A brilliant spectrum of reds, yellows and greens… That is what I see out of my office window, and I realize that it has been a while since I posted. This is party due to my summer vacation, but mostly due to my sabbatical from writing about innovation. With over 26M hits on a Google blog search with the topic of “innovation”, it is making me rethink my approach and my value-add to the blogosphere.

I have been spending my free time by going back to my roots: engineering and software development. My time is spent acquainting myself with the Django platform, reading about product design, and coaching a FIRST LEGO® League (FLL) team with my husband for a robotics competition coming up in December. With that, in recent weeks, I have been playing with LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT, including turning my dining room into a robotics lab! I have to admit, I am new to this, since LEGO® was not part of my life when I was growing up. And although my son has been involved with LEGO for most of his life, I have only been an occasional sidekick, helping out when he needed it. I must say, I missed out, but now I’m working hard to make it up.

Though we are coaching 10-13 year-old boys, I noticed an amazing amount of similarity between playing with LEGOs and managing engineering projects. I hope you enjoy my observations, and please let me know if I left out anything.

Note that I find job titles personally challenging… Though I specifically mention engineering managers, for me this covers anyone that has the duties of managing a technology and product combination, along with the responsibilities of people management.

(more…)

We are all creative. But, we need inspiration and motivation to turn our creativity into action. Lately, I have been too focused on details, and as a result, I am starting to feel disconnected from my creative side. Here is a reminder, at least for me, of the many ways we can inspire our creativity. What works for you?

Just show up

As with anything in life,  showing up is the first step. You need to prioritize and schedule your creative time. This may not seem like an inspiration strategy, but what came first: the chicken or the egg?! With that said, you do want to tune into your natural creative rhythm to avoid swimming against the current. For me, trying to engage in anything before my morning coffee is a futile exercise (i.e., I am not a morning person). However, by mid-afternoon my creativity starts to flow and by early evening I feel intense focus. My challenge is to work my life around my creative rhythm; like weeding the garden, it’s never ending work…..

To discover your natural creative rhythm, you just need to pay attention. Pay attention to when you feel most creative, when ideas are flooding out and when you can tap into that energy with ease. Once you find that rhythm, figure ways to arrange your life around it, however you can. Your creativity and productivity will thank you.

(more…)

For me, there is something about the college environment, college town, … The diversity, intensity, energy, … it draws me in. For the next few weeks, I will be hanging around the University of Washington campus and University District in Seattle. No, it is not for my PhD, though that is something I would like to do.

Though I been to the University Bookstore before, this is my first time at the campus. It is quite large and very pleasant. Since it is the summer break, campus is also quiet. However, you will see many middle school kids running around (10-14 year olds) — future Huskies — which one of them is mine.

As I discover more about the area, I plan to upload photos to my Flickr account in the University of Washington set.

Note: This article is written from the perspective of technology development and leading R&D teams.

Developing technology is a relatively simple task when compared to the challenge of getting it diffused and adopted throughout the intended ecosystem. Although there are others, understanding customer needs, wants and overall psychology is one of the big hurdles that has to be overcome for success. This journey starts at home with your Customer Support team. Yet, there tends to be a gap between R&D and Customer Support teams during the innovation process. Here are my experiences on where the gaps can occur and strategies that worked for me for closing (or, when needed, widening) them.

Prioritize Customer Support correctly

On the road to your product release, you may be tempted to prioritize Customer Support behind everything else. After all, what could be more important than schedule, cost, functionality, … Believe me, it will happen, I have been there. And everyone in the program team will agree to that prioritization…. However, for new products and innovations, it is the wrong decision. Innovation is about change. Your Customer Support team is there to help your customers manage that change effectively. By prioritizing Customer Support low, you are under valuing the role that they play in supporting and hand holding the users of your products.

(more…)

I have been blogging since October of 2006. Below are my top 10 articles since the start of this blog. What do you think? What else should I write about?

1. Strategy 101: Revisiting low-cost leadership with Dell
2. How to identify forces impacting your innovation
3. Metrics gone bad and steps to recovery
4. Good, bad and ugly: Organizational silos
5. Best practices: SWOT analysis revisited
6. Strategy 101: What is your core competency?
7. Effective strategies for surviving culture tax
8. Create value at every touch point
9. Strategy 101: Characteristics of disruptive technologies — Wii has bad graphics!
10. Intrapreneurs: Navigate the corporate maze for innovation

We had a great visit to Japan. Kyoto was more beautiful than I remember, as cherry blossoms were everywhere. Tarkan (my 11-year-old son) and I had the opportunity to visit Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Tokyo. I have published our trip photos on Flickr. I plan to get back to Japan as soon as I can.

Thanks to Ichiro Suzuki (Japanese-born baseball player who plays for Seattle Mariners), everyone in Japan seems to know about Seattle, Washington. This came in handy when trying to bridge the language gap.

Japanese culture is complex and deep, and full of contradictions: new vs old, traditional vs trendy, nature vs gadgets. There is a large emphasis on acceptance and integration in all parts of their lives, potentially influenced by Shinto religion. Elegance, beauty and design dominates their castles and shrines. Design, and more importantly attention to details, is everywhere, from subways to the tea ceremony. (more…)

I was recently reminded of this beautiful story. Change is hard… Staring at a blank canvas stirs up way too many mixed emotions…. And, at the end of the day, my energy flows to where my attention goes. With that, this story is a good reminder of what counts at every given moment.

An old Cherokee is telling his granddaughter about a fight that is going on inside himself. He said it is between two wolves. One is evil: anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is good: friendly, joyful, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, faith and deep vision. He adds, “This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other human as well.”

The granddaughter thought about it for a minute and asked her grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The elder Cherokee replied: “The one I feed.”

– Native American Story

In a few days, I will be arriving to Tokyo, Japan. I was there in 2001 as part of my Management of Technology International Study Program. We had a blast visiting numerous companies in Japan and Singapore (Japan Productivity Center, NTT-DoCoMo, Kao Corporation, Sony Corporate Research Center and more). Our purpose was to compile American Practitioners’ Views of Technology Management in Japanese and Singaporean High-Technology Organizations. 

However, this trip is all about having fun! I am taking my 11-year-old to see Tokyo, Nikko, Osaka, Kyoto, Himeji, Hiroshima and surrounding areas. He is looking forward to visiting all the electronics and anime stores in Tokyo.  

Here is a quick look at our observations from 2001. Overall, we summarized our views of Japan and changes Japanese institutions were experiencing as such: (more…)

We are all creative, even when we don’t acknowledge our creative powers. How we take ideas and combine them in unique and unexpected ways is what creativity is all about. Motivation, inspiration, exploration, constraints and sharing are the ingredients of creativity. Sharing is also the igniter that starts us on the path of invention and innovation.

Sharing is risky. It generates conflicting emotions… What if someone steals my idea? What if I make a fool of myself? What if they don’t like it? What if? Yet, sharing is a must in order to prosper, to thrive, to evolve … A story comes to mind that I read recently about the difference between Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee.

…. The Dead Sea has no outlet. Both are fed by the same source but the Dead Sea can only receive an inward flow. The Dead Sea is prevented from flowing outward and the accumulation of salt has killed it. The Sea of Galilee is alive, only because what flows in can also flow out.

(more…)

We are having our share of winter snow storms this year in Seattle, WA, and it has been quite amazing. It is quite uncommon for this area to get so much snow. Life has certainly been brought to a standstill. I have captured some highlights of our snow storms here.

There is nothing purer than a white carpet of undisturbed snow that highlights the stillness and beauty of the holiday season. Wishing you peace, health and happiness throughout the year.