Commentary by Katie Barry

PDMA's 32nd Annual International Conference - Day 1

I’m in Orlando for a few days attending the Product Development and Management Association’s 32nd Annual International Conference. It’s been a busy and fun day; I’ll try to sum it up here! I do have to say at the start that it’s been great to talk to people who know what TRIZ is!

The first of the morning’s keynotes was "From Passion to Reality: The Story of iRobot" by co-founder Helen Greiner. (Before she got into the business of her talk she satisfied the curiousity of the audience about her accent – a mix of London where she was born with Long Island and Boston thrown in for good measure!) One of iRobot’s big lessons was to incorporate users into their product development; what users do is often a mystery and surprise until the developers/design see them using the products.

Next up was "The Next Generation of ’Fast:’ Visual Problem-solving & Decision-making Using Oobeya, the ’Big Room’" by Takashi Tanaka (QV System, Inc.) and Don Kieffer (formerly of Harley-Davidson). Oobeya means "big room" in Japanese and is one small piece of the Toyota Management System.

The big room is all about human interaction and finding clear targets (even if they are unreasonable or unachievable) and accountabilities. Not for the first time today, the importance of finding/defining the root problem was raised. If the targets aren’t correct, the execution will not matter.

Focus on a quick and clear resolution of conflicts in an open and collaborative way. Picture a wall covered in Post-its (I have photos, but forget the cord to connect my camera to the laptop so pictures will follow later!) and using them to specify the progress/problems/make decisions.

This afternoon I sat in on the "Inside the Guru’s Studio" track. First up? Matt Calman, SVP and innovation executive from Bank of America with "Inside Bank of America’s Global Tech & Ops Innovation Lab." The lab is a team of seven at this time: 3 concept developers, 2 prototype developers, a technical lead and a lab director. They are a mix of ages, education and experience levels; everybody does everything.

The innovation lab focuses on everything "from ’twinkle’ to launch." They prototype (pure creativity), which leads to proof of concepts (a combination of prototyping with existing technology/systems). They use the prototyping to build requirements, not vice versa – another great way of being sure to identify the "right" problem. With a great deal of collaboration from discussion groups, voting systems and expert assessment they are able to progress to deciding to take an idea to market.

Next up was Adam Nash, Sr. Director, Product at LinkedIn.com with "Building a World Class Web 2.0 Product Organization." Their focus is how to make business people more productive. To do this, they use (many) small, cross-functional teams with the product managers as force multipliers who help define/set prioritizations for the business. Transparency is important in LinkedIn’s processes as well with a corporate wiki - specifications are open and transparent to all. The roadmap is a public document that helps reinforce the message that it is okay to be wrong and make mistakes.

And, in another repeated message of the day, Nash touted the importance of framing the problem as it "defines the solution!" Going along with that, rather than focusing on ROI, they focus on making LinkedIn useful and engaging, "knowing" that ROI will follow.

The last of the Guru sessions this afternoon was Rob Wallace from Wallace Church, "Reinventing Innovation: The 10 Best Practices of the Design-led Innovation Process."

1. Sharpen the ax (see quote from Abraham Lincoln)
2. Craft the team
3. Fund the process
4. Own an experience
5. Visualize the experience
6. New research methods
7. Integrate the team
8. Implement
9. Synthesize
10. Re-invent
11. (Yes, this was a surprise at the end of his presentation!) Determine ROI

The evening's keynote was Bumper Carroll from The Second City, "Improvise to Innovate." Since The Second City is all about performance and interaction, it should be no surprise that his presentation had the audience interacting in several different ways. I didn't have much time to take notes, but overall his three points were:

1. Set the stage for everyday innovation
2. Invite customers to co-create
3. Killer ideas are rare; idea killers are a dime a dozen.

Whew! That was a busy day! More to follow tomorrow!

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