Innovation Management Practices

💎 60 UX Strategy Methods And Activities (Figma) (https://lnkd.in/eCDU-vhR), a large repository of UX methods, templates and activities for ideation sessions and product sprints, from storyboards and brainwriting to 6 thinking hats, journey mapping and concept testing. Neatly put together in one single place by fine folks at Merck. The team has also put together a very thorough overview of their UX Strategy Kit (https://lnkd.in/ek5dEYn4), broken down by categories for strategy, observation, ideation and warm-up, along with detailed video walkthroughs, examples and step-by-step guides. Frankly, most of these methods are unfamiliar to me. And by no means is the point to actually study and apply all of them. What works for you works for you. To strategize, I rely on How Might We but also think about metrics that should be moved once we implement some features or refine some user flows. For event storming and brainstorming, I tend to rely on Bono’s 6 thinking hats to align brainstorming, and (of course) journey mapping. For ideation, I love using storyboards to jump right into the user’s success story, but would also use card sorting with cut-out paper cards to understand user’s mental model. And for almost every project, I’d run concept testing with tree testing or Kano model, or low-fidelity/paper prototyping to understand if we are on the right track. Once you sprinkle a bit of critical thinking, early user testing and strategic planning across the design work, you gain confidence that you are moving in the right direction. And really that’s all you need. A few of my personal bookmarks with UX methods and activities: UX Tools For Better Thinking, by Adam Amran 👏🏽 https://untools.co/ Playbook For Universal Design (+ PDF/Powerpoint templates) https://lnkd.in/ernris4g UX Methods & Projects, by Vernon Fowler https://lnkd.in/eAHaiaSm 18F Method Cards https://methods.18f.gov/ Hyperisland UX Methods Resource Kit 👍 https://lnkd.in/eDTaci7T How To Design Better UX Workshops, by Slava Shestopalov https://lnkd.in/edxqCC-n How To Run UX Workshops With Users, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/ejm7_TsS Happy designing, everyone — I hope you’ll find these guides and resources helpful to get started. Just don’t feel like you have to try out all of them. It might be much more worthwhile to get early feedback from stakeholders and end users, even if your work isn’t really “good” enough. Good luck! #ux #design

One clause cost a Stanford founder billions. In 2013, Reggie Brown’s Stanford roommates froze him out of Snapchat, the app built on his original idea for disappearing photos. He eventually forced a $157.5 million settlement, but missed out on billions as Snapchat’s valuation skyrocketed. What was the clause that decided it all? The IP clause. Here's a 2-tier strategy for protecting IP in deals where your innovation is on the line: #Tier 1: Define what you’re giving away (and what you’re not) Most IP clauses read like shopping lists where everything gets thrown in the cart. Example: "Client shall exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to all Deliverables, including all Intellectual Property Rights therein." Risk: That single sentence can include your pre-existing IP, your proprietary methodologies, your trade secrets, and even ideas you develop after the contract ends. The Snapchat parallel: Brown claimed original ownership of the core Snapchat concept, worth millions at the company's $70 million valuation. The dispute arose because there were no clear agreements about who owned what when the idea first emerged. Better approach - The IP Inventory: Before you sign anything, create four buckets: ▪️Background IP: What you owned before this relationship started ▪️Foreground IP: What you'll create specifically for this project ▪️Derivative IP: Improvements to your existing IP using their input ▪️Joint IP: True collaborative creations requiring both parties Protective language you could use: "Company retains all rights to Background IP. Client receives exclusive license to Foreground IP developed solely for this project. Derivative IP improvements revert to Company with Client receiving perpetual license for their use case." #Tier 2: Negotiate value, not just rights The smartest IP clauses acknowledge that valuable innovations deserve ongoing compensation, not just upfront payments. Traditional model: You assign IP for a flat fee. They commercialize it for billions. You get nothing more. Value-sharing model: IP assignment includes revenue participation, milestone payments, or success fees tied to commercialization. A good framework to use: ▪️For low-value implementations: Flat assignment with reversion rights ▪️For medium-value innovations: Assignment with 2-5% revenue sharing capped at 3x development costs ▪️For breakthrough innovations: Joint venture structure or equity participation Industry-specific considerations: ▪️Software: Focus on derivative work definitions and license-back provisions ▪️Hardware: Emphasize manufacturing and improvement rights ▪️Services: Protect methodology IP while allowing client-specific customization ▪️Content: Separate creation rights from distribution rights Don’t let “standard” IP clauses sign away your future. Contracts don’t just govern today’s deliverables, they decide who owns tomorrow’s upside. #IntellectualProperty #ContractManagement #InnovationProtection

