Desk Jobs & Glory

Episode Ideas 

 

You’ve been invited onto the podcast because of your expertise and experience. We know once we get started, that’ll be easy to talk about — but in case you’re stuck for ideas (or just curious about the kinds of topics we explore with other guests), here’s a bit of inspiration.

These are the types of themes we’ve covered — and plan to keep covering:

 • A challenge you’ve faced while trying to make change happen inside a big, complex organisation — and what you learned from it

 • How you’ve helped teams stay aligned, focused, and moving when things got messy

 • Stories of experimentation, failure, or the moment a risky idea finally worked

 • How you’ve balanced strategic ambition with real-world delivery

 • What you’ve discovered about navigating internal politics, blockers, or competing agendas

 • Your take on tools, rituals, or frameworks that actually work

 • Reflections on how you’ve grown as a leader through high-stakes work

No need to prepare a TED Talk — we’re just here for the real stories, the honest lessons, and the kinds of things people only learn by doing it the hard way.

 

Season 1: Innovation Execution: Ideas to Income

How do you take innovation from PowerPoint to reality? Many innovation teams produce ideas that never see the light of day. This season is all about breaking through.

 

1. Why Innovation Stalls Inside Big Companies (And How to Fix It)

• The three silent killers of enterprise innovation
• Why most teams get stuck in endless loops of alignment
• The difference between visionary innovation and execution-driven innovation

 

2. Product vs. Innovation: Why Most Companies Get It Wrong

• The false divide between product management and innovation
• Why PMs and innovation leaders should work together (but often don’t)
• Apple vs. Amazon vs. Google: How they approach innovation differently

 

3. The Speed Trap: Why Your Company Moves Too Slowly

• The hidden enemies slowing down enterprise innovation
• Why approval processes kill great ideas before they start
• Speeding up without breaking compliance, risk, or governance

 

4. Big Bets vs. Quick Wins: What Your CEO Actually Wants

• Why executive teams secretly distrust innovation teams
• What gets funded vs. what gets ignored
• How to translate innovation into business outcomes

 

5. AI, Automation, and the Future of Enterprise Product Teams

• The real role of AI in digital transformation (beyond the hype)
• Where AI is adding real value (and where it’s a distraction)
• The skills your team needs to stay relevant in the AI-driven enterprise

 

6. Bureaucracy Hacks: How to Get Approval Without Killing Momentum

• The three-step strategy for moving ideas through red tape
• How to get legal, compliance, and finance on your side
• Why ‘stealth mode innovation’ might be your best bet

 

7. Selling, protecting and getting support for your ideas, concepts and strategies

•  How to ‘sell’ authentically (and well!) to internal and external stakeholders
•  The secret safeguard to protecting your ideas and stop them from getting watered down or railroaded with opinion.
•  Creating your sales ‘system’: What to do before you get in the room, to dramatically increase take-up of your ideas, concepts and strategies.

 

Season 2: The Playbook for Product & Digital Transformation

How leading enterprises are winning in a rapidly changing digital world - despite their size! Many transformation efforts fail—not because the tech is wrong, but because execution is broken.

1. The Enterprise Product Playbook: How to Build What Actually Matters

• The danger of feature factories
• Why customer obsession is a myth (and what to do instead)
• The 'two-track' innovation model that works in large enterprises

 

2. AI-Powered Business Models: Who’s Winning, Who’s Failing

• The real impact of AI on digital transformation
• Why most AI implementations are just fancy automation
• How to build products that thrive in an AI-first world

 

3. The Death of Agile? What’s Next for Enterprise Teams

• Why Agile is failing in large companies
• Hybrid approaches that actually work in enterprises
• What Spotify, Netflix, and Stripe do differently

 

4. The AI Digital Transformation Illusion: Are You Actually Changing?

• How to tell if your transformation is just a PR stunt
• The key signals of real vs. fake transformation
• Why some industries are resisting digital change (and what will happen next)

 

5. From Legacy Systems to Cloud-Native: The Hidden Costs

• The true cost of moving from on-prem to cloud
• How CIOs and CTOs justify massive transformation budgets
• Lessons from companies that got it right (and wrong)

Season 3: Leadership, Influence & Innovation Power Plays

Innovation is as much about power, influence, and leadership as it is about ideas. Even the best ideas die without the right political and leadership moves.

 

1. How to Sell Innovation to Your CEO (And Get the Budget)

• Why most innovation teams suck at pitching executives
• The five-part storytelling structure that gets buy-in
• Real examples of successful internal sales strategies

 

2. The ‘No’ Killers: How to Overcome Risk-Averse Stakeholders

• How to deal with CFOs, legal teams, and compliance officers
• The three-step process to neutralizing risk aversion
• When to fight vs. when to reframe your approach

 

3. How to Build an Innovation Team That Actually Works

• The three types of people every innovation team needs
• Why most enterprise innovation teams burn out within 18 months
• How to structure incentives to keep teams engaged

 

4. The Dark Side of Enterprise Innovation: Why Good Ideas Get Killed

• The five hidden forces that kill innovation in large enterprises
• How to spot the ‘political landmines’ before you step on them
• What to do when your project gets blocked

 

5. Influence Without Authority: How to Drive Change When You’re Not in Charge

• The psychology of influence in large companies
• How to speak the language of power (without being political)
• Why cross-functional teams fail—and how to fix them

Season 4: The Next Decade of Enterprise Innovation

What’s coming next in digital, product, and transformation—and how enterprise leaders can stay ahead. Business leaders are bombarded with hype (AI, automation, metaverse, Web3, etc.), but very few understand what actually matters for enterprises today.

