Teague Hopkins

Mindful Product Management

Research

Questions from Innovation Experts

Recognizing that finding the right question can be more challenging than finding the right answer, Warren Berger of Fast Company asked five innovation experts “What questions should every company ask itself?”

Our favorite responses

Tim Ogilvie: “Where is our petri dish?”

“Where, within the company, can you explore heretical questions that could threaten the business as it is–without contaminating what you’re doing now?” In answering that question, it’s up to company leadership to “provide permission and protocols for experimentation”

Eric Ries: “How can we make a better experiment?”

Shifting emphasis from Ogilvie’s where to the how of experimentation, Ries’s question is counterintuitive for most managers, who tend to think in terms of “making products,” not “making experiments.” But as Ries points out, anytime you’re doing something new, “it’s an experiment whether you admit it or not. Because it is not a fact that it’s going to work.” … This means that instead of asking “What will we do?” or “What will we build?” the emphasis should be on “What will we learn?”

Couldn’t agree more with these two. The key to innovation is experimentation, and making it easy for employees to conduct better experiments faster is an excellent way to start.

Visit Fast Company for the full article.

Four Lessons Learned at Lean Startup Machine DC

I had the pleasure of being a mentor and judge at Lean Startup Machine DC (#lsmdc) this weekend at GeekEasy. The participants spent the weekend learning to validate hypotheses; the winning team discovered that people would be willing to share their personal genetic data to help fight disease. They got out of the building and asked passers-by to spit into cups. They collected one sample every 3 minutes, taking the first step toward proving the viability of creating a massive genetic database to support research into personalized medicine. As they were learning, so was I. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

LSMDC at GeekEasy. Photo by Stephen Strasser, Strasser:Studio.

Lessons

  1. Lean is hard, and not everyone will succeed.

    2. Especially not in one weekend. But it’s also not a binary state. An organization can be varying degrees of lean, and the more I learn about lean startups, the more I can apply it in my own work.

  2. Small teams of experts are more prone to confirmation bias.

    3. If you know the space well, you need to be even more careful that you test your hypotheses with real data. Make sure people on your team can call you out. If you’re working solo or with one partner, set time aside to take a reality check with someone outside your team.

  3. The market you know is not the only market.

    4. It’s tempting to sell to startups because you are one, lots of people you know work for one, and you like thinking about startups. Most startups don’t have money, so think twice. There are other markets that might have the qualities you are looking for but actually have money. For example, if you are targeting startups because you are looking for companies without entrenched policies, consider embattled companies who have hired turnaround consultants instead.

  4. You are not your target market.

    5. Make sure other people share your problem. It’s great to build something you want to use, but if no one else wants it, it’s a hobby, not a business.