Stephen Wunker shares an article that explains why Jobs to Be Done improves agile development. Agile development has become the norm in software, yet it often overlooks a key challenge – how to objectively prioritize product roadmaps. Without this, the results of agile sprints can focus on the wrong features, developed for the wrong users, and executed in the wrong way. That’s a tremendously expensive waste. Perhaps worse, firms prioritize product roadmaps using fuzzily-defined and often politicized methods which take…

Stephen Wunker shares an article published in Forbes that explains how a company researching dementia found an innovative approach that yields insightful results. Dementia can be devastating for people and families. One of the most dreaded medical conditions is, sadly, also one of the most common, with more than 10% of US adults over age 65 experiencing it. But can the story be reframed to concentrate on the bright spots? That’s the thesis of Together Senior Health, a company co-founded…

Stephen Wunker takes strategic advice from a fashion icon to discover how his creative process could be applied to business innovation.  Backpacks and duffel bags used to be boring. When David BenDavid was a fresh graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York in the early 2000s, the mundaneness of these items struck him as he wandered the city’s streets, thinking about how to deploy his design talents. That’s when he settled on a simple concept – backpacks…

Stephen Wunker shares an article that explores team alignment and employee management as the new remote and hybrid work options become an expected norm in the business world.  With remote and hybrid work options apparently here to stay, how are companies balancing their employees’ desires for greater autonomy with the need to maintain cohesion and alignment? A growing number are turning to OKR software, a tool for managing the increasingly popular ‘Objectives and Key Results’ goal-setting framework. It’s no coincidence,…

Stephen Wunker shares a paper he co-wrote with Charlotte Desprat, and Jennifer Law that identifies five key principles learned during COVID to improve innovation strength. We are all innovators now. As the pandemic slowly wanes, we can look back on the last year and a half knowing that we have discovered innovation muscles that we didn’t know we had. We needed to innovate in order to cope with the upheaval in our personal lives, as well as for businesses to…

Stephen Wunker shares an article that explores the lessons learned from Fidelity’s move into Fintech. Fidelity Investments, with more than $4 trillion in assets under management, is one of the world’s largest financial services firms. But the firm isn’t content with its current status. This privately-owned company founded in 1946, is seeking new markets that will power growth over the long-term. But how? ​One key mechanism is Fidelity Labs, formed more than a decade ago to enable the company to…

Stephen Wunker shares an older but relevant and interesting post published in Forbes that identifies lessons to be learned when investing in emerging markets. Largely due to the huge corruption cover-up unearthed by the New York Times, Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart de Mexico have lost over $20 billion in value over the past two days.  That’s an expensive lesson about the perils of corruption in emerging markets.  Yet these countries offer tremendous growth prospects, and corruption may be ingrained into everyday…

  How do you inspire creative thinking in your team without engaging the muse or adopting questionable practices? Stephen Wunker provides six practical steps that won’t break the law but will help break through constraints of the mind. How do I get my team to show creative thinking?” Under normal circumstances, many executives we work with routinely face this challenge. But with the pandemic transforming the way we do business, bold thinking has turned into a necessity. Several obstacles block…

  Stephen Wunker shares a post that identifies how the pandemic has presented aggressive businesses with an opportunity, and why the key to success lies in customer service.  ‘Consumers don’t trust real estate agents,’ says Jimmy Mackin, whose business is selling software to…real estate agents. He continues, “There are minimal requirements to become a licensed real estate agent. The industry tends to attract the get-rich-quick crowd.” How could someone with such a dire assessment of an industry make his living…

  Stephen Wunker provides a concise post that identifies four steps that can help build strategies to expand into new markets. Market expansion is a goal many executives share, and rightly so. Expanding into new markets is not only a revenue driver but also a way to escape familiar competitive dynamics. It has powered giant success stories, such as Netflix’s entry into video streaming and then content production. Moreover, you don’t need to be a Silicon Valley wunderkind company to…

  Stephen Wunker shares a few key tips to help develop a customer experience strategy that is effective during times of crisis If the customer experience for your company hasn’t changed in the past year, you are unusual. In industry after industry, from consumer goods to B2B technology, the distancing, fear, and economic turbulence caused by the coronavirus are affecting the sales process, customer selection criteria, the way products and services are consumed, and even what customer service means. Designing…

  Stephen Wunker has published an article on costovation and how it is creating an agricultural revolution in Africa.  In Africa, there is a product which smallholder farms urgently need, yet which few understand or think they can afford: insurance. Droughts, pests, floods, and other natural maladies can devastate a crop for the year and put farmers – as well as whole communities – at great risk of extreme hardship. Yet, with few exceptions, the idea of paying a premium…