How does a product manager lead innovation?

The FMCG sector has much experience in this area, so what can we learn from them? In sectors where pivoting, planned obsolescence, and iterative cycles are the norm, what works in these areas to allow for innovation and what does not? And finally, what can the individual product manager, as leader and influencer do to encourage innovative practices in their organisation and amongst their team?

Based on her talk ‘New ways to drive innovation & new business development in the FMCG/retail space’ presented at Hargraves’ Connect Melbourne conference, Theresa Saldanha will be presenting some of her thoughts and ideas for discussion at the next Product Anonymous on May 2nd.

What is the role of the sector, the institution and the people in driving innovation? What role does the product manager play here in encouraging innovation in the people they work with and themselves? Some obvious sectors have been very good at this in the past, so what processes and tools do they use to embed this behaviour and way of thinking? Other sectors, such as the digital marketplace have embraced practices that foster innovation, so what are those practices and what doesn’t work so well? If your environment hasn’t been set up to support creative thinking and innovative execution what steps can you take to change that? does it have to be disruptive or can it just start with listening more?

The session plans to look at some of the tools, processes & learnings from other sectors as well as practical tools that one can use, games that help to change things from being the same all the time. This session is a great opportunity to share learnings & thoughts across sectors, so bring your thinking hats along.

Theresa Saldanha is passionate about driving growth into the consumer goods space through innovation, which has led her to explore techniques & methodologies used in other sectors. Theresa is an FMCG Marketing specialist & Director at WhyNot! Innovate, which specialises in leveraging industry collaboration to drive growth, profitability & innovation.
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NEW LOCATION: Bottom End at 579 Little Collins (between Spencer & King). They have wifi & food. http://thebottomend.com.au

Talk starts about 6:30p.  Chatting & drinking from 6p onwards. See you there!

Eventbrite sign-up: http://prod-anon-may22013.eventbrite.com/