The Innovation Engine Podcast

In this episode, we're joined by Teresa Torres, an internationally recognized author, speaker, and coach. With a focus on continuous discovery, Teresa has coached hundreds of product teams of all sizes and industries in a structured approach to infusing customer input into their daily product decisions. Her expertise has helped product teams move away from simply focusing on Agile execution and how they build products towards a more holistic approach to development that places an equal focus on making sure what they build delivers value to the customer and the business.

Teresa’s expertise has helped product teams move away from simply focusing on Agile execution and how they build products towards a more holistic approach to product development where teams place an equal focus on making sure what they build delivers value to the customer and the business. 

We dive deep into the key concepts of Teresa's book, Continuous Discovery Habits, in which she introduces a framework for product teams to think about customer discovery. We explore the importance of an outcome mindset, getting good at interviewing to discover unmet customer needs, pain points, and desires, and assumption testing to help evaluate solutions.

Episode Highlights:

• How product teams can learn to focus on executing on the right things, not just executing in the right way

• The most vital habits that teams should employ for continuous discovery

• Why following Teresa’s collaborative “product trio” model, where a Product Manager, Design Lead, and Tech Lead all work closely together from the start, leads to far less waste than the traditional product development model and process  

• How embracing the creative tension of bringing multiple disciplines together yields better results than the top-down style of decision-making prevalent in many organizations

• The 2 different kinds of product instrumentation — optimization and value creation — and examples of both

• Which companies are positive examples of continuous discovery in action (hint: not many!)

Resources:

• Learn more at ProductTalk.org

• Follow Teresa on Twitter: @ttorres

• Connect with Teresa on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/teresatorres

• Read: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

In the first segment of our conversation with Marty Cagan, the celebrated product expert and bestselling author of Empowered and Inspired, we discussed why a roadmap focused on outcomes yields far better results than one based on solutions, the importance of clearly communicating and exhibiting an appealing product vision, and the critical inquiry that a strong product vision must address directly. In part two, we discuss the foundational elements needed for product teams to be successful, and how to identify mission-driven teams. 

Tune in to the full conversation to hear how teams can balance the immediate needs of the business with the long-term product vision, the importance of taking ownership of things outside of your control, and why empowered product teams are passionate about solving problems.

Resources:

• Listen to part 1 of our discussion with Marty Cagan 

• Learn more at svpg.com

• Read Empowered

• Read Inspired

• Connect with Marty on LinkedIn

• Follow Marty on Twitter

Learn more and get the full show notes at: www.3PillarGlobal.com/the-innovation-engine-podcast/

In part two of our interview with Marty Cagan, the celebrated product expert and bestselling author of Empowered and Inspired, we discuss the foundational elements needed for product teams to be successful and how to identify mission-driven teams. 

We also discuss how to structure product teams to maximize effectiveness, how to hold product teams accountable, and the altitude you need to speak at to handle executive and investor expectations. The key point is that product teams provide the most value when they’re solving complex problems and figuring out how to drive outcomes, not merely following orders. We also discuss how to identify missionaries versus mercenaries, with the key difference being that missionaries identify with the project and take ownership of the outcome. 

Tune in to the full conversation to hear how teams can balance the immediate needs of the business with the long-term product vision, the importance of taking ownership of things outside of your control, and why empowered product teams are passionate about solving problems.

This is a follow-on to the first half of our conversation, in which Marty and Scott Varho discussed why a roadmap focused on outcomes yields far better results than one based on solutions, the importance of clearly communicating and exhibiting an appealing product vision, and the critical inquiry that a strong product vision must address directly.

• Listen to part 1 of our discussion with Marty Cagan
• Learn more at svpg.com
• Read Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
• Read Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
• Connect with Marty on LinkedIn
• Follow Marty on Twitter 

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

What separates the most successful product companies in the world — Apple, Amazon, Google —from everyone else? It’s a question Marty Cagan has spent the better part of his career exploring, writing about, and seeking to answer. At least part of the answer lies in the fact that many of these highly successful companies follow a model where product teams are empowered to solve problems and deliver outcomes rather than accept requirements and deliver outputs. 

Marty Cagan joins us to discuss the many ways empowered product teams can drive value and growth for companies if only they're allowed to. Marty is a renowned product leader, founder, and partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group. He's the author of two influential books, Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products and Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love.

Marty has been a prominent figure in Silicon Valley for years, having previously worked at eBay, Netscape, and Hewlett-Packard. Over the past two decades as the founder of Silicon Valley Product Group, Marty has provided consultancy for several significant technology products and established himself as a leading advocate for building customer-centric, product-focused organizations.

Resources:

• Learn more at svpg.com

• See examples of product visions for companies like Airbnb, Apple, Asana, Dropbox, Hubspot, and SpaceX on the SVPG site

• Read Empowered

• Read Inspired

• Connect with Marty Cagan on LinkedIn

• Follow Marty Cagan on Twitter

Learn more and get the full show notes on the 3Pillar website

How can you predict opportunities for massive innovation before they happen? By identifying inflection points before they happen. 

Inflection points are moments of significant change for a business, industry, or market. They feature prominently in Dr. Rita Gunther McGrath's latest book, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. 

Dr. McGrath discusses how to identify and navigate these inflection points in business — so you can position yourself and your organization for success in the age of disruption.

Tune in to the full conversation to hear how to spot inflection points before they happen, how to keep innovating without putting yourself or your business at catastrophic risk, and find out what happens when we let AI take over the interview and ask some questions.

