A .300 batting average means failing 7 out of 10 times, and yet it gets you into the Hall of Fame. After five years coaching youth baseball, I've come to see that the game's hardest lesson, learning to fail well, is exactly the one organizations need as they test and learn their way through AI. Here's what the batter's box can teach us about taking smart swings, learning fast, and staying in the lineup.

In Synchrony's latest "In Sync with Consumers" research, 56% of consumers told us they interacted with generative AI during the 2025 holiday shopping season, and the top use case across every generation was product discovery.

That’s a signal: AI is moving from “helpful” to "habit", and the next shift is agentic commerce. I wrote more about what we’re seeing in the data and what it means for retailers & payments as the journey gets re-shaped by AI.

Innovation doesn’t move in straight lines...it loops. And if we pay attention, those loops don’t pull us backward, they point us toward what's next. This holiday season, with a Wii and a Tin Can landline phone atop my kids' wish lists, I was reminded that progress doesn't always look like acceleration.

The tech industry is 3 years into GenAI, and the era of “let’s try it and see what happens” is closing. Not because it was wrong to try pilots that could fail, but because we’ve all learned enough to stop wandering.

Early adoption is critical in new technology development because when you invest early, you have the benefit of failure. Now, we're at the moment where companies either turn those early pilots into muscle or get left behind.

AI Commerce represents what could be the biggest shift for brands since e-commerce, perhaps even bigger. It’s the dawn of AI-driven shopping, where intelligent agents make purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers, fundamentally changing how brands connect and engage.

Cultivating creative thinking within an innovation team, especially during times of conflict, is a delicate yet crucial process, but Cocan be a powerful catalyst for creativity if managed correctly.

Presenting to leadership is a chance to showcase your innovation program's progress, impact, and vision for the future. Learn how our team crafts a compelling narrative.

In a tech landscape flooded with Apple Vision Pro reviews, my latest article goes beyond the hardware and dives into the future of Fintech and Retail with the Apple Vision Pro.

Are you a Catalyst Maker or Follower? Discover the importance of understanding your role in innovation and how to balance your portfolio for success.

Project management and innovation are both filled with "would’ve, could’ve, should’ve" thoughts, but for the past decade I've used a tool to help ground myself - the pre-mortem.

Today, Synchrony was named a “Top Workplace for Innovators” by Fast Company. Our approach won’t fit every organization, but over time, our playbook has evolved to a place that I hope it could help you evaluate your own Innovation.

The inspiration for our new mantra came from an unexpected place, but its grounded us in how we build new experiences.

Read how a lesson in product development from Taylor Swift's tour influenced our Innovation Team.

On May 25^th, I had the opportunity to participate on a panel discussing how Generative AI will impact product development. It’s a topic that would have felt far off in the future a year ago, but in the last 6 months the explosion of the trend has opened the door to new opportunities, and many are left wondering how it’ll fit into their strategy. Read my summary from the talk and learn how you can get ready for what's next.

How do you evaluate a decelerating trend, where do you look for the catalysts, and how do you find product opportunities when people become disillusioned by the technology?

Too often, we find ourselves looking for the answer to this question in how we want to be perceived by our peers. There’s a desire to be first, fastest, best, or jaw-dropping. But looking to our peers is the wrong direction.

Two questions I ask myself each year to make the announcements relevant for my company, and examples on how to make CES relevant for you

4 takeaways from the biggest event in FinTech, on and off the stage.

The most difficult part of any innovation project is beginning, and beginning can feel directionless.

Create a simple, forward-able summary to get executives thinking of the future while reassuring them that you’re going to minimize disruption.

Reflections from leading an R&D Technology Center, and what ingredients you need to make it work.