Transparency in understanding your market and communicating that understanding throughout the development process is key to creating innovative products. Innovative product creation requires teams today, so transparency of market needs and expectations is critical to success.
1. Accept 360
2010-07-28
Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain
IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION
& TRANSPARENCY
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain (http://tynerblain.com/blog/) 1
2. Recorded Webinar
• This presentation was given as a webinar in
the Accept360 transparency series in their
Product Innovation Management channel
• You can watch it on demand at
http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/21695
• The following are the original slides (better
quality for offline review). Please share
feedback (here or @sehlhorst on Twitter)
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain (http://tynerblain.com/blog/) 2
3. About the Speaker
Founded Tyner Blain 2005
20 Years Creating Products
– Product Management & Ownership
– Business Strategy & Analysis
– Technical Consulting & Consulting Mgmt
– Developer, Architect, Pre-Seller
– Electromechanical Design Engineer
– eCommerce, B2C, B2B, B2B2C
5 Years of Writing About It
– ~750 articles, ~ 1M page views
@sehlhorst on Twitter
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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4. Agenda
Today’s Definitions of Innovation & Transparency
– Guaranteed useful for the next hour only…
Product Creation Lifecycle
– Market Understanding
– Goal Focused Stakeholders
– Invention Infusion
– Execution Alignment
– Feedback Loops
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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5. Innovation = Valuable Invention
Focus on the Value
– Solve Problems People Will Pay To Solve
– These Are The Right Requirements
Expect
– Market Disruption
– Uncovering Latent Needs
– Competitive Response
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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6. One Definition of Transparency
Transparency as the opposite of Opacity
– Opaqueness prevents you from understanding
Transparency allows you to see and
understand
Share that understanding to provide
context throughout the product
creation process
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain (http://tynerblain.com/blog/)
7. Innovation – Transparency Req’d
At Today’s Scale
– Complexity of Technology
– Rapidly Evolving Market Needs
– Agile Competitors
You Need A Team of Specialists
– Gaining Insight – Market Understanding
– Invention with Insight – Design Excellence
– Executing With Repeated Invention & Insight
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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8. Market Understanding
Understand your customers
– Personas’ goals and problems
– “What’s now?” for your customers
Anticipate Your Market’s Future
– “What’s next?” for your customers
– “What’s next?” from your competitors
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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9. Insight Defines Goals
Market & user research gets you data
Synthesis and modeling of data gets you insights
Insights unlock opportunities for innovation
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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10. Facebook’s Faster Horse
In 2005 Facebook Was Semi-Private
In 2009 People asked for
detailed Privacy Settings
In 2010 People asked for
coarse Privacy Settings
People Have What They Want
… but Not What They Need
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11. Goal Focused Stakeholders
Stakeholders Own The Goals
NOT Implementation
NOT Features
NOT Design
Transparency of Goals + Trust and Delegation
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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12. Design Infuses Invention
Design Clarity – Acting Uno Animo
– “Solve This Problem, With This Approach”
Designer-Inventor
– Must Understand the Value
Implementation Team
– Must Understand the Value
– Must Understand the Design
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13. Great Products Need Both
Great Products Require Both
– Invention / Design
– Value
Either Without The Other is Unpleasant
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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14. Provide Context for Development & QA
Transparency of …
– User Goals
– Buyer Goals
– Corporate Goals
– Design Clarity
… Provides Context for the
Implementation Team
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16. Thanks Very Much!
Questions Now? [cue the moderator]
Questions Later? [join the conversation]
http://tynerblain.com/blog/
@sehlhorst & #prodmgmt
Scott Sehlhorst, Tyner Blain
2010-07-28 Accept 360 Transparency Webinar Series
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17. References & Attributions
Refraction through glasses image:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Refraction_through_glasses_090306.jpg
Newspaper vending machines
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutgeorge/2583886589/
BBC News Online
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24987280@N00/2199162331
God Creates Adam (Sistine Chapel)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ideacreamanuelapps/3542203718/
Mick Jagger
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jagger_live_Italy_2003.JPG
Paul Adams on real-life social networks
http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-network-v2
DOE Battery and Electric Vehicle Report (a longer-term analysis example, removed from pres.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Battery-and-Electric-Vehicle-Report-FINAL.pdf
Top Ten Tips for Preventing Innovation (a bonus to say thanks for reading this far)
http://tynerblain.com/blog/2006/03/06/top-ten-tips-for-preventing-innovation/
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Editor's Notes
An interpretation of transparency that allows us to talk about how communication throughout the product creation process is critical
An automated insulin pump is innovative. A USB-powered rocket launcher is a novelty.The iPod was innovative, but not independently defensible. The economics were not disruptive. But the iPod ecosystem is defensible.Walkmans disappeared. “Carry Around Your Library” was a latent need.Blue & Red OceansDefine a New MarketSlog It OutDefensibility
Attribution for photo at end of presentation“THE” understanding vs. “THAT” understanding
A single genius can’t spend four years on a masterpiece and succeed & sustain in our markets. 500 years ago, Michelangelo was half-way done painting the Sistine Chapel.And you need transparency of those market problems to propagate through the team.Because a single mind is no longer juggling the understanding of the market, the design approach, and the implementation details.
Understanding is not just “today’s snapshot” – also predicting market responses and competitor reactions
Transparency is removing the barriers to understandingMarket & user research gets you dataSynthesis and modeling of data gets you insightsInsights expose opportunities for innovation
The “right” requirements are NOT what people ask for – they are a representation of what people need that causes them to ask for stuff.Cindy Alvarez: “Customers may not be able to articulate what they want, but they can’t hide what they need.”
Transparency = Making sure corporate (and user) goals are understood and acknowledged by stakeholders.Getting stakeholders (beneficiaries, sponsors) to agree – they are delegating design and implementation choices.Stakeholders can either specify or approve “which goals are to be addressed by this product”, but not how the implementation addresses them.When people throw out Steve Jobs as an example – keep in mind that Mr. Jobs is not just CEO, he is senior designer . He’s playing two roles.Customers may ask for a faster horse – and executives may insist that the horse can monitor the loading of the cart. What we have to do is assure that the product manager uncovers the goals (get there faster, assure delivery of goods)We’ll come back to “Sign-off” on designs and implementations
You need both invention and value feeding into your process.Uno animo – latin for “with one mind” : term shamelessly stolen from Frederick Brooks, from The Design of Design.Collaborative design: In parallel, the dreaded “design by committee” – workable in series of sequential & siloed areas of ownershipDesign clarity – when people comment on the elegance of a design, they are not just expressing an affinity for the design, but acknowledging the clarity of the design. A clear and consistent design does not assure a great design – but a design can’t be great without a unifying and consistent core.An added bonus of understanding -