Initiating Innovation Projects


Dear Reader,

Last night, Martina Skender gave an inspiring talk about a critical point of innovation projects...the start.

As a researcher & innovation strategist, her work involves many business stakeholders.

But her approach to innovation is still very human-centric, and I think you will enjoy hearing about how she handles the difficulty of innovation work.

She gave concrete ways to:

  • Establish a culture of courage
  • Design a system for people to disagree
  • Improve communication through humility

You can watch the full talk below:

Martina was also kind enough to share her slides in a Miro board. Check them out here for a nice collection of innovation assets from the toolbox of a working strategist.

Until next week!

Jeff Humble
Designer & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.

Read more from The Fountain Institute

Let's Talk about Liquid Glass by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Goodbye, paper-like design. Hello, moving blobs of liquid glass! Play button blunder from Apple Apple's new paradigm in aesthetics is both cool and potentially awful at the same time. "Rather than trying to simply re-create a material from the physical world, Liquid Glass is a new digital meta-material that dynamically bends and shapes light." -Apple Just when you thought skeuomorphism was dead, it rears its realistic head again. I...

Assumption Olympics: Why I Always Win Gold in Overreacting By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, I once pitched a new workshop format to a team of collaborators. One person nodded slowly and said, “Hmm… okay.” That was it. I smiled. Externally, totally composed. Internally? I sprinted up a mental staircase of conclusions: They don’t like it. They’re being polite. They think I’m not strategic. This was a bad idea. I’ve blown this opportunity. Maybe I’m not cut out for this work. I didn’t realize I was...

monopoly dotcom edition yahoo

Monetizing at the Cost of the User Experience by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Companies don't like to consider how customers can be annoyed by monetization. Companies are always looking for ways to monetize their assets. Even attention is monetized these days. As we'll see in two examples, monetization can make or break the user experience. Monetizing Fail: Yahoo’s Decline (1990s-2010s) Yahoo used to be the tech darling of the internet, much like Google or OpenAI is today. The company had humble...