Product innovation is now non-negotiable.
Corporations that need to keep related have to clear up actual issues, adapt sooner than the market, and lead with readability throughout silos. On this put up, we’re exploring the dialog we had in one among our Productside Tales episodes this season with Joeri Devisch, a veteran of product, expertise, and transformation work at world corporations.
His insights are grounded in many years of hands-on management throughout engineering, enterprise growth, and product technique—and his tackle innovation is each sensible and daring. Joeri’s perspective provides a reset on what it truly means to steer innovation right this moment.
Product Innovation Is Shifting—And Product Must Lead It
Innovation used to sit down within the R&D lab. Now it lives with the product workforce.
Joeri makes it clear: the way forward for innovation is human-centered, customer-driven, and iterative by design. Leaders who push options with out understanding market context or person wants are lacking the purpose—and sure falling behind.
As an alternative of putting bets based mostly on assumptions, Joeri argues for tighter suggestions loops, co-creation with prospects, and constructing a tradition the place experimentation is normalized.
“You’re not doing the transformation for enjoyable. There must be a strategic cause, a transparent sponsor, and a message that lands with everybody—not simply the exec workforce.”
In different phrases: innovation begins with function, not course of.
Buyer-Centricity Is a Self-discipline, Not a Tagline
If innovation is the objective, proximity to the client is the trail.
Joeri emphasizes that knowledge and instinct usually are not opposites—they’re collaborators. Robust product groups mix analytics, area insights, and deep person empathy to know what’s price fixing and why.
This implies:
- Designing suggestions loops that don’t simply acquire knowledge however act on it
- Constructing prototypes early to validate hypotheses
- Involving customers as collaborators, not simply testers
It additionally means constructing with context. What works in a single market gained’t translate neatly into one other. Localization, cultural nuance, and embedded buyer perception matter greater than ever.
Nice Product Innovation Requires Cross-Useful Belief
No product workforce ships in isolation.
Joeri talks at size about how sturdy collaboration—between engineering, product, gross sales, and management—is what makes or breaks innovation.
“The perfect merchandise come from groups that belief one another and embrace numerous views.”
That is about shared possession, with shared docs and good comms forming half it. And it begins with leaders who align incentives, take away blockers, and mannequin transparency.
Management Means Constructing the Proper Mindset
Joeri frames transformation as a product in itself—one which wants technique, sponsorship, and buyer buy-in.
He challenges product leaders to cease pondering of change as a aspect mission and begin treating it like some other product rollout. Meaning planning for adoption, measuring success, and evolving the answer based mostly on suggestions.
“In case your coaching isn’t paired with teaching and reinforcement, it gained’t stick. You must put money into the implementation of change—not simply the announcement.”
The product mindset Joeri describes is steady, business-driven, and unapologetically people-first.
Key Classes from Joeri Devisch
Curiosity over certainty. Nice product management is much less about having the solutions and extra about asking higher questions.
Knowledge + context = higher choices. Instinct isn’t the enemy of analytics. The perfect leaders mix each.
Belief powers innovation. Collaboration works when groups are aligned—not simply in instruments, however in function.
Transformation is a product. And like several product, it wants a technique, a buyer, and a suggestions loop.
Bringing Innovation to Life
Innovation isn’t a quarterly OKR. It’s a long-game self-discipline powered by sturdy product pondering, workforce belief, and clear management.
Should you’re seeking to put these classes into motion:
What’s been your greatest problem in main innovation? Drop us a word or join with us on LinkedIn—we’d love to listen to your story.
