473: The Mindsets of Breakthrough Innovators – with Matt Phillips

Five mindsets every product manager should cultivate

I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference. This discussion is with Matt Phillips, whose session is titled “The Mindsets of Breakthrough Innovators.”

Matt shared that successful innovators and entrepreneurs think differently from other people. Further, the way they think can be learned. Using examples from Pixar, Google, Netflix and even ultramarathoners, we can learn the secrets to unlocking innovation as well. Matt will help us. He is the founder of Phillips & Co., a Chicago-based innovation strategy firm.

This episode is sponsored by PDMA, the Product Development and Management Association. PDMA is a global community of professional members whose skills, expertise, and experience power the most recognized and respected innovative companies in the world. PDMA is also the longest-running professional association for product managers, leaders, and innovators, having started in 1976 and contributing research and knowledge to our discipline for nearly 50 years. I have enjoyed being a member of PDMA for more than a decade, finding their resources and network very valuable. Learn more about them at PDMA.org.

Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers

[2:35] Help us be better innovators. What mindsets should we have if we want to be breakthrough innovators?

We often spend time learning new methodologies of innovation, but we rarely stop to change the way we think. When I’ve met incredible VPs of innovation, CEOs, or entrepreneurs, I don’t walk away with a four-step process. They just think differently when they walk down a grocery store aisle or talk to someone they just met. Their way of seeing the world is different. I’ll take us through five mindsets.

[4:49] Be a gap spotter.

Many incredible entrepreneurs talk less about products and more about gaps. They go through life spotting problems.

An entrepreneur based in Texas, Chris Corner, had a friend who owned a bakery business, which did not sell online. Chris suggested that as an experiment they put a QR code on all the bread. That took off and he built an entire platform to sell his friend’s bread online. He then built that into a larger platform to sell things online.

During the pandemic, Chris and his family were at home and they wanted snacks from Buc-ee’s, a massive Texas convenience store known for their snacks. Chris found that Buc-ee’s did not sell online. He called the company and told them he wanted to build an online store for them, but no one got back to him, so he decided to do it himself. He bought $1400 of snacks at Buc-ee’s, photographed it, and built a website called Buc-ee’s Store. Immediately the lawyers called. He had taken their trademark. Interestingly, the lawyers did not say cease desist. They told Chris to change the name but he was welcome to keep selling Buc-ee’s things online. He scaled the business, which is now called TexasSnacks.com. They continue to buy things at full retail price from multiple Buc-ee’s stores and sell them online.

What I love about that is it’s slightly insane to take your kids and buy $1400 worth of snacks, but the bigger thing is Chris is a gap spotter. He goes through life seeing these problems, and instead o f saying, “That’s a bummer,” he immediately says, “That’s an opportunity. Let’s jump on it.” That’s true of both entrepreneurs and people in corporate America who are incredible repeat innovators.

[9:36] Multiply your magic.

John Osher is a serial entrepreneur who has scaled amazing businesses. He built a toy company and then the first spinning lollipop. That gap here was small—you don’t want to lick w...