Product vs. Transformation: What’s next for corporate innovation?

But leaders often struggle to experiment due to siloed teams, wrong skill sets, a short-term focus or a fear of taking risks.

So how do you establish a company-wide culture of experimentation?

We’ve already seen the failure of corporate ventures, innovation labs...

Now it's time for organisations to become truly product-led in order to experiment and build products and services that their customers love.

On Wednesday 15th November we hosted an afternoon of panel discussions in partnership with Rise.

15.30 - 16.00 – Panel 1: Why do innovation efforts rarely end in product launch?

The hardest part of innovation is getting the (right) thing live. In fact, less than 50% of innovation efforts actually result in getting something live. Hear different approaches to launching from the world of corporate ventures and startups battle it out.

16.15 - 16.45 – Panel 2: The key to integrating AI? Your existing product strategy

The complexities of AI used to be a technical challenge: now they're a product innovation problem. Hear from the businesses already successfully integrating generative AI.

17.00 - 17.30 – Panel 3: How non-digital-based businesses are transforming through product

When the foundations of your business aren't based in the digital world, adopting a product-led model becomes a question of transformation. So what specific challenges do your product team face - and overcome?

Liz Clow, Product Leader, CPO and Mentor 

Liz is an experienced product leader who has worked in start-ups, scale-ups and enterprise companies in the media, gaming & e-commerce sectors: such as Memmo, Groupon, and News UK. Liz has helped transform and grow businesses by focusing on outcomes and by putting data and insight at the heart of decision-making.

Yuyu Shen, Senior Product Manager at Beamery

At Beamery, Yuyu leads strategic core AI solutions for skills-based workforce transformations. Prior to that, she worked in supply chain innovation and automation at Walmart US. Her foundational strengths lie at the crossroads of data/AI and product strategy which she has applied to diverse sectors at companies including Meta, Enjoy Technology, Reach Financial, and CitiGroup.

Max Nguyen, Senior Product Manager at Pizza Hut Digital Ventures

Max has been building products for almost 10 years in the e-commerce domain. Starting out as an Engineer, he built 2 award-winning apps on Commerce platform where he realized his passion for building great and impactful products. Max is now a senior product manager at Pizza Hut Digital working with his team to build a global platform that Pizza Hut franchises use every day. 

Zainab Kwaw-Swanzy, Senior Product Manager at Barclays

Zainab joined Barclays as a graduate and is now an award-winning Senior Product Manager,  focused on shaping the long-term digital strategy of the business and delivering innovative features into the Barclays app. Zainab was named a TechWomen100 winner, featured in The Female Lead’s 2021 list of trailblazing women and won the 'Rising Star in Financial Services' award at the Black British Business Awards in 2020.

Nick Telson, Founder (DesignMyNight, trumpet) and Investor
Nick built and exited from DesignMyNight in 2017 for $30m+ and has since invested in over 55 startups globally through his investment arm, Horseplay Ventures. His podcast, Pitch Deck, is in the global top 3 business podcasts and he's now co-founder of his 2nd and 3rd startups: trumpet (sales operations) and sequel (helping pro athletes invest in the best global startups).

CJ Daniel-Nield, Co-Founder at Planes
CJ started Planes with a simple belief: every successful business starts with an experiment. In 2022, CJ worked with Skin Rocks to launch the industry-first skincare app by Caroline Hirons. Alongside his role at Planes, CJ is an advisor for startups and an occasional angel investor.

Henry Kirkness, Co-Founder & Tech Director at Planes
Henry is the techy co-founder at Planes. Henry enjoys working with our developers and clients to solve technical challenges, whether that’s through hands-on coding or coaching and support. Henry has used generative AI to build ALT AI and For The Wall as well as working with Planes clients to experiment with GPT to enhance user experiences and improve product performance.

Fiona McLaren, Product Director at Planes
Fiona is a Product Leader specialising in new propositions, innovation and making products that customers love. She has 10 years of experience working in the best design and product consultancies in London. Fiona strongly believes that small, happy teams make great things.

This event was sponsored by Dato CMS, one of our technology partners.