Training Matters

Innovation Focus offers real time team training related to specific project needs and also for innovation competency development and enhancement. Our training is always customized for your needs. Currently, Innovation Focus is offering training in six areas:


We understand adult learning theory and ensure that our training is highly interactive and capitalizes on all the knowledge, skills and frames of reference among the trainees. We also understand that each individual has a learning style preference and we design our training programs to respect to all those preferences.

The Creative U


The Creative U program can be offered in its entirety and in selected modules based on your training need assessment. The modules offered in this training program include:
  • Understanding creativity

  • Creating a climate for creativity

  • Uncovering your creativity style

  • Understanding your creativity style

  • Uncovering your thinking profile for creative problem solving

  • Applying your thinking profile to team work

  • Enhancing unstructured (individual) creativity

  • Enhancing structured (team) creativity

A training manual accompanies the Innovation Focus facilitated training

Creating the Customer Connection


Innovation Focus offers its Creating the Customer Connection as a half-day and as a full-day or two-day interactive workshop. The longer amount of time enables the trainees to prepare and debrief actual field experience. The modules offered in this training program include:
  • What you need to know before you begin – preparing your mental stance, observational skills, interviewing skills, recording skills, memory skills, communication skills for field work

  • Designing a research plan – problem definition, research design, data collection and reporting tools and techniques

  • Going into the field – the actual experience of putting the classroom training into practice

  • Transforming data into insights - data analysis and synthesis methods, methods, tools and techniques for reporting and communicating, ways to stimulate innovation using customer insights

A training manual accompanies the Innovation Focus facilitated training.

Creative Problem-solving Processes


The Focused Innovation TechniqueTM is our contribution to creative problem solving. Innovation Focus has developed a three-day training program on the plan, do, review model.
The first day is theory presented interactively and experiential to assure understanding and skills building and to prepare for every trainee to facilitate a creative problem solving session on day two. Each practice session is followed by a significant debrief. The third day focuses on expanding the facilitators’ tool box. Modules offered in this training include:
  • Facilitator basics

  • Steps of the Focused Innovation TechniqueTM

  • Enhancing the facilitators’ toolbox

A training manual accompanies the Innovation Focus facilitated training.

Developing New Product Concepts


Innovation Focus offers its Developing New Product Concepts as a half-day and as a full-day interactive workshop. The modules offered in this training program include:
  • Workflow for invention – from mental preparation to basic steps in ideation

  • Getting started – task definition and analysis

  • Idea generation – tools and techniques for generating breakthrough ideas

  • Making choices – selecting not eliminating

  • Concept writing – turning a seed idea into a beginning concept

  • Decision making – selection of filters appropriate at this stage of product development

  • Moving forward – action planning

A training manual accompanies the Innovation Focus facilitated training.
The training is based on the Innovation Focus co-authored chapter in PDMA Toolbook 2.

Finding New Business Opportunities: Hunting for Hunting Grounds


Innovation Focus offers its Developing New Business Opportunities as a half-day and as a full-day interactive workshop. The modules offered in this training program include:
  • What is Hunting for Hunting Grounds

  • Getting started – step by step training in charter building, scouting tools and techniques

  • Identifying big areas of opportunity - model building

  • Path building – turning opportunity into strategy and tactics

  • A training manual accompanies the Innovation Focus facilitated training.

The training is based on the Innovation Focus authored chapter in PDMA Toolbook 1.

NPDP Certification Training


The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) has established the New Product Development Professional Certification Program (NPDP) to “confirm mastery of new product development principles and best practices, enabling continual improvement in job performance and helping corporations identify those individuals with the knowledge and experience to move into leadership positions in the area of new product development.” More and more companies are using NPDP Certification as a way of measuring and improving the quality of their new product development capability.

Review Workshop:

Innovation Focus – Rochester, LLC, as a PDMA Certified Education Provider, is certified to offer PDMA’s standard one-day NPDP Certification Exam Preparation Review Workshop. This workshop is a guide to the exam and reviews key points and principles related to the exam’s coverage areas: Strategy, Portfolio Management, New Products Process, Tools and Metrics, Market Research, and Teams, People and Organizational Issues. It does not, however, go into significant detail in teaching the concepts. Its purpose is to show individuals what will be covered and point out areas where further study would increase their likelihood of passing the exam. This workshop is designed for people who are well prepared for the exam and will work offline to enhance their skills in those areas highlighted through the review as needing further study.

Instructional Workshop:

This two-day workshop uses the Review Workshop as a framework, and provides additional coverage in Strategy, Portfolio Management, and Processes. In addition, the workshop covers material not included in the exam such as lean concepts as applied to new product development and radical innovation. Finally, it allows time for discussion among attendees allowing for more discussion of “real world” experience in the topics covered by the exam, with extra time built in for individual questions.