We’re gonna take today off and work on some back burner ideas. Yesterday we shot some ideas around, and people continued to discuss them after our meeting. EJ declared it premature hackulation (sorry, no associated photo). But this team is good – they turned red for a moment, slightly embarrassed, but kept on going…
Some product managers have balked at the idea of formalized innovation – “You can’t force innvation!”? And I actually agree. But one can facilitate it.
One can’t say – I’m gonna have a brilliant new idea by friday – and expect it to happen. But if one says – every friday, we’re gonna focus on coming up with a brilliant idea – ideas will come, innovation will happen.? If one just waits around for the idea to appear (while driving to work or taking a shower or wherever the ah-ha moment strikes) I think one could be waiting for a while.
To create, or innovate, I think one needs to be in the right state of mind. And it takes a little effort to get there.? Today, that’s what we’re gonna do. And I’m not sure that anything we do today will be innovative (might or might not be…who can guarantee?), but I am sure that what we do today is putting us down the right path towards plenty of innovation.? I love playing with ideas, watching them evolve. It is as close as I can come to musicians jamming. Building on riffs from each other – riffs for us being data, algorithms, crossreferences, etc. Tossing egos out the window and just focusing on how to make a product/feature/tweak/hack better is our focus today – and I’m really excited about it.
Moore, who’s claim to fame was the Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado has got a new book out – Dealing with Darwin. Focusing on how companies need to constantly evolve, to innovate, to create new solutions to new problems (and for us, problems that our users might not even recognize they have). “To innovate forever…is not an aspiration; it is a desgin specification. It is not a strategy; it is a requirement.”
It is a neat little dilemma huh? One needs to innovate, but cannot force it.?
More to come later tonight.