Product Quest Podcast

This is part 1 of our talk with Jan Schmiedgen. We will talk about all things Design and Innovation. Jan is one of those Duracell-bunny energy level kinds of people, which shows in his career path. Among doing many things he has published and blogged a lot on Design and Innovation in various places. He co-curates the blog thisisdesignthinking.net, is an entrepreneur who had several businesses and now managing partner and Innovation strategist at Codify. There is one sentence on the Codify website that sums Jan up: “intellectual curiosity paired with the strong need for independence”. Jan cofounded Codify, an agency that supports organizations in innovating their innovation management and supports them in a lean and evidence-based way.   Referenced on the show: Codify Design Thinking Article The Business Model Ontology: a Proposition in a Design Science Approach, Alex Osterwalder PhD Managing as Designing, Boland & Collopi Bruce Nussbaum business week articles: The Power of Design, Are Designers the enemy of Design The design of Business, Roger martin d-school Hasso Plattner Institut “we are sinking” ad

Today, we welcome our special guest, Michele Hansen. Michele is the co-founder of the Software-as-a-Service company Geocodio, along with her husband Mathias. Prior to being an entrepreneur, Michele was a product manager in financial publishing and a project manager for a web development agency.  She’s also a co-host of the Software Social Podcast, a weekly conversation between two SaaS founders… self-described as “one just starting out, and one who’s established.”   Michele is the author of an excellent book on customer interviewing, “Deploy Empathy”, which we are certain to get into today.   Referenced on the show: Deploy Empathy, Michele Hansen When Coffee and Kale Compete, Alan Klement Just Enough Research, Erica Hall Customer Visits, Edward McQuarrie Practical Empathy, Indi Young Interviewing Users, Steve Portigal Demand-Side Sales, Bob Moesta The Mom Test, Rob Fitzpatrick Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss The Pragmatic Programmer, David Thomas & Andrew Hunt You Just Don’t Understand, Deborah Tannen

Today, we welcome our special guest, Katerina Kozludzhova. Katerina is an experienced product manager who became so enthusiastic about innovation, she went on to get a PhD, with her dissertation on the commercialization of software innovations.  Today, she is the Chief Assistant Professor of Business Innovations at Plovdiv University in Bulgaria where she teaches courses on innovation, creativity, design thinking, product development, and commercialization.  She’s the author of the book, “Business Innovation,” which we are certain to get into today.   Referenced on the show: Business Innovation, Katerina Kozludskova  The personal MBA, Josh Kauffman The Innovator’s DNA, Jeff dyer Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen Oslo Manual, OECD Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers Qualtrics Survey Software

So we release part 2 of our effort to try to break jobs to be done. We prod it, push it, pull on it and generally try to exploit its weaknesses to see how it holds up. We will look at situations where JTBD seems to break down... situations where things people do are hard to explain from a jtbd perspective. We will talk about the role of emotion in people’s behaviour. In JTBD there is this notion of an emotional job which we will take apart.   Referenced on the show: The Statue in the Stone, Scott Burleson How Emotions are Made, Lisa Feldman Barrett

Today, we try to break jobs to be done. We prod it, push it, pull on it and generally try to exploit its weaknesses to see how it holds up. We will look at situations where JTBD seems to break down... situations where things people do are hard to explain from a jtbd perspective. We will talk about the role of emotion in people’s behaviour. In JTBD there is this notion of an emotional job which we will take apart.   This is part 1 – the riddle. Stay tuned for part 2 next week!   Referenced on the show: Motivating Human Behavior, Ernest Dichter Hooked, Nir Eyal

Today, we welcome Beat Walther for the second part of our talk. Beat started out his career at P&G, has worked at McKinsey and is managing partner at Vendbridge, the agency I work at and which he co-founded 20 years ago. He is co-creator of the CFI approach. CFI stands for Customer-Focused Innovation, an approach which helps companies focus their innovation resources on the winning ideas. Beyond his work at Vendbridge he is a board member and has coached more than 200 Startups. To listen to part 1, just scroll down to episode 8!

Today, we welcome our special guest Beat Walther. Beat started out his career at P&G, has worked at McKinsey and is managing partner at Vendbridge, the agency I work at and which he co-founded 20 years ago. He is co-creator of the CFI approach. CFI stands for Customer-Focused Innovation, an approach which helps companies focus their innovation resources on the winning ideas. Beyond his work at Vendbridge he is a board member and has coached more than 200 Startups.   This is part 1 of the podcast with Beat. Stay tuned for part 2 next week!

Dan Adams is the founder and president of The AIM Institute and is author of New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth.  He’s a chemical engineer by training and the holder of many patents, including a listing in the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.  Dan is a teacher to thousands of innovation practitioners, has coached hundreds (if not thousands) of innovation projects, and is the chief architect of Blueprinter® software – the tool that helps novice Voice of Customer practitioners to be as effective as experts, and helps experts to be as effective as masters.  Referenced on the show: New Product Blueprinting, Dan Adams The Child Influencers, Dan Adams The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy The Spin Selling Handbook, Neil Rackham

Anyone in the Jobs-to-be-done space by now surely knows his name and work but it’s worth pointing it out. He is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in design, customer experience, and strategy. He is currently Chief Evangelist at MURAL, the leading online whiteboard. He has written 3 books: Designing Web Navigation (O’Reilly, 2007), Mapping Experiences (O’Reilly, 2016), and most recently The Jobs To Be Done Playbook (Rosenfeld, 2020). He is also the Co-founder and Principal at the JTBD Toolkit, an online resource with learning, trainings, and content. Jim blogs at experiencinginformation.com and tweets under @jimkalbach.   Referenced on the show: The JTBD Playbook, Jim Kalbach Mapping Experiences, Jim Kalbach What Customers Want, Anthony Ulwick Value Proposition Design, Alex Osterwalder

If you’ve heard or used the term mental models, that’s because of her work and the book she wrote with that title “Mental Models”. Indeed she pioneered opportunity maps, mental model diagrams, and thinking styles. Indi is a writer, researcher, and coach for inclusive product strategy. Beyond Mental models she’s published Practical Empathy and she is very close to publishing her next book “Time to listen”. You can find all of that and more on her website indiyoung.com   Referenced on the show: Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil Time to Listen, Indi Young Practical Empathy, Indi Young Mental Models, Indi Young Against Empathy, Paul Bloom Mentioned after recording ended: Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, Ludwig fleck Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson Tell me a Story, Roger Schank