548: Building a culture of fearless product innovation at Snap-On Tools – with Ben Brenton, PhD

Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

How Snap-On puts customers at the center of product management

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TLDR

In this episode, Ben Brenton, Chief Innovation Officer at Snap-on, joins me to share practical strategies for fostering a sustainable, fearless culture of innovation. Ben reveals how Snap-on transformed a traditional manufacturing mindset into one deeply centered on real customer insight. He details actionable systems that drive continual breakthrough products—not through motivational rhetoric, but through persistent field engagement, cross-functional collaboration, and relentless focus on customer needs. Whether you work in tools, software, or services, this conversation is packed with lessons on making innovation succeed in any industry.

Introduction

We have all been in a meeting where someone says “we need to be more innovative” but nobody can explain how to actually make that happen. These are organizations where innovation gets relegated to a buzzword in a value statement instead of becoming the driving force behind breakthrough products. This discussion will change that, providing practical insights into how to build and sustain a culture of innovation – not through motivational speeches or innovation theater, but through practical systems, processes, and frameworks that actually work.

My guest is Ben Brenton, Chief Innovation Officer at Snap-on, who for the last 18 years has built what he calls a “culture of fearless innovation” at a company known for making the tools that fix the world. Ben took a traditional manufacturing company and transformed how they approach product development by putting customer insights at the center of everything and creating systems that encourage calculated risk-taking. He’s done this across industries – from consumer goods at Kraft and PepsiCo to industrial tools at Snap-on – supporting that these principles work regardless of your market. You’ll hear practical guidance that separates companies that consistently deliver breakthrough products from those that just hope innovation will somehow happen.

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

• Customer-Centric Innovation:
  Ben attributes Snap-on’s innovation success to putting the end user at the center of everything. Product managers, engineers, and even software developers regularly get out into the field to truly understand customer needs and pain points.
• Field Research Over Innovation Theater:
  The company invests in real-world ethnographic research—visiting customers in their environments rather than relying on surveys or remote interviews, which can result in curated or less honest feedback.
• Prototyping and Iteration with Customers:
  Snap-on involves customers throughout the development process, from early concepts to full prototypes, ensuring the team doesn’t drift from the original customer needs as ideas become reality.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  Great innovation requires breaking down silos. Ben encourages engineers, marketers, product managers, and even finance and legal to participate in customer visits and debriefs, supporting a diversity of insights and buy-in.
• Customer Interviews:
  At Snap-on, product managers, engineers, and employees from all functions interview customers in the field, practicing active listening to catch deep insights. They then must bring those insights together into a business recommendation.
• Scaling the Culture:
  Ben discusses the importance of top-level support and slow organizational growth—hiring based on need and early wins, rather than building large teams up front.
• Storytelling Over Pure Data:
  To drive decisions, Ben emphasizes crafting compelling stories from real customer interactions, rather than just presenting data.

Useful Links

• Learn more about Snap-on
• Check out Snap-on’s Makers and Fixers initiative
• Connect with Ben on LinkedIn
• Check out the PDMA Ignite Innovation Conference, where Ben will be a keynote speaker
• Listen to episode 120: Product development and management at Snap-on – with Ben Brenton, PhD

Innovation Quote

“The biggest mistakes in innovation are the products you don’t launch, not the ones you launch and fail.” – Ben Brenton

“No one ever makes a decision based on data. People only make decisions based on great stories.” – paraphrase of Daniel Kahneman

Application Questions

1. What practical steps can your organization take to ensure product teams have regular, direct exposure to real customers?
2. Have you observed innovation theater in your company, and how did it affect results? What would real fieldwork change?
3. How can cross-functional teams be more effectively included in your product discovery and prototyping processes?
4. What are some stories you’ve encountered where listening to customers fundamentally changed your product direction or messaging?
5. How would a “Makers and Fixers” style campaign look in your industry to celebrate and understand your end users?

Bio

Bennett Brenton joined Snap-on Incorporated as Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President of Innovation in February 2007. Snap-on is a leading global innovator, manufacturer and marketer of tools, diagnostics and equipment solutions for professional users. Ben’s role is to drive innovative products, solutions and processes that fundamentally change the markets Snap-on serves and enhance customer perception of its brands. Ben has helped to create, support and institutionalize a culture at Snap-on that embraces creativity, risk, change and fearless innovation. In early 2009 Ben launched Innovation Works! – a physical center for innovation at Snap-on’s office in Kenosha Wisconsin.

Prior to joining Snap-on, Ben spent 4 years in Marketing at PepsiCo, most recently as the Director of Innovation for the Frito-Lay Convenience Foods division. At PepsiCo he also led innovation as Director of Innovation for Tropicana and prior to that as Director of Innovation for Shelf Stable Beverages. Before joining PepsiCo, Ben was Marketing Director of New Products at Kraft Foods. He spent over 14 years at Kraft Foods, starting as a Research Scientist in Biotechnology and working in various roles with increasing responsibility and scope across R&D and Marketing. Ben has over 20 years of experience focused on new product development, marketing and innovation. Ben is a recognized expert in innovation and an expert at facilitating ideation sessions and customer interviews.

Ben holds a Bachelors degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Microbial Genetics from the University of Nebraska. He was awarded a fellowship in Biotechnology from the National Academy of Sciences and received a Ph.D, in Food Science and Nutrition with an emphasis in Molecular Genetics from the University of Massachusetts. He is an active runner, cyclist and triathlete.

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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