613: Overcoming the 7 most common weaknesses in product innovation – with Chad McAllister, PhD

Seven mistakes that hold back product teams

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TLDR

I’m sharing insights from my presentation at the PDMA’s Ignite Innovation Conference, focusing on how organizations can overcome the seven most common weaknesses in product innovation. Drawing from decades of hands-on experience and the PDMA Body of Knowledge, I detail actionable steps for product professionals to boost their effectiveness and drive better outcomes for their teams and organizations.

Introduction

Last week, at the PDMA’s Ignite Innovation Conference, I gave a short presentation on overcoming the seven most common weaknesses in product innovation. Today, I want to bring that presentation to you as well.

The Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA) has been researching product innovation and product management for 50 years. They provides resources for product managers about how the most innovative companies innovate, including the book Product Development and Management Body of Knowledge, which I have contributed to each edition of, including as a co-author on the current edition.

PDMA organizes the body of knowledge of product management into seven knowledge areas. In this presentation, I’m talking about what I’ve learned teaching these seven knowledge areas over the past two decades. I train product teams through the Rapid Product Mastery (RPM) Experience. At the end of each RPM Experience, I create a next steps report, including my observations of the team’s weaknesses and how to address them. The teams also list the processes, tools, and concepts they believe would most help them deliver products customers love. In this presentation, I’ll share the most common weakness identified in these reports from each of the seven knowledge areas.

Use the personal scorecard I created to follow along and identify your own weaknesses:

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

1. Product Innovation Management

Most frequent weakness: Product managers are acting as project managers. They say, “I used to have interactions with customers, but not anymore.”