Management Insights for Driving Innovation

I am constantly thinking about how to foster innovation in my product organization. Building teams that are experts at execution is the easy part—when there’s a clear problem, product orgs are great at coming up with smart solutions. But it’s impossible to optimize your way into innovation. You can’t only rely on incremental improvement to keep growing. You need to come up with new problem spaces, rather than just finding better solutions to the same old problems. So, how do we come up with those new spaces? Here are a few things I’m trying at Duolingo: 1. Innovation needs a high-energy environment, and a slow process will kill a great idea. So I always ask myself: Can we remove some of the organizational barriers here? Do managers from seven different teams really need to say yes on every project? Seeking consensus across the company—rather than just keeping everyone informed—can be a major deterrent to innovation. 2. Similarly, beware of defaulting to “following up.” If product meetings are on a weekly cadence, every time you do this, you are allocating seven days to a task that might only need two. We try to avoid this and promote a sense of urgency, which is essential for innovative ideas to turn into successes. 3. Figure out the right incentive. Most product orgs reward team members whose ideas have measurable business impact, which works in most contexts. But once you’ve found product-market fit, it is often easiest to generate impact through smaller wins. So, naturally, if your org tends to only reward impact, you have effectively incentivized constant optimization of existing features instead of innovation. In the short term things will look great, but over time your product becomes stale. I try to show my teams that we value and reward bigger ideas. If someone sticks their neck out on a new concept, we should highlight that—even if it didn’t pan out. Big swings should be celebrated, even if we didn’t win, because there are valuable learnings there. 4. Look for innovative thinkers with a history of zero-to-one feature work. There are lots of amazing product managers out there, but not many focus on new problem domains. If a PM has created something new from scratch and done it well, that’s a good sign. An even better sign: if they show excitement about and gravitate toward that kind of work. If that sounds like you—if you’re a product manager who wants to think big picture and try out big ideas in a fast-paced environment with a stellar mission—we want you on our team. We’re hiring a Director of Product Management: https://lnkd.in/dQnWqmDZ #productthoughts #innovation #productmanagement #zerotoone

You can lead innovation from wherever you are. But you need to know how to setup an innovation capability. This is the innovation model I coached that produced 957% return on the initial investment of $2.47M. I envisioned and coached the process, model, and approach for a global and scalable innovation capability from what I learned leading innovation at Microsoft. Part of what makes innovation so tough is the lack of shared mental models. Here are some of the key components of leading innovation: INNOVATION BOARD An Innovation Board is people working together to manage innovation as a capability. An internal Innovation Board can help you prioritize, get funding, channel resources, and escalate as necessary. It's also a way to integrate innovation back to the core. INNOVATION HUBs An Innovation Hub is a center of gravity for innovation efforts. I like the "Hub" model because it's the idea of Hubs and Spokes. You can have a Hub of Hubs, and it's a way to embed and spread innovation around the world. It's a federated model for innovation. INNOVATION PORTFOLIO Creating a shared view of your innovation projects helps leaders see the dashboard. It gets people thinking in "portfolios" vs. "one offs". An Innovation Portfolio gives you the balcony view to invest better. BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION This is where you create new value. I learned a lot as head coach for Microsoft Satya Nadella's innovation team, but one of the most important things is to focus on business model innovation. As Satya put it to me: "Bring me new business models!" Just this one shift in focus can completely transform the success of innovation efforts. CULTURE OF INNOVATION You can inspire innovation at multiple levels. Satya asked me to share with him directly stories of innovation and trends & insights. When you share stories of success, smart people want to play, too. And, they have a fear of missing out. Every leader wants growth.  And innovation is the lever. EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES Innovation happens at the edge. It's the intersection of customer pains, needs, and desired outcomes and your solution. Innovation takes empathy. Swarming on customer challenges is where breakthroughs happen. Everyone can innovate, but they need the mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets. DREAM BIG, START SMALL Too many people play small, out of fear and risk. But that sets the stage for failure. Small things don't accrue to any big things unless there's a guiding vision. The vision is the scaffolding for success. And the vision is what will inspire the team and get support. When you dream big, you figure out better solutions. And these constrain your strategies, and that's a good thing. The right answer is Dream Big, Start Small. This way you can work forwards and work backwards. Dream big, start small.

