Innovation Feedback Systems

Many organizations approach innovation the way they approach budgeting or operations. They create roadmaps, timelines, and committees designed to produce breakthroughs on schedule. But the history of technology suggests something different. Most meaningful innovations do not arrive neatly on a calendar. They appear unexpectedly. A new idea. A technical breakthrough. A surprising connection between two things that previously seemed unrelated. The real challenge is making sure your organization is ready when those moments appear. The companies and institutions that consistently innovate tend to invest early in talent and technical capability. They build cultures where experimentation is encouraged and where people are willing to test new ideas. They maintain the flexibility to pursue unexpected opportunities and move quickly when promising ideas appear. Innovation rarely begins as a fully formed plan. More often it begins as a possibility that only a few people recognize at first. The advantage goes to the organizations that have prepared themselves to recognize that moment and act on it. You may not be able to schedule inspiration. But you can build teams, systems, and cultures that are ready when it shows up. #SchmidtSights

The F-word of communication is FIDELITY – accuracy and clarity in the transmission of our messages’ meaning. Yet in today’s fast-paced, multi-channel communication, many of us rush to deliver our messages without taking the time to tailor or test them. There is a way to predictably increase fidelity and still be time efficient: Just as product designers use the Minimally Viable Product (MVP) approach to quickly test, refine, and improve their offerings, we can apply similar principles to communication. We can leverage Minimally Viable Communication (MVC) to generate and iterate on meaningful, memorable messages that are audience-centric and clear. MVP to MVC: Translating Product Development Steps to Message Development -User Understanding → Audience Insight Just as MVP starts with understanding user needs, MVC begins by getting to know the audience—knowledge, attitudes, concerns, and expectations—to ensure relevance. -Market Analysis → Context Awareness In MVP, analyzing the market shapes product timing and scope. In MVC, considering context (like timing, message sequence, and channel) ensures the message fits the setting. -Success Metrics → Communication Goal MVP measures success through pre-defined metrics; MVC sets a clear goal around what we want the audience to know, feel, and do, helping focus our message and assess its impact. -Wire framing → Message Structure A product prototype conveys essentials efficiently; similarly, MVC uses clear structures (like Problem-Solution-Benefit or What-So What-Now What) to communicate core ideas without overload. -Feedback and Iteration → Feedback and Iteration MVP iterates based on feedback. In MVC, we do the same thing – we adapt our messages through audience feedback, refining it for clarity and impact. Read more about Minimally Viable Communication in my recent TIME online article. https://lnkd.in/ghNSYHYM To learn more tips, tools, and tactics about commuication, check out Think Fast Talk Smart: The Podcast by visiting fastersmarter.io.

If your clean tech startup is a collection of clever widgets, you're already losing. Everyone loves the lone innovator story. One hero, one idea, one world changed forever. But reality drags us back. The real winners are obsessed with integration, not invention. I've watched too many founders burn years tinkering with one cool solution, completely ignoring the mess it lands in, supply chains, regulations, human behaviour, actual business models. You're building a living, breathing ecosystem, not just a fancy gadget. A few hard truths: → Your game-changing battery isn't replacing fossil fuels if it can't survive three continents of logistics hell (trust me I've been there 😅). → Your AI-powered energy dashboard is pointless if it doesn't actually change the way real people use energy. → Your carbon-capture breakthrough will gather dust unless it kicks off downstream value. Systems thinkers ask: 1. What does this invention disrupt, not just technically, but socially, politically, economically? 2. How does it connect? Where does it break? Who panics when it succeeds? 3. What are the second and third order consequences, good and bad? You can't fix the planet with silos. You have to be a systems architect. It's not as exciting as a demo day pitch, but it's the difference between a viral press release and a technology that actually shifts the world. So the next time you're tempted to chase the shiny object, step back. Map the system. Find the fault lines. Solve for the big picture. Who's actually doing this well? Tag them. Or tell me where I've got it wrong.

