Hutch Carpenter
VP of Product at Spigit. Father of two young 'uns who misses running marathons. Living in San Francisco, CA, Hutch blogs @ I'm Not Actually a Geek.
What do you mean customers don’t know what they want?
If I’d asked customers what they want, they’d have said more convenience and relevance. Look familiar? I’ve riffed on that Henry Ford quote about faster horses, yada, yada. It’s not too far off from what customers would theoretically have been seeking in faster horses. I altered that quote to fit a modern day phenomenon: 3D [...]
Finding opportunities to unseat incumbents
On Quora, this question was asked: Competition: How do you assess the value of a new product or service vs an incumbent’s? Is there a starting set of criteria? eg. price, quantity provided, ease of use, breadth and so on. I’m thinking specifically of a product to supply financial news and information and prices. What [...]
A Method for Applying Jobs-to-Be-Done to Product and Service Design
Say you’re designing something new for a product or service. Of course, you have your own ideas for what to do. But, how informed are you really about what is needed? This is a question I faced in thinking about game mechanics used in a social platform. A common product approach is to work up [...]
What’s your view on customers’ value to innovation?
More and more, customer-centricity is becoming a thing. As in, an increasingly important philosophy to companies in managing day-to-day and even longer term planning. In comes in different forms: design thinking, social CRM, service-dominant logic, value co-creation. But it’s not pervasive at this point. Companies still are spotty on how much they integrate customers into their processes. [...]
Tweets Offer Little Value in Understanding Customer Needs
Social media. A rich source of insight and opportunity for companies. Why, it’s an article of faith that customers are talking…on their terms…where they want. So get out there and learn from them! See what this IBM executive says:
Jobs-to-be-done’s place in a customer-centric organization
On Twitter, I asked this question: When firms talk about being customer-centric today, what are they actually *doing*? FB page? Reacting to tweets? Sentiment analysis? #scrm — Hutch Carpenter (@bhc3) May 15, 2012 I asked it, as I had a conversation in recent days with a fellow from a large corporate. Customer-centricity was recently adopted [...]
Do big companies need a ‘slow development’ movement?
Read this comment by George Ciardi from a discussion about why products fail in the Market Research Group on LinkedIn: While proper research could certainly be part of the blame for the failure of some new products, I also see the realities of business pressures to launch “no matter what the research says”. Most companies [...]
Bell Labs Created Our Digital World. What They Teach Us about Innovation.
What do these following crucial, society-altering innovations have in common? Transistors Silicon-based semiconductors Mobile communication Lasers Solar cells UNIX operating system Information theory (link) They all have origins in the amazing Idea Factory, AT&T’s Bell Labs. I’ve had a chance to learn about Bell Labs via Jon Gertner’s new book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and [...]
10 Questions about Innovation Management
In a recent edition of Product Management Talk radio, I had the opportunity to speak on the topic, Expanding the Innovation Pie, along with Prabhakar Gopalan,corporate strategist at Dell. The show lasted an hour, and will be available as a podcast. In preparation for the show, host Cindy Solomonasked me to answer ten questions about innovation management. Those questions, and my [...]
It’s the Jobs-to-Be-Done, Stupid!
I do product management for Spigit. I’ve done product management for other companies as well. And let me tell you, the easiest thing in the world is to fall into the trap of focusing on how customers are using your product. Product forms your relationship with customers. It’s how you know them. They will tell [...]
On the Utility of Thinking in Terms of Jobs-to-Be-Done
In a recent post examining the future of retail, I used the jobs-to-be-done approach to break down the industry. And I’ve been using it more in other ways. It’s quite useful as a basis for innovation. The premise of the jobs-to-be-done approach is that it provides a much better basis for innovation. The focus is [...]
5 Social Business Truths
Meritocracy trumps hierarchy: Companies don’t get a “pass” on Wall Street or the London Exchange becauswe they’re been around way before new companies. Political candidates aren’t immune from beingf being upended when they don’t perform. Why should work be any different? Companies that focus on the meritocracy are focused on growth. Those that pay too much attention [...]
Four Innovation Insights Customers Provide
Customers, properly, have been having a renaissance of sorts in terms of business thinking. Peter Drucker famously espoused a very customer-centric business philosophy. Nowadays, social CRM represents the return of a customer-first orientation. Last year, Altimeter published the 18 use cases of social CRM. Included in those use cases were several that relate to innovation. [...]
Innovation Culture Eats R&D for Breakfast
Research and development is a mainstay of the innovation strategy for companies. And with good reason. R&D can invent new products and technologies that redefine markets. Think electricity, telephones, airplanes, semiconductors, the Internet. R&D can pave the way for whole new industries. Exciting, for sure! But there’s a problem. Too many companies treat R&D as [...]
Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2011: Idea Management Enlightenment
We’re movin’ on up…. Last year, Gartner released its Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2010. Idea Management, included in the analysis, was placed at the latter part of the Trough of Disillusionment. Tough name, although not as dire as it sounds. Rather, a transitional stage in the market evolution of a technology. Still, that part [...]
