Aligning Innovation with Strategy; Visiting Silicon Valley and Austin in February

Jeff Lash

What You Need to Know About Aligning Innovation With Strategy
A few months ago, I mentioned some new I’m doing at SiriusDecisions related to innovation strategy, looking at how business-to-business organizations make decisions about what markets, products, and areas to invest in with respect to innovation.

I just published the results of some of that research in a new blog post: What You Need to Know About Aligning Innovation With Strategy. You can also take the survey to see how your organization compares; everyone who participates will receive a summary of the survey results.

On the road: Silicon Valley and Austin

I’ll be traveling a bit in the next few weeks for some great product management events. On Wednesday, February 5, I’ll be in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, to be specific) to present at a meeting of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association. The topic will be Innovation Investment Strategy and Product Portfolio Optimization, and here’s what I’ll be covering:

One struggle product managers and product management leaders have with budgeting is determining how much to invest in products. It’s enough of a challenge for a single-product company. However, since most companies have more than one product, there are also considerations on how to allocate budget across multiple products, which introduces many more variables. Many companies base their investment decisions on flawed criteria like internal politics and legacy investments, rather than the markets and buyers that will best contribute to company growth. This session will go over a market-based approach to innovation investments and how to balance investments in new products vs. enhancing existing products.

Sound interesting? Learn more and register on the SVPMA site. If you’re planning on attending, let me know so I can put a face with an email address / Twitter handle.

Then, on Saturday, February 15, I’ll be in Texas for ProductCamp Austin 12. This always-popular event already has a wait list, so if you haven’t signed up yet, do it now or you may miss your chance to attend. Again, if you’ll be there, let me know so I can put a face with an email address / Twitter handle.

What’s Hot on Twitter

Here are a few of my tweets which have generated the most interest over the past few weeks; to get these in real-time, follow me at @jefflash: