In this episode of Practical Product Management, hosts Leah Farmer and Marilyn McDonald sit down with Evan J. Schwartz, Chief Innovation Officer at AMCS Group, to explore what innovation really looks like inside a large, mature SaaS organization.

Evan explains how his role works as a separate innovation track — taking high-risk bets on AI and emerging technology, running lean matrixed teams, and handing proven concepts back to the product organization once they've reached critical mass. The conversation covers how to structure innovation without creating resentment among product and engineering teams, the difference between technical innovation and product innovation, and why the most important question is simply: is there a there there?

The second half digs into ERP transformations — one of the most reliably painful experien ...