Why the ‘whole is greater than the sum of parts’ in portfolio management with Huub Rutten PART 1

Huub Rutten is the co-founder and Vice President for Product Research and Design at Sopheon. With over two decades of experience in language management and a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Radboud University in the Netherlands, Huub is instrumental in developing Sopheon’s linguistics and knowledge management technologies and continues to lead the organization into solutions for innovation. Huub integrates his expertise in linguistics and information technology to innovate language management technology within knowledge-intensive business processes and has recently created an in-depth course on portfolio management.

Huub joins me today to discuss why, when it comes to innovation portfolio management, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He explains why the front-end of a portfolio needs to be separated from the “realization” end. He discusses why the launch strategy of a new product is as important as its development. Huub also highlights why the portfolio leader needs to ensure a portfolio’s balance and direction and underscores why portfolio management has to be combined with concrete decision-making.

“Look at a portfolio—and portfolio management—as a business object in itself, a collection of things, of products, of projects that have value, business cases, and risk.” - Huub Rutten

This week on Innovation Talks:

• The tendency to look at portfolios as reports instead of business objects
• The fundamentals and foundations of innovation portfolio management
• Distinguishing between the “front-end” and “realization” parts of a portfolio
• Separating the front-end innovation portfolio from your realization portfolio
• Feature development and its prototyping
• Examples of features and components in different products
• Considering the pipeline value of a portfolio
• How a portfolio’s front-end is an important knowledge base
• Portfolio management as an organizational transformation tool
• Portfolio leadership and why companies struggle to transform
• Theory versus practice in portfolio management

 Related Episodes:

• The Importance of Sprint Portfolios with Huub Rutten
• Pillars of Portfolio Management with Huub Rutten

 Connect with Huub Rutten:

• Huub Rutten on LinkedIn

 This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

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