What are the best methods to encourage innovation in B2B product management?

In my experience, B2B or B2C, understanding our customers' real problems is the first step to initiate innovation. Because if we don't do it, we are leading our business to the grave. The best examples to prove this are; Nokia, Blockbuster and Kodak. The easiest way to understand our customers' pain points is by checking the negative comments, reviews or complaints that our customer support service is receiving. If there are multiple complaints that are pointing out a single area, it's time to quickly start interviewing those customers to get a better understanding of the issue. Then, keep our customers informed that we are taking actions. Also, pay attention to competitors' new features; the positive reviews they receive publicly.

I love Google's “20% time rule,” which allows employees to take one day a week to work on side projects or learn new skills. This allows employees to be more creative and innovative, and they dont worry too much before making mistakes during this 20%. In fact, this model encourages them to make more mistakes - hit and try as much as possible, and land upon a solution that ultimately helps Google.

I'm a huge fan of the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework to uncover customers' problems, especially in a B2B context. Here is how I would suggest approaching it: 1. Take the 3 top super users of your product and spend a couple of hours determining all the unmeet needs jobs they are trying to get done. Ask them to rate frequency and urgency. 2. Organize a few more individual interviews to make sure you haven't missed any unmeet needs/jobs. 3. Put all the unmeet needs you uncovered in a survey and ask users to rate each for importance and satisfaction 4. Analyze results and prioritize accordingly

Become a customer. If you have the opportunity to, use your products frequently as a customer would do. This might seem time consuming but it’s an effective way to understand what has to change. I was booking a flight on Turkish and I thought of couple of things they could do that would set them apart from the competition. I was using Turkish airlines because the flight was cheaper and I love Ataturk but the booking experience was not the easiest. I thought this must have passed QA it’s working and even have FE validations and all but it’s not doing what I expect it to do. I gave my feedback but unless they are using it like a user would, they probably will take some time to figure out what enhancements are needed.

Talking to customers, but not customer interviews - rather, shadowing conversations between your target users. In the context of B2B, this can be achieved by establishing a Product Advisory group with some of your best customers. Get them in a room/call, set the topic of discussion (preferrably a big painpoint they all experience), and observe them.

Going back to B2B2B and B2B2C problem solving, your value proposition needs to be defined terms of: a) Relevancy: how much revenue and profitability your product adds to your customer. b) Differentiation: how different is your product from the competition in achieving that. c) What is your price relative to the next best competitor.

Invest in your customers and uncover value through value engineering workshops. One of the most powerful techniques with direct impact on your retention and upsell. To define your value prop as a B2B product manager one must answer, what my customer would say my value was if I helped them with whatever they wanted. Remember speaking your customer's language is numero uno.

To take the next step in innovation, nail down what makes your product special—its unique value to customers. Use tools like the value proposition canvas to spell out how your product solves their problems and stands out from the crowd. Test it with your target audience, keep an eye on metrics like satisfaction and revenue, and fine-tune. By sharpening your value proposition, you focus your innovation where it counts for your product's success.

Clearly articulate the unique value your product brings to the B2B market. Align your solution with the specific pain points identified, emphasizing how your product stands out from competitors. A strong value proposition sets the foundation for innovative differentiation.

ChatGPT Innovation's next phase involves crafting a compelling value proposition. This is the distinct advantage your product provides to customers. Tools like the value proposition canvas can help clarify how your product addresses customer issues, adds value, and stands out from competitors. It's crucial to validate this proposition with your target audience, assessing its influence on critical metrics like customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue. A well-defined value proposition directs your innovation towards enhancing the most vital facets of your product, ensuring it resonates strongly with your market.

One thing I have found helpful in exploring different ideas is brainstorming. This must be conducted as a practice, maybe quarterly. So that we can get better ideas from team members, end users or those who are directly dealing with the customers, because they understand the customers better than the development team working inside a project tool. Starbucks provided a great example of this. They take ideas from employees; who are directly dealing with customers as well as directly from the customers using an idea platform. Customers can give their ideas and others can vote on them. Starbucks select ideas with high votes and reward the customer while taking action. We can do this using a Slack group, which many companies are now doing.