 

1. What’s Next? The Technologies That Will Actually Matter in 2030

• Why AI isn’t the only game in town (and what’s being overlooked)
• The four biggest trends shaping enterprise innovation
• How to differentiate between hype and real transformation

 

2. AI Strategy for Enterprise Leaders: Beyond the Buzzwords

• Why most companies are getting AI wrong
• The real impact of generative AI on enterprise product teams
• AI-powered decision-making, automation, and product design—what’s working

 

3. The Future of Work: How We’ll Build, Innovate, and Collaborate

• Remote vs. in-person vs. hybrid—what’s actually working?
• Why collaboration overload is killing productivity
• How the best innovation teams structure work for speed

 

4. The Next-Gen Enterprise Stack: What CIOs & CTOs Need to Know

• Why most enterprise tech stacks are a disaster
• The rise of composable architecture, low-code, and cloud-native solutions
• How to future-proof your digital transformation investments

 

5. Web3, Blockchain, and Enterprise: Disruptive or Dead?

• Why most blockchain projects have failed (but some haven’t)
• Smart contracts, tokenization, and decentralized identity—where they matter
• The industries quietly making Web3 work

 

6. The Rise of Personalized Enterprise Products & Services

• The shift from mass-market to hyper-personalization
• How companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon use AI for extreme personalization
• The challenges of building adaptive enterprise systems

 

7. Ethical Innovation: Where Do We Draw the Line?

• AI bias, deepfakes, and algorithmic discrimination—what enterprise leaders must consider
• The ethical dilemmas of automation, surveillance, and AI-driven hiring
• Why transparency and accountability will define the next decade of innovation

 

8. The Leadership Challenge: How to Stay Ahead in a Rapidly Changing World

• Why most leaders aren’t keeping up with technology shifts
• How to build a culture of continuous learning
• The three core leadership skills for navigating enterprise innovation in the 2030s

Season 5: Building & Scaling High-Impact Product, Transformation, and Innovation Teams

A great product, digital, or transformation team can make or break innovation inside an enterprise. But hiring the right people, building their capabilities, and designing the systems that allow them to thrive is harder than it looks. This season is all about how to recruit, structure, and scale an innovation team that actually delivers results.

1. The Enterprise Innovation Dream Team: Who Do You Actually Need?

• The real reason most innovation teams fail before they start
• The three roles every enterprise innovation team needs—and the ones you can skip
• How to build a balanced team of thinkers, doers, and executors
• Where should innovation sit? The battle between central vs. embedded teams

 

2. Hiring for Innovation: How to Spot the Right People (And Avoid the Wrong Ones)

• Why traditional hiring processes don’t work for innovation roles
• The 5 traits of high-impact innovation hires
• How to interview for adaptability, problem-solving, and execution skills
• Red flags: Why some candidates look great on paper but fail in execution 

 

3. Internal vs. External Talent: When to Hire, Train, or Partner

• Should you build innovation talent internally or hire from outside?
• The surprising reason startups often fail inside big companies
• How to train existing product, transformation, and design teams for innovation
• When to bring in consultants or agencies (and when to avoid them)

 

4. The First 90 Days: How to Set Up a New Innovation Team for Success

• The biggest onboarding mistakes enterprise leaders make
• How to set clear goals and expectations (without killing creativity)
• Building credibility fast: How to prove value before leadership loses patience
• The secret to integrating innovation teams with business units

 

5. Building Innovation Capability: How to Train and Develop Your Team

• Why traditional corporate training fails for innovation teams
• How to create a culture of continuous learning and experimentation
• The power of cross-training: Why the best teams are multi-skilled
• The best innovation training programs and resources (including case studies)

 

6. The Systems & Processes That Make Innovation Teams Scale

• How to create an operating system for innovation in large enterprises
• Why “no process” kills innovation just as much as too much process
• Designing lightweight workflows that encourage speed and execution
• How to structure decision-making to avoid bottlenecks

 

7. Keeping Innovators Engaged: How to Prevent Burnout & Frustration

• The #1 reason innovation talent quits (and how to stop it)
• How to balance stability with autonomy inside a corporate structure
• What motivates high-performers in innovation teams? (Hint: It’s not just money)
• Real-world strategies from top-performing enterprise innovation teams

 

8. Measuring Success: How to Track, Reward, and Scale an Innovation Team

• Why most innovation KPIs don’t work—and what to use instead
• How to prove impact to executives and secure more funding
• The right way to structure incentives for innovation teams
• How to scale a small innovation team into an enterprise-wide capability