Innovation Talks

Benji Coetzee is the Chief Strategy Officer at KPN, a Dutch communications company. With a background in psychology and a passion for understanding human behavior, Benji brings a unique perspective to her role. She has led numerous digital transformation projects and is known for her ability to inspire and motivate teams. Benji is also the author of the book "Daddy Says No," which explores the psychology behind decision-making and offers practical advice for personal and professional growth. With her expertise in change management and commitment to creating a positive and inclusive work environment, Benji is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the industry.

In this episode, I enjoyed speaking with Benji Coetzee, the Chief Strategy Officer at KPN. Benji is a dynamic leader with a passion for driving transformation and growth. With her extensive experience in change management and deep understanding of human behavior, Benji shares valuable insights on navigating the challenges of leading a transformation project. Her book, "Daddy Says No," delves into the psychology behind decision-making and offers practical advice for personal and professional growth. Join us as we explore the importance of understanding people, embracing change, and creating a culture of trust and collaboration.

"If you want to really grow, you really need to be open to change." ~ Benji Coetzee

This Week on Innovation Talks:

·     Building trust and autonomy: Benji emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for the success or failure of a project, giving people autonomy, and being willing to take the heat if something goes wrong.

·     The power of in-person interactions: Benji highlights the value of being physically present with teams, as it allows for better communication, understanding, and collaboration compared to virtual interactions.

·     Starting with why: Benji stresses the significance of clearly communicating the purpose and rationale behind a change or transformation project to get everyone aligned and motivated.

·     Understanding people's emotions: Benji suggests taking the time to understand the fears, ambitions, and emotions of the team members involved in the project. This understanding can help in crafting a compelling story and keeping the team motivated.

·     Self-reflection and vulnerability: Benji encourages leaders to reflect on their own insecurities and behaviors, acknowledging that everyone makes mistakes and has room for growth. Being vulnerable and open about one's own humanity can create a more approachable and authentic leadership style.

·     Change as a catalyst for growth: Benji believes that change is necessary for growth, and that significant growth often comes from embracing uncomfortable changes and challenging oneself to adapt and improve.

·     The importance of understanding biases and triggers: Benji discusses the significance of recognizing decision-making biases and emotional triggers that can influence behavior. By understanding these biases, individuals can make better decisions and achieve greater satisfaction.

·     Taking the time to understand the team: Benji advises leaders to invest time in understanding the people they work with, their ambitions, fears, and motivations. This understanding can help in building a strong team and creating a supportive and collaborative environment.

Connect with Benji Coetzee:

"Daddy Says No" by Benji Coetzee

Instagram

LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

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Jim Fava is a leading pioneer in sustainability who has made significant contributions to sustainability and environmentalism for over 40 years. Regarded as the “father of modern-day life cycle assessment,” Jim has spent his career guiding businesses and governments through risks and opportunities, enabling them to hold environmentally responsible and sustainable operations. He is the co-founder of the Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation, a multi-stakeholder and membership-based community organization for everyone interested in Life Cycle approaches to enhance the sustainability of economic activities. He is the former Executive Director of the Anthesis Group, an organization that supports businesses and governments in understanding and navigating risks and opportunities. Today, Jim and Neil D’Souza co-host Five Lifes to Fifty, a podcast that explores the intersection between society, business, environment, and technology, and negotiating the path to sustainable products.

Jim joins me today to offer insight on how product managers can lead sustainable innovation. He outlines four strategies for navigating sustainable innovation in the context of organizational position and goals. He discusses the role of a product manager in mapping a product’s sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and regional considerations. Jim also highlights why collaborating with internal and external functions within an organization is crucial for product managers and underscores the value of being proactive.

“Product managers are critical to the compliance strategy, and they need to reach out to two functions: first, the marketing team, to get a better handle of the market, and two, the government affairs group.” - Jim Fava

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     The sustainability roundtable and the life cycle assessment tool

●     Golden Rule #7: Meeting them where they are

●     Various perspectives on sustainability in organizations

●     The “Shaping the Future” strategy of sustainable innovation

●     Product managers collaborating with other functions in the company

●     The shift toward proactive sustainability strategies

●     The “compliance” strategy of sustainable innovation

●     Being prepared for change in the sustainability landscape

●     Why product managers need to establish connections and proactively address challenges

●     The “market-driven” strategy in sustainable innovation

●     Continuous learning in sustainability

Resources Mentioned:

●     International Organization for Standardization

●     Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation

●     American Center for LCA

●     Book: The Power of Life Cycle Assessment: Data Driven Decision Making for Environmental Sustainability by American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA)

Connect with Jim Fava:

●     Podcast: Five Lifes to Fifty

●     Jim Fava on LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Partho Ghosh is a customer-centered, data-informed product executive and GM who specializes in B2B SaaS, MarTech, product-led growth, and creating measurable product processes that lead to efficient growth and market fit. He is the VP and Product & General Manager at SecurityScoreCard, the global leader in cybersecurity ratings, response, and resilience. He also serves as an advisor for OpenView, through which he advises on product-led growth. Before working at SecurityScoreCard, Partho served as a general manager for Hootsuite. Partho holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration, Business Management from British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Partho joins me today to explore the “feature factory” trap and how having a clear product management lifecycle can help avoid it. He emphasizes the importance of future thinking in product management decisions, even when dealing with short-term revenue goals. He outlines his philosophy on product management and the “Build, Measure, Learn” principle. Partho also highlights the value of having a data-informed mindset and offers advice to product managers seeking leadership support.

“I’ve always used ‘feature factory’ in a negative connotation, but that might be unfair if you’re a scaling start-up. Founders need revenue growth, profitability, and to make ends meet.” - Partho Ghosh

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Partho’s background as a business analyst, his transition into product management, and diving into B2B SaaS

●     The challenges of testing and validating the effectiveness of a free-to-sales motion in the self-serve space

●     The importance of future-thinking in product management decisions

●     Navigating organizational changes and cultural shifts

●     Careers as marathons and the evolving nature of the professional journey

●     The need for continuous learning in product management

●     Embracing generative AI and how customer expectations around AI have changed

●     The transformative nature of technological advancements

●     Partho’s product development process and lifecycle

●     The “Build, Measure, and Learn” philosophy

●     The value of rooting decisions in data and why companies need to invest in analytics capabilities

●     Experimentation beyond split testing

●     Overcoming challenges in measurement and learning

●     Allocating resources to data analysis and promoting a data-informed mindset

●     The crucial role and challenges of collaboration within a product team

Resources Mentioned:

●     Miro

●     Figma

●     Book: Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation (The Strategyzer Series) by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder

Connect with Partho Ghosh:

●     SecurityScorecard

●     SecurityScorecard on LinkedIn

●     SecurityScorecard on Instagram

●     SecurityScorecard on Facebook

●     SecurityScorecard on Twitter

●     Partho Ghosh on LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Adam Brotman is the co-founder and co-CEO of Forum3, an organization committed to building and partnering with creators, brands, and projects that leverage the unique innovations and creativity unlocked by Web3. Prior to co-founding Forum3, Adam served as the Chairman and CEO of Brightloom and the CEO of J.Crew. He also served as the EVP for Global Retail Operations at Starbucks. Adam holds a BA in Classical Civilizations specializing in Business & Administration from UCLA and a JD from the University of Washington School of Law.

Andy Sack is the co-CEO of Forum3. He also serves as a managing partner at KeenCapital—a fund of blockchain native venture funds—and co-founder and managing partner of Founders Co-op. He was the former CEO of The Body Shop Digital as well as the founder and Executive Chairman of Lighter Capital. Andy holds a BA from Brown University and received his MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Adam and Andy join me today to discuss cultivating brand loyalty through generative AI and other emerging technologies. They share insight on how companies can successfully navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape. They illustrate how emerging tech has allowed Gen Z and Millennials to become a new generation of “creator-consumers.” They also highlight how generative AI can unlock creativity and help brands transition from transactional connections to emotional connections.

“As social media has evolved, today’s consumer doesn’t want to be marketed or sold to. The successful brands are the ones that invite consumers to participate and engage with them.” - Andy Sack

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Adam and Andy’s backgrounds and professional journeys

●     Using AI and emerging technology to tell your brand’s story

●     Forum 3’s mission and how it’s creating Hive 3 to help brands and AI creators collaborate and tell stories

●     How brands like Starbucks, Balenciaga, and Heinz are exploring AI

●     Generative AI and the privacy of brands

●     The significance of AI and data-driven strategies in the evolving marketing landscape

●     Rapid AI development across various tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon

●     Challenges and opportunities for companies navigating the fast-paced AI landscape

●     The emotional shift in consumer behavior and the role of AI in fostering emotional connections

●     The importance of emotional connections in the digital age

●     Social media, influencers, and the evolving ways consumers express their feelings about brands

