Studio Sessions
The patterns behind innovation decisions. The signals to watch for, the questions that matter, and the thinking tools you can use immediately. New episodes every Wednesday. Audio wherever you get your podcasts. Video on YouTube. Twenty years and 20 million downloads. Now sharper than ever.
Why 'Fail Fast' Innovation Advice Is Wrong
The most popular piece of innovation advice in Silicon Valley is wrong—and it's killing great ideas before they have a chance to succeed. I can prove it with a story about a glass of water that sat perfectly still while a car bounced beneath it. My name
Innovation Partnership Autopsy: HP, Fossil, and the Smartwatch Market
Innovation partnerships can create breakthrough markets—or hand them to competitors through terrible decisions. I know because I lived through both outcomes. Bill Geiser from Fossil and I had it exactly right. We built the MetaWatch—a smartwatch with week-long battery life, Bluetooth connectivity, and every feature that would later
Why Great Innovators Read Rooms, Not Just Data
You know that moment when you walk into a meeting and immediately sense the mood in the room? Or when a proposal looks perfect on paper, but something feels off? That's your intuition working—and it's more sophisticated than most people realize. Every leader has experienced
Why Your Best Employees Are Sabotaging Your Decisions (And How to Fix It)
The $25 Million Perfect Presentation Picture this: You're in a conference room with 23 executives, everyone has perfect PowerPoint presentations, engineering milestones are ahead of schedule, and you're about to sign off on a $25 million bet that feels like a sure thing. That was the
3 Innovation Decision Traps That Kill Breakthrough Ideas (And How to Avoid Them)
Every breakthrough innovation starts the same way: everyone thinks it's a terrible idea. Twitter was dismissed as "breakfast updates." Google looked "too simple." Facebook seemed limited to "just college kids." Yet these "stupid ideas" became some of the biggest winners
The $1.2 Billion Innovation Disaster: 5 Decision Mistakes That Kill Breakthrough Technology (HP WebOS Case Study)
In 2011, HP killed a $1.2 billion innovation in just 49 days. I was the Chief Technology Officer who recommended buying it. What happened next reveals why smart people consistently destroy breakthrough technology—and the systematic framework you need to avoid making the same mistake. HP had just spent
How AI Dependency Is Rewiring Your Child's Creative Brain (And What Parents Can Do About It)
University of Washington researchers discovered something that should concern every parent: children who use AI to create can no longer create without it. And here's the concerning part: most parents have absolutely no idea it's happening. If you've been following our series on Creative
Human-AI Creative Partnership: How to Harness AI While Preserving Your Innovative Edge
The most innovative creators don't use AI as a replacement – they use it as a strategic partner in a carefully choreographed dance of human and machine intelligence. Welcome to Part 4 of our series, Creative Thinking in the AI Age – on strengthening your uniquely human creativity while using
How to Strengthen Creative Thinking: The 10-Minute Daily Brain Workout Based on Neuroplasticity Research
Humans who committed to four thinking exercises for 10 minutes daily generated 43% more original solutions than the most advanced AI systems. Welcome to Part 3 of our series, Creative Thinking in the AI Age – on strengthening your uniquely human creativity while using AI as a partner, not a replacement.
Train Your Brain to Outthink AI: Boost Creativity 40% (2025)
Harvard neuroscientists confirm: creative thinking uses neural pathways that AI can't replicate – and never will. Hello, I'm Phil McKinney, and welcome to my innovation studio. Welcome to Part 2 of our series, Creative Thinking in the AI Age – on strengthening your uniquely human creativity while using
