A Conglomeration of Buying Groups. No Awareness.
Productable had already landed a contract with CyberWorx — a U.S. Air Force innovation hub. But we needed to expand our footprint within the 650,000 person organization.
The Air Force isn't a single buyer — think of it more like a conglomerate with dozens of subsidiaries, closer to Meta or Alphabet than a typical enterprise account. Every program has its own priorities, budgets, and decision makers.
Working toward our next Air Force contract meant mapping dozens of buying groups — who to target, and who we were up against.
We couldn't rely on a single sales relationship to expand — each group had to be treated like its own opportunity. My objective as Head of Marketing: make Air Force innovation hubs aware of Productable and the problems we solved.
A Webinar Series Designed to Reach Innovation Hubs
At the time, I was a solo marketer with a small budget, so I knew I had to maximize our efforts and double down on content that could be repurposed.
We took a content-first, account-based marketing approach — targeting a handful of key buying groups. We leaned into the innovation problems they were already wrestling with to build awareness around Productable's proprietary, in-app methodology.
We brought on subject matter experts to create a webinar series called the Invisible Enemies of Innovation, then repurposed that content again and again into blog posts, newsletters, and landing pages, distributed across multiple channels.
Each of these enemies is one the Productable platform is built to solve — from portfolios structured specifically for innovation that bridge the Valley of Death, to a Progress Measurement module built around cadence, accountability, and phase progression.
This is where ideas go to die. Solutions get plenty of support to get started, but then they stall when it comes down to funding and execution.
How to eliminate it: Through better resource and process planning. Leaders need to preallocate budget at early, mid, and late stages of development, and innovators need to always be thinking about what's next.
Watch: Valley of Death with Rachel Kuhr Conn, Productable Founder & CEOThis is the reluctance to lean on external technologies and subject matter experts, and it goes against a growth mindset.
How to eliminate it: Create room to nurture external partnerships — engaging a process expert or methodologist for best practices, or establishing a program like corporate venture capital to bring outside technology into the fold.
Watch: Working In A Silo with Neil Soni, Innovation Expert & AuthorThis refers to the stalling of innovations, often due to a lack of the right strategy at the right time, and is ubiquitous in large organizations with bureaucratic complexities.
How to eliminate it: With improved communication and collaboration — identify communication gaps, improve the feedback loop, then focus on strategic alignment, with a cadence for accountability and phase progression.
Watch: The Frozen Middle with Dr. Christina White, Productable Head of MethodologyThis to-do list mindset prioritizes outputs over outcomes and mistakes activity for value creation.
How to eliminate it: Develop strategies that drive toward real innovation outcomes — an outcomes framework that leads to organizational impact and helps you spot when you're optimizing for outputs instead.
Watch: Prioritizing Outcomes with Adam Furtado, Former Kessel RunThis refers to the solution-first tendency to gather ideas without defining the problems your organization actually needs to solve.
How to eliminate it: Give innovators clear direction and open the door to fearless experimentation — define the problems you're solving, the strategic result you want, and a clear process for getting there.
Watch: Just Innovate Something with Tyler Steinke, Portfolio Innovation ExpertThis is when shiny but ineffective decision-making mechanisms — like voting on ideas — get used instead of thoughtful guidelines.
How to eliminate it: Predefine your decision criteria. In our work with the U.S. Air Force, we accelerated project velocity by 4x through predefined decision criteria, a cadence for progress updates, and regularly addressing barriers.
Watch: Avoiding the Slickest Sales Pitch with Janice Fraser, Renowned Innovation ExpertThis refers to the stubborn determination to make an idea work even when every sign points to a pivot.
How to eliminate it: Go into innovation with an open mind — be ready to pivot repeatedly, exploit opportunities as they come, and expect discomfort when innovating something meaningful.
Watch: Must Adhere to Vision with Lt. Col. (Ret) Taylor “Bingo” Herron, U.S. Air ForceThis allows the unreasonable desire for perfection to get in the way of the incremental progress it takes to achieve long-term results.
How to eliminate it: Change your 100% success mindset. Set the expectation that you'll only succeed 5% of the time, build a team good at that 5% mindset, and ask "Could this work?" instead of "How do I make this work?"
Watch: Perfection Over Progress with Rachel Kuhr Conn, Productable Founder & CEOThis often prevents potential innovators from sharing their ideas, and it keeps organizations from having a true culture of innovation.
How to eliminate it: Celebrate failure and influence the direction in which you fail — learn the difference between epic failure and optimal failure, and make it a known, celebrated part of the process.
Watch: The Fear of Failure with Lt. Col. (Ret) Dan Ward, Government Innovation ExpertThis stifles creativity and true innovation by demanding strict adherence to the way things have always been done.
How to eliminate it: Understand the three flavors of this mindset, then align the right stakeholders, tools, and processes to overcome it — balanced with accountability.
Watch: Not How We Do Things with Brooke Boyarsky, Former McKinsey Associate PartnerAwareness That Converted Into Invitations
The series drove awareness for Productable across the U.S. Air Force innovation community — and turned into real, downstream opportunities. Eventually, we grew from $450K ARR to over $5 million ARR during my time at Productable.
The series led to invitations to speak at U.S. Air Force innovation events.
Series content earned placement in key enterprise communications.
Follow-on workshops were booked with several innovation programs.