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

The best book on creativity I've ever read is 48 pages long, was written in 1939 by an ad man who left school in 6th grade, and takes about 30 minutes to read. Here's his entire method: The book is "A Technique for Producing Ideas" by James Webb Young. Young wasn't an academic...he was a copywriter at J. Walter Thompson who created one of the most controversial ads in history (a 1919 deodorant ad so blunt that 200 women cancelled their magazine subscriptions and female copywriters told him he'd insulted every woman in America. Sales went up 112%.) Here's the method: Step 1: Gather raw material (both specific and general). Young says the quality of your ideas is directly tied to the quantity and diversity of what you feed your brain. * Specific material is research about the actual problem. * General material is everything else: history, psychology, random conversations, unrelated industries. The more pieces you have, the more combinations are possible. Step 2: Mentally chew the material. Take the facts and turn them over. Look at them from different angles. Try fitting pieces together like a puzzle. Young says most people quit here because it's uncomfortable...you're holding a bunch of disconnected information and nothing clicks yet. That discomfort is the process working, not failing. Step 3: Drop it completely. Stop thinking about the problem. Go for a walk. Watch a movie. Sleep. Your subconscious is still connecting the pieces even when your conscious mind has moved on. Step 4: The idea shows up on its own. Young says it'll come to you "while shaving, or bathing, or most often when you are half awake in the morning." This only works if you did steps 1-3 honestly. If you skipped the research or rushed the chewing, nothing shows up in the shower. Step 5: Test it against reality. Take your idea to other people. Let them poke holes in it. Young says most people are so attached to the flash of insight from step 4 that they skip this entirely, and the idea dies on contact with the real world. Good ideas survive criticism, but great ideas get better from it. The underlying principle is simple: An idea is nothing more than a new combination of existing elements. You can't combine things you haven't collected, and you can't connect dots you've never seen.

“Collaborative Innovation” - new cartoon and post Disney alum Paul Williams once shared the brainstorming method developed by Walt Disney. Disney used to separate the act of coming up with and executing ideas into three distinct steps (and associated mindsets): The Dreamer, The Realist, and The Spoiler. As Paul wrote: “By compartmentalizing the stages, Walt didn’t let reality get in the way of the dream step. The realist was allowed to work without the harsh filter of a spoiler. And, the spoiler spends time examining a well-thought idea… something with a bit more structure. “When we brainstorm alone and in groups – too often – we tend to fill the room with a dreamer or two, a few realists, and a bunch of spoilers. In these conditions, dream ideas don’t stand a chance.” The Dreamer mentality specializes in blue sky thinking without constraints, the Realist mentality puts practical structure to the ideas, and the Spoiler asks the hard questions and kicks the tires. We need all three mindsets. But we need those mindsets at the right time and in the right way. Walt Disney would go so far as to dedicate different physical rooms to each mindset. These rooms helped prompt what mindset was required at each stage. They helped ensure that innovation remained both creative and practical. I’ve been thinking about these stages and mindsets in the context of AI. Several studies (including new research at Wharton) have shown that while Generative AI can help boost the quality of individual ideas, they can also limit the diversity of ideas. There can be a “Great Same-ening,” as Ian Whitworth once put it. As the Wharton study’s authors wrote: “The true value of brainstorming stems from the diversity of ideas rather than multiple voices repeating similar thoughts… “Diversity is often overlooked, but it needs special protection. If you don’t solve for it explicitly, you won’t get it.” Part of the challenge and opportunity of incorporating AI into innovation is deciding what collaborative roles we want humans and AI to play. Assigning roles like The Dreamer, The Realist, or The Spoiler could be a way to start. AI alone won’t create a culture of innovation. >>> To sign up for my weekly marketoon email newsletter, click here: https://lnkd.in/gG4GkZsj For related cartoons and all the links in this post, click here: https://lnkd.in/g9Dumagx #marketing #cartoon #marketoon

