PDMA Connections - June 2025

Ready to supercharge your innovation journey? Join us at the 2025 PDMA Ignite Innovation Summit, happening September 13–16 at the Marriott Marquis in Chicago. Register now to unlock four immersive days packed with interactive sessions, visionary keynote speakers, and powerful networking opportunities with top-tier product leaders and innovators. Dive into Mastermind Roundtables, Lightning Talks, and the “Research to Reality” forum—each designed to spark new thinking and deliver practical strategies you can apply immediately. Whether you're leading innovation in a global enterprise or fueling growth at a start‑up, this summit offers the tools, insights, and connections you need to elevate your impact. Don’t miss out—register and ignite your next great idea!

We invite you to become a key sponsor of the PDMA 2025 Ignite Innovation Summit, taking place September 13–16, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis Chicago. As a sponsor, your organization will connect with top product leaders, executives, and innovators from diverse industries, positioning your brand at the forefront of cutting-edge product development and management.

Our sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities are designed to maximize attendee engagement with your company, ensuring your brand is prominently featured throughout the event. Secure your sponsorship today and be part of an event that shapes the future of product development and management!

We are pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2026 PDMA Board of Directors. Are you—or a fellow PDMA member—ready to make a meaningful impact and help guide the future of product development and management? Step forward and submit a nomination today!

In accordance with PDMA’s bylaws, all individual members in good standing—excluding Student Members—are eligible to be nominated. Self-nominations are both welcomed and strongly encouraged.

Serving on the PDMA Board is a unique opportunity to shape the strategic direction of the Association, ensuring it remains financially sound and continues to advance the interests of our global membership. Board members act as stewards of PDMA’s mission, bringing forward the voices, ideas, and aspirations of our professional community.

We seek candidates who embody the following qualities:

Proven Leadership: A demonstrated track record of advancing programs, events, or projects.
Organizational Commitment: A deep dedication to PDMA’s mission, vision, and goals.
Capacity to Serve: Availability to fully engage in Association activities, including six virtual board meetings (2 hours each) and project-based work between meetings. Service on a committee is also expected.
Collaborative Spirit: Strong interpersonal and communication skills essential for teamwork.
Sound Judgment & Integrity: The ability to navigate complex decisions with fairness and objectivity.
Mentorship Mindset: A passion for mentoring and developing future leaders.
Broad Perspective: Willingness to put the needs of the entire organization above personal or local interests.
Strategic Vision: An aptitude for big-picture thinking and long-term planning.

To review the full board member position description and submit a nomination, please click here. The deadline for nominations is July 11, 2025, and terms will begin on January 1, 2026.

For questions regarding the nominations process, please contact Executive Director Eric Ewald at PDMA Headquarters at (651) 290-6280 or via email at eewald@pdma.org.

Dr. Pepey Riawati Kurnia, M.M., CPM, CAC, CODP, CGP

Tell us a bit about yourself and how long you have been a PDMA member
I am currently a core faculty of PPM Management College and professional staff of PPM Management. In addition to actively teaching in the fields of marketing (especially NPD subjects), business ethics, and corporate governance for students and corporate practitioners, I am also the founder and coordinator of PDMA Indonesia since 2013 and actively develop knowledge and networks in new product development. I have marketing knowledge, but also experience as a Product and Marketing Manager at PT. Charoen Pokphand Indonesia (Charoen Pokphand Group of Companies), a leading agro-industry company in Indonesia and Asia. I have been an academic member since 2013 until now, but sometimes not every year has an annual membership.

What is your role on the chapter board/committee?
In 2024, I took responsibility again as coordinator of PDMA Indonesia under the Dean of PPM School of Management (as a chairman of PDMA Indonesia). I tried to build a new PDMA Indonesia after the period of COVID-19, which influenced all activities of PDMA Indonesia.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your volunteer experience so far?
As a coordinator, I try hard to run all of the programs of PDMA Indonesia. My commitment is to our members. It's not easy, but I have to do it to make sure that PDMA Indonesia still contributes to PPM and Indonesia.