Dr. Rita Gunther McGrath is a leading authority on strategic innovation and growth. She is a professor at Columbia Business School, a globally recognized thought leader, and the author of several best-selling books.

Resources:

• Learn more at ritamcgrath.com
• Read Seeing Around Corners
• Connect with Dr. McGrath on LinkedIn

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

When it comes to innovation, the education industry typically isn’t the first that comes to mind — but Ron Reed is trying to change that. He’s the Founder and Executive Producer of SXSW EDU, an annual event that fosters innovation and learning within the education industry. SXSW is well-known for its tech conference, music festival, and independent film festival, but it covers a wider range of topics, including the education event that’s held in the days before the tech conference. Ron talks about the role of technology in education, the conversations that are being had ahead of SXSW EDU 2023, and what the future is going to bring to both education and SXSW EDU specifically.

Episode Highlights:

• What SXSW EDU is and what it strives to achieve
• The origin story of How SXSW EDU began and how it is continuing to grow and evolve
• How Ron and his partners decided to make alterations and improvements to the event as it grows
• The rise of education technology and how it has continued to evolve since Ron’s days selling educational material on laser video discs 
• What’s is coming up in SXSW EDU 2023
• Opening up the discussion around mental health in education

Resources:

• Learn more at sxswedu.com
• Connect with Ronald Reed on LinkedIn
• Follow SXSW EDU on Twitter

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

Marianne Johnson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Cox Automotive, where she oversees a team of roughly 5000 people across 700 Scrum teams. She’s responsible for an $8 billion dollar portfolio that includes a number of products that are household names, including Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.

On this episode, Scott Varho and Bernie Doone talk with Mariannne about building a culture where rapid innovation and living on the cutting-edge of technology are the norm.

Episode Highlights:

• What Marianne’s role at Cox as Chief Product Officer entails (01:13)
• What makes up Cox’s $8 billion dollar product portfolio (9:20)
• Running an Agile culture across 700 Scrum teams (13:20)
• Insights from running the five patterns of Agile (18:47)
• How composability informs what products to launch (24:00)
• Leveraging data to drive value (28:03)
• How Cox Automotive uses AI for growth (32:31)
• Speed round, which covers Marianne’s boat, what to look for in new hires, and the most impactful business or tech book she’s ever read (33:31)

Resources:

• Learn more at coxautoinc.com
• Follow Marianne Johnson on LinkedIn

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

Sejal Amin is the newly-named Chief Technology Officer at Shutterstock where she has a broad mandate to drive Shutterstock’s digital transformation into a full-service creative platform for hundreds of thousands of creative professionals around the world. She talks with 3Pillar’s Scott Varho and Elisabeth Beller about moving from software project to product on this episode of The Innovation Engine.

Tune in to the full conversation to hear how Shutterstock is making the leap from project to product, what a value stream is and how to manage it within a company, and why using a body of metrics is vital to drive decision-making during digital transformation.

Resources:

• Connect with Sejal on LinkedIn
• Read: Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole Forsgren, PhD, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim
• Read: Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework by Mik Kersten
• Read: Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart
• If you have any feedback about the podcast or guests you’d like to hear interviewed, send your suggestions to [email protected].

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

When you think of financial services and healthcare, ease of transformation likely isn’t the first to come to mind. There are privacy concerns, compliance issues, and security responsibilities. So how does a company that sits at the intersection of those two tackle radical digital transformation—all while already sitting at the top of its field? For this episode, we speak with Cory Gundberg about driving digital transformation in large organizations. Cory is the COO of Optum Financial, where he’s driven their transformation strategy for close to a year. Prior to that, he was the Chief Digital Officer at Optum Rx, and he also held several leadership roles at Walmart, including SVP of Health and Wellness, SVP of Walmart Labs, VP of Walmart Technology, and Senior Director of Innovation. We discuss what drives innovation within his organization, how he filters through the noise to find where transformation is truly needed, and how UnitedHealth channels its digital innovations budget into new technologies that help its consumers.

Resources:

• Learn more at Optum.com
• Connect with Cory on LinkedIn

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com

In this special episode of The Innovation Engine, we’re joined by Jessica Hall, VP of Design at CoStar Group, alongside 3Pillar Global CEO David DeWolf. Three years ago we spoke with them both about their book, The Product Mindset: Succeed in the Digital Economy by Changing the Way Your Organization Thinks. This time around, we take a look at what they’ve both learned in the years since, how Jessica’s perspective of The Product Mindset has changed since working at CoStar Group, and what they would change or add to the book today.

Episode Highlights:

• Jess discusses her role at CoStar Group, a new addition to the S&P 500 that provides a number of data-related digital products to customers mostly in commercial real estate (1:46) 
• The three characteristics of a digital product and the three guiding principles of success that make up The Product Mindset (08:35)
• How Jess’ personal experience with The Product Mindset at CoStar Group has shifted her perspective (12:24)
• Changing the conversation from what are we doing? to why are we doing it? (21:10)
• Connecting the dots between a digital product and the company’s success (27:28)
• The continual decision-making process (29:31)
• Leveraging insight to see beyond what is being said (44:07)

Resources:

• Learn more about The Product Mindset at productmindset.com
• Buy The Product Mindset on Amazon
• Visit Jessica’s LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicashall 
• Visit David’s LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddewolf
• Learn more about Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, by Dan Heath
• Learn more about Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Dr. Nicole Forsgren 

Learn more and get the full show notes at: 3PillarGlobal.com