In healthcare, innovation isn’t just about shiny apps or breakthrough devices. The most impactful innovations can involve rethinking how an entire system works—while still keeping it running. That’s the challenging truth facing large US health systems like Advocate Health and Sutter Health. With mounting pressures—rising costs, staff shortages, and digital-first competitors—these organizations are finding that focusing only on incremental change won’t cut it. They’re building enterprise-wide innovation ecosystems designed to unlock creativity at scale. I explore what they’re doing in a new article for Forbes (a link is in the Comments below). At Advocate Health, for example, this means going beyond pilot projects or siloed innovation labs. Their approach includes: - Strategic partnerships with startups and accelerators - Internal investment funds and innovation districts - Tech transfer capabilities to bring discoveries to market - Leadership development programs built around tools like Jobs to Be Done, human-centered design, and the business model canvas It’s a significant shift—embedding innovation not just in strategy decks, but in the day-to-day work of solving persistent pain points. Teams aren’t just testing new tech. They’re tackling the real “struggling moments” for patients, clinicians, and administrators alike—from vendor inefficiencies to emergency room backlogs—and redesigning care delivery around those needs. One key lesson? Change happens when innovation teams forge close ties with operational leaders and treat them as co-creators, not gatekeepers. That approach opens the door for adoption and scale—critical in a sector that can be both risk-averse and in dire need of reinvention. In a future where innovation methods are as standard as EHRs and MRIs, standalone “innovation departments” may become obsolete. But, until then, health systems that build these capabilities now will be better equipped to navigate uncertainty—and lead the industry transformation already underway. The takeaway for innovators everywhere: When facing entrenched systems and high stakes, don’t just think different—build systems that work differently.

How do we move from just designing solutions to facilitating real change? It’s one thing to come up with an idea, but it’s another to bring that idea to life in a way that makes a lasting impact. This is where design meets facilitation, where creativity truly flourishes. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who coined the term flow, had an important insight: creativity doesn’t exist within disciplines, but between them. It’s in those intersections, where different perspectives come together, that real innovation happens. Take Theory U, for example, a framework developed by Otto Scharmer. This process helps groups set aside old ways of thinking and embrace new possibilities. Imagine a room full of people from different backgrounds—designers, social scientists, engineers—working together. Theory U guides them through shedding old patterns and reaching a moment of clarity where fresh ideas can emerge. From there, the group doesn’t just dream up solutions; they make them real, moving from vision to prototype to action. This isn’t just theory. It’s a proven process for tackling society’s toughest problems. One of the key takeaways from Theory U is the importance of collaboration. When people from different disciplines come together with a shared goal, they create solutions that are more holistic and sustainable. The most fascinating part? The more often groups succeed in this process, the easier it becomes. It’s like learning to ride a bike—at first, it’s challenging, but with practice, it becomes second nature. This shift, from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, is how we start to make sustainable thinking a habit, not just a goal. So, how can we as designers—or anyone interested in social change—facilitate that shift? It’s not just about creating products or services; it’s about fostering the right conditions for new ideas to grow. It’s about being open to collaboration, embracing diverse perspectives, and guiding conversations toward meaningful outcomes. Have you experienced this kind of collaboration in your work? What challenges or breakthroughs did you face?

💡Triple Diamond Design Process The "Triple Diamond" process is a process that builds upon the widely known Double Diamond design process. While the Double Diamond focuses on two main phases—problem definition and solution design—the Triple Diamond adds a third phase to add depth and breadth to the design methodology.  This variant of a triple diamond process, crafted by Ted Goas (https://lnkd.in/eJFCR8rF), adds a third diamond for iterative development. It emphasizes iterative cycles, prioritization of user needs, and continuous refinement of the solution throughout the product lifecycle. Quick overview of the 5 key phases of this process: 1️⃣ Discovery (What’s our problem?) This phase focuses on identifying the problem to solve. Goal: Understanding customer pain points & narrowing down insights into actionable focus areas. Activities: ✔ Customer empathy budding: Researching user needs. ✔ Market research: Analyzing market trends. ✔ Competitive analysis: Assessing competition. ✔ Insights prioritization: Organizing findings for strategic focus. ✔ Building product strategy: Setting goals for the product. 2️⃣ Definition (What’s our solution?) This phase focuses on solution ideation & validation. Goal: Generate multiple ideas, structure them and validate the most promising ideas Activities: ✔ Ideation: Brainstorming and generating ideas. ✔ Drafting experience workflow: Mapping out how users will interact with the solution. ✔ Wireframeing: Visualizing the solution. ✔ Initial prototyping: Creating early product models for testing. 3️⃣ Development (Let’s build our solution) This phase is about building, iterating, and refining the product. Goal: Breaking down features and iterating to reduce risks. Activities: ✔ Feature breakdown: Breaking the solution into smaller deliverable tasks. ✔ Iterative build cycle: Continuously building and improving the product. ✔ Collecting research insights: Using feedback to refine features. 4️⃣ Distribution (Initial customer feedback) Focuses on testing the product with users and preparing for the final release. Phases: ✔ Internal release: Early internal testing (alpha and beta testing) ✔ Early access program: Collecting feedback from early adopters. ✔ General (Public) release: Launching the product publicly. 5️⃣ Retro (What did we learn?) Post-release reflection phase to gather insights for future iterations. Using insights collected from feedback, metrics, and retrospective discussions to refine the product. 📕 A Comprehensive guide to product design process https://lnkd.in/eyh4YGy6 #design #designprocess #ux #uxdesign #productdesign #uidesign #ui

