step is represented by a list
• Online collaboration with your teams as part of the above

Introduction to Kanban

Kanban fits nicely into agile project management and can be used to balance your workload of your standard work processes.

Some learning resources in case you would like to go deeper into Kanban:

Lean

• Book about the lean leadership philosophy: “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership by Jeffrey K. Liker and Gary L. Convis”
• Toolbook: Lean Six Sigma Pocket Guide

Kanban

• Kanban Tool Website
• Kanban deep dive book: “All About Pull Production”

Trello Kanban Board for Podcasting and Blogging

A podcasting and blogging board should include

1. Capture buckets for raw ideas
2. One or more backlogs for blog post and podcast topics plus enabling activities
3. Lists for each process step with checklists and references / templates
4. A Done list to celebrate all the achievements ;)

Also, use labels to highlight, categorize and easily find items in your board

Ideal Week Plan

You can define an ideal week plan to orient yourself when you ideally should work on which major tasks.This becomes important if you commit to produce content frequently (eg. each week) and helps you to spot issues in your workflow. Plus it can help you to sync work with your routines and natural energy levels.

Automation with Trello

Trello offers lots of automation features. Take a look at Trello Power-Ups. Some examples:

• Repeat cards for repetitive, recurring tasks
• Automated naming, labeling, etc
• Review and approval workflows on top of the board
• … and much more

Get Your Free Trello Template

And the best thing is that I have created a copy of the basic Trello board for you which you can grab for free. If you use Trello, you can simply click the link and make a copy to one of your own Trello workspaces. If you do not or do not want to use Trello you can download the PDF copy and recreate the board in whichever tool you prefer to use. These links are available on my website at theproductiveinnovator.com/templates.

You can watch this YouTube video where I cover a full walkthrough of my Trello Kanban board template.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

• Book about the lean leadership philosophy: “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership by Jeffrey K. Liker and Gary L. Convis”
• Lean Six Sigma book: Lean Six Sigma Pocket Guide
• Kanban Tool Website
• Trello help article on What are Power-Ups?
• Access to the Trello power-ups library
• Kanban deep dive book: “All About Pull Production”
• Download the free Trello Kanban Board template at theproductiveinnovator.com/templates
• Kanban Boards with Trello + Podcasting Workflow Example YouTube video available on The Productive Innovator YouTube channel
• You can find the starting point of the topic map for future episodes at theproductiveinnovator.com/topics.

DISCLAIMER

This episode may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

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Today’s episode is all about building your Personal Productivity System. I will cover the basic components from productivity methods, tools and a few selected best practices. Focus is on enabling you in your passion discovery process and to help you find time for your first steps in your Productive Innovator journey. I’ll show you how you can choose what works best for you and you decide what you add to your own, tailored personal productivity system.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - What is a Personal Productivity System?

00:02:11 - Keep It Simple

00:04:03 - Keeping Your Toolkit Current & Relevant

00:15:56 - Productivity Methods

00:18:40 - A Few Best Practices

00:20:53 - Tip Of The Week

SHOW NOTES

What is a Personal Productivity System?

Your personal productivity system helps you to stay focussed and increases your productivity. It makes up a significant portion of your toolkit and helps you manage your work, your ever growing knowledge and builds the basis for automation and delegation of work. It typically includes methods and tools like calendars, task managers, notepads, project management systems, time management and much more.

Keep It Simple

Productivity is not about the tools that you use. It is an output based on the choices you make, how you work, how you use certain tools and how all of these enablers can be in tune with your own working style. Limit the choices and extent of tools, try new ones and keep or discard them. You will soon realize that only a handful of these tools and methods will stick and these are the ones you should keep building your personal productivity system on.

Keeping Your Toolkit Current & Relevant

Focus on building and evolving your productivity system as you move along in your journey and keep in mind, priorities change over time.

Recommendation: Focus on workflow, not on single tools. As an innovator or entrepreneur you should have a good and frictionless process for quickly capturing ideas and directly getting them into your workflow.

