Topic:What Customers Want – It’s Not Another New Product
Abstract:“Innovation” means “new value,” not “new products” nor “new technologies.” It’s much easier and more obvious to just make a new product and try to get people to buy it. However, this strategy is a near-guarantee of failure: the five-year failure rate for start-ups is about 19 in 20! So, to succeed, you must first determine what your customers seek. Unfortunately, customers are well-trained to ask for things and are often unable to explain themselves in any real depth. As Henry Ford put it, if he had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses. The only way to understand what your customers seek, what they desire, where they experience pain, and undermet (or overmet) needs, is to study them in anthropologic detail. Several methodologies exist for doing this. This talk will profile several of them and focus in detail on the most powerful and strategic of the set, DIG (Demand-first Innovation and Growth). Applying DIG, you will discover that opportunity truly is hidden in plain sight. You just have to know how to look. Slides
Speaker:Royce W. Johnson, PhD., QuarterInchHoles
Speaker’s Bio:Dr. Royce Johnson has driven innovation, technical advancements, and life-saving products in biomedicine for three decades, with an emphasis on clinical systems and critical care physiology. After a 30-year career of instigating medical technology innovation from within industry, Dr. Johnson is now applying his skills and creativity to a broader range of clients with his consulting firm, QuarterInchHoles, which focuses on demand-first methods to power innovation. His career in medical innovation has evolved from technology incubation to his current emphasis on imbuing the front-end of innovation with a deep understanding of the customer. As he says, “the technology is the easy part.” Trained in bioengineering, technology management, and strategic innovation, he is an expert in discovery and development of high-value opportunities across the clinical ecosystem. Forming the foundation of his very broad biomedical expertise, Dr. Johnson spent his early career with Ohmeda Critical Care and Baxter Edwards. These “industrial post-doc” years were the basis of his conviction that deep insight into the customer is the key to successful technology commercialization. Dr. Johnson earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in biology and bioengineering at the University of Utah and holds a certificate in technology and innovation from MIT Sloan School of Management. Now independently practicing in strategic innovation, Dr. Johnson continues to pursue his professional goal of applying and teaching the skills that enable large organizations to innovate effectively.
Date & Time:Wednesday, February 27, 2013 : networking at 6:00 p.m., business and program from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Location:PoK-e-Jo’s, 2121 W. Parmer Lane at Lamplight Village, Austin, TX 78727
Map:map
Cost:$5.00 minimum charge for the restaurant. Supper is at optional extra cost.
Reservations:Not required. All interested parties are invited to attend.
RSVP and for more information:Please email to ctcnaustin at gmail dot com.