Through the years, we’ve worked with innovation leaders whose primary challenge has been moving past the hit or miss mentality that is so common in our field. After all, when most of us think of innovation, words like “consistency” and “stability” don’t exactly spring...
As we enter adulthood, most of us come to realize, and hopefully appreciate, how much our parents’ values shaped our lives. While I might have spent my earlier years denying how much their influence has had to do with my personal success, in the past decade or so,...
With persisting talk of inflation and recession, many of our colleagues and clients are anticipating a slowdown period in which innovation takes a back seat to cost-cutting and downsizing. These pullbacks may test the nerve of many innovation leaders, but I’m here to...
Design sprints are compressed agile development cycles in which stakeholders identify problems, then brainstorm and build out prototype solutions in order to validate ideas before investing heavily into developing them. We use these to transform our business quickly and effectively and avoid investing money in ideas that might misidentify problems or the assumed solutions to those problems.
One of the top challenges business leaders face when trying to accelerate digital transformation is expanding low code adoption throughout their enterprise. Large scale implementation is a powerful way to get more people involved with digital transformation and...
As innovation leaders, we live in a space of “comfortable discomfort.” It is routine for us to be in a constant state of failure, which is how we refine and move forward through the innovation process. In golf, they say, "it’s okay to play bad, but play bad fast." In...
Chances are your company has been facing record staff shortages and employee turnover. You are bleeding talent and losing team members who could have played a key role in your innovation projects. With “The Great Resignation” in full-swing, companies are finding it...
Appian just won a $2 billion trade secrets claim against Pega. Should you be panicking? Since last week, I've been fielding calls from clients asking how concerned they should be about the court’s decision. My advice: Climb down off the ledge. But based on the...
When you hear the term “high performance,” what images pop into your head? When I asked what “high performance” means for innovation leaders in my Innovation eXcelerator program, I got a mixed reaction and confused looks. I understand why combining high performance...
You know the feeling. It’s the middle of the day. You’ve been on back-to-back virtual meetings for four hours straight. And now you need to pivot and get into the right frame of mind to prepare a deck to pitch a new idea or business case to your company’s leadership....
Today there are so many collaboration tools to choose from when leading design thinking sessions and design sprints. At last count, our list is up to 25 different design thinking collaboration tools, including the most popular tools such as Mural and Miro....
I love this time of year because of the optimism I see in so many leaders about the potential to unlock new innovation in the coming year. If you’re like me, you’re reading up on predictions and trends that will shape innovation and technology over the coming years....
Today, innovation leaders need to play many different roles in order to transition from brainstorming new ideas to bringing these new ideas into reality. Based on the feedback I hear from innovation leaders, the most challenging role they still have not mastered is...
This is a guest post by Andrew Kerschinske, one of Digital FastForward's innovation delivery managers. Andrew leads innovation projects for different clients in financial services. Working for a bank in 2020, I helped design and launch an online application for the...
This is guest post by Nia Christian, one of Digital FastForward’s intelligent automation experts. Nia leads robotic automation projects for different clients in banking, healthcare, and higher education. Here’s what you need to know What are the best practices for...
How can you get the most out of each day as an innovation leader? In my work as an innovation leadership coach, I like to remind my clients to build a consistent morning routine that will set them up for success throughout the day. Why do I think it is so important to...
Earlier this month, my wife and I moved our family all the way from Washington, DC to sunny Southern California. In fact, our move inspired the big idea I want to share with you this week. I can see you scratching your head wondering “Where is this guy going??!!”...
Like many of you, I recently received my COVID shot and I’m excited to see things begin to open up! But before we get too excited, we should reflect on how the way we innovate has changed over the last 12 months. At the end of 2020, Digital FastForward partnered with...
Over the last twelve years, I’ve worked with hundreds of leaders to help them build innovation cultures and accelerate innovation across their organizations. One of my biggest takeaways from working with so many leaders is that the term “innovation” is so broad and...
How can you go from being a process thinker to a design thinker? This past weekend, I came across a blog post I wrote in 2014. The post was in response to a New York Times op-ed article, “Creativity vs. Quants”. The article took aim at the “quants” for believing that...