Why Integrate?

When in school you are given a list of problems and your task is to figure out how to solve them. However, never are you asked to come up with the problems you should be solving in the first place. Why spend time on solving the wrong problem that will not deliver marketplace success?

I was there once…

I was that technical R&D program manager who was asked to ‘just build this widget’. When I started probing (who are we building this for, why do they want it, why do they want it from us instead of the competition), there were no guidance and no hints to be had. No one had done that work. But it felt crucial to me.

…and more was needed

I started as a physicist/engineer/program manager but I saw an opportunity to address this gap I was seeing by integrating business and product strategy. A smarter alternative to ‘build it and they will come’. So I added on a healthy layer of entrepreneurial and business strength.