Overview of my workflows and tools:

Inflow

• News - RSS reader (Reeder) for quick read and manually select things I want to read later
• EMail (Airmail) with email filter rules applied

Learn

• Books, Podcasts, YouTube channels, e-Courses

Capture

• Notes App for raw and for categorized ideas and references + Apple Pencil for sketches
• Trello with different catch buckets
• Scanner app to scan and file documents
• Bookmark manager
• Instapaper for “read later” content
• Task Manager
• Schedule time in my calendar,
• Whiteboard for quickly capturing thoughts + Post its

Process

• EMail - tag, read, archive
• Mindmap tool (Mindnode) for structuring thoughts
• Trello lists to sort and process information + various Trello backlogs for activities that enter my main workflows
• Hazel for document renaming and filing in folder structure
• Keyboard Maestro and Shortcuts for text expansion and workflow automation

Collaboration & Communication

• Google Docs and Apple Pages/Sheets/Keynote for online collaboration
• Trello for agile project management (Kanban boards)
• Email for communication with teams, customers, and other formal communication

Manage

• Time Blocking via calendar app
• Trello - assign and delegate tasks to collaborators
• Cloud drive services (iCloud Drive - this service is part of iCloud - and Google Drive) for file syncing and sharing

Essential Tools - The 3 Most Important Apps in My Productivity System:

• Calendar app (Fantastical)
• Notes app from Apple, and
• Trello as a workflow tool in combination with my task manager for time critical tasks (GoodTask).
• And if I could choose a few more, I would not want to give up my automation tools Hazel and Keyboard Maestro as well as Google Docs, which add a lot of value to me as they make online collaboration so seamless.

Productivity Methods Breakdown

A few selected methods I tried and which I can recommend. Give it a try.

• Daily Highlight: Commit to One Daily Highlight and get it done
• Time Blocking: Make sure that you have time available for the important things and tasks, make sure you keep up with your workout routine, or leave time for solitude to spur creativity and new ideas
• Focus: Find focus and remove distractions. Dive in and work on tasks based on the required mood or focus mode.
• Energy-based work timing: Identify and get more in line with your biological prime time. Are you a night owl or early bird? Find out which type of work fit best in which time of the day.
• Flow: Find work that typically sets you in a flow mode. Get things done by separating into creative and routine work and by batching work. Your productivity system can help you prepare a time and mental state for where you can get into a flow.

A Few Best Practices

1. Email practices
2. Limit the times you check email - I do this twice a day in thirty minutes each
3. Be very intentional about pre-sorting emails
4. Emails that are unclear or have no specific ask
5. Irrelevant and spam email

6. Important or urgent tasks, email that requires immediate follow up

7. Avoid over-communication - the not so urgent things very often resolve within a short amount of time

8. Practice saying “NO”, because saying yes to everything also means that you will be forced to say no to things you actually care about
9. Eliminate non-value added steps and tasks - things that are eating up your time and not adding value, especially from your customers’ point of view

Tip of the week

Start with the essential productivity apps (notes app, calendar app, task manager) and tweak your productivity system by getting good use out of them. Pair them up with productivity methods and your preferred working style. You can add automation tools at a later point when your system is up and running. It doesn’t help if you throw apps at problems that you encounter. If you are swamped in work you need to first fix that issue. For example, realign your priorities and find ways to better manage your time and commitments.

Start small, try out a few things at a time and keep what works and remove things that are rather distractions or where you spend more time on adding and moving things through your system vs just doing it.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

Apps that I use and which I talked about in this episode:

