Kyle Nel, Executive Director of Lowe's Innovation Labs

Episode Overview

Among other topics, Kyle discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

• Lowe’s Innovation Labs
• Lowe’s uncommon partnerships
• Maximizing efficiency and success by integrating internal and external talent
• Lowe’s Innovation Labs’ Collider
• The value of external partnerships
• Incremental verses meaningful innovation
• Lowe’s Narrative-driven innovation model
• Using behavioral science to drive transformation
• Metrics for measuring the success of innovation labs
• Lowe’s Innovation Labs’ projects: Lowe’s Holoroom, self-roaming robots, additive manufacturing

Kyle Nel’s Biography

Kyle Nel is the Executive Director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, part of Lowe’s Companies, Inc., a $60 billion home improvement company. Kyle leads a team that is responsible for driving the company’s innovation vision, strategy, and growth.

Prior to founding the Innovation Labs, Kyle held positions in market research with Lowe’s and the Walmart Global Insights Group.

Kyle is a member of the XPRIZE Foundation Innovation Board and was recognized on the 2015 Advertising Age “40 under 40” list.

Kyle earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Brigham Young University-Idaho and an MBA from the AC Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin.

I recently caught up with Kyle in his office in Seattle, WA. Our conversation covered World Class IT Principle One, People, as Kyle discussed how he recruits for innovation; and Principle Five, External Partnerships, as Kyle described the importance of Lowe’s uncommon partnerships with organizations like Google and Made In Space. We also discussed Lowe’s Innovation Labs’ narrative-driven innovation model, transformative products that are used in Lowe’s stores that began in the Innovation Labs, and a variety of other topics.

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