How do you scale and sustain your product innovation efforts and outcomes?

When we started our innovation roadmap and activities few years back we did the following 1) Defined clearly who are our customers, our markets and their jobs to be done 2) Aligned the jobs to be done with our strategy to find that sweet spot 3) Ensured that whatever innovation activities we are initiating is aligned with the jobs to be done and our company’s strategy 4) Had quarterly review of our current activities to measure and prioritize our activities give the limited resources we have 5) we set up trends follow up matrix to ensure that current market trends and consumer trends are captured 6) we set up major innovation milestones with 3-5 years target for horizon 1&2 and 7-10 years for horizon 3

1. Set clear innovation goals. I align my innovation objectives with our business strategy, focusing on creating solutions that meet emerging market needs and customer preferences. 2. Establish key metrics: I define specific, measurable indicators for tracking innovation progress, encompassing resource allocation and tangible outcomes like market adoption and customer feedback. 3. Review performance: I schedule evaluations of our innovation projects, assessing them against the established metrics to ensure they contribute meaningfully to our strategic objectives and adapt as needed.

In my perspective, innovation goals and metrics have always been intrinsically linked with personal satisfaction. The most gratifying judge of successful innovation is often oneself, when you can step back, look at your accomplishment and acknowledge, "That is indeed a groundbreaking innovation". It's also about the ability to see your vision become a reality long before it manifests. Innovation isn't just about having ideas; it's about bringing those ideas to life. Instilling this same mindset within your team can propel the rate of innovation to levels beyond what you could have ever imagined.

Every b2b company has 6 things they don't realize are actually products. 1. Brand 2. Culture 3. Content 4. GTM strategy 5. Customer experience 6. Employee training and dev They all require ongoing ideation, analyzation, and iteration.

Embarking on a journey to scale and sustain innovation is like setting sail. Start by defining your innovation goals and metrics—these are your North Star. Are you aiming for increased customer engagement, streamlined processes, or novel product features? Metrics should be the compass, quantifying success. Whether it's user adoption rates or time-to-market, these metrics guide your ship, helping you stay on course and ensuring that your innovation efforts are not just creative bursts but sustainable, measurable strides.

In my experience, no innovation happens without Champions. While you may not have the luxury of building your own team of innovators, you can still find them in most organizations. People who truly believe that you must innovate to have long-term growth and beat the competition. The key is to find those Champions in your organization. You know, the ones that are not willing to be comfortable with the status quo and rest on the "well that's the way we've always done it" plateau. It important to find these folks in different groups around your organization. Again, if you can build a full-time team, create a committee or internal focus group you can bounce your ideas off of when needed.

Creating a team that brings together people from different areas of your business is critical to developing new ideas. This team should include roles like product managers, designers, engineers, and marketers, all working together. Give this team the freedom to decide, try their ideas, and learn from what people think of them.

Nothing happens until first a dream. That light bulb moment may not be obvious. You may be just trying to be more efficient in a task or result and the solution gap presents itself. The dream may evolve from activity. Getting a team together for a start up is not possible. You need to develop believers in your circle of influence. Those that say it can't be done are interrupted by those actually doing that thing. Creating teams at the early phase is a waste of energy. Better off getting feedback from the market place first from a minimum viable product.

Building a cross-functional innovation team is like assembling a diverse crew for your innovation voyage. Each team member is a specialist, bringing unique skills and perspectives. Don't just focus on technical expertise—embrace diversity in thought and background. This team is your ship, navigating the seas of uncertainty. From developers to designers, unite talents that complement and challenge each other. A cross-functional crew ensures a robust vessel, ready to weather the storms and discover new horizons in the realm of innovation.

Sustainable product innovation goes far beyond simply building a cross-functional team. As Product Strategy Leaders, our role is to ensure the team meets and exceeds business objectives. Here’s how: 1?? Emphasize Shared Goals: Regularly communicate progress toward shared goals to ensure everyone knows what they are working to accomplish and why. 2?? Ensure Equality: All team members must feel valued. Eliminate the divide between the “business“ and the technical team members. Run inclusive strategy meetings to instill a culture of respect and collaboration. 3?? Balance Perspectives: Combine Engineers’ technical insights with product team members’ market-oriented perspectives to ensure innovative and commercially viable solutions.

By focusing on the build-measure-learn loop, you create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that serves as a test model for your concept. You then gather and analyze customer feedback and performance data, which informs your next iteration. This methodology allows you to continuously improve while delivering incremental value, rather than waiting for a perfect version at a big launch. This iterative cycle not only helps in validating assumptions quickly but also reduces risks and enhances your product's market fit, ensuring a more successful innovation outcome.

