A Sherpa's Guide to Innovation

Ben & Jay return after three years for a special edition! Just in time for the holiday season, Nick Adkins joins your Sherpa hosts to discuss his new book Pinksocks - How a Pair of Socks Became a Symbol of Love and Connection . As co-founder of Pinksocks Life , Nick has led a 10-year old international movement promoting empathy, love and human connection. How to find Pinksocks in the wild with...

Ben and Jay welcome back the one and only Bob Moesta for a record 4th episode.  Bob is a founding father of Jobs to Be Done theory, CEO of The ReWired Group (which has a great new website) and author of the recently published Learning to Build: 5 Bedrock Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs.   Hear Bob talk about why he wrote the book, a couple of non-JTBD topics from the book, and what he'...

For our penultimate episode of 2022, we interview Perry Klebahn about his soon-to-be-published book Ideaflow : The Only Business Metric that Matters , co-authored with Jeremy Utley . Perry is an Adjunct Professor and Director of Executive Education at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design --the d.school --at Stanford University . Prior to his role at the d.school, Perry was CEO of Timbuk2 and COO...

Ben & Jay reconnect with a former colleague and friend of innovation, Mona Baset , Vice President, Digital Services at Intermountain Healthcare.   During her career prior to Intermountain, Mona has held a variety of leadership positions in marketing and technology at Atrium Health and Bank of America.  While at Atrium Health, she participated in the very first cohort of the Innovation Engine&a...

Ben & Jay dig again into Jobs to Be Done, this time from a fascinating perspective with Ruth Hartt , Chief of Staff to the President at the Christensen Institute and creator of Culture for Hire .  Ruth, a former opera singer and vocal teacher, is passionate about bringing customer-centric innovation to arts marketing.  Classical music audiences have declined nearly 50% since 1997.  Hear how Ru...

Ben & Jay have a fun Jobs to Be Done deep dive with Scott Burleson , Senior Vice President at the AIM Institute , a company on a mission to change B2B innovation.  Scott is an expert in Outcome-Driven Innovation, with deep product management and innovation experience at John Deere and Strategyn .  He is author of The Statue in the Stone: Decoding Customer Motivation with the 48 Laws of Jobs-To...

Ben & Jay venture into technology, invention and intrapreneurship with Kapil Kane , Director of Innovation for Intel Corporation in China.  Kapil co-founded and leads GrowthX, an award-winning corporate - startup accelerator that has launched multiple new businesses generating $400M+ in projected revenues through bottoms-up innovations in areas of AI, IOT, 5G & new silicon technology.  Hea...

Ben & Jay are joined by Michele Hansen , author of Deploy Empathy, A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers .  Michele is co-founder of Geocodio , an indie SaaS, and co-host of the Software Social podcast .  Hear about Michele's journey from sending interview tips to founders by email to a newsletter to a book, her aspiration for the book, and about being a fan of Jobs to be Done. All...

Ben & Jay are joined by Kyushik Nam , an MFA candidate in Design Management at the Savannah College of Art & Design .  Kyushik was mentored by our teammate Isabelle Magnin for his master's thesis.  This episode is a great opportunity to hear about the design process from the perspective of a student on a live project, making a difference from individuals struggling to manage Type 2 di...

Ben & Jay welcome a multi-industry innovation hall of famer, Roy Rosin , Chief Innovation Officer at UPenn Health System.  Roy leads The Center for Health Care Innovation , which facilitates the rapid, disciplined development, testing, and implementation of new strategies to reimagine health care delivery for dramatically better patient outcomes, value, and experience.  The Center comprises fo...

Ben & Jay talk with demographic futurist Bradley Schurman , founder & CEO of the research and advisory firm The Super Age and author of a fascinating book by that name.   Brad spent a significant portion of his career with AARP as a Senior Advisor and Global Director for Partnerships and Strategic Engagements.  He specializes in helping organizations understand the challenges and harness t...

Innovation Sherpas Ben and Jay interview Kip Lee , Vice President of Innovation & Product Strategy at University Hospitals , and a Managing Director of UH Ventures . He’s pursuing a Doctorate in Design and Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University , and serves as an editor of the journal, Design Issues , published by MIT Press . In this inspiring con...

