Here's how you can tackle common productivity challenges in product innovation.

What comes to mind is the benefit of infused agility across teams contributing to Product success. Where are there opportunities to heighten agility not just with Product/engineering but also with stakeholder groups? 1) understand what I perceive as “rigid process” stakeholders use (there’s always a reason why, and most often makes sense) 2) identify the smallest piece of stakeholder practice that *may* benefit from agile mindset/practice 3) lead while not in charge with stakeholders; co-create aligned agile mindset/practice in the spirit of MVP/experimentation 4) Learn together. Move fast, fail fast, pivot; keep tinkering until partners+Product find an “agile rhythm”. 5) Ensure any change is fit for purpose for *stakeholder* needs

Workback schedules are a game changer in product innovation! It's easy to get lost in the weeds of research or stuck in analysis paralysis. Setting up a workback schedule helps the team avoid these pitfalls by clearly defining how much time to allocate to each phase of the project. This not only keeps the project on track but also enhances transparency, enabling everyone to understand the process and progress at a glance.

I find most companies opposite of agile when it comes to innovation. They have these lengthy innovation processes which create a bottle neck when they are trying to respond to changing consumer needs. Idea is to find a balance between process and agility. This is what we do - speed up the process so brands can catch opportunities at the right time.

Identify the gap between the challenges of the co-creators like inefficient processes, lack of collaboration to the goals/objectives that have been set. Also, figure out bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the innovation process and streamline workflows where possible. More than utilizing project management tools and techniques, adopt agile methodologies to promote flexibility, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Break down projects into smaller, manageable tasks or sprints, allowing for incremental progress and feedback loops.

1.0- First be informed of the specification 2.0- Conduct of a dynamic self evaluation of knowledge related to specification 3.0- Continue research knowledge of competitors at all times.

A great way to focus your productivity efforts in product innovation is to employ a practice called block time. Block time is a focused work session where you commit to getting something specific achieved in a set timeframe. You can try this out on something small to start. No interruptions and no diverging from the task at hand. From there you can expand. Power productivity involves building a daily calendar of block time activities that caters to how you work and what you need to accomplish.

Best way to do this is to get the cross functional team offsite, and get them to focus on innovation and nothing else. For 1 or 2 days, it makes all the difference. Even if you setup an hour or so to work on innovation projects, day to day tasks always are a distraction and they take time away from these strategic initiatives.

Bringing an external expert here can be very useful. Facilitators can take teams out of comfort zone, and help them follow an agile innovation process in a creative environment where they can focus, stretch their creativity and come up with bigger, bolder ideas enhancing productivity. Sometimes a slight change in approach can make all the difference to get better business results.

This is a great place to match strengths of the team to different deliverables. This way everyone feels empowered to contribute the best to the outcome. I find smaller teams make a bigger impact. Not everyone has to be involved in innovation. You can rotate teams, managing short term deliverables with more strategic ones.

One way to increase productivity of any product innovation project is through AI enriched, influencer led consumer insights. This way you don't have to wait for 6-8 weeks for results, you get authentic feedback from hundreds of consumers in a pinch. This shaves time off the project timeline, making sure you hit the market with that innovation before your competitors.