Popular Speaking Topics

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 Abstract

Creativity is the work of a lone genius. Creative answers appear like a flash of lightning. Creative work is reserved for artists.

WRONG!

All executive leaders need creativity for innovation, trouble-shooting, and supporting customers. Creative problem-solving relies on experimentation, learning, and process methods. Individuals and organizations can nurture creative work in traditional shared office spaces and in hybrid models with dispersed teams. 

As work environments transition and transform through AI, organizations must adapt their innovation processes. Creativity requires a degree of spontaneity and team members must share nascent ideas to nurture and grow them. However, spontaneous creativity has suffered from lack of interactions among people and there is a real concern that AI disadvantages the human perspective. 

Learning Objectives

1. You will learn how to engage all team members in creative, collaborative work regardless of distance or space.

2. You will learn how to implement a process to drive enhanced creativity and problem-solving at all levels of the organization.

3. You will learn how to select simple tools that support collaboration and productivity to improve the change management in organizations.

 Abstract

Over the past few years, many organizations that manufacture tangible products have attempted Agile approaches for new product development. Unfortunately, many of these processes fail to deliver the expected results in speed-to-market and flexibility. Yet, returning to a full waterfall process remains bureaucratic and intractable with remote and virtual teams. The solution is a hybrid agile-waterfall process. 

In this session, we will identify various processes and systems for new product development (NPD). You will learn about two approaches to hybrid product development that can enhance the culture of innovation in your organization. We will provide examples of companies that adopted different processes to add flexibility while minimizing risk. Comparing and contrasting a non-profit using WAGILE Product Development and a manufacturer using Lean NPD, you will understand how culture and risk tolerance impact the choice of an effective product development process.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand risk in innovation from a perspective of requirements uncertainty and technical uncertainty

2. Identify different hybrid Agile-waterfall approaches to new product development

3. Compare and contrast two organizations design of NPD systems based on risk tolerance and culture

 Abstract  

Product management is a relative newcomer on the scene within the realm of successful project execution. Whether you work on IT projects or with tangible new products, business objectives for product management are similar. Corporate strategy, portfolio balance, project execution, and team development are necessary skills for a product manager to master.

In this interactive session, we will identify key business objectives for successful product management. Using a set of creativity tools, you will begin to align your own experiences as a product manager with traditional business deliverables for product development. Finally, you will design a simple, three-step action plan to achieve your personal development goals to launch and accelerate a purpose-driven career as a product manager.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify core business objectives in product management.

2. Align your product manager (PM) skills with core business deliverables.

3. Design a simple action plan to achieve your PM career goals.