Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

In their new book, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, Chabris and Simons share a story where study participants were tasked with counting the number of times a basketball was passed during a one-minute film. Halfway through the film, someone in a gorilla suit walks through the picture while beating his chest and them leaves.

The amazing thing is that half of the participants were so focused on the task that afterward they had absolutely no recollection of seeing a gorilla. It’s what the authors call the illusion of attention and the illusion of memory-the fact that we put much more faith in our our powers of observation and recollection than is warranted.

While The Invisible Gorilla is not about new product development processes, there are some important lessons here for innovators. If you are interested in accelerating product development, you know it’s important to have people spend time interviewing customers. If you’ve ever participated in one of these interviews, you know there is lots of information that you have to pay attention to and later recall.

Of course, there’s what the customer actually says, but sometimes it’s just as important to pay attention to how they said it, or even the body language they exhibited while saying it. It requires impeccable listening skills and copious note taking.

The problem is that keeping everything from the interview straight means that you could easily miss the gorilla walking through the room – or more specifically clues that point to an opportunity to profitably serve a new unmet or un-articulated customer need. That’s why I coach new product development teams to divide and conquer by having three people participate in customer interviews or requirements definition sessions.

The first person leads the discussion and asks the questions. The second takes notes to aid recall afterward. The role of the third is to watch for the gorilla – to listen for clues that the other two might miss because of their task orientation on asking and note taking. They can then ask follow-up questions for clarification and to explore unexpected areas of opportunity.

The other important element in this process is the team debriefing that follows. Information accuracy has a half-life so you must record it while it’s still fresh. You may have notes in what was said, but recollections of emotions and body language fade fast.

Budget extra time between sessions and never wait until after you get back to the office to debrief. Plus, if you are conducting multiple interviews, always debrief before conducting the next interview. It’s critical to use what you’ve learned to improve successive sessions.

So what are the gorillas you’ve been missing in your customer interactions?
This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on his Simplifying Innovation blog.

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

A frustrated business executive recently asked me to help diagnose his company’s new product development processes. They had taken several new products most of the way through design only to have to go back and revise the design, and he felt like they were starting to go in circles.

When I asked what had caused the change, he said that a competitor had brought out an improved product while they were still in the product development phase. With the competitors announcement, adding similar features had forced them to go back and make major changes to the designs. They had done this more than once resulting in a significant delays for what should have been relatively straightforward new products.

But why were relatively straightforward projects taking so long that competitors were beating them to market in the first place? As we continued to dig for the root of his problem, I asked how early in the development of new products they were gathering customer requirements and freezing the design requirements. Talk about an “aha” moment as he realized he was allowing the entrepreneurial head of new products to operate without ever solidifying these requirements.

He had never seen the harm of allowing the product development team “some flexibility.” But as we discussed the situation, it became clear that this issue went beyond mere flexibility. Instead of identifying critical new product requirements, the team was allowing the design requirements to emerge as new products were being developed. This was creating multiple loops to go back and “fix” the work that had already been done. These loops were delaying projects so badly that competitors were launching new features and again sending them back to the drawing board.

If you face a similar situation, here are several changes you can make to get out of the flexibility loop that’s slowing your new product throughput:

1. Freeze Requirements – Specify critical new product requirements in the project plan before your constrained design and development resources begin work.
2. Stay Frozen – Only allow changes to critical requirements if the market changes dramatically. This would include game changing prices or features added by competitors are so compelling that they would obsolete your product before it launches.
3. View new product launches as a continuum – Minor improvements and features added by competitors should not be ignored, but should be considered for subsequent versions of the product.

This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on his Simplifying Innovation blog.

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

The subject of pricing makes most people uncomfortable – including those involved with new products. No surprise there since many organizations keep the responsibility for pricing in either finance or product management. But not including pricing strategy as a key, early element of your new product process is a serious mistake that leaves money on the table at best. And what’s worse – it can squander your constrained R&D resources. Quite simply, the best time to get pricing right is at the start – sometimes it’s the only chance you get.

