The Innovation Blog

Product launches are complex.  That was the main takeaway of the PDMA 2010 Lab E – Launch for Commercial Success which I had the privilege of attending today.  The session kicked off with an apt and literal example: a NASA shuttle launch.  When NASA launched the Saturn V rocket, its engineers were depending on the successful integration of 2 million distinct systems.  2 million!  And, as Richard Koppel pointed out, NASA operates in a space (get it?) where getting it right the first time is “mission critical” – if something goes wrong, not only are millions of dollars wasted, but people die.  Fortunately, product launches are not as high stakes as shuttle launches, but you still want to ensure your innovation is brought to market as seamlessly as possible.  So how do you launch successfully given all of the variables, risks and uncertainties inherent in the process?  Here are the top 7 themes of the day which will help you make sure all systems are go when you blastoff.

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Topics: Innovation Roadmap, Launch, Product Launch, Design, Brand Experience, Chris Dolan, Innovation, Cross Functional Teams, Risk, M.A.S.H

At Creative Realities, we call ourselves "the innovation management collaborative."  We do that as a result of  some brand equity research we commissioned about a year ago to find out what value our past and current clients found in us versus the competition.  We were in the midst of creating a new "Brand Expression" for ourselves with a cool company called blackcoffee.

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Topics: Jay Terwilliger, Creating an Innovation Team, Championed Teamwork, Expertise and Naivete, M.A.S.H