The Product Pulse

Back in May, I was in Boston for the Front End of Innovation Conference, and also to meet with Dr. Brian Glassman, PhD Innovation Management. Battling a head cold from Austin to Boston, the first point of order before racing down to the Seaport hotel was a quick stop for a hot bowl of clam chowder at Fanueil Hall Marketplace. It didn't eliminate my cold, but it helped! I met Dr. Glassman on the exhibit floor and I discovered that he, too, was suffering from a cold. Must have been that time of year.

After we discussed the Advanced Ideation webinar we were working on, the bells chimed and the announcer let us know it was time to make our way into the next General Session. I was excited to attend this particular presentation as it featured Xerox, a Planview Enterprise customer. The presenter was Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, CTO Xerox & President Xerox Innovation Group who presented "Technology Led Innovation, Tapping What's Next."

What stood out in this presentation was the blending of technology with Xerox's actual customers to help drive their innovation process. The company has definitely spent a lot of time framing its innovation processes, not just from using cutting-edge technology to foster innovation, but by very proactively including customers in the innovation process itself. Customers' needs are the main elements in what Xerox positions as "Innovation Domains," which were Knowledge Work, Sustainability, and Personalization. What struck me was the similarity to what today's marketers do: create personas for your audience based on their functional roles within their organizations.

One section of her presentation that has us all laughing and agreeing with was when she showed old videos of users of high-end Xerox printers and copiers. "Imagine that if the machine goes down, there's a second engine that keeps running your job, so you don't have to wait for someone to fix it! You can avoid downtime and still get your job copied." The customers in the video absolutely loved this! Unlike the old "focus group" model, this was an open-dialogue format with Xerox and its customers at the same table, not hiding behind one way mirrors. They were able to gather not only the product wishes, but to test and evaluate new features in a qualitative and qualitative format to help validate new products or product enhancements: all driven from the actual customers who will be purchasing them again! It was also clear that Xerox is a highly mature and leading technology organization that relies heavily on technology and its customer base to drive the innovation process. This approach helps it achieve and defend its market leadership position and ensures it has an extremely robust and powerful product portfolio.

Another take-away from the conference itself: Innovation is HOT! More and more companies are creating innovation centers of excellence and creating new positions for people to "own" define and manage the innovation process. On the last day of the conference I was delighted to met Braden Kelley of Business Strategy Innovation. He shared some great insights about the conference and also gave me a lot to think about for the upcoming Open Innovation Summit in Chicago this August. If you're in R&D, Product Development, or Innovation, you probably already know about his blog, aptly named "Blogging Innovation." You can also find him on Twitter @innovate.

So -- did you attend FEI Boston? If so, I'd love to hear about your favorite Keynote or General Session!