Bob Moesta discusses how to develop the five skills that an innovator needs to be successful at BoS Conference Fall 2021. Building and improving products is hard. In his career developing over 3,500 products, Bob Moesta has identified five essential core skills for successful innovation and entrepreneurship. Empathetic Perspective Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Trade-offs You can watch the video of this talk, with transcript, at https://businessofsoftware.org/talks/skills-of-an-innovator/

1. Learning to Build
a demand-based approach to
building
Bob Moesta
Founder & CEO - The Re-Wired Group
Adjunct Lecturer – The Kellogg School of Management @
Northwestern University

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JTBD
Detroit
3500
About
Bob

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3500 + Products & Services

4. Innovators & Entrepreneurs I have worked with (My Mentors)

5. I Have 35 Years of
Notebooks On Innovation
& Creating Things

6. Learning to Build:
5 Bedrock Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs

7. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

8. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

9. Empathetic
Perspective:
How To See The
World

10. BE THE MOLECULE – Rear View Mirror

11. BE THE MOLECULE – Rear View Mirror

12. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

13. Uncovering
Demand:
How PEOPLE
WORK
The struggling moment is the seed for all innovation.

14. SUPPLY V. DEMAND

15. SUPPLY V. DEMAND

16. Uncovering
Demand:
How PEOPLE
WORK

17. Progress is Caused: JTBD Forces of Progress
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 © Bob Moesta 2021 17
A
(The Old Way)
B
(The New Way)

18. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

19. Causal
Structures:
How Things
Work

21. How Do You Frame Your System?
System
Inputs
Actions
Outputs
Customers
Outcomes

22. USING RIGHT TO LEFT THINKING TO CREATE
System
Inputs
Actions
Outputs Customers
Outcomes &
Struggling
Moments

23. Causal
Structures:
How Things
Work

24. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

25. Prototyping
to learn:
How to Learn

26. Red-Line Development - Proving

27. Green Line Development - Learning

28. “Contrast to
Create Meaning”

29. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Uncovering Demand Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

30. Making
Tradeoffs:
HOW TO PUT
IT TOGETHER

32. Making
Tradeoffs:
HOW TO PUT
IT TOGETHER

33. The Five Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Empathetic Perspective Causal Structures Prototyping to Learn Making Tradeoffs
Uncovering Demand

34. SUPPLY V. DEMAND

35. Cause & Effect – (5 W’s & 2 H’s)
(Who, What, When, Where, Why, How & How much?)
What, How and How Much
(Business Model, Technology and Operations)
Who, When, Where & Why
(Progress = Context & Outcomes)
Design Requirements
System Requirements
Empathetic Perspective
Uncovering Demand
Causal Structures
Prototyping to Learn
Making Tradeoffs

36. USING ALL FIVE SKILLS: A CASE STUDY
Causal Structures
Uncovering Demand
Prototyping to Learn
Making Tradeoffs
Empathetic Perspective

37. Ryan Singer – The Writing of “Shape-up”

40. JTBD Interview – Why Come?

41. Shaping, Betting and Building

43. https://basecamp.com/shapeup

44. HOW DID RYAN DO?
+345,000 Unique Visitors in less than 90 days
+ 10,000 Downloads in the last 30 days
All with no marketing.
Make PDF Available

45. Practicing the five skills
• You already possess these skills
and use them everyday -
• Identify which skills you need to
continue to develop
• Practice one skill at a time and
go deeper and deeper
• Apply the skills not only work
but in your own everyday life
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46. DEMAND-Side Sales & Learning to Build

47. Thank You
Bob Moesta
@bmoesta
bmoesta@rewiredinc.com
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