What do you do if your team needs the best product innovation tools?

The key to product innovation workshops is that, paradoxically, they are focused on the market. It is essential that in this type of dynamics, attendees learn about digital and analogical tools that allow them to discover the root or roots behind the problems they want to solve with an innovation. The focus on the market is what allows us to build possible solutions to solve real problems that the consumer has. Another interesting practice to include in innovation workshops is the management and configuration of prototypes. These are essential tools for the initial idea to take shape and to be concretized in its final phase in a product.

I find creative ways to ask them what they need and actively listen to their responses. From their answers will emerge a consistent theme that provides guidance on investing in the needed tools. Investing in innovation is equally important as investing in my team. This provides me opportunity to address both at the same time and usually provides answers to questions I didn't know that I had.

Leadership endorsement is crucial for fostering innovation workshop participation. Leaders must actively promote and support sessions to ensure team commitment. Action Items: 1. Leadership endorsement and participation. 2. Communicate workshop importance for innovation and business goals. 3. Allocate resources and time for workshops. 4. Encourage cross-functional collaboration. 5. Recognize and reward contributions. Leadership Support Framework 1. Endorsement and participation 2. Communication of importance 3. Resource allocation 4. Cross-functional collaboration 5. Recognition and reward Google's Design Sprint workshops have top executives actively participating, leading to innovative products like Gmail and Google Meet.

Basic fundamentals of Product innovation workshops should include: 1. Include all cross functional groups, representatives from your agency’s, suppliers and manufacturers… oh, and the customer too. Avoid top senior management in the meeting, many will sit on their hands rather than voice a valid opinion. 2. Frame the session as an exploration of the product or service. Having the goal of “innovating” forces the thought process into finding or creating something new rather than seeking to understand the customers needs and experience. Innovation can take the form of something as simple –?it doesn’t have to be revolutionary to be innovative. 3. There are no wrong or bad ideas –?write everything down on a white board and post for all to see.

1- Identification of the main problem to solve 2- Identification of the border of the project 2- Share the needs and the goals 3- SWOT analysis

Align chosen tools with organizational culture, values, and goals. Ensure tools resonate with the team's working style and preferences. Action Items: 1. Assess organizational culture and values. 2. Involve stakeholders in tool selection. 3. Conduct pilot tests. 4. Provide training for tool use. 5. Regularly review and adjust tools. Alignment with Organizational Culture Framework 1. Culture and values assessment 2. Stakeholder involvement 3. Pilot testing 4. Training 5. Continuous review IDEO selects tools based on human-centered design principles, fostering empathy, collaboration, and creativity.

When choosing product innovation tools, consider team size, location, and stage of innovation. Assess if tools accommodate remote teams, cover research, ideation, prototyping, testing, and fit budget. Evaluate ease of use, familiarity, and preferred mode (visual, verbal, tactile).

Choosing tools is not a simple decision, it's not just choosing equipment or software. 1- Consider using a combination of tools and methods to manage an innovation process 2- Summarize your goals and objectives, by setting up a vision, a common vision 3- List the main key performance indicators, and for each KPI, give the upper and lower realistic values 5- Based on the table identify a range of tools that address the results

Be careful not to use TOO MANY tools, specially if there's redundancy among them (google docs / office, trello / jira, confluence / notion)...

There are different tools that can be leveraged during different stages of Product innovation. there are some critical items to consider. Tools during ideation and research should avoid bias. Tools should be available for a hybrid environment to accommodate both remote and in person attendees. Tools should be easy to use so the user is not paying attention on navigating the tool rather be able to engage and participate in discussion that promote ideation. I believe some feature like speech to text and drag n drop come in handy.

It's crucial to remember that product innovation success hinges on managing the entire product lifecycle, not just the initial creative spark. This means having a strong governance framework to ensure regulatory compliance & sustainability goals are met alongside innovation. Here are some key factors: End-to-end lifecycle management: Look for tools that support the entire journey, from ideation \ launch, optimise & sunset. Governance framework : Ensure the tools streamline compliance and sustainability efforts. Team needs: Consider your team's size, location,when selecting tools. As an example, Skyjed is a platform designed to support both innovation & lifecycle governance. It might be worth exploring to see if it aligns with your needs.

