I build the people and teams who innovate.
I've done it for forty years: co-founding a company and taking it public, serving as HP's CTO, leading CableLabs.
Now I'm building the next generation of innovators. Studio Notes is the writing: essays on the decisions behind the innovations. Studio Sessions is the podcast and YouTube channel, running since 2005: over a thousand episodes teaching the skills of innovation, free.
For leaders who want me in the room, Techtrend is my advisory practice: advising a small roster of organizations on the hard calls of innovation and technology, since 1996.
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The Customers Who Walked Away
Forty-two killer questions that survived years of testing, and the three places to aim them.
How One Word Steers Your Answer
The anatomy of a bad question, and what makes one great.
What Half of 13 Reveals About Your Thinking
The power of questions comes down to how your brain works: it answers a question the moment you hear it, whether or not you want it to.
Retirement 3.0
My third retirement is different. On Jan 1, 2027 I retire as CableLabs CEO and hand the reins to Mark Bridges. Why now, and what's next?
How to Tell a Good Decision From a Lucky One
An excellent decision and a lucky one leave the same evidence: a win. Tell them apart and you stop crediting luck as judgment. That's counterfactual thinking
How to Improve Your Weak Signal Judgment
Noticing a trend is easy and almost worthless. Predicting which one reshapes a market, and acting early, is where innovation pays.
How to Improve Your Second-Order Thinking Skills
The most expensive failures don't announce themselves. They start as weak signals somebody noticed once and explained away. Second-order thinking is how you stop being that somebody.
Ideas Aren’t Getting Harder to Find. They’re Getting Harder to Approve
Every research-driven industry looks like it’s running out of ideas. It isn’t. It’s turning them down.
