From Pitch Deck to NPD: Adapting a Start-up Model for Corporate Innovation
John W. Eaton
Originally presented: February 21, 2019
Watch time: 31 minutes
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We often hear corporate innovation leaders encouraging their internal NPD teams to “act like a startup”…but that’s clearly easier said than done. And while founders of tech startups and “intrapreneurs” at Fortune 500 companies have the same basic commercialization goal – create a positive, profitable, scalable and sustainable path to success for their product or service – the language, process and pace of those efforts varies considerably whether you’re an independent visionary or a corporate product manager.
In this session we’ll compare and contrast the chaotic nature of startups with the discipline of corporate NPD using PDMA’s Body of Knowledge (BOK) as a framework, and focus on some essential elements of strategy, research, process, and collaboration to accelerate your work as a solo-entrepreneur or as a member of a product team within a larger organization.
Some takeaways from this session will include:
- What constitutes a strong “value proposition” for corporate innovation
- How to look at problems and solutions with less bias
- Knowing your customer(s) in a more intimate way through Human-Centered Design
- Refining the desirability/feasibility/viability of your concepts
We’ll also reserve some time to address your questions about Design-Thinking and how an end-user emphasis brings clarity and continuity to teams of any size and composition.
About the Presenter
John W. Eaton represents over 20 years of B2B product development, market research, innovation, design thinking and strategic planning. He has acquired a significant body of work across a variety of industries with regional start-ups, small businesses and multinationals including Northrop Grumman, IHS Global Insight and Johnson Controls. In his current role as Client Strategist at the Macomb-Oakland Incubator, John collaborates across the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help his client's ideas take shape, their products succeed, and their businesses thrive in in SE Michigan. John holds a BA from Western Michigan University in Art and Journalism, is a certified New Product Development Professional through the Product Development Management Association (PDMA), received a Business Incubation Management Certificate from the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) and earned a Foundations in Design Thinking certificate from IDEO.