Innovation, Collaboration & the joys of travel

I just returned from Amsterdam, where I met with dozens of students, entrepreneurs, startup execs, game designers, and other assorted people. What a delight! I gave some talks, coached a few teams, taught a masterclass, and along the way enjoyed many delicious and artistic cappuccinos that made me smile – and left me brighter-eyed than before.

Amsterdam is a charming and human-scaled city that completely won my heart.I’m already dreaming up ways to visit again soon with my family t0 soak up the friendly, industrious Norther European energy and culture that emanates from that beautiful historic part of the world.

One of the talks I gave on this trip was about co-op game design – a topic that resonated strongly with the European media creators and game designers I met. Perhaps I’ll do a summertime European workshop in designing for collaboration.

One special moment was meeting with the talented Kenneth Lim – the Amsterdam-based Sinaporean designer who did the visual design for this blog – http://amyjokim.com — our Getting2Alpha website, and presentation on the 7 Habits of Breakthrough Innovators (embedded below).

I’ve been working with Kenneth for over a year – and only now got to meetup F2F.  I had the great pleasure of thanking him in person for his terrific work.

The world truly IS flat – and I love it.

The other talk I gave in Amsterdam was a keynote at The Next Web Europe on the 7 Habits of Breakthrough Innovators. Here are the much-requested slides – including 7 key habits plus 3 smart shortcuts to use TODAY to accelerate early product design.

After my talk, I got hangout with Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom. I’m a big fan of what the Intercom folks are doing – especially their approach to using Job Stories for product design. I use Job Stories (and their superhero cousin, Habit Stories) as a shortcut in my design work, and am doing my part to spread the word through the design community about this powerful and time-saving tool.

And finally – we’ve opened registration for Getting2Alpha – our flagship design coaching program for teams who want to dramatically accelerate their path to product/market fit.  It’s not for everyone – but for smart, open-minded teams worldwide facing an urgent design need, this program is rocket fuel.