The first question I ask B2B or industrial companies is whether they price for value or for margin – Note: We’ll cover consumer markets in a later article. I find that the majority of industrial companies price for margin. That’s unfortunate because pricing for margin is all about you instead of the customer. It starts with estimating your cost to manufacture; it finishes with setting a price to deliver either your target or minimum acceptable margin. The process isn’t quite as slavish as it sounds though. Some companies look at the competitive situation and tweak the price up if they can. Others start somewhere above their target margin in order to provide themselves a cushion.

On the other hand, pricing for value is all about what’s in it for the customer. Starting with the value created for the customer you can then determine whether there is anything in it for you. Pricing for value means starts with spending the time to understand what the customer’s problem is costing them and how much your solution will help them. The best way to quantify value is to estimate the impact in terms of increasing their sales Throughput (cash flow), reducing their Investment in working capital or reducing their Operating Expense. Those familiar with Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints will recognize this as ∆T, I, & OE.

But pricing for value is not a selfless act of charity. Once you understand the value created, your next step is to determine what percentage of that value you can expect to share in. The best way I’ve found to do this is from the customers’ perspective. Pretend you’re the customer and evaluate the new product based on the financial gain it’s going to give you. That usually means doing a cost in use analysis and then calculating either a payback period or a return on investment (ROI). Most companies expect to see a fast payback – 12 to 18 months – before they’ll buy. With a little trial and error, you can quickly determine the highest price that gives customers the payback they require. Of course, now that you know what’s in it for them, you can estimate the margin and ROI that’s in it for you.

Pricing for value helps better exploit your constrained new products development resources. Doing the upfront work to understand the value created and what price delivers an attractive payback for the customer defines commercial feasibility. It also helps you to evaluate, beforehand, whether the new product project is a good investment. If that works shows the value created also generates a margin at or above your target and a return on development resources that is equal to or better than your other opportunities, then the project deserves a place in your new product pipeline.

The argument for simplicity. Doing up front value work is an investment in itself. So, some will argue that pricing for margin is simpler and that you can still plug your price into a customer value in use model to see if it is attractive. But pricing for margin doesn’t include the customer’s perspective so it can leave margin on the table. Why settle for a 35% target margin, when your value work shows a 65% margin would give the customer a 12-month payback? Furthermore, pricing for margin fails to evaluate feasibility and weed out the products that will ultimately fail to deliver the margins you desire.

So what’s your pricing strategy? Join the conversation and let us know what you think.

This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on his Simplifying Innovation blog.

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Here’s a 3 part interview with Business 901′s Joe Dagger where we discussed applying Theory of Constraints to innovation, the Customer Value Lens, and open innovation as a tool to elevate the innovation bottleneck. Joe normally focuses on applying Lean methodologies to marketing, but he’s big on the subject of innovation and has recently been expanding his reach to include more TOC content.

It’s also available in eBook format at Business 901.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Patrick Lencioni’s new business fable, Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty is a short, but thoroughly enjoyable read about how being open, vulnerable, and transparent can help consultants and service companies do a better job for their clients.

But it got me thinking beyond that: “Doesn’t getting naked benefit product companies too? Can’t new product innovators uncover more unmet needs by being open, vulnerable, and transparent with their customers?”

Lencioni talks about three fears that hold companies back. The first fear is losing business – If a customer tells us what they want, many innovators want to take that information, run back and develop a product to match that as quickly as possible. After all, it’s what the customer said they want, so let’s get something in front of them before the competition does.

But that isn’t really doing the job the customer needs you to do.

They need you to question their assumptions, to ask why they think that’s what they need, and to do so over and over again, until you get to their core problem (for more techniques see the 5 Why’s). Because what they think they want and what they may actually need aren’t always the same thing – getting them to see that is an invaluable service. It’s also the best way to find unmet needs that you may be able to develop products to serve .

The second fear is being embarrassed – it’s human nature to want to be seen as being smart. But you need to get comfortable asking “dumb questions.” Customers often have assumptions about what you know so they don’t always offer information.

It’s only by getting over yourself and being willing to ask the crazy what-ifs that you stimulate thinking and get customers to share the really critical information you need to know in order to help solve their problem. Plus it’s a two-way street – once they see that you’re not hung-up about being infallible they’re more likely to let their facade down and participate in the fun.