Wheel for Sustainable Business Innovation 🌎 The sustainability landscape is evolving rapidly, and businesses are increasingly expected to integrate environmental and social considerations into their innovation processes. However, traditional innovation frameworks often fall short by focusing solely on customer needs, financial returns, and technical feasibility, leaving critical planetary challenges unaddressed. A more comprehensive approach is needed—one that embeds sustainability at the core of value creation. The 130+ Value Proposition Types Wheel is a practical tool that helps organizations frame innovation efforts across four key dimensions: People, Planet, Profit, and Progress. It provides over 130 value types that businesses can leverage to ensure their projects contribute meaningful solutions to global challenges such as climate action, resource efficiency, social inclusion, and technological advancement. This approach shifts the focus beyond immediate customer needs to include long-term sustainability impacts across entire ecosystems. By using structured frameworks like this, companies can link their innovation projects directly to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing critical issues such as climate resilience, biodiversity, and social equity. The tool also encourages the use of metrics to track progress, making sustainability-driven innovation more actionable and measurable across industries. It helps businesses unlock new forms of value while addressing both environmental risks and opportunities. The tool is adaptable to different phases of the innovation process, from identifying unmet needs to scaling solutions in the market. It guides organizations in understanding how their innovations create value in areas such as climate action, circularity, supply chain management, and stakeholder engagement. This makes it relevant for both B2B and B2C companies aiming to enhance their impact while future-proofing their operations. Originally developed by Explorer Labs, this tool has been referenced in the past and continues to remain highly useful as businesses advance their sustainability journeys. As 2025 begins, leveraging tools like this can help organizations move from incremental improvements to transformative solutions, embedding sustainability into innovation processes that deliver lasting value. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #innovation #SDGs

New Zealand is rewriting the rules of research ownership. But without cultural change, will it unlock the innovation we need? The government’s recently proposed reforms to the science system include shifting to a researcher-owned intellectual property (IP) model. Historically, university and CRI-employed researchers have operated under a regime where their institutions owned the IP they generated. The proposed change promises to flip that, giving researchers the right to own and commercialise their discoveries. But ownership alone doesn’t drive innovation. That’s why this article about an initiative out of the US caught my attention: the Promotion & Tenure – Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PTIE) framework. PTIE started as a grassroots effort at Oregon State University led by Rich Carter and backed by the US National Science Foundation. More than 70 American universities have adopted it. The PTIE playbook reimagines how faculty performance is evaluated by expanding the metrics that “count” toward promotion (and, in the US, tenure). Beyond papers and teaching, PTIE recognises: 🔹Creation and use of intellectual property (broadly defined—art, code, design, patents, etc.) 🔹Start-up formation, especially by students and postdocs 🔹Industry-sponsored research and knowledge exchange 🔹Mentorship and training of innovators 🔹Community engagement and public impact 🔹Licensing Why is this relevant for NZ? Because if we’re going to give researchers ownership of their IP, we also need to incentivise them to act on it. Right now, the incentives in our universities are misaligned. A patent or social enterprise often counts for little in promotion reviews, while journal citations do. The PTIE model offers a practical way to rebalance those incentives. It aligns with New Zealand’s ambitions to boost impact from publicly funded research and support innovation. PTIE isn’t just for STEM. It recognises that innovation happens in diverse ways across the academy, whether it’s a biomedical spinout or a digital history archive accessed by thousands. PTIE also offers a framework to better integrate arts, humanities and social sciences in the innovation system. PTIE’s strength is in its bottom-up, faculty-led design. It empowers academics to help shape how their work is valued, rather than having change imposed on them. There is a unique opportunity to combine structural reform (researcher-owned IP) with cultural reform (PTIE-style recognition) to unlock the full potential of our academic workforce. 👉 https://ptie.org/ #InnovationEcosystem #AcademicImpact #PTIE #IPReform #NZScienceSystem #HigherEdTransformation #UniversitiesOfImpact https://lnkd.in/ggN4FZBV