The path to innovation is not as complex as we might think. What I've discovered is that innovation can emerge from surprisingly straightforward practices 💡 Customer-Centricity: It starts with a laser focus on understanding customers' contexts deeply. By immersing ourselves in their world, we uncover unmet needs and pain points that serve as fertile ground for innovation. But remember to focus on underserved customers 💡 Diversity: Innovation flourishes when diverse teams work together to learn from diverse customers. By embracing a multitude of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds, we enrich the ideation process and uncover unconventional solutions. 💡 Jobs to Be Done: Instead of fixating on products or services, we shift our focus to the jobs customers are trying to accomplish. By understanding the obstacles they face in completing these jobs, we uncover opportunities to innovate and streamline their experiences. 💡 Iterative Testing: Innovation doesn't happen in isolation. It requires continuous validation and refinement. By involving customers early and often in the development process, we gather invaluable feedback that guides iteration and ensures our solutions resonate deeply with their needs. Combining these simple yet powerful principles, we can pave the way for transformative innovation. #innovation #productmanagement #productleadership

Do I have all the best ideas?  Not even close! While many would like to think that all the best ideas only come from the top, that’s simply not true. Building a diverse team that is empowered to take ownership in driving innovation and improving IT efficiencies can drive an incredible amount of change at a much higher rate than a small group of leaders. I’ve the opportunity to lead many teams over my career and the one thing I realized earlier on and still holds true to this day is to allow teams to feel empowered. Give the team room to grow, come up with ideas on their own, and learn from failure. When employees feel trusted to make decisions and experiment, innovation explodes!  I see it all the time - a fresh perspective from a team member can totally change the game. Then add on building a diverse team that brings in different perspectives from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and you get innovation and change on steroids! Here's how I try to foster that ownership culture: 🎯Clear goals, not micromanagement: 🎯 The leadership team sets the vision, but let my team figure out the "how." This gives them the freedom to be creative and find the best solutions. Celebrate failures (as steppingstones!): 💪 We ALL mess up sometimes. The key is to learn from it and move on. A "fail fast, learn faster" mentality encourages taking risks and pushing boundaries. 🌟Recognition that rocks! 🌟 When someone goes above and beyond, I make sure to shout it from the rooftops. Put it in the whole IT channel on teams, call it out during a team lunch, and share with all the IT leaders. Public recognition is a powerful motivator! What are your tips for empowering your team and fostering innovation? #leadership #innovation #employeeownership #itculture #thoughtleadership

