Speaking and Teaching

Teaching

I teach MEM/EMP 5111 Creativity and Innovation, a graduate course at the University of Ottawa, and a marketing course at uOttawa. I also teach at Algonquin College.

Community

I co-founded OPMMA, the Ottawa Product Management and Marketing Association, and ProductCamp Ottawa, and I am president of OPMMA.

OPMMA is a volunteer-run non-profit that holds free monthly events for product management and marketing professionals in Ottawa. It also runs ProductCamp Ottawa, an annual day of talks and workshops by and for the local product community, usually held in April. See ottawapmma.ca for upcoming events.

In the classroom

Six Thinking Hats, with real hats, in my Creativity and Innovation class at the University of Ottawa. Thanks to Binit Pati for the impromptu video.

“Thank you Professor. This is one of the best classes that I have ever had.”

Elham Noorshabani, former student, University of Ottawa

On stage

A fireside chat on designing product strategy around a fragmenting world, at an OPMMA event hosted by the Professional Development Institute, University of Ottawa.

Talk topics

Each talk runs 45 minutes plus Q&A and can be adapted for a conference, association meeting or in-house event.

When everyone has the same tools

Most companies now use the same AI tools, hire from the same talent pools and read the same playbooks. This talk looks at where differentiation comes from once the tools stop being the difference, and how a team that practises creativity in a structured way builds an advantage that competitors can’t buy.

The creative individual

Creativity is a skill, and like any skill it improves with practice. Drawing on the Innovator’s DNA research into how inventive people work, this talk gives practical ways to strengthen your own creative thinking, whether or not you see yourself as a creative person.

The creative organization

Plenty of organizations ask for innovation and then make it hard to deliver. This talk covers what blocks creativity at work, from approval processes to a lack of psychological safety, and what leaders can change so that new ideas get a fair hearing.

AI as a creative partner

Where AI helps creative work and where human judgment has to lead. I used AI tools in writing Your Creativity Toolkit and say so in the book, and this talk draws on that experience and on the AI-Partnered Divergence tool from the book.

Talks, lectures and guest sessions