The OGSM model (Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Measures) can help teams get on the same page and moving in the right direction. For the past 25 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of groups across dozens of big companies and startups. One thing’s consistent: everyone works in teams, and the ultimate success of any organization relies on the overall…
Over the last 25 years, I have led hundreds of design thinking sessions for international organizations and startups including brands like Red Bull. These sessions allow product designers and senior executives to work together to co-develop ideas which align with larger business strategies and innovation initiatives. These live design thinking sessions are all focused on the same core idea: developing a…
For nearly three decades, I have worked with business leaders to help them drive innovation within their businesses by creating products and services that improve customers’ lives. Over the years, I have worked with hundreds to tools and frameworks to make this process easier and more straightforward for clients. The S-Curve Mapping template is one of the…
The conference room was abuzz with energy, teams of individuals were crowded around 6 circular tables, all of them were rapidly filling out post-it notes and sketching ideas on pieces of white paper. Once time ran out, each member called out their idea and the ideas were tacked to the walls around the room. Only…
Over the last two decades, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s most innovative business leaders to help develop innovative solutions and services for companies big and small. During that time, I have come across numerous methodologies for coming up with ground breaking innovations, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The power of the White…
As a consultant, I’ve had the chance to work with some of the world’s biggest businesses and organizations to help guide innovation initiatives and business strategies. What continues to surprise me is how often leaders lack a clear understanding of what the value proposition is that they are providing to customers before developing new products…
Amazon’s unique approach to innovation helps teams “work backwards” to create breakthroughs The best business strategies focus on meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations. This means envisioning customer problems as well as ideal solutions to those problems before actually developing a product or service–and this is exactly how Amazon innovates. Amazon’s secret to innovation is the…
A Project Plan is Just a List of Ingredients. A Project Charter is the Recipe. Having worked with both startups and big companies for more than 25 years, I’ve seen executives get so enamored of their “disruptive” future visions, they neglect the short-term plans that get things going. I’ve also seen leaders so focused on implementation they lose sight of…
Culture is a key success factor for every team and organization. Shape it to get more innovation, even from your remote workforce. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Box, Slack, and Salesforce all say that employees can keep working remotely well into next year or even forever. We’re seeing a sea change toward remote work and how…
Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “What’s measured improves.” So true. You get what you measure when it comes to business performance. The problem is that most teams don’t have clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of their strategies and projects. Sure, they may have goals, but without clear KPIs, they don’t have a way to know quantitatively that they’re…