How to See Opportunities Others Miss
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
In 2005, I had a ten-minute conversation at San Jose Airport that generated billions in revenue for HP. But here's what's fascinating: three other HP executives heard the exact same conversation and saw nothing special about it. If you read Monday's Studio Notes, you know this story from the emotional side—what it felt like to have that breakthrough moment, the internal resistance I faced, the personal transformation that followed. Today I'm delivering on my promise to give you the complete tactical methodology behind that insight. I'm going to show you the systematic framework I call...
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5 Questions That Can Spot Breakthrough Innovations Before They Happen
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
In October 1903, The New York Times published an editorial mocking the idea of human flight, stating that a successful flying machine might take "from one to ten million years" to develop through the efforts of mathematicians and engineers. Eight weeks later, on December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, controlled flight over the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, proving the skeptics wrong. The smartest people in the world got this catastrophically wrong. What does that tell us about impossibility itself? Every industry has billion-dollar opportunities...
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I Evaluated over 30000 Innovation Ideas at HP
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
Your best innovation ideas aren't losing to bad ideas – they're losing to exhaustion. I know that sounds counterintuitive. After 30 years of making decisions at HP and CableLabs, I thought I understood why good ideas failed. Market timing. Technical challenges. Resource constraints. Sometimes that was the case … but most of the time, I was wrong. We've created an innovation economy that's too innovative to innovate. And if you're wondering why your breakthrough ideas keep getting ignored, dismissed, or tabled "for later review," this video will show you the real reason. I'm going to...
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How To Master Lateral Thinking Skills
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
A software engineer grabbed a random word from a dictionary – "beehive" – and within hours designed an algorithm that saved his company millions. While his colleagues were working harder, he was thinking differently. This breakthrough didn't come from luck. It came from lateral thinking – a systematic approach to finding solutions hiding in plain sight. I'm Phil McKinney and welcome to my Innovation Studio. In this episode, we will cover the lateral thinking framework. Not theory – a practical, step-by-step system you can use immediately. You'll try your first technique in the next...
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Why Fail Fast Innovation Advice is Wrong
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 is Phil McKinney. I spent decades as HP's CTO making billion-dollar innovation decisions, and I learned the hard way that following "fail fast" advice cost us billions and robbed the world of breakthrough technologies. Today, I'm going to share five specific signs that indicate when an idea deserves patience instead of being killed...
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Innovation Partnership Autopsy: HP, Fossil, and the Smartwatch Market
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 make the Apple Watch successful. We had HP's massive retail reach, Fossil's manufacturing scale, and the technical vision to create an entirely new market. But our organizations couldn't execute on what we knew was right. Leadership chaos at HP and innovation...
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Why Great Innovators Read Rooms and not Just Data
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 this: sensing which team member to approach with a sensitive request before you've consciously analyzed the personalities involved. Knowing a client is about to object even when they haven't voiced concerns. Feeling that a project timeline is unrealistic before you've done the detailed math. That instinctive awareness...
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Why Your Best People Give You The Worst Information
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 scene at HP when we were developing the Envy 133—the world's first 100% carbon fiber laptop. Everything looked perfect: engineering was ahead of schedule, we projected a $2 billion market opportunity, and the presentations were flawless. Six weeks after launch, Apple shifted the entire thin-and-light laptop...
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3 Innovation Decision Traps That Kill Breakthrough Ideas (And How to Avoid Them)
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 in tech history. After 30 years making innovation decisions at Fortune 100 companies, I've identified why smart people consistently miss breakthrough opportunities—and how to spot them before everyone else does. Why Smart People Miss Breakthrough Ideas The problem isn't intelligence or experience. It's that we ask the wrong...
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The $1.2 Billion Innovation Disaster: 5 Decision Mistakes That Kill Breakthrough Technology (HP WebOS Case Study)
Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney
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 $1.2 billion acquiring Palm to get WebOS—one of the most advanced mobile operating systems ever created. It had true multitasking when iOS and Android couldn't handle it, an elegant interface design, and breakthrough platform technology. I led the technical due diligence and recommended the...
info_outlineEver notice how you can spend hours scrolling through "inspiration" but end up feeling creatively drained? You're not alone. In this eye-opening episode, we dive into a counterintuitive truth about creativity that could transform how you generate ideas and solve problems.
What if I told you that the secret to unlocking your creativity isn't about consuming more content, but less? That by creating intentional gaps in your constant consumption of social media, articles, and "inspiration," you could rediscover your authentic creative voice?
In this episode, I share my personal journey from being a compulsive consumer of content to rediscovering the joy of original thinking. You'll learn practical, immediately applicable strategies to:
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Create space for your own ideas to emerge
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Build confidence in your authentic, creative voice
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Transform your morning routine from consumption to creation
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Develop sustainable practices that foster genuine creativity
Most importantly, you'll discover why your most valuable creative asset isn't your ability to absorb others' ideas - it's your unique perspective and vision.
This isn't about dramatic lifestyle changes or complete digital detoxes. Instead, you'll learn small, achievable shifts that can lead to profound changes in how you think and create.
Whether you're a professional looking to bring more innovation to your work, or simply someone who wants to rediscover their creative spark, this episode offers a fresh perspective on how to make space for your original ideas to flourish.
Want to go deeper into creativity and innovation? Join our community of creators and innovators. Members get access to:
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Our private community for sharing challenges and victories on Patreon
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Monthly live Q&A sessions addressing your specific creative challenges
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Early access to upcoming content and special features
Check out the membership options on YouTube or Patreon (links below) and choose the one that works best for you. Your support helps ensure we can keep creating content that challenges conventional thinking and sparks innovation.
Join us on:
YouTube Members: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilMcKinney
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