insights-tools
- Innovation Games at JavaRanch
Innovation Games® is being discussed at in the Agile and Other Processes forum at JavaRanch. There are some interesting posts—come join the fun
- Open Evaluation of Conference Speakers
I speak at a lot of conferences. Part of my job. For quite some time I’ve been promoting the idea that conferences should provide open rating systems of the speakers. This way you could have the prior feedback of other conference participants to help you decide if you should listen to someone speak. Of course, the idea isn’t perfect or foolproof...
- Ikea and a Stunning Example of Confusing and Poor Service
In a few weeks Enthiosys is going to be conducting several Innovation Games at the PDMA National Conference (you’re coming, right?). We’ve got a 10×20 booth at the conference, and a great wall space for playing games. The challenge that we’re facing is creating our first booth...
- QRCA 2006 Conference
I attended the annual QRCA conference last week. I was referred to the QRCA by Susan Abbott, an earlier reviewer of Innovation Games and a member of the QRCA. She suggested that I submit a talk. I did, and it was accepted. I was both thrilled, and frankly, a little anxious...
- Get Your Team in the Room
One of the debates that people engaging in market research have is whether or not the research team should be in the room with customers during the research or behind the glass in a specially designed focus group facility. This is one of the classic cases of “it depends”...
- Doug Englebart and Slashdot
Saw a post on slashdot about Doug Englebart’s Hyperscope being launched. If you haven’t ever watched the original videos of Doug demonstrating his work in 1968, you should. It is pretty amazing stuff. Don Nielson from SRI presented them at our 2005 Enthiosys Customer Appreciation Day. You can see them at http://www.enthiosys.com/evt-ecad2005.php. Very cool.Â
- LinkedIn email Blasts and The Danger and Opportunity of Using Cool Features in Unintended Ways
A few days ago I received an email from a friend announcing his new job as CTO of a startup company . Except the email didn’t come from my friend. It came from LinkedIn, via a feature that allows LinkedIn users to announce new jobs. Very cool, and very useful...
- Invention, Innovation, and Creating Great Products
My new book, Innovation Games, hits store shelves on Sept 1st. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about the publication of the book and encouraged by ongoing debates about the source of invention, innovation, and how these are harnessed to create great products. Let’s start with two recent posts about Innovation...
- innovation games®: creating breakthrough products through collaborative play
The toughest part of innovation? Accurately predicting what customers want, need, and will pay for. Even if you ask them, they often can’t explain what they want. Now, there’s a breakthrough solution: Innovation Games®: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play...
- Better Software Conference Keynote
Yesterday I gave my first keynote at the Better Software Conference. The topic was “The Complete Developer”. As you might expect, I used Innovation Games to help me prepare for the talk. It was a fun experience, and the conference was held in Vegas, which means that there is pretty much something for everyone. I’ll post more about the conference soon
- Crowding Out Tech Support
{This column was co-written with Marcia Kadanoff, customer marketing expert at Firewhite}. This week, there’s been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere and popular press about ”crowdsourcing” — empowering crowds of amateurs to do tasks previously filled by professionals. (See Jeff Howe’s Wired story and blog at http://crowdsourcing.com/...
- Systems That Explain Their Behavior Are Better For Users
It happened again. Wells Fargo, my bank, put an inexplicable hold on a check I deposited from a client. And I’m pretty frustrated by the whole experience precisely because of a single word in that last sentence. Inexplicable. Sometimes the hold is placed on a check. Sometimes it isn’t...
- dcamp and Innovation Games
Stacie Hibino and Rashmi Sinha invited me to attend (and sponsor, which Enthiosys did dcamp, the unconference on design and user experience. Everyone was quite gracious and let me talk about Innovation Games the first thing in the morning. It was a well attended session, and several people had a lot of fun playing the Innovation Gamesm Product Box...
- MIT Still Uses Chalk!
For those of you reading my blog, sorry for the long delay. We moved the blog from enthiosys.com to lukehohmann.com, and had some technical challenges in the process. I appear to be back online. My wife and I were talking about chalkboards a few weeks ago, and discussing the pros/cons of the large scale conversion to whiteboards...
- Wells Fargo, CRUD, and Road Maps in Agile Development
I’ve been a Wells Fargo customer since 2003, more than three years since the writing of this post, and generally, I’m satisfied with their online banking services. But, there are a few things that they get really wrong that just irk me...
- Role of the The Software Architect
A client in the process of adopting Agile / IID development practices recently asked me to meet with them to discuss the role of the architect. The concern is that some Agile approaches appear to devalue the role of the traditional architect...
- avoiding the post-course correction
As early as 1961, Soviet and American space scientists planned for mid-course corrections: those tiny bursts of rocket power designed to keep spacecraft on their trajectories to the Moon, Mars and beyond. With such long voyages, mid-course corrections are crucial to keeping space flights on track with the minimum of effort – and reserving fuel for later adjustments...
- owning the gap
Product managers are usually the people who “own the gap” for their specific products: identifying all of the missing or incomplete features and services and supporting processes that customers need for a successfully experience...
- Wooden on Leadership & The Name Enthiosys
Everyone at Enthiosys is eventually asked about our name. “Where does the name ‘Enthiosys’ come from? What does it mean?” We respond by telling them that the name comes from the Greek word “enthios”, which means ‘motivated by the spirit within’. Enthios is also the root for the word enthusiasm...
- Do Agile Teams Need Maintenance Organizations?
I’ve been helping some clients grapple with the role of the maintenance team in Agile-IID. I’m finding it a very fascinating topic, because it is allowing me to challenge many of my deeply held beliefs about creating effective software. To help me consider this topic better I thought I’d blog about it...
- Handshakes and Contracts
I recently read an article (I think in Fast Company) quoting Penn of Penn & Teller that he never does business with anyone he can’t trust with a handshake. I really agree with this. I just closed a deal for some additional work with an executive of a division of Emerson Electric via an email handshake...
- SDForum Open Source Think Tank
This afternoon I moderated the SDForum Open Source Think Tank event using the Remember the FutureSM game. Some of the people attending the event were the press, and I’m looking forward to read their impressions about the event...
- defensive processes
New ventures begin with an entirely empty slate: no products, no customers, no desks, no organization charts, no established procedures for creating value. Only blank pages and empty office space. This is part of the exhilaration, the chance to do things better and more simply than the last time. Of course, your founding team has lots of experience: ideas about how things get done...
- Blue Ocean Strategy
One of recent business books that has gotten a lot of press is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The favorable press is well-deserved, and in looking over my copy of the book I see many, many dog-eared pages. I know that I’ll be referencing it quite a bit. The most important aspect of the book is the focus on value innovation...
- Picking Your Conference
Scott Gilbert and I just spent a some time trying to pick the best time frame for our next Customer Appreciation Day. Our first one was held Sep 23, 2005, and we were thinking that another time of year would be better. As it turns out, this isn’t that easy...