393: Tech-driven vs. market-driven innovation

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next
episode of... Product Mastery Now with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and
managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and
STANDOUT from their peers. About the Episode:  Today we are
exploring technology-driven vs. market-driven innovation. I want to
set up the topic for us a bit. There are times that a technology
comes first and later a problem associated with a market need is
found that the technology addresses. Examples include the glue that
made 3M’s Post-it-Notes possible 7 years after the glue was
invented, an electric actuator Caterpillar invented that went
unused until they later created a digger that couldn’t use their
standard hydraulics platform, or the magnetic research my daughter
is doing as a physics student, studying spin wave properties, for
applications that are yet to be discovered. However, I find
market-driven innovation is more common—the wants and unmet needs
of customers are first discovered and then solutions are
considered. This is the innovation process seen in the
Jobs-to-be-Done methodology and described in many books
including The Innovator’s Method. To help us compare and
contrast these approaches, Dr. John Cooley is with us. John has
five technology degrees from MIT, starting with dual bachelors in
electrical engineering (EE) and physics and including a PhD in EE.
He founded Nanoramic in 2009 and now serves as the Chief of
Products and Innovation. Nanoramic is a nanocarbon composites
engineering company, currently working on electric vehicle
batteries by reducing their costs while increasing their energy
density (more energy in smaller and lighter batteries) and at the
same time providing rapid charging.