As a CEO or someone high in the company, be very careful not to create the HIPPO effect in your meetings. HIPPO = Highest Paid Person’s Opinion It’s when decisions lean heavily toward what the most senior or highest-paid person thinks – even when there isn’t enough data or the rest of the team hasn’t really spoken up. And let’s be honest: it’s easy to fall into this trap. You speak first. ➡️ People nod. ➡️ The discussion quietly dies. Not because your idea is always the best, but because your title unconsciously closes the conversation. I’ve learned (and still remind myself) to do the opposite: 1️⃣. Stay silent a bit longer. 2️⃣. Let others go first. 3️⃣. Ask questions instead of “dropping the answer”. Embrace the awkward silence, because it usually means people are thinking. Your role as a leader isn’t to have the fastest opinion in the room. It’s to create a space where the best ideas can surface – even when they’re not yours. 👉 Next time you’re in a meeting, try this: Speak last. ➡️ Ask more. ➡️ Decide together. You’ll be surprised how much smarter your team becomes when the HIPPO leaves the room. 🐘💬

My fail-proof strategy for fresh content ideas ↓ This strategy comes from publishing 700+ posts and writing 1,000s of drafts. And it’s easier than you might think. Here’s what I do: — 1/ Let ideas generate 50% of my posts come from when I’m out and about. Moving your body = unlocking your best creative mind. The other 50% come from doing ‘things’. Such as coaching calls with clients, commenting, etc. Ideas come from moving - not from trying to think of ideas. If you’re facing blank page syndrome → Move. — 2/ Keep a bank of ideas Anytime I have an idea of something, I jot it down. The best ideas come from: → Advice that I’ve shared to clients recently → Something that’s happened in my life → Something that’s sparked an idea I like to use these questions as prompts: 1/ What advice have I shared recently? 2/ What stories happened this week? 3/ What lessons have I learned? 4/ What have I noticed/experienced? 5/ What’s inspired a new thought/idea? Remember: People follow your story + your journey. — 3/ Choose a good framework When you have an idea, align it to a framework that feels good. I like frameworks because they’re very simple pointers to guide my ideas and make sure they flow well (so I don’t go off on random tangents). For example: Before - What was the beginning situation like? After - What does the ending look like? Bridge - How do I/they get there? Then I just jot down the relevant details to include so I know what I want to write about later. — The real secret to all of this: Writing for your ICP. I’ve tried 100s of strategies and systems to try and generate content. This is the best strategy that I’ve found that helps me connect with them, build trust, and turns into leads. It uses your own story + insights → Turns them into powerful posts → Makes your brand worth following. Most people think they need to spend hours chasing what others do. Turns out the best content is already in your head. You just need to unlock it.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸-𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻? There is a compelling case for off-the-shelf Procurement solutions. But there are potential downsides to consider. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳: ▪️ new features are tied to hefty price hikes ▪️ evolution to changing business needs is not possible ▪️ architecture options are dictated by vendor upgrade plans ▪️ product roadmap do not align with your specific plans and needs ▪️ the flexibility promised through rich functionality does not materialise Yes, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸? Talking to many companies on their Digital Procurement, this major worry is real. Given the long range of investment payback, it would be an illusion to bet on building own solutions. 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 in this case - 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 of a company. Find here a few points which come to mind to 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸-𝗶𝗻 but build a stable Digital Procurement architecture, while keeping flexibility: ✅ Build a 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 choosing solutions with an API-first to easily integrate or replace components over time. Modern solutions can be integrated and orchestrated without hard dependencies! ✅ 𝗛𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 by buying core capabilities like Source to Contract solutions but build or extend AI plug-ins or custom Automations. Intelligent Automation & Orchestration solutions provide extra flexibility and not just a patch. ✅ 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭, factoring in possible migration paths to prevent costly transitions later. For example ingesting the data of your Spend Analytics provider regularly into your own data lake. ✅ 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 which does not overcommit to a single provider but uses a mix of best-of-breed tools where flexibility matters most. Rationalising your vendor choice can bite you down the line. Procurement Tech should evolve at pace with your business needs, not lock you into someone else’s roadmap. The best strategy here is: Flexibility as a principle. ❔What's your view on this challenge. Anything missing on the picture? ❔Can vendor lock-in be minimised.