The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

Today's guest is an  innovation  guru who has been around for many years. Jeff DeGraff, known as the "Dean of Innovation", is a business professor at the University of Michigan and an author and thought leader on innovation. On today's show, we will discuss social responsibility and Jeff's new book, "The Creative Mindset".    Jeff's Background After graduating from grad school at the University of...

  Our guest this week comes from a similar industry, and we share many mutual connections. Mo Katibeh, the EVP-Chief Product & Platform Officer of AT&T Business, joins us to discuss 5G innovation. We will talk about what is real versus what is hype when it comes to innovation  in 5G, as well as some advice for the listeners.     Mo's Background Mo's parents left Iran right before the revolution in...

This week's show covers an area that is critical to your innovation success. Ideation is the act of generating ideas, which is part of the FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Ranking, Execution) framework that we use to help discover ideas and lead to disruptive innovations. We will break down FIRE and discuss ideation and the process of our  Disruptive Ideation Workshops .  FIRE In the past, we have covered t...

This week's guest offers some excellent knowledge about productivity and having your priorities in place. Steve Glaveski, CEO and Co-Founder of Collective Campus, joins us to discuss prioritizing high-value work. We talk about his view of the 6-hour workday, and how it helps to better innovation. Steve's Background Steve went through the motions of getting his degree and climbing the corporate lad...

This week's guest applies AI innovation to an industry where you usually wouldn't think it can be possible. Micah Hollingworth, the CEO & Co-founder of Broadw.ai, joins us for a discussion. On the show, we will discuss AI in the theater industry and what Micah and Broadw.ai are doing to change the game.    Micah's Background Micah grew up in rural Massachusetts and had a passion for theater at a y...

Innovation efforts require a structure to stay organized and for successful execution. Many organizations have weak frameworks, which in turn, weaken their overall effectiveness. This week, we'll look at an innovation framework that I use and have used throughout my career, known as FIRE. We'll also discuss how you can utilize this framework within your organization.  Framework Versus Process Thin...

Crafting well-written problem statements that focus the idea of creation are critical. Albert Einstein said, "If I only had one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and five minutes finding the solution." This week, we will discuss combining out of the box thinking with inside the box thinking , and how this can be used to create problem statements and sol...

Box Think  is doing both inside the box thinking and out of the box thinking . As we discussed in past shows, out of the box thinking is what most people use when they think of creative thinking. People often overlook what I call inside the box thinking and try to stay away from it. Out Of The Box Thinking The term "out of the box thinking" is a metaphor that means to think from a new perspective....

This week's guest has been around in the innovation industry for quite some time. We know a lot of the same people as we were at two companies that worked closely together. Brad Chase is an author and a former Senior VP at Microsoft. We will discuss innovation advantage through strategy and insights from his book, Strategy First: How Businesses Win Big .  Brad's Background Brad's stepfather used t...

Today's guest is a follow up of a show we did recently around 3D printing . A lot of the listeners were interested in learning more about the overall tools and techniques of 3D printing. Andy Roberts, Vice President, inventor, and lead developer of Live Parts™ at Desktop Metal joins us today. On today's show, we will discuss 3D printing and how Andy and Live PartsTM seeks to innovate the manufactu...

This week's guest  innovates  in an area that most view as already being innovated to its max potential. This view can't be further from the truth, as this innovator and his team have made game-changing new products. Dave Fabry, Chief Innovation Officer at Starkey, joins us to discuss the innovation of hearing aids. We will discuss innovations in audio and what Dave and Starkey are doing to advanc...

Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing the shows on different thinking styles, such as  out of the box thinking . This week's topic is a different twist on what we have been recently discussing. People often overlook what I call inside the box thinking and try to stay away from it. On today's show, we will discuss inside the box thinking and how it can be utilized in any team or organizati...

This week we are joined by a guest who has helped a wide range of companies speed up the process of innovation. John Carter, an inventor of Bose's Noise Cancelling Headphones, designer of Apple's New Product Process, and founder of TCGen Inc., joins us to talk innovation. On today's show, we will discuss the lessons John learned while working under Dr. Bose, and how you can better your innovation...

