My Approach to Innovation & Product Development

 
 
 

Identifying the Unfair Advantage

Innovation isn’t about playing in someone else’s sandbox—it’s about redrawing the lines of competition entirely. The best products don’t win because they’re incrementally better; they win because they fundamentally shift the playing field in a way only they can.

When I look at an opportunity, I ask: What gives us the edge that others can’t replicate? It could be ecosystem scale, proprietary technology, exclusive partnerships, or a new behavioral trend no one else has capitalized on. The key is stacking these advantages to create a flywheel that keeps compounding over time.

The best innovations don’t just win a market—they define a new one.

Ideas are cheap. Everyone has them. The real challenge is getting an entire organization to believe in and execute on a vision together.

A great product leader isn’t just a visionary; they’re a catalyst for alignment and momentum. After defining a simple, well understood vision, they need to lead with influence, not authority.

Execution dies when things feel too big or abstract. The fastest way to keep people aligned? Make progress visible. Having a bias towards shipping, even if it’s small, can help rally teams around progress.

 

Vision Meets Execution

 

“Yes, and” Approach to Ideation

Most organizations operate with a "no, because…" mindset—defaulting to why something won’t work instead of exploring how it might. That’s a creativity killer.

I push my teams to take a "Yes, And" approach

  • Ideas aren’t shut down; they evolve. Constraints exist, but instead of stopping at them, we reframe them as creative challenges.

  • Prototypes over PowerPoints. We don’t waste time debating hypotheticals. We build, test, and learn quickly—because real data beats assumptions.

  • Momentum over perfection. A great idea poorly executed dies. A good idea with forward motion gets better over time.

This approach has led to some of the biggest breakthroughs in my career The best ideas come from a willingness to explore, iterate, and refine.

The way we consume content is evolving, and the next frontier of storytelling is interactive. Audiences no longer just want to watch—they want to engage, influence, and participate in the experiences they love.

We’ve seen this shift happening across industries:

• Gaming has become the dominant form of entertainment because players don’t just consume; they control the experience.

• Social platforms thrive because they turn every user into a storyteller, allowing them to shape and share their own narratives.

The future of content isn’t about passive consumption; it’s about immersive engagement that blurs the line between watching and doing.

The companies that win the next decade won’t just tell great stories—they’ll build platforms that invite consumers into the story itself.

 

Storytelling as Competitive Edge

 

Nail It, then Scale It

The fastest way to kill an innovation? Go too big, too fast.

Before scaling, I believe in nailing the product-market fit with surgical precision. That means:

  • Starting small but high-signal. Forget broad launches—micro-pilots tell you more than any survey ever will.

  • Watching for natural pull. If you have to force people into a product, it’s not ready. Organic engagement is the best indicator of real demand.

  • Scaling only when it’s undeniable. Growth should be an amplification of what’s already working, not a desperate attempt to manufacture traction.

At Samsung, that’s why we focused on launching Game Breaks in one format first, refining engagement models before expanding. At Disney, it’s why interactive streaming started as an experiment before becoming a core part of storytelling innovation. Get it right first, then scale with confidence.