Emily Midgley

• How is your presentation relevant to the theme of this year’s BBC conference: Innovation in the Fast Lane?

Innovation is all about being able to try new things, learning from it, and adapting quickly in pursuit of providing value to someone.  You can’t do any of that without an Agile mindset.

In addition to having the right mindset, you need Product Ownership to get the benefit. This means doing the work of learning what changes are happening with technology, the market, competitors, and user expectations and then change the products in response. Those changes must include building in the measurement capabilities so that you know whether the changes have the expected impact.

Innovation needs Agile mindset, which requires Product Ownership, which – guess what – is business analysis.  There’s no innovation without business analysis.

• What are your top tips for companies or employees wishing to innovate?

As much as you can, encourage a cultural shift to:

• Admit that none of us know everything. We all know something, and sharing all the “somethings” can lead to big things.
• Acknowledge that things change constantly. Stay on top of what’s happening in fields that might have nothing to do with your current industry.
• Encourage experimentation backed up with measures & adaptation. An experiment is nothing if you can’t prove it worked. And an experiment can be harmful if you keep blindly going down a specific path.
• Figure out how to adapt.  A startup can knock out an established company quickly – if you can respond to change, you still have a fighting chance.

If people, teams & companies don’t try things, learn from them, and adjust, they won’t thrive in this age of change.