TEI 004: “What does that mean to you?” - with Busines Strategy VP Louise Musial

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you another episode of The Everyday Innovator.

The podcast is all about helping people involved in developing and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.

Louise Musial, VP of Business Strategy at PCD Works, is an author of numerous articles for technical magazines and lecturer on the topics of Innovation, Open Innovation, and business trends in R&D. 

Highlights from the discussion include:

• An example of a partnership with a University research group that led to commercializing a product that makes clean water from waste water.
• The need for innovation in water – availability of clean water and reclamation of waste water
• Distraction-free innovation with the right people involved creates focus
• How the problem is framed impacts the solution
• Putting aside assumptions can create paths that lead to innovations
• Story telling is a useful tool for product innovators – filter what is unnecessary and keep the message simple but compelling
• Carefully observing customers is an important aspect of voice of the customer research
• Asking the same question multiple times in different ways improves understanding and can uncover assumptions
• When discussing requirements, ask “What does that mean to you?”
• Keep ideation teams small (12 or less) and take steps to break down barriers, develop rapport, and establish trust to be effective
• Sketching concepts helps explore concepts as a group
• Knowledge is created through what we learn from failures
• Failures are steps to innovation – the belief that “it is possible” creates breakthroughs