●     Starbucks' digital innovation, Starbucks Odyssey, and its impact on consumer engagement

●     Brand innovation amid rapid AI and tech development

Connect with Adam Brotman:

●     Adam Brotman on LinkedIn

●     Email: [email protected]

Connect with Andy Sack:

●     Andy Sack on LinkedIn

●     Email: [email protected]

Connect with Forum3:

●     Forum3

●     Forum3 on Twitter

●     Forum3 on LinkedIn

●     Forum3 on Medium

Connect with Hive3:

●     Hive3

●     Hive3 on Twitter

●     Hive3 on Instagram

●     Hive3 on YouTube

●     Hive3 on Discord

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

William Mulholland is a senior AI product management consultant and AI product leader. He currently serves as Senior AI Product Leader at the AI Accelerator Institute, an organization dedicated to connecting and empowering passionate AI infrastructure innovators. He is also a product leader member of the Product-Led Alliance. William attended the University of Wollongong’s Computer Science program and holds a BBA in Accounting and Management Information Systems from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

William joins us today to discuss his journey into AI product management. He describes the value of cultivating a culture of curiosity and adaptation amid the accelerated speed of AI adoption and innovation. He illustrates how AI could be leveraged to address key challenges in government services, including reducing time and costs, promoting transparency, and creating positive social impacts. He explains the significance of aligning AI product strategies with an organization's strategic objectives and shares the keys to successful alignment. William also offers advice to organizations and individuals who are exploring the potential of AI technologies and underscores the importance of maintaining an agile mindset.

“With the speed of AI innovation, maintaining a culture of curiosity and adaptation is essential—especially for organization leaders to stay at the forefront of AI advancements.” - William Mulholland

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     The role of an AI Product manager

●     Why product managers need to stay current with AI technologies

●     Leveraging AI to understand customers, product analytics, and software development

●     The AI Accelerator Institute and its mission

●     The rapid growth of interest in artificial intelligence

●     Challenges in adopting AI

●     Balancing AI experimentation and innovation with IP concerns and data security

●     The need for governance and standards in artificial intelligence

●     AI in state and local governments and William’s mission to leverage AI to improve government spending analytics

●     The growing openness to AI in government when presented as a tool to enhance public services

●     Fostering creativity, handling massive data, and enhancing user experience in digital products through AI

●     Measuring model accuracy, false positives, false negatives, ethics and fairness, and other metrics specific to AI products

●     The need for agility and adaptability in AI development

●     Innovations and breakthroughs in AI and its potential in health and medical research

●     William’s advice to organizations and individuals starting to explore AI

●     The power of collaboration and community spirit in AI

Resources Mentioned:

●     Huberman Lab Podcast

Connect with William Mulholland:

●     AI Accelerator Institute

●     AI Accelerator Institute on LinkedIn

●     AI Accelerator Institute on Facebook

●     AI Accelerator Institute on Twitter

●     William Mulholland on LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Dave MacAdam is the Director of Portfolio Management for Global R&D at Novelis, the leading producer of flat-rolled aluminum products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum. As director, Dave focuses on optimizing Novelis’ global R&D project portfolio, including portfolio and project governance, analytics, and economic modeling. Before joining Novelis, Dave served as an electrical engineer for over 13 years on various aspects of semiconductor design, including product concept modeling, analysis, specification, and design. Dave holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada, and an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Dave also holds 13 patents in multiple areas of semiconductor design.

Dave joins me today to discuss navigating innovation challenges for success. He explains change management in portfolio optimization and highlights the role of metrics in strategic decision-making. He discusses the need for resource allocation buffers in portfolio management and outlines the challenges of portfolio prioritization, especially when dealing with constrained resources. Dave also underscores the growing relevance and influence of sustainability on customers’ decisions and offers advice to individuals starting their journey in portfolio management.

Addendum: The Ball Aluminum Cups Dave mentions in 27:22 are made of 90% recycled content.

