Collaborate Innovation

In this 2014 talk, Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, discusses innovation at the convergence of risk, passion and luck.

As in his book, Johansson argues that innovation comes from the intersection of diverse industries, cultures and disciplines, when ideas from one field are brought into another. He recommends assembling diverse teams of people to collaborate on innovation. “All new ideas are combinations of old ideas, but not all idea combinations are created equal,” he says, and “when you bring together diverse teams and perspectives, you have the ability to create an exponential increase in ideas.”

For product teams, the talk is a case for cross-functional collaboration: mixing backgrounds and perspectives is one of the more dependable ways to get past the obvious solution.