Million Dollar Mindset: Think Like a Customer Do you ever wonder how some leaders and teams consistently innovate, differentiate, and achieve predictable revenue growth, while others seem stuck spinning their wheels? On a recent episode of the Million Dollar Mindset podcast, I explored what it takes to think like your customers, anticipate their hidden needs, ...

How To Transform Ordinary Teams Into Breakthrough Innovators “There’s no such thing as a creative or uncreative person or team; only people who are trained in creativity or untrained.” (Inspired by Jim Kwik’s insight on memory training) I hear leaders bemoan two common innovation struggles that, in reality, have the same root cause. First, some ...

Conviction Matters More Than Courage in Breakthrough Innovation “It’s like going to a casino where you don’t know the rules or the payout. You’re not going to place a big bet there.”    – Director of Engineering Most people think innovation takes courage. And yet, I have found that the leaders who move boldly on ...

Stop Guessing: Ask Better Questions Validating a market can mean two very different things: validating demand or validating your solution. Most companies confuse the two—and that’s why they miss the mark. Validating demand starts with understanding that true customer needs are separate and distinct from products and services. Theodore Levitt said it best: “People don’t ...

Companies are rushing to implement AI-driven customer insights, chatbots, and predictive analytics. The problem is, AI can do the work, but it can’t decide what work should be done. That decision must be rooted in customer understanding. Most innovation teams lack the operating system AI needs to succeed. The Amplification Problem Kentaro Toyama’s research in ...

The perception gap between what we think customers want and what they actually need isn’t just inconvenient — it’s dangerous. Here’s how to bridge it before it’s too late. Many innovation leaders believe they already know what customers need. But a 2022 Journal of Management review reveals a critical blind spot: acting on unverified assumptions. ...

Most innovation efforts still rely on intuition — or worse, guesswork — at the earliest and most important stages of product development. But there’s a better way. On Tuesday, July 2 at 9:00 AM ET, I’ll be sharing a powerful new tool I’ve developed called the Company-Centered Innovation Map™ — built around a core job ...