Innovation and Product Development Flashcards

What is an innovation ecosystem?

Answer: A network of organizations—startups, investors, universities, and government—that support innovation and entrepreneurship

An innovation ecosystem is a community of interconnected organizations and individuals—startups, accelerators, investors, universities—that collaborate to foster entrepreneurial growth.

What is open innovation?

Answer: A strategy where companies use external as well as internal ideas to advance their technology and products

Open innovation, coined by Henry Chesbrough, is a paradigm where organizations purposefully use external knowledge flows alongside internal ideas to accelerate innovation.

What does 'product-market fit' require an entrepreneur to validate?

Answer: That a significant number of real customers value and repeatedly use the product

Achieving product-market fit means that real customers are using your product, finding it valuable, and you're seeing organic retention and word-of-mouth growth.

What is a product roadmap?

Answer: A strategic plan that outlines the vision, direction, and timeline for a product's development

A product roadmap is a high-level visual plan that communicates the vision and planned evolution of a product over time, aligning stakeholders on priorities.

What is 'feature creep' in product development?

Answer: The gradual, uncontrolled addition of new features that makes a product complex and unfocused

Feature creep occurs when a product continuously gains new features beyond its original scope, increasing complexity and often degrading the user experience.

What is a 'pivot' based on validated learning?

Answer: Changing the product strategy based on data and insights gathered from real customer experiments

A pivot grounded in validated learning is a deliberate strategy change informed by real customer data and testing, not guesswork or investor pressure.