Stop treating Operational Excellence like a collection of tools. That’s where most transformations quietly fail. Across plants, I keep seeing the same pattern: - Hoshin exists… but never reaches the shop floor - VSM is done… but never sustained - Kaizen events happen… but results fade - Digital initiatives launch… but don’t change decisions The problem isn’t effort. The problem is lack of system design. Through my experience, I’ve learned that Strategic Operational Excellence only works when strategy, flow, quality, improvement, and digital intelligence are designed as one system—not five initiatives. That’s exactly what this visual is meant to show. The system behind sustainable operational excellence 1️⃣ Hoshin Kanri (Strategy Deployment) - This is where it starts—and where many stop. - Vision set at the top - Goals cascaded with clarity - Execution owned at the shop floor Without this alignment, improvement becomes noise, not direction. 2️⃣ Value Stream Mapping (Flow First Thinking) - VSM isn’t about drawing maps. - It’s about exposing: - Lead time leakage - Non-value-added work - Broken handoffs When flow improves, everything downstream improves automatically. 3️⃣ Jidoka + OEE (Built-In Quality) - High OEE isn’t speed—it’s stability. - Detect problems early - Stop when abnormalities occur - Fix at the root cause Quality must be designed into the process, not inspected later. 4️⃣ Kaizen (Continuous Improvement as a System) - Kaizen only sticks when: - Standard work exists - PDCA becomes routine - Leaders reinforce daily discipline Improvement isn’t an event—it’s an operating rhythm. 5️⃣ Lean 4.0 (Digital Twin & Predictive Thinking) - This is where many teams jump too early. - Digital only adds value when: - Sensors reflect real flow - Data supports decisions Predictive insights prevent losses Digital amplifies systems—it doesn’t replace them. Why this matters Plants that treat these as separate programs see temporary wins. Plants that design them as one connected system see: - Shorter lead times - Higher OEE stability - Faster problem detection - Predictable performance The best systems don’t wait for heroics. They make problems visible early—and improvement unavoidable. If you’re rethinking how Operational Excellence should actually work in your plant—not on slides, but on the floor—happy to exchange notes on impact and ROI. Curious to hear: Which layer do you see breaking most often—strategy, flow, quality, discipline, or decision intelligence?

I used to think user research was easy. But then I switched to B2B. And oh boy... reality hit hard Back when I was working on a B2C product, I could run 10 user interviews in a day. Users would happily spend 45 minutes answering questions and testing new designs. I thought this was just regular product design. Turns out, I was riding a perfect wave of continuous discovery without even realizing it. Then I switched to B2B. And I admit it really felt scary at first. Users were just too busy to pick up my phone calls. It took 3 weeks to schedule 5 calls. Some users left a bad CSAT score with barely any comment. Damn. How can we build anything serious without ever talking to users? At that time, it really felt like an impossible task. And any way I tried to put it, there were just no efficient process to get those users on the phone. But then it hit me. What if the best discovery touch points weren’t designers or PMs at all? What if they were already happening… in sales calls, support chats, internal Slack threads? And we had this feedback scattered across tools, threads, and people. But no one was making sense of it. So we built a Feedback Management System. We plugged every feedback into a single source of truth directly in Notion: - Intercom conversations and Modjo calls with customers - Internal tickets from sales and support to discuss user pain points or feature requests - User feedback forms submitted on the platform All filtered and organized per team through Notion automations. Each designer spends 2 hours per week turning raw feedback into structured insights. Then each team reviews it together weekly, and it feeds product decisions and the roadmap. It’s simple. It’s scalable. And it changed everything. Product designers no longer design based on shaky assumptions or partial data. They're now the source of customer truth and alignment. In B2B, discovery doesn’t happen in a lab. It happens in the wild. You just need to know where to listen. #productdesign #uxdesign #userresearch