• Reeder 5 - Powerful RSS reader and read later app for Mac and iOS, which has treaty much everything you would look for in a RSS reader app
• Airmail - Versatile Email client for Mac and iOS that can pretty much connect to any email service and comes with sync service, handy email filter rules and other automation features
• Trello - My go to app for project management, managed lists, and for any kind of personal and work project kanban boards. The super easy interface makes it so easy to use and makes bringing collaborators on board a breeze.
• Instapaper - I have been using this reader and reading app for a long time. You can add articles and documents with just one click by using the available integrations for your OS and in internet browsers.
• Mindnode - Mind mapping is a must-have technique for creatives. Mindnode helps you structure your ideas in visual maps and tree structures but you can also simplify and extract them as lists. I also use it for brainstorming ideas that are connected to larger ideas or projects.
• Hazel - This extremely powerful Mac automation tool keeps up with its promise “Automated Organization for Your Mac”. I use it for everything from file management, document renaming and filing. I keep discovering new capabilities. Hazel has saved more tons of hours of manual repetitive work.
• Keyboard Maestro - Similar to hazel this tool is extremely powerful and is a complimentary tool. The capabilities of automating your Mac are endless. From text expansion to workflow automation and window management, just to name a few. I keep adding new automations every week and get an immediate return of investment.
• Fantastical - I have tried endless calendar apps and finally found one that I may keep for the long run. Fantastical keeps expanding functionality and integrates nicely with calendar services and the major video conferencing services. I like the natural language interface, the 100% customizable calendar views and the advanced scheduling features that can help find group meeting time slots no matter what app the participants use.
• GoodTask - This is my latest addition. I like that I finally have full control over customization features for my task management system based on the Apple Reminder app. If you use Reminders but struggle with its limited features, try this app.

Check out this article on my blog: “Boost Your Resilience With Healthy Home Office Routines”. It has a few selected routines that could be of interest as you explore your personal productivity system.

You can find the starting point of the topic map for future episodes at theproductiveinnovator.com/topics.

DISCLAIMER

This episode may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

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In today’s episode I’ll introduce the passion discovery process and your initial steps in your Productive Innovator journey. No matter if you start out on the side or full time, we all have to make for a living and do all of this without leaving our loved ones behind. It may sound extremely difficult but is manageable if you get your priorities in order and lay out a plan for the months ahead of you. But first you have to find your passion and explore a path that is in tune with it.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - Find Your Passion

00:02:50 - Start Exploring

00:04:56 - Get Your Priorities In Order

00:08:34 - Find Time And Do It … And Experience It

00:11:14 - Consider Your Options

00:13:34 - Get Ready

00:14:24 - Essential Tools For This Exercise

SHOW NOTES

Find Your Passion

This is your first check point in your Productive Innovator journey. Find your passion, reconfirm what you consider your passion. Passion helps to be creative and thrive as an innovator and entrepreneur. Do not rush this crucial first step.

Start Exploring

Find a time during the week where you can find solitude, where you can dig into your hunch? Take time to explore your ideas, your calling, your must do’s in life.

Get Your Priorities In Order

Do a pulse check of your work and life priorities. Do you spend your time on the right priorities? Can you balance your time to allow yourself some wiggle room where you can start spending more time on your passion. Involve your close friends, family, loved ones, your colleagues and get a feel how this can work.

• Start living up to your priorities
• Say NO more often, so that you can say YES more often to your passion
• Find a few guiding principles that can guide in the many choice throughout your journey; you will hit many hurdles and it helps if you have a guide

Life priorities example:

Find Time And Do It … And Experience It

Now it’s time that you start exploring your passion ... obviously while still making for a living ;) There’s never a better time than doing it now. Like I started this podcast without waiting long.

You will soon know if you are onto something. But you have to get up and do something with your passion. Put your idea, your creativity, your product out there and get feedback - nothing can be more rewarding than getting actual responses from actual people. Every step, small or big is a step towards making your passion a more significant part of your life.

Consider Your Options

• What skills do you have already?
• Which do you need to learn?
• What parts of your current work do you have to keep doing (for now)?
• Have you talked to your significant other, your loved ones?
• Get advice, get help from trusted advisors
• Do you find joy in this activity or do you have to pivot towards something different
• Stay in the growth mindset, avoid becoming fixated on what you decided to do - Learn to PIVOT which means that you change your approach, or what you do but you keep your vision (your passion) at the center of what you do.
• Find a passion project that allows you to thrive in your personal life and find happiness and joy together with your loved ones.

Get ready

Don’t worry if you do not feel ready today … write it on a sticky note and attach it to your dresser, next to your bathroom mirror or any other area of your home that you frequently pass through. Most importantly, reserve a time on your calendar where you can start finding and exploring your passion (in solitude!).

