Charlie Widdows is the Acclaim Ideas Product Specialist at Sopheon. As the co-founder of Solverboard, an idea management tool that Sopheon acquired, Charlie brings a wealth of experience in ideation to his current role. With the recent launch of Acclaim Ideas in 2022, Charlie is dedicated to assisting customers in harnessing the full potential of their ideas to generate better and more profitable products. He strongly believes that impactful ideas have the power to change the world. He gives back to the community by serving as a business mentor at Black Valley, where he helps increase equity in tech by fostering an environment where talents from a black ethnic background can thrive.
Today, Charlie and I discuss discovery in the context of corporate innovation and new product development. Charlie defines discovery and shares what he believes its results should be. We discuss how discovery can be applied on different levels in an organization and how to use it to create innovative products. Charlie reveals the two main obstacles standing in the way of successful discovery within a company and outlines how to nurture a company culture to make every team member, regardless of their position in the company, feel their input is valued. We also address the difficulty of introducing new ideas and processes into a business and how the fear of failure prevents some people from taking risks.
“I would say that for me is the discovery process—the problem, framing the ideation, and then the testing of the learning, the insights, the lessons that you gather from that.” - Charlie Widdows
This week on Innovation Talks:
- The difference between ideation and discovery in innovation
- The main barriers organizations face in successful discovery
- The challenges businesses face in implementing innovative ideas
- How to manage ideas and identify the best responsible parties
- The benefits of discovery for change and transformation teams
- How to reframe challenges for innovative solutions
- The role of AI in the innovation and ideation processes
- What leaders can learn from data from other industries
Connect with Charlie Widdows:
This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon
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