Ben & Jay find another opportunity to weave improv into your innovation expedition, joined by Mike Eppehimer , founder of ThreefoldYes .  Prior to starting ThreefoldYes, Mike was a seasoned senior healthcare executive who integrated his experience in the creative arts with improvement science.  Mike talks about his unique career arc and numerous practical insights on improvisational leadership...

In 2009, Professor Clayton Christensen published The Innovator's Prescription:  A Disruptive Solution for Health Care , with co-authors Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang.  Well over a decade later, Ben & Jay revisit this robust and insightful body of work with Ann Christensen , President & CEO of the Clayton Christensen Institute and Ann Somers Hogg , Senior Research Fellow, Hea...

Ben & Jay welcome in a new year with Nora Herting , CEO and co-founder of ImageThink , world's leading visual strategy firm.  Nora is author of "Draw Your Big Idea" and a frequent keynote speaker.  Hear Nora share her insights on: Founding a firm that uses the tools of graphic facilitation, visual theory and design thinking The neuroscience behind the effectiveness of visual tec...

Ben & Jay reflect upon and celebrate 100 episodes of A Sherpa's Guide to Innovation.  We look back, look forward, and express our appreciation for our guests and listeners.  Ann Somers Hogg drops in to say hello and talk about her new role at the Clayton Christensen Institute .  Read Ann Somers' latest blog post here :  All Things Twitter: Christensen Institute Ann Somers Hogg A Sher...

Ben & Jay have a deep-dive on building corporate innovation from the ground up with Paul Puopolo,  Executive Vice President of Innovation at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Following a career as a naval aviator, Paul built and led innovation teams at Humana, Highmark and MetLife.  Paul has outstanding insights on not only building an innovation function from scratch with a well-define...

Ben & Jay are joined by Dr. Bon Ku , Director of Jefferson Health Design Lab in Philadelphia.  Dr. Ku is well-known on a number of fronts - a practicing emergency medicine physician; a leader in teaching design to medical students and physicians; a co-author of Health Design Thinking ; host of Design Lab podcast ; and from his prominent role in TNT's Chasing the Cure . Hear Bon talk about...

Ben & Jay return from a short break to talk with a rising star - Abrea Armstrong , Senior Marketing & Communications Coordinator for the Innovation Quarter .  The iQ is an innovation district in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, bringing together forward-thinking companies in the areas of research, business and education in biomedical science, information technology, clinical services and advanc...

An episode 20 years in the making! For our 96th episode, Ben welcomes long-time friend Matthew Swift , co-founder and CEO of Concordia , to discuss how he innovates in the world of public affairs.  Concordia is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to actively fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact, including hosting the annual Concordia Summit ....

Ben & Jay are joined by David Duncan , Managing Director at Innosight and author of The Secret Lives of Customers:  A Detective Story About Solving the Mystery of Customer Behavior.   This new book is a fresh and creative approach to demonstrating and teaching the language, methods and mindset of Jobs To Be Done theory.   Hear why Dave choose a fictional narrative approach to the majority of t...

Ben & Jay are joined by Episode 27 guest Coonoor Behal , author of the newly published "I Quit!  Life-Affirming Joy of Giving Up".   Coonoor is the Founder & CEO of Mindhatch , a consultancy that helps organizations create the conditions for innovation and creativity to thrive. Through Mindhatch, Coonoor delivers her unique mix of expertise in Design Thinking, Organizational Impr...

Ben & Jay have a fascinating conversation from a historical and education perspective, with Arthur Daemmrich , Director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution .  The vision of the Center is: A world in which everyone is inventive and inspired to contribute to innovation.  Hear about the physical and virtual experiences the Center creates...

Liz Markle PhD believes innovation in health and wellness isn't a new pill or superfood or wearable but a return to the universally applicable and radically simple advice to move, nourish, connect, and be. Tired of patients not making progress in between doctor visits, Liz wanted to make it easier for people to design their lives so that healthy behaviors were the default. Enter Open Source W...

Ben & Jay continue to learn from innovation leaders with novel career journeys, this time talking with Shannon Clute , Inaugural Director of The Hatchery , Emory Center for Innovation in Atlanta.    The Hatchery supports student innovators and entrepreneurs from all Emory University schools, and covers all stages of innovation from inspiration and learning to projects and startups. This 15,000...