Customize and adapt tools to specific project requirements and team dynamics. Encourage creativity in combining and modifying tools. Action Items: 1. Familiarize with diverse tools. 2. Brainstorm creative combinations. 3. Train on customization. 4. Encourage experimentation. 5. Foster collaboration. Customization and Adaptation Framework 1. Tool familiarization 2. Creative brainstorming 3. Customization training 4. Culture of experimentation 5. Collaboration LEGO's "Serious Play" methodology encourages teams to develop unique workshop structures and activities using LEGO bricks.

Wireframes play a major role in Product Innovation. The collaborators need to visualise the user flow and how different components within the product/feature will respond to different interactions from the users. For this, two important processes need to be adhered to: Wireframing and Prototyping. Two tools that can be majorly used are Balsamiq for Low Fidelity and Medium Fidelity wireframes Figma for High Fidelity wireframes and Prototyping. Additionally: One can use Confluence for White boards and Gliffy for flowcharts.

Empathy Lens: Understand customer needs deeply. Ideation Engine: AI-driven brainstorming. Prototyping Wizard: Rapid prototype creation. Data Detective: Insights from data. Collaboration Canvas: Team alignment tool. Feedback Falcon: Collects feedback. Risk Radar: Identify and mitigate risks.

Validar ideias junto ao cliente: Um produto n?o existe se n?o faz sentido para os clientes; Fa?a pesquisas amplas e aprofundadas: Pesquisas em mercados consolidados e mercados emergentes, com públicos diversos; Esteja aberto a inspira??es: às vezes a inspira??o ocorre em meios que n?o s?o óbvios, como por exemplo na natureza; Promova sess?es de brainstorming; Dê aten??o à criatividade individual: Em tempos de IA, o ser humano ainda é o único que pode através de suas vivências e cren?as, ser criativo para inovar; Fique atento às tendências de mercado: Fa?a parcerias estratégicas; Promova a diversidade e a inclus?o; Busque feedback constante dos clientes e parceiros. Concentre-se nas necessidades do cliente.

Try to invite multidisciplinary participants to enrich the insights and encourage the out of the box thinking Make sure to allow for the ideation diamond ; divergence then convergence phases, while involving all participants (collective intelligence workshop rules) Make sure to allow time for documenting the outputs and defining an action plan

When it comes to using product innovation tools, it's all about choosing the right fit for your project and making sure everyone on your team knows how to use them effectively. Start by figuring out exactly what you need—whether it's brainstorming new ideas, creating prototypes, or gathering market insights. Once you've got the right tools, take the time to train your team on how to use them. Set clear goals for what you want to achieve with each tool, and keep track of how well they're helping you move your project forward. This way, you'll make sure you're not just collecting cool tech, but actually using it to make your products better.

Product innovation tools effectively used... I have found it critical to match team culture and team ways of working, communicating to the tool deployment to get not just effective innovation outputs, but for each team member to truly feel productive in the moment, and in flow, which in turn becomes a self feeding and growing system of innovation. What does this look like? * Unique style of communication, with a mechanism to laugh at oneself/be playful * humility to acknowledge others/earlier ideas * curiosity in how the tools work, how the team members use the tools * A mechanism to refocus the team/a goal periodic check in. Ultimately tools are catalysts; leave enough space brilliant ideas at coffee, or on the way down the elevator

Prioritize empathy and human-centered design. Incorporate empathy-building exercises and user feedback throughout the process. Action Items: 1. Integrate empathy-building exercises. 2. Utilize user feedback techniques. 3. Foster interdisciplinary collaboration. 4. Gather continuous feedback. 5. Emphasize storytelling for empathy. Empathy and Human-Centered Design Framework 1. Empathy exercises 2. User feedback 3. Interdisciplinary collaboration 4. Continuous feedback 5. Storytelling Airbnb employs human-centered design in its innovation process, using tools like user journey maps to address user needs.

