Eugene Ivanov, PhD

Business and Technical Writer

United States

Would you like to have a friend who could finish your sentence? If you do, let’s talk.

I’m Eugene Ivanov, a business and technical writer interested in creativity, innovation, and technology. I have a passion for describing complex topics in a simple and intuitive way. I also have a passion for telling a good story.

Writing has a lot in common with problem-solving. First, you identify the problem your audience is facing. Second, you find a solution to this problem. Finally, you present this solution to your audience in the most appropriate way.

I’ve spent 40+ years of my professional career solving problems, both as a bench scientist and innovation consultant. Writing is the logical next step in my career.

My motto is: "Every time you leave your comfort zone, you make it more spacious."

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Portfolio

Books

Wiley
08/29/2023
Corporate Explorer Fieldbook: How to Build New Ventures In Established Companies

This book, co-edited by Andrew Binns and me, is a collection of the tools, methodologies, and techniques one needs to build successful, market-ready ventures from within existing organizations. A team of accomplished authors explains how to develop a practical strategy, gather market insights, develop a Jobs-To-Be-Done market canvas, collect customer research, reduce organizational risk, and more.

Amazon
03/08/2023
We the People of the Crowd...: The Why, What, and How of Crowdsourcing

“We the People of the Crowd…” is a book about crowdsourcing, an open innovation approach to solving complex problems. The book is a collection of stories derived from the author’s personal experience in running crowdsourcing campaigns for corporate and nonprofit clients.

Bioinnovation & Health

Medium
03/03/2024
Weighing on the weight-loss drugs

The real explanation of why some people are having “a problem” with Ozempic & Co. is our obsession with body shape. But these days, instead of habitually shaming overweight and obese people, we began shaming those who try losing weight with Ozempic and Wegovy.

Medium
02/12/2024
Drug Money

The pharmaceutical industry is good at spreading its drug money. It "funds" scientists, it "funds" patient advocacy groups. Even more troubling, it provides almost half of the budget for its regulator, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

Innovationobserver
08/18/2021
A boomerang drug

On June 7, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new treatment for Alzheimer's Disease (AD), its first in nearly two decades. Manufactured by Biogen and called Aduhelm, the drug was supposed to become a cause of celebration by millions of Americans diagnosed with AD. Instead, the Aduhelm approval may well be remembered as the most controversial, if not scandalous, FDA’s decision in the 115 years of its history.

The Virtues of Diversity

Innovationobserver
02/16/2022
Will the Women Innovators Please Stand Up?

When we argue that women should be better represented on corporate innovation teams, it’s not an attempt at social engineering or affirmative action in disguise. It’s a sensible innovation strategy.

Change Logic
06/08/2021
Is Your Organization Diverse Enough to be Truly Innovative?

The idea that a group of people with diverse professional experiences would be better at solving complex problems than a homogeneous group is nothing new. However, a growing body of evidence now shows that socially diverse groups are more innovative than socially homogeneous ones.

Herox
08/13/2020
The Role of Diversity in Innovation

Why is diversity important? The answer to this question is quite straightforward: diverse and inclusive companies innovate better. The connection between diversity and innovation is proven by a substantial body of research.

Creativity & Serendipity

Medium
09/29/2023
Being an Expert: Traveling the Same Road Again and Again

The choice between engaging experts vs. crowds in problem-solving is pretty straightforward. When solving a problem similar to one that the firm faced in the past, the firm should engage experts. However, if the problem is novel and may require a fresh look at it, engaging crowds would be a better choice.

Medium
09/04/2023
Innovating in a Dream (or With a Drink)

It's only a matter of time that we pin down the sections of the brain responsible for creativity — along with safe and efficient ways to stimulate them on demand, as a way to boost human creativity.

Medium
06/19/2023
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Are they really?

Contrary to popular belief, ideas are not plentiful. Available data shows that quite the opposite is true: we are experiencing a growing shortage of ideas. Moreover, these ideas become more and more expensive and their quality is on the decline. This trend may have a profound negative effect on the future of US innovation.

Change Logic
06/15/2022
Do Wars Boost Innovation?

We all heard this: Never let a good crisis go to waste. Crises do and will happen, and we must learn how to use them to find more effective ways to do business. But we also must learn to be creative and innovative every single day, without waiting for an extreme event to give us “permission to innovate.”

