A Sherpa's Guide to Innovation

For our penultimate episode of 2022, we interview Perry Klebahn about his soon-to-be-published book Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric that Matters, co-authored with Jeremy Utley. Perry is an Adjunct Professor and Director of Executive Education at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design--the d.school--at Stanford University. Prior to his role at the d.school, Perry was CEO of Timbuk2 and COO of Patagonia. He's also an avid sur...

Ben & Jay reconnect with a former colleague and friend of innovation, Mona Baset, Vice President, Digital Services at Intermountain Healthcare.   During her career prior to Intermountain, Mona has held a variety of leadership positions in marketing and technology at Atrium Health and Bank of America.  While at Atrium Health, she participated in the very first cohort of the Innovation Engine's Catalyst Program, a hands-on d...

Ben & Jay dig again into Jobs to Be Done, this time from a fascinating perspective with Ruth Hartt, Chief of Staff to the President at the Christensen Institute and creator of Culture for Hire.  Ruth, a former opera singer and vocal teacher, is passionate about bringing customer-centric innovation to arts marketing.  Classical music audiences have declined nearly 50% since 1997.  Hear how Ruth applies Jobs to Be Done theory to ...

Ben & Jay have a fun Jobs to Be Done deep dive with Scott Burleson, Senior Vice President at the AIM Institute, a company on a mission to change B2B innovation.  Scott is an expert in Outcome-Driven Innovation, with deep product management and innovation experience at John Deere and Strategyn.  He is author of The Statue in the Stone: Decoding Customer Motivation with the 48 Laws of Jobs-To-Be-Done Philosophy and co-host the th...

Ben & Jay venture into technology, invention and intrapreneurship with Kapil Kane, Director of Innovation for Intel Corporation in China.  Kapil co-founded and leads GrowthX, an award-winning corporate - startup accelerator that has launched multiple new businesses generating $400M+ in projected revenues through bottoms-up innovations in areas of AI, IOT, 5G & new silicon technology.  Hear about how Kapil developed this pla...

Ben & Jay are joined by Michele Hansen, author of Deploy Empathy, A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers.  Michele is co-founder of Geocodio, an indie SaaS, and co-host of the Software Social podcast.  Hear about Michele's journey from sending interview tips to founders by email to a newsletter to a book, her aspiration for the book, and about being a fan of Jobs to be Done.

All Things Twitter:
Michele Ha...

Ben & Jay are joined by Kyushik Nam, an MFA candidate in Design Management at the Savannah College of Art & Design.  Kyushik was mentored by our teammate Isabelle Magnin for his master's thesis.  This episode is a great opportunity to hear about the design process from the perspective of a student on a live project, making a difference from individuals struggling to manage Type 2 diabetes.  Kyushik not only brings insi...

Ben & Jay welcome a multi-industry innovation hall of famer, Roy Rosin, Chief Innovation Officer at UPenn Health System.  Roy leads The Center for Health Care Innovation, which facilitates the rapid, disciplined development, testing, and implementation of new strategies to reimagine health care delivery for dramatically better patient outcomes, value, and experience.  The Center comprises four coordinated teams – the Accelerati...

Ben & Jay talk with demographic futurist Bradley Schurman, founder & CEO of the research and advisory firm The Super Age and author of a fascinating book by that name.  Brad spent a significant portion of his career with AARP as a Senior Advisor and Global Director for Partnerships and Strategic Engagements.  He specializes in helping organizations understand the challenges and harness the opportunities of demographic chang...

Innovation Sherpas Ben and Jay interview Kip Lee, Vice President of Innovation & Product Strategy at University Hospitals, and a Managing Director of UH Ventures. He’s pursuing a Doctorate in Design and Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and serves as an editor of the journal, Design Issues, published by MIT Press.

In this inspiring conversation, Kip shares a bit abo...

Ben & Jay find another opportunity to weave improv into your innovation expedition, joined by Mike Eppehimer, founder of ThreefoldYes.  Prior to starting ThreefoldYes, Mike was a seasoned senior healthcare executive who integrated his experience in the creative arts with improvement science.  Mike talks about his unique career arc and numerous practical insights on improvisational leadership that he shares in his recent TEDx ta...

In 2009, Professor Clayton Christensen published The Innovator's Prescription:  A Disruptive Solution for Health Care, with co-authors Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang.  Well over a decade later, Ben & Jay revisit this robust and insightful body of work with Ann Christensen, President & CEO of the Clayton Christensen Institute and Ann Somers Hogg, Senior Research Fellow, Health Care at the Institute. 

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Ben & Jay welcome in a new year with Nora Herting, CEO and co-founder of ImageThink, world's leading visual strategy firm.  Nora is author of "Draw Your Big Idea" and a frequent keynote speaker.  Hear Nora share her insights on:

• Founding a firm that uses the tools of graphic facilitation, visual theory and design thinking
• The neuroscience behind the effectiveness of visual techniques
• How organizations can solve ...

Ben & Jay reflect upon and celebrate 100 episodes of A Sherpa's Guide to Innovation.  We look back, look forward, and express our appreciation for our guests and listeners.  Ann Somers Hogg drops in to say hello and talk about her new role at the Clayton Christensen Institute. 

Read Ann Somers' latest blog post here: 

All Things Twitter:
Christensen Institute
Ann Somers Hogg
A Sherpa&ap...

Ben & Jay have a deep-dive on building corporate innovation from the ground up with Paul Puopolo, Executive Vice President of Innovation at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Following a career as a naval aviator, Paul built and led innovation teams at Humana, Highmark and MetLife.  Paul has outstanding insights on not only building an innovation function from scratch with a well-defined, discipline process, but also on f...

Ben & Jay are joined by Dr. Bon Ku, Director of Jefferson Health Design Lab in Philadelphia.  Dr. Ku is well-known on a number of fronts - a practicing emergency medicine physician; a leader in teaching design to medical students and physicians; a co-author of Health Design Thinking; host of Design Lab podcast; and from his prominent role in TNT's Chasing the Cure.

Hear Bon talk about the amazing work he and his t...

Ben & Jay return from a short break to talk with a rising star - Abrea Armstrong, Senior Marketing & Communications Coordinator for the Innovation Quarter.  The iQ is an innovation district in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, bringing together forward-thinking companies in the areas of research, business and education in biomedical science, information technology, clinical services and advanced materials.  Atrium Health Wake For...

An episode 20 years in the making! For our 96th episode, Ben welcomes long-time friend Matthew Swift, co-founder and CEO of Concordia, to discuss how he innovates in the world of public affairs. 

Concordia is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to actively fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact, including hosting the annual Concordia Summit. Matt described Concordia as...

Ben & Jay are joined by David Duncan, Managing Director at Innosight and author of The Secret Lives of Customers:  A Detective Story About Solving the Mystery of Customer Behavior.  This new book is a fresh and creative approach to demonstrating and teaching the language, methods and mindset of Jobs To Be Done theory.   Hear why Dave choose a fictional narrative approach to the majority of the book, some of his own real-life ex...