What are the best ways to gain product innovation experience early in your career?

To gain product innovation experience early on, consider getting involved in internships or entry-level positions within companies known for their innovative culture. Actively participate in cross-functional projects, contribute creative ideas, and collaborate with experienced professionals to learn from their expertise. Additionally, explore online courses or workshops focused on product development and design thinking. Don't forget to stay updated on industry trends and technologies, and always be curious and open to learning from every opportunity that comes your way!

Working on a stretch or side project would help you think out of box because you would be in flow with current prod development and stop thinking beyond boundaries - having a stretch or side app development, webpage creation will give you a lot of exp without risk of not delivering it right.

Talk to mentors, enrol for courses with people who would talk about how things happen in real, not just bookish definition of prod development. Finding mentor who had exp can be tough as everyone pose to be a mentor but it is not impossible to have a mentor that can help you gain expertise on product innovation , how to structure thoughts and how to build from scratch.

Every product lifecycle will have its own unique learnings and experience. Indulging in case studies is one of the practical ways to understand the different strategies used in innovation including the success and failures. But the most practical way, from my experience, is volunteering for NGOs. They have unique requirements but lack the ideal manpower to create a product. One of the unique challenges is that there are a plethora of user segments needs to be considered and targeted all of them at once. It's a great place for innovating 0 to 1 products.

Change your perception first. Shift the way of thinking towards think like a Product person. Surround yourself with the Product innovators via various ways like joining communities, Reading case studies and articles. Following "Product Hunt" is good option nowadays to be inspired how people comes up with the innovations. Increase observations from surroundings and daily activities and try to figure out What, Why and how.