Schneider Electric excelled at operating their current business model—industrializing and distributing goods across the world. Their engineering and operational capabilities were industry-leading.
Product development operated in a vacuum. Teams built solutions based on internal assumptions without validating customer needs first. The feedback loop that should connect customer reality to product decisions was broken or non-existent.
We identified three non-negotiable elements: employees must apply learning to their actual work (not case studies), they must interact with real customers, and they must work as teams to create shared language and reinforcing behaviors.
The Innovation Bootcamp: A hands-on program where participants worked on actual products. Day 1 focused on the power of iterations and customer input. Day 2 taught integration of customer feedback into product decisions. Tools included Lean Innovation Canvas, Discovery Interview techniques, and Assumption Mapping.
Participants reported feeling 'empowered' to meet customers directly for the first time. Mindset shifted toward entrepreneurial, customer-first product development. Product ideas were validated before major investment.
The approach is now standard for product development training. Teams think more like entrepreneurs and the customer feedback loop is embedded in how new products are conceived and built.
"The fact that it starts with the customer becomes 100% concrete."
Bootcamp Participant
Offer Manager, Schneider Electric
This engagement took weeks, not months. If your team is dealing with the same kind of problem, a 30-minute conversation will tell us whether we can help.
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Nissan's Chairman's Innovation Award had surfaced a genuinely bold concept: cars that could change color using e-ink technology. John Ferguson's idea represented exactly the kind of breakthrough thinking the award was designed to encourage.
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Renault had built a global automotive empire through engineering excellence and manufacturing discipline. Their ability to coordinate complex cross-functional projects was world-class.
