Making Progress: The 7 Responsibilities of the Innovation Leader

by Ryan Jacoby

You’ve landed a job leading innovation. (It might not be called “innovation” exactly. Maybe you’re responsible for growth or you’re responsible for “new products,” or services. Maybe you have your own startup and have been building your team or you’ve been asked to lead “transformation” or a labs group at a big company….) Congratulations! What do you do now? Where do you start? What do you need to know? What are your real job responsibilities? If you don’t have a job description or it doesn’t seem to fit (or if you never really looked at it), you’ll need to come up with one for yourself that goes beyond a list of projects or hiring a team.That’s where this book comes in. It’s designed to be a tactical guide for you, the person charged with leading innovation, regardless of the product or domain, no matter the organizational structure you’ve inherited or are meant to create, no matter the process you’ve adopted or want to adopt, whether you work in a brand-new start up or a Fortune 500 corporation. It’s for managers and consultants, design directors and chief innovation officers, board members, CEOs, and recruiters. It will help you juggle the needs of your team, your organization, and the projects, products, or services themselves. It will give you a framework for problem-solving your approach to innovation when the pressure to solve big problems feels bigger than ever.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Design

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2022

Reviews

[Paulo Peres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

Fast, Lean, and concise book. Recommend it like an good pill for designers and innovators. Fast Reading and very good.

[Tim G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, sharp and concise little read. This suits those already with an exposure into the innovation space as touchstones and pertinent takeaways are littered throughout to anchor back on to, or to realign with. Personally, I enjoyed the refresh as there were some short sights and misdirection incorporated within the innovation space I was a part of when I consumed this book.
Some relevant standouts that were pertinent for the innovation space I was a part of:
'Get beyond cross functional. Your team should be dedicated to building and learning.'
'You need a balance of insight and action, prototyping and strategy.'
However, one I will ensure is intertwined within the foundation of the innovation spaces:
'Informed perspectives are better than desk assembled stories you hope are true.'

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful book for those in innovation and growth roles

As a UX designer leading an innovation team, I liked how much useful and actionable info is packed into this quick-to-read book.

I would recommend it to anyone looking to innovate in their company, especially those in software and tech.

5/5 stars for the usefulness and low price.

[Vik Venkatraman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tight little read on innovation, aimed at the corporate operator. Pretty good, just light.

[Anton Nikolov · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good short summary of processes from Lean ux, product discovery and similar.