We are picking up where we left off from last week's show. Lasts week, we discussed  out of the box thinking , which means to think from a different perspective. In part 1, we discussed thinking differently and thinking unconventionally. On this week's show, we will discuss thinking specifically from a new perspective.    Recap of Part 1 We started last week talking about  thinking styles . Some o...

This week, we will cover a topic that is a bit of a spinoff from a show on  buzzwords   that I recently did. A listener of the show was confused about buzzwords and buzzphrases that are often used in the innovation space and sent me an email. We will discuss the buzzphrase "out of the box thinking," analyze it, and discuss how you can think outside of the box to gain an edge in the world today. Ou...

Today's show is going to be a little different than usual, as I will be doing a solo show. On today's show, we will discuss some current affairs, my opinions on them, and provide my answer to some fan feedback.    SpaceX One thing that has recently piqued my interest was the SpaceX Dragon demo launch. I was glued to the NASA stream and was quite impressed. The stream offered a great look at the in...

This week's guest comes from my family's neck of the woods, the state of Ohio. Jerry Abiog is the Co-founder and CMO of Standard Insights, an AI service growth platform. We will discuss his learning from past innovation failures, and how Standard Insights utilize AI to aid the growth of businesses. Innovation Failures Jerry and I share a mutual appreciation for Ohio, as both my family and Jerry ar...

While I was CTO at HP, I had the gaming division reporting to me. Also, I used to be a hardcore gamer, so gaming is something that has always held my interest. This week's guest does an exciting twist on the typical gaming strategies/approaches. Austin Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mission Control. We will discuss esport innovations, and what Mission Control is doing to change the esports  wo...

This week's guest on Killer Innovations is one who has had innovation experience in a variety of different industries. Jonah Myerberg is the CTO at Desktop Metal, a company that specializes in metal and carbon fiber 3D printing technology. We will discuss 3D printing and what Desktop Metal is doing to aid in fighting COVID-19. Jonah's experience Jonah started at Black & Decker, making power tools....

On today's show, we will be doing something a bit different than that of our recent shows. We will be discussing buzzwords, things that are often misused in the innovation world and outside of it.    Innovation Buzzwords A buzzword is a term that can be technical or specific to an industry or a job function. It is often used to impress laymen, which often pushes people away. Some common examples w...

Due to the great feedback we received from our Virtual Brainstorming show  last week, we will be doing another one this week. Our goal at the end of the show is to come up with a list of suggested features for our sponsor, Zoom. Zoom has experienced a lot of growth during the COVID-19 virus and has seen new usage in a lot of unique ways. Part of today's objective is to show how you guys can conduc...

On today's show, I will be demonstrating a private  ideation/brainstorming  session that you can do on your own. This helps in generating key ideas and solutions to the various problems you may be facing. There are numerous tools you can use for this, but today I will be using Jamboard from Google.    Virtual Brainstorm With the  COVID-19 pandemic  going on there are a lot of unknowns. You current...

Joining us via Zoom this week is William Benner, the President and CTO of Pangolin Laser Systems. We will discuss laser technology and what he's doing to change laser-powered innovation.    Pangolin Laser Systems William got into electronics because of his father, who worked as an engineer at NASA. I attended college to study electronics but was also in a rock band. During my time in a rock band,...

This week's show is an excerpt from a recent webinar I did on how to survive and thrive during challenging times such as these. At the end of today's show, I will share how you can attend the free webinar series through Zoom, known as Disruptive Shock.    Disruptive Shock We're currently experiencing what I call a disruptive shock. What is a disruptive shock? It's a sudden upsetting or surprising...

This week's guest is an innovation guru from one of the world's leading business schools. Stefan Thomke is a William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration Chair at Harvard Business School, and a widely published author around innovation processes. On today's show, we will discuss Stefan's new book, "Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments" and how experim...