Steve jobs famously spoke about the tremendous amount of craftsmanship needed to make a great product. Over the years I've remained curious about what ingredients create successful products.
Here's what I think from practice and observation:
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Thorough understanding of strategy, business models and a feel for how to create and capture value
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Strong research and analysis skills to dive deep into problem areas and unlock new knowledge
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Market/business intelligence skills to spot patterns and extract useful insights from data
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Intellectual curiosity: knowing how to keep an open mind in the constant search for better ways to solve a problem
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A designers mind set, with the demonstrated ability to synthesize these attributes and create new solutions to problems
My approach over the last decade has been to deliberately seek traditional and non-traditional means to hone these skills.