The third fear is feeling inferior – not intellectually, but socially. You may have a PhD from Harvard, but if you’re worried about what others will think, if you’re above getting in there, rolling up your sleeves and getting your manicure dirty, you aren’t going to be able to see problems from the customer’s perspective. And that means missing valuable opportunities.

The Simple Bottom Line – The next time you’re headed out to see customers, keep your clothes on, but remember how letting go of those fears can lower the barriers between you and your customers and help you find more new product innovation opportunities.

This article appears courtesy of the author and was originally published on his Simplifying Innovation blog.

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Who would have guessed that a movie about blue aliens could teach us anything about new product innovation? Of course, I'm not talking about the movie itself, but the story of how it was made – something that was chronicled in a recent Business Week article – King of the World (Again)

James Cameron, the creator and director of Avatar, has a reputation for making Blockbuster movies with cutting edge special effects that deliver billions in revenue. Films like Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic. That's why Fox was all ears when he came to them with a screenplay for a new 3D film that promised to change the way that people viewed movies and return people to the box office.

But Cameron also has a reputation for going over budget – way over budget. That's why Fox made a really smart move in managing the innovation risk for this film. They used an assessment and feasibility step in deciding whether to resource the project.

The idea of proving feasibility before funding product development might seem a little buttoned down at first. But it seems to make sense even in a free-wheeling and big-spending industry like Hollywood. With a proposed budget of $237 million, Fox decided that the investment was just too big to jump in one go. Instead they gave Cameron $10 million for proof of concept.

Fox's approach with Avatar demonstrates another important point too – that invention and innovation are separate activities. The proof of concept wasn't about the invention or the technology. Cameron had already invested his own money in the invention of simultaneous 3D and 2D film making technology. The feasibility step was to prove that it would be commercially viable.

The movie industry has been hammered by an abundance of leisure time choices including Hi-Def movies on home big screens, video games, TV and the internet. If Avatar was going to be successful, Cameron had to create something so compelling and so unique that people would pay more to go to the theater.

The proof of concept demonstrated that Cameron could deliver on his vision and Fox eventually lined up the entire $237 million. Of course, with box office results hitting the $1 billion mark in its first 17 days, the rest of the story is quickly becoming history.

History that we should try to learn from.

So let me know. What do you think about Fox's approach and what might you have done differently?

This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on his Simplifying Innovation blog.

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Most companies have more new product ideas than they have people to pursue them, but half still struggle with new products that under perform in the market. So how can you identify the most important new product ideas – the ones that customers want and will buy?

How do you know what customers want? The simple answer is to ask them. But most of the time, it’s also the wrong answer. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do ample customer interview work as part of new product development. Just the opposite—in fact , you should complete much of that work before you spend any of your constrained resources on new product development. It’s just that what customers think they want usually isn’t what they actually need and what they end up buying. But that’s not their fault. It’s not their job to know what they need.

When I worked in the polymer industry, we had a pigment-manufacturing customer that came to us asking for the lowest molecular weight polymer that we could make. Without asking anything further, the lab could have simply whipped up a sample. But the technical service person on the account knew better and asked what he was trying to accomplish. The customer explained that he thought that would give him more color from his pigment. It turned out that his working model was 180 degrees from the science – what he needed was just the opposite of what he asked for.

Now, this customer wasn’t stupid—far from it. It’s just that when he told us what he wanted he was straying outside of his expertise. After all, he was a pigment chemist, not a polymer physicist. He knew he wanted more color, but trying to design the right dispersant to do that was not his expertise.

So how do you know what customers need? The answer is not as simple as just asking, but there are a couple of things you can do to find out:

Observe your customers in action – Ethnography is the science of observing users in action. Grounded in anthropology, this method helps innovators find the workarounds that users must employ; the obstacles that make their work harder; and the tedious, dirty and time-consuming jobs they would like eliminated. SC Johnson & Son watched users deal with the nasty job of cleaning toilets to come up with its Scrubbing Bubbles® flushable toilet scrubbing wands. This product was designed after seeing the lengths users went to try and avoid touching anywhere around the bowl or the brush.