Innovation & Freedom

Medium
10/14/2023
Are You Free to Innovate?

Innovation has been the driving force of American growth and prosperity — and, as such, a key component of the nation’s psyche. Unfortunately, the nation’s innovation edge can’t be taken for granted. Losing it will have consequences we Americans don’t even want to contemplate.

IMCI Magazine (July/August 2023)
07/10/2023
Innovation & Freedom

Freedom has a profound positive effect on corpofrate innovation. This effect manifests at three major levels: individual, organizational, and national.

Medium
05/16/2023
Freedom to Innovate

One of the most important drivers of innovation is freedom. Yes, freedom. Freedom emerges as a common denominator for the factors that boost innovation. In contrast, restrictions on liberties have a chilling effect on the corporate innovation process.

Managing Innovation

Medium
04/17/2024
The Fallacy of the "Fail-Fast-Fail-Often" Creed

Innovation strategy, innovation processes, Innovation metrics, training, and incentives - that's what will make your innovation process predictable and repeatable, at least more predictable and repeatable than winning a lottery.

Medium
03/24/2024
Lost a Billion? Let's Celebrate!

We live in a success-driven society. We should strive for success — and success only — be it an innovation project, a manufacturing process, or safety of our borders. We should work hard on decreasing the rate of failures in any of these activities. And we should reserve celebration for those rare occasions when we succeed.

Medium
11/11/2023
On Prohibition, COVID-19, and Disrupted Networks

It’s fascinating to see parallels between Prohibition, an ill-conceived government regulation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, a natural disaster. And yet, both did exactly the same: they disrupted natural human networks, Prohibition by preventing people from socializing after work, and COVID-19 by abrupt shifting to remote work.

Medium
10/10/2023
A Stranger in the Room

External consultants have a certain edge over the insiders: consultants are not exposed to the often-toxic fumes of internal politics. This helps them better deal with competing ideas and opinions, judging them on their merits rather than their authorship.

Medium
10/05/2023
How to Win a War

I call it the “80:20 rule”: in my experience, 80% of unsuccessful crowdsourcing campaigns failed because the problem presented to the crowd was not properly defined; only 20% did so because of a poor match between the problem and the crowd.

Medium
06/06/2023
The Inverted-U Law of Innovation (and Life)

Our experience tells us that many things in life are good “in moderation.” At small doses, the rattlesnake venom can be used to treat arthritis and cancer, but it becomes deadly at larger doses. Similarly, we all long for attention from our loved ones, yet we begin protecting our space when this attention gets overwhelming. So, in innovation, business — and life in general — dose is everything. You may remember this wisdom tonight when adding salt to a dish you cook for dinner.

Medium
05/26/2023
How to Build Your Innovation Dream Team?

You can hear this time and again: innovation is all about people. Even if you're a great fan of AI, you'd hardly expect robots to replace human innovators any time soon. And if you also love another popular cliché, the one saying that innovation is a team sport, you arrive at a natural conclusion that to pursue a corporate innovation project, you need a dedicated innovation team.

Change Logic
10/02/2020
How Professional Identity Blocks Innovation?

At NASA, professional identity clashed with innovation when its Life Sciences division opened its strategic R&D challenges to an external audience. The move split the organization in two. One group represented NASA scientists and engineers who embraced open methods as an opportunity to enhance their roles and capabilities. The other group flatly rejected open innovation methodology as an existential challenge to their professional identity.

The Basics of Crowdsourcing

Medium
08/15/2023
12 Thoughts About Crowdsourcing

The following are twelve thoughts about crowdsourcing taken from my recently published book “We the People of the Crowd…” and summarizing my 20+ years of experience in running internal and external crowdsourcing campaigns.

Herox
Crowdsourcing: A Decade in Review

Crowdsourcing is here to stay. Its future as an effective innovation tool is ensured by its proven ability to deliver value to many organizations that use it. Moreover, crowdsourcing is being organically incorporated into the “gig” economy, providing independent workers with the ability to be paid for a task or a project as opposed to a salary or hourly wage.

Qmarkets
02/24/2020
What is Crowdsourcing, and How Can it Add Value to Your Enterprise?

Since the 2004 publication of James Surowiecki's highly influential book, The Wisdom of Crowds, the idea that large groups of people can be smarter than a few individuals, no matter how brilliant, has been gradually gaining prominence in academic circles, business communities, and public opinion.