April is in charge of client relationships at Duckbill and teaches product innovation at VCU. She is a former top sales performer for Fortune 100 companies across various industries, where she consistently drove double-digit growth in six- and seven-figure portfolios. Today, she helps aspiring entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses by developing strategies that integrate finance, marketing, sales, and customer experience. April shares how a sales driven internal request at Duckbill became Skyway, a cloud contract and spend visibility product, and why the best use of AI is helping humans do human work better.
In this episode:
Defining product innovation as improvement of existing workflows, not just net new invention
The closed loop ladder: capture, translate, synthesize, decide, ship, close the loop
The “wet monkeys” lesson, how tradition blocks obvious change
How to use ride alongs and story capture to surface patterns fast
How to earn trust from sales and frontline techs without slowing them down
Why call centers are opportunity centers, not just cost centers
AI in support: where it helps, where it creates risk
Sales led innovation stories from ADP and Duckbill, from insights to new offerings
Building a challenge network and creating room for whimsy in problem solving
Delightful product experience, why Wayfair’s self explanatory assembly labeling mattered
Mentioned in this episode:
Follow April Palmer on LinkedIn
Duckbill and Skyway
Share More Stories and SEEQ
They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
Rocket Fuel (book)
TED app
Blinkist
Headway
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