“Prioritize the change you want and be mindful of the time and investment it takes and of the organization that will use those systems. Keep focused on that as your guiding principle.” - Dave MacAdam

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Dave’s role as Director of Portfolio Management at Novelis

●     Novelis products in automotive, aerospace, electronics, and construction

●     The importance of innovation and sustainability

●     What good and bad data look like

●     The evolution of portfolios

●     Portfolio management in a sustainable world

●     Defining the portfolio

●     The impact of sustainability on portfolio management

●     The push for environmental sustainability in the supply chain

●     Challenges related to portfolio prioritization

●     Leveraging the right metrics to drive change

●     Dave’s advice on portfolio management

●     Novelis’ contributions to sustainable solutions

●     Change management in portfolio optimization

●     The challenges of driving and sustaining change

Connect with Dave MacAdam:

●     Novelis

●     Novelis on LinkedIn

●     Novelis on YouTube

●     Novelis on Facebook

●     Novelis on Twitter

●     Dave MacAdam on LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

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Jim Fava is a leading pioneer in sustainability. He is the co-founder of the Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation, a multi-stakeholder and membership-based community organization for everyone interested in and working with Life Cycle approaches to enhance the sustainability of economic activities. He is the former Executive Director of the Antithesis Group, an organization that supports businesses and governments in understanding and navigating risks and opportunities. Regarded as the “Father of Modern-Day Life Cycle Assessment,” Jim has made significant contributions to the sustainability and environmentalism movement for more than 40 years. He has spent his career guiding businesses and governments through risks and opportunities, enabling them to hold environmentally responsible and sustainable operations. Today, alongside Neil D’Souza, Jim co-hosts Five Lifes to Fifty, a podcast that explores the intersection between society, business, environment, and technology, and negotiating the path to sustainable products.

Jim joins me today to discuss the importance of having a clear goal or destination in mind when using tools for sustainable innovation. He explains how the Golden Rules of Sustainable Innovation evolved. He defines the fifth and seventh rules and emphasizes the need for organizations to align their sustainability efforts with their strategy and market position. Jim also reflects on the importance of a pre-competitive space where businesses can collaborate on sustainability goals and highlights the acceleration of incorporating sustainability into product innovation.

“Any time you’re going to develop a tool or any kind of assessment, you have to know where the future looks like before you can decide how to get there.” - Jim Fava

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     The evolution of the Golden Rules of Sustainable Innovation

●     Golden Rule #5: knowing your destination

●     Why organizations need to understand the purpose of a life cycle study

●     The ACDB Framework and bringing LCA to the beginning of innovation

●     Golden Rule #7: meeting them where they are

●     The four strategy levels companies need to adopt in their sustainability efforts

●     California’s Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions requirement for larger industries

●     Golden Rule #10 and the growth of the global life cycle community

●     The future of LCA and artificial intelligence

●     Collaboration and knowledge-sharing in a pre-competitive space

Related Episodes:

●     How to embed sustainability into your innovation process with Jim Fava

●     Embracing change for positive impacts with Jim Fava

●     Golden rules for a sustainable business with Jim Fava

Connect with Jim Fava:

●     Podcast: Five Lifes to Fifty

●     Jim Fava on LinkedIn

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Eisha Armstrong is the co-founder of Vecteris, an organization that supports B2B services companies in productizing their offerings. Eisha advises CEOs, product management professionals, and companies on cultivating a culture where innovation can flourish. Before co-founding Vecteris, she held senior business management at E.W. Scripps with CEB (now Gartner). Over her 20 years of experience launching new data and information service businesses, she has managed million-dollar businesses and global teams of professionals. Eisha earned her MBA at the Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies and Economics at the University of Kansas.

Eisha joins me today to discuss the role of culture in helping a services organization to successfully productize. She discusses the challenges of productization in B2B services and the need for significant change management and culture change. She outlines the "Four Horsemen of Innovation" that can hinder the transition to a culture of innovation within service organizations. Eisha also highlights the benefits of productization and underscores why organizations need to clarify their “why” before embarking on the journey of productization.

“There’s a lot of fear associated with going through a digital or a business model transformation. Those fears are hindrances when you try to create a culture of innovation—so naming them is important.” - Eisha Armstrong

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Eisha’s background and current role at Vecteris

●     What motivated Eisha to write Productize and Fearless

●     Three reasons for productizing services

●     Anxiety over generative AI disrupting business services

●     Significant challenges companies encounter when productizing services

●     Three key transformations of the productization of services

●     Overcoming the challenges related to productizing services

●     Understanding why you want to productize your company’s services

●     The LEAP framework to overcome fear and challenges during the productization process

●     How mindfulness and gratitude practices can help with fear and anxiety around productization

●     How companies are experimenting with generative AI

●     The innovator’s dilemma and the four horsemen of innovation

●     How Vecteris helps organizations looking to embark on the productization journey

●     The importance of understanding the "why" behind the productization journey

Connect with Eisha Armstrong:

●     Vecteris

●     Book: Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products

●     Book: Fearless: How to Transform a Services Culture and Successfully Productize

●     Vecteris on LinkedIn

●     Eisha Armstrong on LinkedIn

●     Eisha Armstrong on Medium

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Carla Johnson is a global keynote speaker, author, marketing and innovation strategist, and innovation architect. She is the author of RE:Think Innovation: How the World's Most Prolific Innovators Come Up with Great Ideas that Deliver Extraordinary Outcomes. Carla was formerly the Programme Director of Digital Marketing at HARBOUR.SPACE and the Director of Media Relations and Employee Communications at Time Warner Telecom. She has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is a graduate of the Influence / ICAN Leadership Institute. On a mission to teach one million people how to become innovative thinkers, Carla has partnered with leaders and Fortune 500 brands to train thousands of people to rethink the work they do and make an impact.

Carla joins me today to discuss fostering a culture of innovative thinking and turning it into a competitive advantage. She explains how observing the world around us can increase creative thinking. She outlines the six innovation archetypes and explains how understanding these archetypes can improve teamwork and idea generation in organizations. Carla also highlights the bottom-up approach to building a culture of original thinking and innovation and underscores the role of structured processes in idea generation and problem-solving.

“Innovation really is everybody's business and we all have the ability to contribute if we just understand how.” - Carla Johnson

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Carla’s background and work as an innovation architect

●     How design architects did design thinking before it became popular

●     How creatives and innovators are perceived differently in organizations

●     Connecting emotions to products and user experiences

●     The relationship and difference between innovation and creativity

●     Why creativity is undervalued in organizations

●     How observing the world can fuel creativity and innovation

●     RE:Think Innovation and Carla’s goal to teach a million people to become innovative thinkers

●     The six innovation archetypes and their application to teams and organizations

●     The importance of culture-shapers and storytellers in today’s companies

●     How diversity can make innovative ideas powerful

●     Bringing empathy into the innovation process

Resources Mentioned:

●     Book: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp

Related Episode:

●     RE:Think innovation with Carla Johnson

Connect with Carla Johnson:

●     Carla Johnson Website

●     The RE:Think Lab Newsletter

●     Book: RE:Think Innovation: How the World's Most Prolific Innovators Come Up with Great Ideas that Deliver Extraordinary Outcomes

●     Book: Union Pacific and Omaha Union Station

●     Carla Johnson on LinkedIn

●     Carla Johnson on Instagram

●     Carla Johnson on Twitter

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

Steve Johnson is an author, speaker, and coach dedicated to helping teams overcome the chaos in product management. He is a founding partner and the CEO of Product Growth Leaders, an organization that helps product leaders remove the confusion of managing products by providing a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities and a playbook of modern techniques. Before Product Growth Leaders, Steve served as the CEO of Under10 Consulting LLC and the Vice President of Products for Pragmatic Institute. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Computer Science from Hallam College of Business at the University of Tennessee.

Steve joins me today to discuss how the lack of standardization, best practices, and conversations about product management makes the field chaotic. He describes his journey from marketing and computer science to product management. He explains the importance of understanding both the business and technical aspects of product management. He highlights how generative AI like chat GPT—though it can spark creativity and generate ideas—still needs the guidance of human judgment. Steve also offers advice to people interested in delving into the product management career and shares insights on offering consulting services as products.

“Everything's a product. If you sell it, it's a product—and it should be treated that way.” - Steve Johnson

This week on Innovation Talks:

●     Encountering chaos in product management

●     How product management emerged as a specialized role in organizations

●     The difference between brand management and product management

●     How Procter & Gamble created the brand manager job

●     The “servant” and “god” product manager

●     Why business thinking should be brought into product management

●     Why generative AI will not cost you your job

●     The importance of human judgment and guidance in the effective use of generative AI

●     Why you need to look at generative AI as a college intern

●     Using generative AI as an ideation and pattern-matching tool

●     The value of Generative AI and chatGPT in open innovation

●     The distinction between project and product management

●     Why companies are shifting from project to product management

●     Shifting from a project-based to a product-based mindset

●     The drawbacks of treating products as projects

Related Episode:

●     Taking a systematic approach to the product management process with Steve Johnson

Connect with Steve Johnson:

●     Product Growth Leaders

●     Product Growth Leaders on LinkedIn

●     Product Growth Leaders on Twitter

●     Steve Johnson on LinkedIn

●     Steve Johnson on Twitter

●     Email: [email protected]

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.