“Innovation leaders ‘have a tolerance for failure—but an intolerance for incompetence.’ Innovation requires freedom to flourish, but boundaries and conditions in order to thrive.” Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on creating an innovative culture with practical examples from leading innovators: - If innovation “hardware” is the strategies, governance, processes, org structure, metrics, etc., then an innovative culture is the “software” that runs on it—the way people interact in an organization to develop and market new products and services to customers. Companies with “hardware” alone are 35% more likely to be innovators, and those with only a strong innovation culture are 60% more likely. But those with BOTH are 90% as likely to be world class innovators, and do it with (on average) 10% fewer FTE’s in innovation roles. - BCG identified four aspects of innovative culture:  (1) What do you celebrate, reward, promote? 3M gives employees the time and space to think beyond their day jobs by letting them spend 15% of their time on side projects. (Post-It notes were an outcome of the “15% rule.”) It created the Tech Forum, an informal forum where employees can collaborate on a project. Mentoring, teaching, and developing others factor into performance reviews, and are requirements for promotion. (2) How do you get new ideas, create, get outside input/customer insights? Unilever relocated its Foods R&D Center to a university campus regarded as one of Europe’s foremost food and agricultural research centers, and partnered with other universities to augment its own expertise and research, expanding access to talent while reducing costs. (3) How do you lead, who makes decisions? EDP, a Portugal-based green utility, balances empowering teams with providing the right level of direction with a process that prioritizes the most promising ideas and vets a large number of ideas through the filters of feasibility and impact. It focuses on solutions first, rather than technology. (4) How do you team, create an inclusive environment that allows everyone to participate and leverages diverse perspectives?  When Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, got bogged down translating documents from Japanese to English, the CEO announced that all company communications going forward would be in English; only those who learned English (via company-provided training and tools) were promotable. By having one common language, the company was able to access global talent and facilitate collaboration. - Culture leaders: (a) clearly articulate the specific behaviors critical to innovation success, such as balancing freedom with accountability, empowering risk-taking, and playfulness with company standards, (b) provide the “hardware” to support the culture and have leaders who model the desired behaviors, (c) embed the core behaviors in how they hire and incentivize employees. #innovation #innovationculture #insights #teams #empowerment #innovators #culture #collaboration

📈 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭 📈 Leadership has always sought foresight, from ancient oracles to modern soothsayers. Today, in our data-rich environment, leaders must evolve beyond passive seekers of prophecies to adopt a new mindset—one that fully leverages the power of data. Executives now have the ability to harness predictive analytics, gaining deep insights into the present to anticipate future trends and make informed decisions. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂-𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔. 🔍 Data provide insights, not prophecies. They reveal secrets about customer shifts, competitor moves, and internal strengths. This real-time knowledge empowers executives to: 🔵 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬: Move beyond vague aspirations and build actionable plans that navigate the present toward desired outcomes. 🔵 𝐅𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦: Empower employees to analyze trends, anticipate customer needs, and experiment, fueling continuous improvement and disrupting competitors. 🔵 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐲: Mine data to uncover customer pain points, desires, and emerging preferences, enabling leaders to design solutions that delight and retain. Data are active participants in shaping the future. 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 launching a product perfectly aligned with an emerging need, identified and validated through data analysis. 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 outsmarting competitors by anticipating their moves based on their data footprint. 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 building a culture of innovation where every employee contributes to success, guided by data-driven insights. This is not a distant vision but a tangible reality. Adopting a data-driven mindset requires a shift in leadership: 🔵 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: Data are a dynamic landscape, demanding ongoing exploration and adaptation. 🔵 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Break down silos, foster collaboration, and empower data fluency across all levels. 🔵 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: Avoid information overload; prioritize clear, actionable insights that inform decisions. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍: growth, innovation, and a thriving organization prepared to navigate the ever-evolving business landscape. 🚀 Data are not a crystal ball, but a compass—tools to illuminate the path ahead and steer your organization toward a future filled with possibility. 🚀 #Leadership #DataDriven #Innovation #BusinessGrowth #TaraKenyonPhD

Every organization -- even the smallest -- has an internal model that dictates how innovation usually gets done. Companies coalesce around certain ways of doing things and optimize their communications, decision-making, and resource allocation around those methods. But oftentimes the methods become established without much thought to those larger consequences, and they might not fit your current market environment. The methods need to be made explicit and considered. Score your organization on the factors in the chart below, then ask yourself these questions, adapted from my new book The Innovative Leader: 1. What is working about the way innovation works at your organization? What should you not change? What are the downsides of the way that innovation works at your organization? 2. Why is your innovation process the way it is? Are there cultural or structural reasons for it? Have those reasons changed or are those factors still as present as ever? 3. Of the five dimensions presented here, which elements of the innovation model do you think should change? What would that enable you to do differently or better? 4. Organizations can have multiple innovation models within them. For example, Microsoft is visionary-led but the organization is so big that CEO Satya Nadella can’t possibly do it all. Are there places within your organization where mixing and matching is appropriate?