Many product innovation tools suffer from a poor user experience, or being obfuscated to some Sharepoint or Confluence page that nobody checks. It's critical for an organization going down this path to not see innovation as a bolt-on to the business. It needs to be a core part of the overall process. Companies that don't disrupt themselves risk being disrupted by others.

I've looked at many different tools over the years. The Itonics platform is fairly full featured but also a little on the pricey side. I think visual brainstorming tools like Miro are ideal for getting the ideas out from a larger contributing team. Bucketing and transferring them into some other line of business application is usually a better idea than some proprietary toolset.

Encourage ongoing learning and exploration. Participate in industry events, foster knowledge sharing, and establish partnerships. Action Items: 1. Attend industry events. 2. Organize internal knowledge sessions. 3. Establish external partnerships. 4. Create a tool repository. 5. Contribute to online communities. Ongoing Learning and Exploration Framework 1. Event participation 2. Knowledge sharing 3. External partnerships 4. Tool repository 5. Community contribution Stanford University's d.school offers workshops and resources on design thinking, promoting ongoing learning and tool exploration.

Have you ever heard of Vianeo’s Business Design hopscotch? A unique and systemic tool to drive you through the whole journey from a problem to be solved to a product market fit with a strong value proposition. This approach digitized in a saas platform, aims at structuring and rationalizing a business case and therefore helps to share language and vision among stakeholders. It is particularly efficient for innovation and transformation projects.

There are many innovation tools available free of charge. - IBM's design thinking tools. Enter design thinking toolkit ibm in your favourite search engine and you'll easily find them. A short explanation of how to use the tools is also available for people who are not familiar with design thinking. - Stanford d school resources Here you'll find some really interesting tools for developing an idea or doing design thinking. Several templates are available in pdf format

Having been in workshops and also driving discussions revolving around the IDEO Design thinking for new product development, I can confidently say these are great resources and tactics. More recently I have seen that these valuable tools can even be cross compatible into implementing operational and process changes too. It fosters an environment of collaboration and makes people who are passionate about their work and want to see improvement voice their ideas and work with the "growing pains" that comes with the changes associated with improvement.

Innovation arrives based on the following boundary conditions. 1. Needs 2. Constraints or problem statement 3. Vision I would work with my team on the above, which will lead them to Innovate.

Emphasise the fact that everything related to innovation cannot have a 'tool' It is often said that "a fool with a tool is a bigger fool"! Hence, although tools are valuable the team should be encouraged to go beyond the tools and add their own elements to finding ways forward.

A few lines of inquiry around the need for formal tools: 1. Is there an actual need for something we call a tool? Is there a simpler way to get it done? KIS. 2. Are tools immediately learnable? Let’s not stymie our teams by cognitive load figuring out tool(s) that’s better spent collaborating and innovating. 3. Speaking of collaboration, does the tool foster collaboration inclusive of hybrid or virtual scenarios? Are people looking at screens rather than talking or communicating in other value-added ways? Prioritize effective communication v fancy tools. 4. Is the tool & artifacts it produces accessible? 5. Where will we store outcomes/artifacts so don’t have to reinvent the wheel? Is there an opportunity for short-form takeaways?

Alguns dos fatores mais importantes em um Workshop de inova??o s?o os seguintes: 1: Que ele seja bem planejado (Quem deve participar? Que sess?es, dinamicas e ferramentas ser?o usadas, etc) 2: que ele seja bem controlado (Quem terá o papel de documentar? Quem será o guardi?o do tempo de casa sess?o?) 3: Que ele seja leve e divertido, facilitando a intera??o, a comunica??o, a troca de ideias, garantindo que todas as pessoas tenham a oportunidade de expor o que pensam sem medo de serem criticadas 4: Que todo esse trabalho seja bem documentado, com a??es claras e responsáveis específicos.

Mais do que ferramentas é necessário que haja uma cultura e espa?o que permitam a troca de ideias, abertura ao erro e experimenta??o, além da consciência de que todos s?o donos do produto e do seu propósito. Dessa forma, a ferramenta torna-se o meio e n?o o fim para fomentar e fortalecer uma cultura de inova??o.