Ask customers high gain questions – Voice of the customer is a well-meaning approach that many companies use to identify new product requirements. However, it asks customers to talk about their issues in their language. Unfortunately, this often leads to translation issues when their comments are converted into product requirements—A frequent source of confusion.

What Customers Want

Alternatively, in his book, What Customers Want, Anthony Ulwick suggests a different approach. Simply, ask customers what they want to maximize and what they want to minimize. This approach moves the customer from talking about the design of your product (like the molecular weight in the earlier example) and gets them talking about their needs. Most importantly, it does so in a language that your engineers and designers understand. Some examples:

1. Painting contractors want to minimize the time they have to wait between coats of paint.
2. Building designers want to minimize the space that physical equipment (heating, air conditioning, etc.) takes up in a building.
3. Aircraft operators want to minimize time between maintenance overhauls.
4. High performance car enthusiasts want to maximize traction.

Of course, there will often be contradictory objectives. But, that’s a good thing. Those contradictions can point to the need for innovation and show you where new opportunities may lie. For example, while high performance car enthusiasts want to maximize traction, they also want to maximize tire life. Normally, the softer rubber compounds needed for maximum traction end up dramatically sacrificing tread life. There’s a huge opportunity for any new technology that can move the curve describing tread life vs. traction. Of course, the same opportunity exists for traction vs. fuel efficiency.

The Simple Bottom Line

Customers often don’t know what they want and asking can lead your new product development astray. Instead, focus on understanding what customers need by watching them in action and asking what they want to maximize and what they want to minimize.

This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on the Simplifying Innovation site.

Dalton on Innovation

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 8 – 13 minutes

I met him several years ago when he was a client of mine. When he left the corporate world to start his own business, he called me up and asked for some advice and support. Today, Mike Dalton is a successful consultant who just wrote his first book – and he contributes to Elephants at Work. I had the honor of seeing an advance production copy to provide feedback.

It is fascinating to learn about how someone gets a book written. What process do they use, what obstacles did they face? Find out about how Mike handled it.

Mike, at what point did you come up with the idea to write a book about Innovation?  What was your inspiration?

When I was responsible for the new business development and innovation process for SC Johnson & Son’s polymer business (now BASF), my team started trying to use some of the TOC concepts to improve new product success. Then one day on a long car ride to see a customer, some of the guys on my team and I were talking about how it would make a good business novel. Ever since reading Eli Goldratt’s seminal work, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, I have always enjoyed that format. I am a big fan of Patrick Lencioni’s work too (The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable,  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, etc). Anyway, we even sketched out a story outline just to entertain ourselves in the car.  Nothing came of it at the time, but it planted the seed still it was the seed of an idea to write a business novel on innovation.

Once you had the idea, how long did it take you to get started?

Well that was about 5 or six years ago. Early on though, it just seemed like someone else must have already seen the role TOC could play. I did not take it too seriously. Later in 2006, when I started Guided Innovation Group, my innovation coaching and consulting firm, my research showed that no one else had made that connection – or if they had, they were keeping it to themselves. Then as my practice developed, I really began to flesh out what I call the Guided Innovation System and some of my other tools like Customer Value Lens and Guided Innovation Mapping. It was over the last 3 years where that original idea germinated and then eventually blossomed into Simplifying Innovation.

Who was your champion?

I am not sure I had any one champion; there have been many giving people as I have developed this approach.

Several successful independent consultants that I worked with over the years, like Dr. Jim Hlavacek, Dr. Gene Slowinski, and Dr. Matt Sagal, all advised me early on that a book is critical to differentiating yourself.

Then during the writing and peer review process, I got help from many people, including several TOC luminaries, like Bill Dettmer and Dr. Lisa Lang. They provided great feedback and helped me fine-tune my approach even further for the final edit.

Did you have a goal to finish by a certain date?

I did – In July of 2009; I set a goal to write my first draft in 100 days and to have the book selling on Amazon right after the start of the New Year.

Did you make that date? If not, what where some of the hurdles?

