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Published on:

29th Apr 2026

Episode 4 with Kim Brushaber

In this episode of The Frontline Innovation Podcast, I welcomed Kim Brushaber to the show. We had an insightful conversation about navigating the messy middle of scale in software companies, innovation, and solving human problems. We explored the nature of innovation and how to empathetically understand customer needs.

Innovation isn’t just about technology: it’s about deeply understanding customer needs with empathy, navigating the tension between business pressures and real human problems, and recognizing how UX and design shape product success.

We talked about how companies could identify the source of their challenges in delivering value to the market might stem from a product, marketing, or sales problem.

Our conversation also highlighted practical hurdles that can undermine these efforts, such as difficulties caused in the particular case of applicant tracking systems for job seekers in the marketplace.

Discussion Areas:

🔹Navigating the Messy Middle of Scale

🔹Redefining Innovation Beyond Technology

🔹Understanding Human Problems in Innovation

🔹Competing Pressures in Product Development

🔹The Dance of Sales and Product Management

🔹Understanding Customer Needs and Market Dynamics

🔹Navigating Product Changes and Customer Expectations

🔹The Human Element in Business Decisions

🔹Curiosity and Innovation in Problem Solving

🔹The Frustrations of Applicant Tracking Systems

#frontline #nnovation #ProductManagement #HumanProblems #BusinessStrategy #CustomerNeeds #TechInnovation #Leadership #ScalingSoftware #ProblemSolving #ApplicantTrackingSystems

Resources:

🔹Kim's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbrushaber/

🔹Link to full episode: https://youtu.be/d65A-Hfi2iM

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About the Podcast

The Frontline Innovation Podcast
The Voice of Problem Solvers
This show explores innovation, from the frontline—where the real work of understanding human problems, dismantling complexity, and building solutions that hold up in the real world. A place where human unmet needs and problem solvers live. Solutions can come in several forms, from products to services to experiences.

Our conversations are reflective, practical, and human. There are no “right answers,” just honest exploration.

About your host

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William D. Reed

As someone who has spent decades bridging the gap between those who build solutions and the people who need them,I’ve seen firsthand why so many great ideas fail—not because they aren’t innovative, but because they never truly reach or work for the people they were meant to help.

Today, through my work at Willway Labs and my Frontline Innovation framework, I help enterprise leaders, product teams, and innovators dismantle real human problems at the frontline—where solutions are actually experienced, adopted, and trusted.
Because innovation isn’t complete when you launch… it’s complete when it works in someone’s life.

What I do is help organizations close that gap—so their ideas don’t just exist…they deliver real value.