How to Drive Growth Through Agility and Innovation

Episode 91

Sannah Vinding is a 20 years Product Management and Marketing Executive who identifies business drivers and builds collaborative global and cross-functional relationships. She specializes in accelerating and driving growth through agility, innovation and digital marketing.

Sannah has experience leading large change management projects of organizations and processes to raise innovation and improve product launch execution, quality and customer satisfaction.She’s also the podcast host of “Mind The Innovation,” where the focus is on taking a personal approach to inspiring managers to develop leadership skills and helping teams become more effective. 

You’re encouraged to tune into this episode as Sannah offers valuable insights on staying curious, embracing continuous learning and committing to growth.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the complete episode:

1. Discover what innovation means to Sannah and how it can be a messy line.
2. She talks about excellence being a process, not a destination.
3. Find out what reinvigorates her, referred to as her “vitamin pill.”
   
   

Episode Highlights

Who is Sannah Vinding

• • Sannah is originally from Denmark but has lived in the USA for more than 20 years.
  • She has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and has worked in product development her whole life.
  • Currently, she’s the Director of Product Development and Marketing at an electronic company.
  • She is also the podcast host to “Mind The Innovation,” which she started a year ago.

Her thirst to learn

• • Sannah’s engineering mindset leads her to be process-driven.
  • While Sannah doesn’t have a marketing qualification, she’s always had a creative side.
  • She likes to explore this by painting, creating websites and making jewelry. 
  • When she gets inspired, she is not afraid to experiment and try new things to learn and develop herself constantly. 

Why did she start her podcast

• • Sannah is a member of different communities and wants to improve communication.
  • She wanted to have a group of her peers shares their story of successes and failures.
  • The goal is to inspire continuous improvement by being better today than yesterday.

The overlap of skills

• • Sannah says that the two critical skills from engineering that help her in marketing are organization and structure.
  • When you’re an engineer, you’re a problem solver, looking at how to get from point A to B.
  • There is also a creative side of problem-solving in engineering, as getting from point A to B is never just a straight line.
  • Sannah’s ability to be structured and organized helps her with efficiency and saves time to be creative.

Excellence is a process

• • Sannah says that excellence is a process, not a destination.
  • We can never be perfect.
  • There’s an 80/20 rule that she recommends where you experiment.
  • When you repeat a process over time, you’ll be able to find ways to optimize it.
  • If you improve every day, that 1% can take you to many places.

Timing and growth

• • Sannah Vinding has learned that you can never wait for the perfect timing.
  • You will always be busy and there will always be distractions. 
  • To grow, you need to jump in and learn on the way.
  • You can become more organized by having processes that will become a habit at a certain point.
  • This opens up more time for creativity which is how you improve.

One of Sannah’s biggest failures

• • Sannah made a significant calculation error, forgetting to add enough margin for the company she worked for.
  • It was one of their biggest customers.
  • Although she felt very emotional about this mistake, she went into engineering mode to look at the options and get back on track.
  • She faced it head-on by admitting this human error to management and learned from it.

Innovation is a messy line

• • In Sannah’s team, if something happens, they do not point fingers; they learn from the experience.
  • Innovation is messy, and it needs to be because then you wouldn’t end up knowing the best idea.
  • People shouldn’t stay stuck in not wanting to take action for fear of failure.

What brings her joy

• • For Sannah, it’s the process of solving problems from start to finish.
  • When she travels and sees the end product somewhere, it brings her joy.
  • Although the process may be messy upfront and need optimization, when you get there in the end, she loves it.
  • Noticing a happy customer and getting the correct feedback from the team is very satisfying.

Her vitamin pill

• • She is driven by her curiosity and willingness to learn to be better.
  • There are various ways to stay on top of everything, but she recommends signing up for conferences to learn and get as much information as possible.
  • She says that whether she is reading a book, listening to a podcast, attending a webinar, or attending a live event, she is energized and calls it her vitamin pill.
  • You may get 50 new ideas but start with one, try it out and see if it works.

Creating community

• • Sannah has created a community called Mind Innovation.
  • She says that one shouldn’t be with the same people all the time; you need to be open to different perspectives from different industries.
  • There are a few people in the group, and they meet every month to share about habits and continuous improvement.
  • It’s turned into a mentor group, almost like a mastermind who trusts one another.

Joining LPPDE 

• • LPPDE stands for Lean Product and Process Development Exchange.
  • It’s a nonprofit organization, and Sannah has been the chairman for two years.
  • They look at the Kaizen concept and tools for continuous improvement.
  • It’s important to be inquisitive and ask questions, and the most successful people ask questions so they can learn.

What innovation means to Sannah

• • It’s to improve and create something new.
  • Not necessarily a product; it can be a service.
  • It can also mean to improve or optimize.

What would she change

• • To look up and change the whole innovation process.
  • The more you know upfront, the better the final result.
  • You can do more simulations and more prototypes upfront this way. 

Advice from Sannah Vinding

• • There is never a good time to go for opportunities, believe more, experiment, learn every day, and remember to own it.
  • Build trust with those in your organization, and you need to trust who you’re among.
  • Stay true to yourself. By being honest and true to yourself, failures are not as scary.

How does Sannah want to be remembered?

• • Sannah hopes to be remembered as someone who inspired people.
    
    

3 Powerful Quotes from this episode

10:30 – “If you just improve a little bit, the 1% every day, it can take you so many places, I also learned that you can never wait for the perfect timing.”

14:37 – “And it’s back to innovation. It is a messy line and you need to get through it because if you didn’t, how do you know it actually was the best idea that you had?”

18:45 – “Don’t be with the same people all the time, go out in different industries, because that will open up your perspective to things and perspectives of how to solve different challenges.”

About Sannah Vinding

Sannah is a Product Management and Marketing Executive with two decades of innovative leadership experience under her belt. Her focus is on corporate strategies and growing revenues in electronic components, consumer electronics and medical devices. 

She’s developed, executed and maintained comprehensive marketing programs and outreach strategies across multiple mediums, consistently increasing visibility, traffic, and profitability. As a creative and innovative change agent, she identifies business drivers and builds collaborative global and cross-functional relationships.

Her “Mind The Innovation” podcast focuses on taking a personal approach to inspiring managers to develop leadership skills and helping teams become more effective. She says that successful leaders embrace continuous learning and as a leader, you have to commit to growth and development. Stay curious, keep learning and keep growing.

Connect with Sannah

Website 
Linkedin 

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Thanks for listening, 

Darrell