I am happy to say that I did reach both goals. Of course, since the book teaches some planning and project management techniques, it would have been pretty lame.

As far as hurdles, just fitting it all in to a six month window was a big one. To do that I used one of my own techniques, Guided Innovation Mapping, where I worked backwards from my goal to identify the obstacles and then built a plan to get around all of them within my time line. I ended up carving out two hours a day for writing and then two more hours for some of the production and marketing tasks.  I started in July and had a complete manuscript in early October.

Tell us some more about other hurdles. What was the most difficult one? How did you overcome it?

Learning to write in a novel format was probably the biggest hurdle. While I am a big fan of the format, I am not sure I would recommend that anyone attempt it without a safety net.  It is kind of funny too, because that’s exactly what Carol Ptak warned me from her experience with Necessary but Not Sufficient: A Theory of Constraints Business Novel, a business novel she wrote together with Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim.

Mike's Storyboard

The reason it is so hard is that it is like writing two books at the same time. You have to write a business book that teaches all of the important points the reader needs to know. At the same time, you have to create a novel with compelling characters and an interesting challenge so that the reader is immersed in the experience. The hard part is that they have to be intertwined. You can only teach at certain parts in the story, as certain conflicts are uncovered or resolved. The story can only progress as the teaching moments present themselves. Eventually, the only way I could keep it all straight, was with a graphical, color-coded storyboard that let me keep track of all of the different elements. I really learned a lot about writing in the process.

Were there any parallels to writing the book and your story in Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources?

Oh, very much so. You know one of the things that I teach in the book is fully exploiting your innovation bottleneck. One of the ways you do that is by making sure you are addressing an unmet need. For me, the unmet need became companies not being able to improve the impact they get from their investment in new product innovation.

Well, improving innovation is definitely a place where companies struggle. It is amazing really. There are all these strategies and experts out there advising companies on innovation, but 50% of CEO’s are still dissatisfied with their return on R&D spending. If you look at the US manufacturing sector alone, $75 Billion (that is right – billion with a B) is wasted on ineffective innovation. That may be rounding error compared to what Washington spends, but in the real world, companies are spending 20-50% of their net earnings on R&D without seeing the return they expect. We have to do better than that. But, how?

As you know, I am a big picture guy, so stepping back from the issues, it became clear that there are all these great ideas, concepts and tools out there, but no clear framework of how to apply continuous improvement principles to new product and service development. Inside companies, everyone complains about not having enough resources, but CEO’s already feels like they are spending too much as it is. The real root of the problem is they do not know how to systematically attack the problem at its leverage point – the innovation bottleneck.  Put simply, it is how to get more out of what they are already investing – it is the unmet need.

What was the biggest Ah Ha you had while going through this process?

I would have to say that my Ah Ha moment was in coming up with the final title – I started writing with the working title of Innovation Flywheel – marketing and innovation working together to create momentum. About half way through the writing, the simplifying theme had emerged as a predominant part of the storyline. That is when it hit me – Innovation will always be a complex process; improvement should not be.  There is so much clutter out there making it hard for leaders to focus; what I was really providing was not just improvement, it was a framework for simplifying improvement of the innovation process – and doing so with the resources, you already have.

Then, over Thanksgiving break, I read Goldratt’s recent book, The Choice. That just further confirmed for me that I had chosen the right title and theme. He talks extensively about what he calls inherent simplicity–How TOC simplifies improvement and change by showing you where the leverage point is. It was quite gratifying to see that I had independently stumbled upon the same path.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mike! If you need someone with his insight and talent, give him a call today.

Lynn Dessert owns Leadership Breakthrough, improving personal communication and influence one-step at a time. Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

Last year, I attended a mind mapping seminar. If you do not know what a mind map is, go here for a quick summary or scroll down to the bottom of the post for a video.

Mind mapping is a powerful tool, which appeals to both right and left-brain thinkers. It is allows you to become more productive in your business and personal life.  Here is a short list of situations where you might use it:

• Creating content for presentations
• Problem solving
• Designing a website
• Developing a business plan
• Project planning
• Brainstorming
• Information management
• Prioritization
• Personal development
• Be more creative
• Organizing information
• Communicate effectively

There is an overwhelming number of products out there which do some form of mind mapping, diagramming or other visual thinking service. It was time to compile a list, partly because I would like to settle in with one of these tools; the other reason is I want to hear what you think about them before I make a decision.

