Product Quest Podcast

Episode 15: Jan Schmiedgen and Design Thinking, part 2

This is part 2 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
Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Rittel & Webber
Wicked Problems in Design Thinking, Richard Buchanan

Episode 14: Jan Schmiedgen and Design Thinking, part 1

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

Episode 13: Michele Hansen on Customer Interviewing

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

Episode 12: Katerina Kozludzhova and the Discipline of Innovation

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

Episode 11: Breaking JTBD, The Answer, part 2

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

Episode 10: Breaking JTBD, The Riddle

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

Episode 9: The Customer-Focused Innovation approach with Beat Walther, part 2

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!

Episode 8: Beat Walther and Jobs-to-be-done, part1

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!

Episode 7: Importance of Adult Learning in B2B Innovation with Dan Adams

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

Episode 6: Job Mapping and the JTBD toolkit with Jim Kalbach

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