Research is the primary risk management tool you have in product development. It is also the biggest driver of insight and breakthrough ideas. The challenge many people face is doing it in a way that retains creativity and objectivity. Balancing the technical and human centred approaches can be a challenge but the results are worth it.

I was a little upset when I first noticed the small accumulation of scone dough, butter and jam on my Audio Technica M50 headphones. There’s something about the plastering of varying food condiments on $250 headphones that doesn’t float my boat. It seems these headphones are particularly enticing to Beyoncé blasting wives and sticky fingered toddlers who cannot fully appreciate the value of such items. I did however, see an opportunity in this travesty; a plausible excuse for a new set of phones! I didn’t complain.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the book launch of No8 Re-wired, a book chronicling 202 New Zealand innovations written by David Downs and Jon Bridges and published by Penguin Books. Located at the Ignition co-working space in Tauranga’s city centre, Downs presented an interesting and humorous take on the state of NZ’s innovation industry, providing his opinions on the good and bad, while showcasing several Kiwi innovations that even the Locus team were surprised to learn of.

One year on from the inaugural Mobile Tech in Primary Industries Conference in Wellington, Jono and myself took the trip to Auckland to see how the big trends of mobile technology have developed since 2013. Over two days, we saw a wide range of case studies looking at how businesses in the farming, forestry, and horticulture sectors are harnessing the power of tech mobility to improve productivity and efficiency. Jono blogged themes emerging from the 2013 Mobile Tech Conference, here is how we saw the themes develop one year on.