Continuous Improvement in Quality Continuous Improvement (CI) is a core principle of Quality Management, focused on making products, processes, and systems better over time through small, incremental changes or breakthrough improvements. It ensures that quality standards are not only maintained but also continuously enhanced to meet customer expectations and achieve operational excellence. 🔹 Definition Continuous Improvement means ongoing efforts to enhance products, services, or processes by identifying inefficiencies, reducing waste, and increasing customer satisfaction. It is a never-ending process—there’s always room for improvement. --- 🔹 Key Objectives 1. Improve product quality and process reliability 2. Reduce defects, waste, and costs 3. Increase customer satisfaction 4. Boost employee involvement and ownership 5. Promote a culture of problem-solving and learning --- 🔹 Popular Continuous Improvement Methodologies 1. PDCA Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) Plan: Identify problem and plan solution Do: Implement the plan on a small scale Check: Review results Act: Standardize successful changes 2. Kaizen (Japanese concept) Means “Change for Better” Involves all employees, from operators to management Focuses on small, daily improvements 3. Six Sigma (DMAIC Approach) Data-driven method for defect reduction Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control 4. Lean Manufacturing Focuses on eliminating waste (Muda) Improves efficiency and flow 5. Total Quality Management (TQM) Organization-wide philosophy of continuous quality improvement --- 🔹 Tools Used for Continuous Improvement Pareto Chart (identify major problems) Fishbone Diagram (root cause analysis) 5 Why Analysis (find root cause) Control Charts (monitor process stability) Check Sheets & Histograms (data collection and analysis) --- 🔹 Steps for Implementing Continuous Improvement 1. Identify area of improvement 2. Collect and analyze data 3. Find root causes of problems 4. Develop and implement corrective actions 5. Monitor results and standardize improvements 6. Train employees and sustain improvements --- 🔹 Benefits ✅ Higher customer satisfaction ✅ Reduced defects and rework ✅ Improved process efficiency ✅ Lower production cost ✅ Increased employee engagement ✅ Enhanced company reputation --- 🔹 Example (In Manufacturing): If casting parts frequently show porosity defects, the Quality team can: Analyze past data (SPC, Pareto) Identify root cause (e.g., improper Mg% or mold temperature) Implement corrective actions Monitor results Standardize improved parameters This becomes part of continuous improvement.

From Chaos to Clarity, Beyond the Toolbox: Mastering Methods for Solutions to Business Challenges In daily operations, new challenges can surface unexpectedly; sometimes as stubborn bottlenecks and sometimes as subtle gaps in performance. The true test for any organization is not just in spotting these issues, but in matching each problem with a methodology that drives meaningful and lasting improvement. The attached guideline “Problem Solving / Process Improvement Tools Selection Matrix” illustrates how each business function; corporate strategy, R&D, manufacturing, logistics, quality, customer service, and more; faces distinct challenges, from KPI tracking to spare parts shortages. Each row highlights typical pain points, while columns unveil targeted methodologies: Lean, Six Sigma, FMEA, 8D, Kaizen, 5 Whys, DMS, and many more. What stands out is that there’s no universal solution. For example: ✅ R&D may apply FMEA, Agile and Design Thinking to break down siloed collaboration, drive innovation, and shorten time-to-market for new products. ✅ Procurement and Supply Chain teams often turn to VSM and Risk Management to address cost fluctuations, supplier reliability, and parts shortages. ✅ Manufacturing relies on A3, 8D, Root Cause Analysis, and Kaizen to reduce defects, address chronic downtime, and drive standardization. ✅ Quality and Assurance deploy FMEA and SPC to prevent high defect rates, improve process controls, and integrate continuous feedback. ✅ Customer Service elevates user satisfaction and response time with structured Voice of Customer tools and real-time corrective action workflows. ✅ HR and HSE benefit most from skills matrices, error-proofing, and focused risk assessments to reduce incidents, address skill gaps, and promote a safety culture. The key takeaway? Effective leaders don’t just train teams in popular frameworks; they map specific problems to methodologies. Start with a thorough diagnosis, understand the nature of your challenge, and leverage the matrix for actionable alignment. Continuous improvement is a journey, and having the right compass : Method selection, makes all the difference.