When ideating on how to solve problems you've identified, take a rigorous assumption-based approach. "We believe if we do/add/change X, then Y will happen." Now you can run a proper test. Figure out what metric you're tracking (so there's quant data) and WHY that metric is important. How does improving that metric positively impact the business overall? For example, you might want to increase Daily Active Use (DAU) b/c it seems logical, but does that then increase LTV or Revenue/Customer or another business metric?

Exploring new ideas BEFORE you start building is so critical. When you take the time to research and interview customers, prospects you've lost, or employees you'll glean a ton of insights. I hear frustration when features are built and no one uses them. You would save a ton of time and costs just by researching in advance.

Think boldly. For some B2B products, asking to ride along with a trusted customer to see their pain points in real time is invaluable.

If you want to come up with the best solutions for your customers and your business, then you need to stop trying to come up with feature enhancements. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Get your stakeholders talking to one another and the product/tech/design teams about what problems you’re trying to solve. The solutions will come naturally from there and you won’t waste bandwidth on work that doesn’t move the needle for you.

Large or small, for any company, experiment and learning should be acceptable. Although, this practice is encouraged and practiced at startups, large companies are very reluctant to go for this. One time, I was interviewed by a large corporation for a product they have already developed and failed. Their main concern was, "we can't take this out now, because we have spent a big investment". This is not the way to try new features or products. New things are tend to fail, because nobody has prior experience with them. So, we need to use lean startup method, finding that MVP and trying it first without developing a big product. Then we have room to fail, learn from it, restart with the learnings, and then make it a success.

Step four is all about rolling up your sleeves and experimenting with your ideas—think of it like a cool startup vibe. Use savvy techniques from the lean startup method and the agile framework. Quickly test your assumptions with real users and data, embracing failure as a stepping stone to improvement. Picture it like refining your app features based on what users love, just like how Netflix fine-tunes its content recommendations for the ultimate user experience. It's all about experimenting, learning, and leveling up your product game!

"Curiosity is the first step in the lengthy process called Innovation" - K Praveen Kumar Reddy (KPKR) The fundamental step for any Innovation is the curious mind set behind it who actually asked the question that no one thought of it in the first place. Next step is to learn about the problem in 360 degree mode. This step learn about different customers types and personas who are affected by the workflows. Fourth step identify your advocates and work on POC. Next up - Take it to the market and see the reaction. Before that study the market as well. #Innovation #ProductManagement #KPKR

Create a culture that values experimentation. Implement a structured approach to testing new ideas through prototypes, pilots, or minimum viable products (MVPs). Encourage risk taking and view failures as learning opportunities to refine and enhance future innovations.

In the dynamic B2B landscape, don the hat of an experimenter. Embrace a culture where every experiment is a learning opportunity. It's not just about success or failure; it's about the insights gained. With each iteration, you refine your product, sharpen your strategy, and pave the way for continuous improvement. Experimentation becomes the compass guiding your journey towards innovation.

In the digital space, technology and trends are always updating. There are better solutions coming up which makes the user journey simpler or optimises the response even quicker. 1. It is important to not only define key metrics at the start of the product but also to keep on checking the performance. What would be an acceptable response rate or error percentage 1 year back may not hold true now. 2. Benchmark against the latest technology available on the market and with industry peers. 3. Analyse data periodically once it goes live to see the trend and react on changes. 4. Brainstorm & collaborate with cross functional teams on latest technology trends, products and processes. Experiment quickly.

Let's talk about the fifth and crucial step in innovation: adapting and iterating based on what you've learned and the feedback you've gathered. Imagine having tools like a product roadmap, backlog, and sprint to smartly prioritize and plan your product's development journey. Keep a close eye on performance using metrics like net promoter score, customer lifetime value, and churn rate. By constantly adapting and fine-tuning based on insights, you optimize your product, making sure it hits the sweet spot for your customers. Picture it like how Apple refines its products with each new iteration—always staying ahead and keeping users hooked.

In a constantly evolving landscape, agility is crucial. A product manager should be receptive to feedback, comprehend needs swiftly, make prompt and well-informed decisions, and leverage tools to enhance its deliverables.

Innovation success is dependent on the ability to quickly adapt. I have found that the best way to innovate is to not seek perfection. Create a round-trip. A strawman. An MVP. Release a working (no obvious bugs) version to the customer with the expectation that we want their feedback. Observe. Do more of what they like, and less of what they don’t like. Repeat. This process engages the customer and will lead to higher adoption.

Be agile in responding to feedback and market changes. Regularly review and update your B2B product based on customer input and evolving industry trends. Iterative development allows for continuous improvement and ensures that your product remains innovative and relevant.

One time at work, we used competition and rewards as a strategy to foster our company culture for innovation, which is a great example for this. We announced a competition with the title; "one new feature that will add more value to the majority of our customers". We asked all our team members to bring their ideas and when they presented them, we voted for the idea with our justification why we think that particular idea is good with numbers as proofs. Then we selected the idea with the highest number of valid proofs to move ahead. The team member who brought the idea were given a reward and recognized as "The Innovative Member" of the company. This was a strategy promoted by Richard Branson as well in Virgin group.

Employing a multifaceted approach to encourage innovation in B2B product management. Building a culture that values experimentation without thinking of failing, continuous learning approach in the yearly targets, cross-functional collaboration are critical points to implement. Having a continuous feedback loop with customers and stakeholders and incorporating their insights into a product development. Establishing clear goal and metrics to align with overall product strategy is key to success of having a culture of innovation. Allowing and embracing the technological advancement to stay ahead in the market. A supportive environment where risk taking is encouraged and motivated to every step of innovation.

Innovation can come at all levels of the organization. In B2C, one thing to consider is how comfortable front line employees (who often have the most interaction with consumers) feel about raising new ideas and suggestions upwards or to other parts of the organization.

Quick innovations by not going into the nitty gritty of the requirements can help test the waters quickly before rolling out a full fledged release

Establish great relationships with different departments especially Sales, Customer success, support, marketing. Gain trust and collaborate with them. If the relationship between product teams and the above departments is good then you can uncover amazing stuff together! ??

Sometime, to drive innovation, drawing vision for the product may also be very useful. Gap between vision and reality today may look very big and seemingly impossible to achieve but there lies the opportunity for innovation. As a team, then, you start thinking, how to bridge that gap and then you define your plan and work in agile and iterative way. I have seen, using this approach, amazing innovations and teams accomplishing goals which seemed quite impossible to achieve at the outset.

The crucial elements for success lie in the synergy of continuous improvement and value creation. Additionally, fostering cross-functional collaboration and establishing robust mechanisms for consistent customer feedback analysis are imperative. Organizing events or programs, such as hackathon, product innovation competitions, or bug bounties, serves as a catalyst for pilot projects, encouraging diverse teams to contribute innovative ideas. Personally, somehow I believe that that individuals unfamiliar with your product or a similar one often bring exceptional perspectives, emphasizing the importance of varied insights in the pursuit of innovation.

Encouraging innovation in B2B product management involves fostering a culture that values creativity, collaboration, and adaptability. Establish metrics that measure and track innovation within the product management process. This could include the number of implemented ideas from team members or improvements in customer satisfaction.

B2B is a little different from B2C. There is a couple of things, that you need to keep in mind - Less customers - Customers are often not as accessible as in B2C - Customers and users are often different people Therefore it is essential to work on increasing customer and user touchpoints.

I have had clients that jump on a popular bandwagon, be it process, organization, or technology without validating the fit for an enterprise or their customers. I have seen organizations that provide a good runway to perform due diligence and validate innovation and those that look just for quick wins. Often when an issue arises, it has been brewing for years, so a measured approach will yield more long-term positive results.