Innovation and Collaboration

Dave Pollard, a consultant on innovation and product development, posts his papers on business innovation & knowledge management.

We found his article Innovation as Collaboration thanks to Innovation Tools.

Pollard covers dozens of topics ranging from general creativity to concrete the blogging process with observations on why bloggers write and how to incorporate reader feedback.

Being a consultant, the first question I asked them was about their innovation process. Specifically, I asked, how were customer needs, complaints and ideas routed from the front-line customer contacts (the sales and marketing people) to R&D. I got blank stares. New product ideas were developed in the laboratory, it seems, and the only customer input was from surveys and focus groups once the R&D people already had something to show them.

Comments

[Dave Davison]

Peter: Thanks to your post I have spent the better part of this afternoon reviewing Dave Pollard's Salon blog. He has a good grasp of the use of conceptual diagrams and photos to "frame" his concepts in each blog - Do you know him? I would like to meet him or start up a conversation with him virtually.

I am thinking about your suggestion that I might make a contribution to your blog, and will find the time to send something along as soon as I think I have something useful to say.