• Buzan World- Mind map originator Tony Buzan’s website and product site iMindMap®
• NovaMind – check out some of the educational videos on what mind mapping is about and why you need it. Keep up to date on their blog here.
• Mindomo – internet and desktop applications with free basic starter and upgrade plans
• FreeMind – Free mind mapping software written in Java. Download available through this site.
• MindManager - A Mindjet product free trial or subscription is available. Applications for iPhone, remember to check out their template gallery.
• Mappio – A free website to share your mind map with others
• Comapping – Free to low subscription rates for online mind mapping software. Beta desktop version is available.
• Edraw Soft – Vector based mind mapping freeware
• Mapul – Free web-based online mind mapping tool
• MindApp 6 – Free download trial available or take advantage of their special price of $29 for a limited time.
• Mindmeister – Free to enterprise plans available for online mind mapping. Featured maps.
• Xmind – Free and pro versions are available. Check out the XMind blog here to get new ideas.
• SmartDraw – Automatically draws and formats your mind mapping diagram.
• bubbl.us - Get started immediately when you land on this page – it is free. The video at the bottom of the page features this application.
• Glinkr – Open source, free web based mind mapping software, supported in Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer.
• Mindview 3 – Professional mind mapping software with a free trial available
• Mind42 – Free web based application with the ability to collaborate.
• Visual Mind - Software based on the mind mapping technique.
• WiseMapping – Free software in beta version.
• Imagination Cubed – Free, free-form drawing program with limitations in creating mind mapping.
• Project Draw – Free drawing program with preformed basic shapes.
• Gliffy – Online diagram software that offers a free trial
• LooseStitch – Free or pay for pro. Create outlines and share documents.
• ThinkFold – Real time collaboration with work groups on projects, documents and presentations. Open source, free, beta version. Keep up to date on their blog here.
• Sproutliner – Free web based service to manage projects and ideas. Open source, beta version.
• Inspiration 9 – Visual mapping, outlining, writing and making presentations.

This is a quick video that shows how you can begin to mind map quickly.

Mind Mapping – Part One – Bubbl.us (a)

Now it is your turn. Which mind mapping products have you used? What do you like or dislike?

Lynn Dessert owns Leadership Breakthrough, improving personal communication and influence one-step at a time. Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

In a recent Fast Company article and video on Open Forum, Dan & Chip Heath, co-authors of Made to Stick, look at how to explain new ideas – what your innovation is and what it does. If ideas aren’t readily accepted, they can die quickly, and there’s often a lot riding on getting it right – particularly for you as a manager or business owner. From a TOC or critical chain perspective, once your new product is launched, your constraint often becomes market acceptance. In some cases that means getting people to understand what your innovation is and how it can help them.

There are lots of things that can constrain how readily the market accepts your new product or innovation, but the Heaths cover a very important one: helping potential buyers quickly understand what the product is and what it does. Anchor and Twist are the two suggestions they offer—Anchor your product to something they already know. Twist to show how it’s different than everything else. Here’s an example with Palm’s new Pre phone:

First the anchor: The new Palm Pre phone is like Apple’s iPhone. Just another touchscreen smartphone…

Then the twist: But it has a slide out keyboard if you don’t want to use the touch screen and it can run multiple applications at the same time – something the iPhone can’t do (yet)

You might recognize anchor and twist as part of the unique selling proposition. The only thing I would add is the benefit. Why do they care? What’s in it for them (WIFT)?

Back to the Palm example—

WIFT: It can run multiple applications at the same time, which makes it easier to use. I can be writing an email, switch to my contacts to copy a phone number or address or jump over to Amazon to copy a link, and then hop back to the open email without having to restart the email application. A big deal when you use your smartphone for 50% of your emails.

So, to speed innovation acceptance and increase your new product sales, Anchor, Twist… and be clear on WIFT

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Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton’s innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies. Mike is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact.