On Wed Feb 15th I moderated a panel for the NorCal chapter of the PDMA. The topic was the “Fuzzy Front End” of Product Development. Panelists included (panelist bios can be found here):
- Michael Osofsky - Chief Innovation Officer, Accelovation (blog here)
- Sundar Raghavan - VP of Solutions Marketing, Ariba
- Daniel Greenberg - President, CMOPro
- Todd Hay - Platform Marketing, Adobe
As moderator, it was difficult to take notes, but I did manage to jot some memorable comments from the panelists. We started by asking an opening question to each panelist. I was both pleased and impressed with the candor and efficiency by which the panelists answered these questions.
I started by asking Michael to clarify some of his work and experience with the “science” of innovation. More pointedly, I wanted to know if innovation could be a science? Michael responded that it isn’t that we should try to make innovation scientific, but rather, the community could benefit and innovation could be improved if we scientifically study successful approaches and methods. Michael then referenced various kinds of research being done, from Abbie Griffin’s research on personality characteristics of innovators to other studies that assess the larger socio-political factors that influence innovation (similar to the themes explored by Thomas L. Friedman in The World is Flat).
Sundar’s position on the panel provided an interesting opportunity to assess the kinds of responses that organizations can take when trying to create “whole product” solutions for customers, as Sundar has been intimately involved in the choices that Ariba has made to either build new product platforms and/or acquire companies. He pointed out that at times Ariba has asked its development organization to expand the application footprint through internal development while at others Ariba has elected to acquire a complimentary organization. The most notable example of this was the acquisition of FreeMarkets, which was part of an intentional strategic choice to provide a comprehensive suite of service offerings to an existing customer base. The innovation, here, is the idea that not all innovations are pure product plays. Here at Enthiosys we feel pretty strongly that this approach must be a core element of the strategy of any product company, and we provide services in these areas.
This theme was echoed by the comments and experiences of Daniel, who provided insight into how Macrovision’s growth was aided by a large number of marketing, service, sales, and operations innovations. Daniel also provided us with a description of some of the ideation processes that were used to create these non-product innovations, and I was struck by how these techniques paralleled similar techniques used by product companies.
As a founder of OASIS, Todd Hay has been a leading thinker and proponent of standards for many years. Standards and innovations have many interesting relationships, and I wanted to better understand if Todd thought that standards fostered or hindered innovations. Todd’s discussion covered a lot of ground, and I hope I do it justice. One thing that Todd noted was that standard tend to make it clear what aspects of a solution have been commoditized and therefore drive a company to truly understand how they provide a unique value proposition in the market. He made a compelling argument that standards drive — not stifle — innovation. Strategically, he suggested that product managers carefully consider how standards may form the foundation of their business (e.g., standards associated with the form and function of RFID tags enable innovation in RFID readers).
Following these opening remarks the audience engaged in several questions related to both the opening remarks and the thematic topic of the evening. A few items that of interest, at least to me, included:
- Sundar, describing that Ariba has “product” managers for services, and Daniel, noting that answering this question for your company depends on the core strategy of your company: do you want to sell products or servces?
- Michael suggesting that we explore the practical and strategic value of user toolkits promoted by such noted researches as Stefan Thomke and Eric von Hippel.
- Daniel, in a response to a question from the audience, noting that product managers must take time out of their schedules to drive innovation. Daniel suggested correlating the time needed to reflect and think about innovation with your annual planning cycles, which resonated with many in the audience.
- Daniel, describing that to really get to a meaningful point in brainstorming, you need to generate 60-70 ideas, so that people have to really “stretch” to get to the next set of ideas.
- Todd, describing that Adobe’s future strategies will have a greater aspects of services, including a formal Professional Services Organization (PSO), an XD (eXtreme Design) team, and giving Microsoft props about Microsoft’s sales and channel innovations.
- Sundar, describing some of the challenges that product companies have in adopting Agile software development practices. Our experiences here at Enthiosys support this thesis, and while we are strong proponents of Agile methods, we also believe that product companies need to adapt Agile approaches to the genuine differences that exist in product vs IT software development.
- Todd, with a classic quote: “There is no channel conflict in Enterprise Software” (I agree, a lesson I learned from Avi Barir, my old boss at Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Inc.).
- Todd, with another great quote about services: “Broader mindshare leads to broader pocket share”.
The last question of the evening was what books the panelists would recommend.
- Michael: Einstein in the Boardroom
- Sundar: Blue Ocean Strategy
- Daniel: The Four Steps to the Epiphany
- Todd: The Goal
- Luke: Understanding Comics
I’ve enjoyed all of these books and can recommend them all. Â
It was a fun event, and I thank the panelists for sharing their time and wisdom so generously.
Luke
