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.

Egbert-Jan van Dijck, Vice President of Global Affiliates Europe: 'We are of course very happy to be able to welcome our colleagues from Central Europe. I know that lots of good things are being done there in the field of innovation and product development. We started in Holland with new energy recently and to expand our activities throughout Europe makes us very enthusiastic. Moreover; more, stronger and more active affiliates is one of the objectives for the coming years.'

 

The MoI was signed by Wojciech Ozimek, as one of the founders of PDMA Central Europe. Ozimek is both a practitioner and a consultant in the field of innovation and looks forward to join the PDMA community. 'I started my career as an Implementation Project Manager and an Organisational Change Consultant then I studied and practiced systemic innovation for six years. Now I also apply to my own projects. Therefore I'm very excited to join the PDMA family because I think that the exchange of knowledge within this community can and will be very fruitful. The contact with colleagues on a regular basis is one of the pillars on which progress in the field of innovation and product development is possible. I very much look forward to regular meeting my fellow PDMA members.'

 

'For us in Central Europe joining the PDMA is in my opinion very important. I finally feel we can have the support of a community that has similar objectives as we have, which is great. I would like our Central Europe PDMA Affiliate to play a key role in building a local community, moderating the debate and helping entrepreneurs like me, but also academics and consultants with shared innovative projects. To be clear; I'm from Poland but we're open for Central Europe as well. So colleagues from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Baltic States are of course also welcome.'

 

What are your plans to develop this PDMA Eastern Europe Affiliate to a solid community?

Ozimek: 'I enrolled a few big universities, and also executives of major companies. So now when we start, we have some people to help us. I have no clue what the potential is, I can only say that it is big. I believe that in the entire region we may reach 1000 people to become members. We plan to start organizing events in 2019. And I continue my field work within my network; driving around the countries and visiting people in person, to talk about their challenges and what they expect PDMA Central Europe to bring them. I will also push for a very strong internet presence, a professional look and feel online and a good use of digital technologies (articles, SEO, social media, marketing automation, etc.), So we don't have to spend so much time growing our network instead of exchanging knowledge on, for instance, innovation.'

We had some time to reflect on 2018 via a variety of quantitative and qualitative indicators over the last couple of weeks. We are happy on a number of fronts for the activities and results in 2018 but are even more pleased and excited for how a strong 2018 is setting us up for a fantastic 2019 in the service of you, the membership. We are planning on increased chapter activity, a bigger and better annual conference, continued leadership with our publications, growth in the certification program, a strong webinar calendar, continued membership development and rolling out a new content resource this spring. We will continue to keep abreast of what PDMA has for you via the Connections newsletter, the website and the PDMA social media channels.

To help us achieve goals associated with the above we are very happy for the following valuable NPDP certified product experts  to the PDMA Board of Directors starting in January:  Mark Adkins, Sudhi Gulur, Ernie Harris.  Read more about Mark, Sudhi, and Ernie and their new roles in the column to the right.

Our very special thanks to outgoing Board members Steven Haines, Charlie Noble and Sharon Parsons. Thank you for the time, talent and leadership you gave to this exciting and vital organization while on the Board of Directors!

Our best to all members for a successful 2019!

Best regards,
Eric Ewald, CAE
PDMA Executive Director
eewald@pdma.org