The Innovation Blog
Insights for Chief Innovation Officers, Product Leaders, Innovators
Design Thinking Grows Up — Welcome to Experience Thinking
Design Thinking is an incredibly powerful way to approach the design of just about anything that involves interaction with people. Its underlying philosophy of Human-Centered Design requires that we develop a comprehensive empathic understanding of the customer and their situation in a particular context. But... there are limitations. The limitations lie not so much in Design Thinking itself, but rather in how Design Thinking is typically used.
What’s Next for Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is one of the most popular technology terms of our time— and very frequently, overused or even misused. The media loves both the success stories and ‘dystopias’ driven by Artificial Intelligence. Machines replacing human workers, AI exceeding human intelligence, robots taking control, and so on.
Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat?
Artificial Intelligence brings impressive applications, with remarkable benefits for all of us; but there are notable unanswered questions with social, political, or ethical facets. The main concerns focus on technological unemployment, while equally important issues arise regarding potential applications of AI, the access to data, and the outputs of AI models.
The Future of Business Intelligence is … Voice
Business Intelligence systems of the future will provide answers, not just data. The complexity of analyzing data will be hidden under next-generation NUI experiences. Insights and data stories will be incorporated in the right format, for the specific user and timing.
Data-Driven Companies and the Importance of a Data Culture
The term ‘Data-driven’ implies much more than just technology and data: it means a special mindset and leadership attitude that makes it possible for a company to make informed decisions by systematically using data to improve business performance.
How to Set Up and Lead a Great Product Development Team
As a product leader, you need an inspired, talented team, to believe in your product vision and work with passion towards the shared goal — a great product satisfying all the predefined success criteria + one more: to make the entire team proud of the outcome.
User Stories in Agile: The Whys and Hows
User stories provide a great way to quickly and accurately describe the functionality of a software product or system. They are also very effective in capturing the outputs of brainstorming sessions, design sprints, hackathons, and other innovation-led processes.
What are the essential digital tools for innovation?
As part of the ‘60 Leaders on Innovation’ book, we asked several leaders to name the essential digital tools for innovation. Here is Erik Schumb’s response.
We asked 60 world-class leaders 22 tough questions on Innovation.
An amazing collection of thoughts on the topic of corporate innovation, from 60 Leaders — Chief Innovation Officers, CxOs, academics, technologists, innovation experts, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and start-up founders — across industries and geographies.
Digital Transformation, Explained.
Digital Transformation – What is it all about? Erik Schumb, founder & CXO, Agile Sprints and one of the '60 Leaders on Innovation' shares his insights.
The Innovation Culture Defined: What it is and How to Develop it
What are the ingredients of a succesful innovation culture? How it is defined and what are the steps that an organization needs to take to ‘get there’ – to establish a good culture and trigger its organic growth?
Leading innovation: Principles of a great ideation platform
Corporate innovation needs a strong supply of high-quality ideas that feed into a fast and effective ‘innovation opportunity discovery’ process. Establishing such an ideation channel is not easy: it requires processes that are simple, inclusive, flexible, and objective; it needs effective communication to inspire people but, at the same time, it must manage the risk of ‘internal disruption.’
The Ingredients of a Great Innovation Culture
Innovation requires a special culture, a shared mindset that encourages the exploration of new ways to improve business outcomes. But how could a company develop an ‘innovation culture’? Here is a ‘protocol’ that can boost the innovation spirit and accelerate the organic growth of your innovation community.
How (and why) to boost your corporate innovation process in times of crisis
How and why to accelerate innovation in times of crisis: I recently had the pleasure to speak to Really Good Innovation in their first online innovation summit, where I shared my thoughts on ‘innovation in times of crisis’. In this blog post, I am presenting the summary points — and the actual deck as presented in the Innovation Summit.
Is this a Prototype or an MVP? Or maybe, a Proof of Concept?
When building software products or solutions, it is of critical importance to define early enough the target output — in terms of both functionality and ‘production readiness’. This is a practical guide to help you define a ‘prototype’, versus a ‘proof of concept’ and a ‘minimum viable product’ — and avoid costly misunderstandings.
Fake News and Misinformation: How digital tech can help
A global, immutable registry of labeled ‘fake news’ as the basis of a universal solution to the problem — on top of news organizations, social media, and search engines. By utilizing technologies such as Blockchain, IPFS, NLP the platform empowers a global network of evaluators to continuously fact-check and label a representative random sample of the fresh global content we produce and share.
Building an MVP: How to define the first instance of your product
This article provides actionable guidance on how to define a good Minimum Viable Product and how to avoid common mistakes and risks. If you are in the process of designing a product, establishing a product development function, or setting up a technology startup you will find essential information on how to approach the MVP development process.
A Fresh View on Innovation: An Interview with R. Nessensohn
Can innovation be taught? Are academic programs on innovation connected to the real world? What is the dream job for an innovation graduate? Robin Nessensohn, a Master student in innovation and entrepreneur shares his thoughts.
Design Sprints: How To Ensure Success
Design Sprints can generate remarkable output for your company — such as a backlog of impactful ideas (also with IP opportunities), functional prototypes, learnings, and key insights from customers along with real business opportunities. At the same time, they can lead to significant cultural improvements towards the ‘innovation mode’. But …
How to Set up the Innovation ‘Dream Team’
To become really innovative, your company needs a special culture, a new mindset across all levels, disciplines, and functions. As a leader, you need to introduce and promote a solid innovation framework, along with a talented team to lead the charge.