- Iterative Development: Build MVPs, get feedback, and improve iteratively. This fosters market-driven learning and adaptability. - Prioritize Flexibly: Adjust priorities based on customer input and market trends to keep the product relevant and valuable. - Create a rapid build-test-learn loop to encourage rapid prototyping, user testing, and product improvement. - Customer-Centric Focus: Prioritize customer demands throughout the innovation process to ensure user value. - Agile Methodology: Use Agile methods to improve teamwork and adaptability, creating a dynamic innovation environment. - Feedback Integration: Systematically incorporate user feedback into feature development to meet user expectations.

Adopting a lean and agile approach means thinking of innovation as a continuous journey rather than a destination. Instead of striving for perfection upfront, launch an MVP to get quick, real-world feedback. Use the build-measure-learn cycle to adjust and pivot based on insights, not assumptions. This approach minimizes waste, reduces risks, and keeps your innovation efforts aligned with evolving customer needs. Prioritize small, iterative improvements that deliver value along the way, allowing you to stay flexible and responsive in a fast-changing market. This way, you keep momentum and make informed decisions that drive impactful results.

One thing I find helpful for maintaining an innovative culture is to shorten the time between ideation and first prototype. This prototype can be as basic as a mockup workflow or a basic POC. It’s enough to get all involved teams engaged with incremental improvements and creates small wins for celebration. Even mockups can inspire high quality ideas for next phase developments that are normally hard to come by at ideation phase.

Innovation culture is important to me, for any team I lead, especially product. Some of the things I personally prefer: - I encourage my team to experiment with new ideas. I let them fail so they can learn. It showcases that we value creative thinking. - I try to adopt a 'fail fast' approach. the practice allows us to identify what works and pivot rapidly from what doesn't. - I make it a point to celebrate successes and failures. - I organize regular knowledge-sharing sessions and workshops to promote continuous learning. - I make sure my team has access to the necessary resources, whether it's time, budget, or tools, to explore and implement innovative ideas effectively.

My perspective centers on understanding the essence of an innovative culture within an organization. Leadership is crucial in nurturing innovation, though identifying the key leadership element is complex. In a study conducted with 63 participants from global R&D organizations in my thesis, it emerged that a leader's ability to help followers maximize their potential significantly enhances trust, cultivating an innovation culture. The research also highlighted the strong correlation between a leader's innovation persona and the team's 'creative' identity in promoting an innovation-friendly environment.

You may only be one person but your effectiveness is massively enhanced with a strong team around you. Encourage innovation and risk-taking.

Sustaining innovation requires a culture that thrives on bold experimentation and fearless creativity. Create an environment where risk-taking is encouraged, failures are seen as valuable lessons, and learning is a continuous journey. Celebrate both achievements and setbacks openly, turning every experience into a shared opportunity for growth. This approach energizes the team, attracts top talent, and fosters a dynamic atmosphere where innovation flourishes. By embedding these values deeply into the organizational fabric, a company can transform challenges into stepping stones and drive ongoing success.

For us, listening to our customers is one of the best external innovation sources. Having a close-knit relationship with day-to-day operations and pain points allows us to not only remain customer-facing but can lead to understanding the nuance of industry technologies, trends, and problems and allows for our platform to continue to innovate and keep our internal teams in sync with emerging technology.

Per a recent Gartner study, 80% of B2B companies now expect to compete mainly based on their customer experience (CX). To maximize CX and ROI, harness feedback for product innovation by establishing a Product Advisory Council (PAC) with customers and sales advisors providing regular insights. Utilize AI to analyze this feedback and refine your product roadmap. Host monthly Voice of the Customer (VoC) sessions to deliberate on feedback and strategize responses. Establish and maintain communication channels—such as in-app feedback mechanisms—and actively engage and reengage with customers to directly demonstrate how their input shapes your products.

Innovation flourishes through collaboration and diverse perspectives. Engage with customers, partners, suppliers, and competitors to gain fresh insights and ideas that enhance internal efforts. Explore emerging technologies and trends to discover new problem-solving methods and opportunities. Leveraging external sources expands horizons, enriches creativity, and accelerates progress. This approach not only strengthens innovation capabilities but also builds a competitive edge and positions the organization for long-term success. By actively seeking and integrating external inputs, the potential for breakthrough solutions and sustained growth is significantly amplified.