I am posting this from my laptop, about 30,000 feet in the air, somewhere over Virginia, I’m guessing. And it’s a thrill. Not only because it’s novel to have WiFi access in the air – I have a personal connection to this service.
Roberto Verganti mentioned in our podcast (to be posted tomorrow) that many CEOs of highly innovative companies have a personal pride in their products. They announce them and are personally invested in their success. If they fail, the CEO takes responsibility.
Of course, this kind of pride isn’t limited to CEOs (Prof. Verganti might observe that CEOs are sometimes less proud of their products than other employees). In fact, people who don’t even work for the company may feel connected to the product and share this pride.
And one illustration of it is the delight you get when you realize the product is being used by real people. In fact, this feeling may be the biggest rush in innovation. I remember, years and years ago, creating requirements for a tiny new component of an outside plant management system for GTE. I worked on it for a few months, then moved to a new assignment at the company and promptly forgot about it. A couple of years later, I ran into one of my co-workers from that project at a meeting. He told me that my module had been part of a release that was now in widespread use throughout the company. I was walking on air for a few hours after that.
The product I’m using now is called Gogo Inflight from a company called Aircell. I spent the better part of a year and a half consulting for the company that developed and now runs the ordering/billing/customer management system, Martin Dawes Systems. My work was way behind the curtain – negotiating with the company that hosts the servers, arranging hardware purchase and delivery, liaising between Aircell’s operations team and Martin Dawes’. Yet I’m no less proud of the end product than if my picture were on the Gogo home page.
It’s a bit of a miracle, actually, WiFi in the air. And though my work on the project was more blocking and tackling than anything else, I feel as if I own a tiny part of that miracle.
Tags: innovation, ownership, pride, product development, product management