What advice would you give to members looking to become more active in PDMA?

Regularly visit the PDMA website—they will have a lot of knowledge, learning from sharing OCI Winners, and Vision Magazine.
Actively read JPIM to learn about advanced research in the NPD field that can increase the competency of publication. In the long run, those activities can increase the competitive edge of personal branding.
Give more time to learn from kHUB. That is very useful for our global networking.

Clear, persuasive writing is essential for product success, yet even the most innovative ideas often fail to gain traction when buried in complicated, unfocused language. Product professionals regularly struggle to communicate complex concepts to diverse stakeholders—each with different priorities and varying levels of technical understanding. In this interactive session, Jack Appleman, author of 10 Steps to Successful Business Writing (2nd edition), will demonstrate practical techniques to transform product-related communications into clear, compelling messages that drive action.

Recent kHUB Postings:

- Guest contributor Jake McKee expands his contributions involving Community-Driven Product Development (CDPD) to incorporate AI in the process in his latest kHUB article, You’re Not Just Shipping AI—You’re Designing a Relationship. Jake introduces AI Experience Design (AIX) for product leaders and shares the definition of AIX, along with six AIX principles product leaders and product organizations need to know.

- The kHUB curators have been looking into the TED Talk archives to recommend some related to innovation. Did you run out of ideas? As human beings, we get used to "the way things are" really fast. Maybe it is time to stretch your mind. A mind that is elastic and fluid is permeable to endless possibilities. Such a mind is characterized by handling ambiguity and contradiction, opposites fit, trust in the power of imagination, and connecting disparate ideas to generate novelty. This Viewpoint blog post by curator Carlos Rodriguez, To Design Unique Concepts…Change your mindset!, is a compilation of TED talks that challenge our views regarding conventional thinking and analytical approaches in favor of unstructured play, searching for experiences, memories, and feelings recombined and surfacing as new concepts.

- A reminder that kHUB links to JPIM’s Academic articles! This allows you to access the abstracts and practitioner points on kHUB before delving into the full article in JPIM – PDMA’s peer reviewed Journal of Product Innovation Management. Check out these recent article abstracts posted on kHUB’s Strategy section.

kHUB Most Popular Content:

See what your competitors and peers have viewed in kHUB recently. The following content is among the most accessed last month:

Along with these still-popular classics:

PDMA is growing! Meet and connect with our new members by signing into the PDMA community on our website.

PDMA welcomed these new members in May 2025. We look forward to working with you!

Individual Members

Mahmood Almoallem
Paul Anioke
Keith Aumiller
Gifford Cheung
Brienne Defever
Sako Eaton
Alec Fenech
Kelly Flook
Jo Guthrie
Suryakant Kaushik
Nazanin Khalili
Pan Kwok
Timothy Lewis
Kristine Lockhart
Salana McElroy
Tyler Pallotta
Adilbek Ryskulov
Catherine Triggs
Anand Yadav
Tommy York

Student Member
Jiaze Xu

Academic Members
Wei Huang
Shaobing Lu
Karthik Narayanaswamy
Dominika Träger

Corporate Team Members
Diana Schuetz

We’re excited to announce the official launch of the PDMA Texas Chapter—a dynamic new hub for innovation, collaboration, and professional growth in product development and management.

The PDMA Texas Chapter is led by a dedicated team of professionals passionate about advancing the field of product innovation. Their mission is to build a vibrant network that connects, educates, and empowers product professionals through knowledge sharing, networking, professional development, and industry-academic collaboration. The chapter will serve key regions across the state, including Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Houston.

Please join us in welcoming the inaugural board of the PDMA Texas Chapter:

Keyuri Anand – Chapter President

Suryakant Kaushik – Vice President

Jake McKee – Programs Chair

Keyuri Anand – (Acting) Communications Chair

Bruce Perkin – Faculty Advisor

To learn more or connect with the chapter, visit them on LinkedIn, email them at texaspdma@gmail.com, or check out their website.

Stay tuned for details on their inaugural event—you won’t want to miss it!