ITX at 25: Creating a Culture of Product Innovation

When Ralph Dandrea founded ITX a quarter-century ago, the notion of product was a whole lot different than it is today. In 1997, he and other product builders thought about software through the lens of themselves as users – not of the end users who were truly using the products they built.

That thinking evolved over time, not unlike the software industry itself. “In those early days,” Ralph explains, “we weren’t thinking through all the edge cases that would be discovered out in the real world. Product thinking gives you this opportunity to look at something separate and distinct and to analyze it in a way that you really can’t if you’re just trying to substitute yourself as the user.”

In this special episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, ITX Founder and CEO Ralph Dandrea joins Sean and Paul to recognize the company’s 25-year history – from the Internet’s infancy and Y2K to the post-Covid era and beyond – but also to celebrate the people who helped create the culture of innovation that ITX enjoys today.

The attention paid to culture at ITX is not accidental. At the intersection of intentionality and culture lies an environment where not just product innovation thrives – but also the people who drive those innovations.

“That’s the foundation of our work at ITX,” Ralph says. “We’re creating this environment where we use our values, like Integrity, to create a sense of workability. We share similar beliefs; and we have expectations about how each other is going to behave,” he adds. “It makes life so much easier, makes our work so much easier. We’re lot more efficient than we would otherwise be.”

“As I reflect on these past 25 years, I feel gratitude,” Ralph concludes. “I’m very grateful to everyone who’s ever worked at ITX, many of whom are still around me, which has been fantastic. A lot of it is because of the fun we’ve been able to enjoy because the environment has been set up the right way.

“While I’m proud of where we are, I’m even more excited to see where we go next.”

Catch the entire conversation with Ralph to hear his insights on the next 25 years –

• People. The broad trend is that people will be even more at the center of what we do. As product people, we can facilitate that through the software we build by including more users with different needs and goals.

• Discovery. The fun part is discovering trends as they’re happening, experimenting to see what works, and bringing solutions to our customers as a new innovation.

• Value. We look at innovation from the value that’s created in the outcome. Everything we do to innovate is about helping people do what they want to accomplish in a way that better suits their needs.

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