There’s no one universal method for everyone but I can recommend the book: The crossroads of should and must: Find and follow your passion by Elle Luna.

Essential tools and gear

It may sound silly but for me the most important tools are …

• post-its (especially the ones that come in lots of colors),
• my notepad where I jot down my morning pages (for emptying my brain), and
• a lovely wide-stroke ball pen that is a pure joy to write with.
• These paired with my Trello vision and life priority board, are the few go to tools for this exercise.

Are you about to start your journey, are you planning to start right here by first finding and exploring your passion. Or are you waiting for future episodes to find specific advice that helps you for one specific aspect of your personal journey? No matter what, I recommend that you spend a bit of time thinking about where you are now, where you would like to be and if you have everything you need to put that something you are truly passionate about at the center of your life.

Ideally you want to loop through those steps multiple times before you move to the next step where you focus on becoming more productive.

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Access the RSS feed and links to major podcast apps at theproductiveinnovator.com/pod.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

Check out this related article on my blog: “Why Flipcharts and Whiteboards are Still Important for Your Creativity”

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

My book recommendation for you: The crossroads of should and must: Find and follow your passion by Elle Luna

DISCLAIMER

This episode may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

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This is the first episode of the new Productive Innovator Podcast.

In this first episode I introduce the concept of Productive Innovation, and how you can start following your passion by stepping up the productivity game, letting technology work for you, and managing time in line with our priorities. The episode also includes a comprehensive set of best practices for home office productivity and health.

I hope that this episode makes you hungry for more.

TODAY’S TOPICS

00:00:00 - The Productive innovator

00:07:21 - What is Productive Innovation all about?

00:10:47 - Finding time for your Passion

00:11:33 - Take control in your life with YOUR Personal Productivity System

00:12:48 - Technology that helps you save time for the important things

00:14:24 - Home Office Productivity & Health

SHOW NOTES

What is Productive Innovation all about?

Productive Innovation is all about how you can innovate and thrive as an entrepreneur.The Productive Innovator’s main focus areas are:

• Passion
• Productivity
• Technology

Finding time for your Passion

Short introduction how you can start your passion journey. If you are curious and do not want to wait until we dive into this topic in future episodes, I can recommend this 15 minute read from Elle Luna „The Crossroads of Should and Must“.

Take control in your life with YOUR Personal Productivity System

You can gradually build your Personal Productivity System to help you free up time so that you can follow your passion. Productivity is your friend, but keep in mind, it has to serve your purpose. Do you have life priorities or long-term personal goals. Make sure your productivity system is in sync with those.

Technology that helps you save time for the important things

Explore the good of automation and tools: your friend and helper that can take repetitive tasks off your shoulders and helps you free up time for the things you truly care about.

Home Office Productivity & Health

How have you been keeping up with your health and your productivity in the home office? Take a look at my current routines and try them out if you like.

• Take short walks daily (even if it’s just five minutes), no exceptions - they boost your creativity and help you stay healthy
• Do a quick but intense workout before lunch - there’s always time to squeeze in 5 or 10 minutes
• Get more and consistent sleep … and feel how your energy levels and creativity go up
• Strictly separate work and private life - carry separate devices, keep accounts and bookmarks separate
• Block time for unscripted creativity and idea creation - do this during your high energy hours
• If you are using Apple devices, try out the Focus features and add a few focus modes that automatically silence notifications
• Do minimal planning but regular reviews - things come up throughout the week but make sure that you stay on top of the few important things by doing daily and weekly reviews
• Consider only adding important tasks and larger deliverables to your task management systems - break them down later when you actually start working on them
• Only read / work through email twice a day: start with your health, then creativity, then routine work & stay focussed, do not keep checking email

Please share your questions, comments, ideas and suggestions via the contact form on my website or via email.

Sign up for The Productive Innovator Newsletter and visit The Productive Innovator website and blog for additional resources.

LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

15 minute read from Elle Luna „The Crossroads of Should and Must“.

You can find the starting point of the topic map for future episodes theproductiveinnovator.com/topics.

Check out the companion article on my blog: “Boost Your Resilience With Healthy Home Office Routines”

DISCLAIMER

This episode may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.