CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 10

cloud management platform. "But you will
get much more diversity of input and ideas
by going directly to customers at that early
stage. And, at the end of the day, you end
up with a more valued offering."
The process still starts with getting a
bunch of smart people together-but
customer-centric product development
benefits from small, multi-disciplinary
teams that work closely with customers.
"Design thinking," says Bostic of The
Difference Engine, who also teaches the
discipline at Parsons New School for Design,
"is best accomplished in fairly intense
interactions within multi-disciplinary teams."
Bostic works with professionals in finance,
management, software development, and
marketing who may not be comfortable
sketching ideas, developing prototypes, or
conducting customer interviews. She sets
them up for success by encouraging them
to partner with others who complement
their skills. "It's important to provide some
support to a team accustomed to working in
silos and whose members don't necessarily
trust they have the skills to cross over,"
she says. "They may be used to working
on software projects [according to predetermined specifications], and now they're
having to work iteratively or sketch designs
or talk to customers. Teaming them up
softens the landing."

The 15 Ph.D.s in the applied-research
organization of Llamasoft, the supplychain software maker, have to
collaborate with other functions and
understand the customer. "If they just
sat in their ivory tower, they wouldn't
be any use," Hicks says. "We have
researchers listening-in on all our
sales calls."
Georg Tacke, CEO of Simon-Kucher &
Partners and co-author of Monetizing
Innovation, agrees: "It is essential to
create a cross-functional team from the
get-go. In most organizations, R&D and
product teams are tasked with innovation,
while marketing and sales are plugged in
towards the end to help position and sell
the innovation."

mm

125 mm

1 12

At Tivix, the product-development team
includes software engineers, product
managers, and designers. "When we start
a new engagement, we put the entire
team in there with the customer on day
one," says CEO and CTO Sumit Chachra.
"We're not experts in every industry we're
solving problems for. The only way for
us to find out the nuanced details of the
problems we're trying to solve is to listen."
Engineering's work might not kick in until
day four, but they are gathering important
data from the start.

Another innovative use for
thermoelectric technology:
tiny coolers for computer CPUs.

95 mm

10



CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3

Contents
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover1
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover2
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 1
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Contents
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 3
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 4
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 5
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 6
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 7
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 8
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 9
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 10
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 11
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 12
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 13
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 14
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 15
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 16
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 17
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 18
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 19
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 20
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 21
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 22
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 23
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 24
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 25
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 26
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 27
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 28
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 29
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 30
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 31
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 32
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 33
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 34
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 35
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 36
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 37
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 38
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 39
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 40
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 41
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 42
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 43
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 44
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 45
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 46
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 47
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 48
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 49
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 50
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 51
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 52
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 53
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 54
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 55
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 56
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 57
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 58
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 59
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 60
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 61
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 62
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 63
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 64
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - 65
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 3 - Cover4
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue4
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue3
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue2
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/cto/issue1
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