Category Archives: Ideation

How access to data changed the last 100 Years

Leave a reply

Since the beginning of 1900’s, lots of things changed or transformed the world. In just 100 years, we are talking about saving soil, saving the environment, saving lives etc.

Modern humans came into existence more than 300,000 years ago. So, for 299,900 years everything was going well and suddenly in the last 100 years everything changed. How and Why? Simple. Access to Data.

The Reed Pen was first created in 3,200 BC. In 600 AD, the Quill came into existence. In 1822, the first steel point pen was used and in 1827 the fountain pen and in 1888 the ball point pen came into existence. Just look at the numbers, it took 3,800 Years for the first iteration from a Reed pen to Quill; then it took 1,222 years for the next iteration to steel point pen; then in just 5 years the fountain pen came into existence and then it took another 61 years for the ball point pen to come into our lives.

It took 3,800 years for the first iteration to a better tool and then then the timelines started reducing for the subsequent iterations. How is this possible? Because of data.

With the accessibility to pen and paper in the last 2 centuries, many experiments have been recorded and this is helping us evolve faster. In the last 100 years, more and more experiments came to light which have bene recorded in non-traditional ways and then few eminent people translated them to a more traditional recording which we can use.

With access to technology gaining more prominence and easier in the last 70 years, we now have access to experiments and their results with a click of a button.

Success of an idea depends on deeper understanding of the subject and results of various experiments. Many entrepreneurs miss this key point.

If you are an entrepreneur or ideating to creating something, spend time on the research and understand how the problem came into existence and if there are any meaningful solutions which are not yet been used and then add your algorithm so that the output can be better.

Serendipity comes from differences.

Leave a reply

“Diversity of opinions and circumstances increases the likelihood of “happy accidents” – John Maeda.

May creative ideas come when we least expect them. I never thought of writing a book, yes, it was in my checklist, but at a later stage. However, when I joined the 100 Day project, hearing to all the members, I got inspired and when I started writing everyday, that gave me the inspiration to compile all these thoughts and ideas into a book. Very unexpected.

Co-working is another great place to get ieeas. There are people from various backgrounds who ccome to a common place to work and when you start interacting with them, there are high chances that your ideas are better and meaningful. Probably, this is one reason why corporates struggle with building a culture of innovation. People sitting together are often thinking of their job and also the same topic is being discussed with his/her colleagues. Hence, innovation quotient is less.

The more different thoughts you have, the more different personalities you meet and discuss, the better are your ideas.

The why

Leave a reply

Have you seen the famous Ted talk by Simon Sinek, Start with Why? ? If you have not, here is the link to it.

This talk really changed the way I operate. I heard this while i was in my job and for every project, I used to Start with the Why. Now, after being an entrepreneur, I use this more often and it has helped me a lot.

When I speak about value creation, first we need to understand WHY the solution is being created. For instance, let me share the why statement of HAPLO,

We are passionate about simplifying technology for the non-technology establishments. With this in mind, we started by automating everyday tasks to reduce the manual workload. We created a simple pay-to-use subscription platform to address this problem. Why don’t you try us?

and for Studio NAVAKA, I have a simple Why,

Being a corporate professional and entrepreneur myself, having gone thorough the challenges of bringing an idea to life, I curated my experiences clubbed with my passion to coach and help others into a framework I call thinkStrategy. Let me share my experiences and help you bring your idea to life.

Even though people understand, I have not heard a single company selling their product or service by answering the why. They do understand the value, but their customers don’t. They go with what the market perception means.

Having a clear why will help you understand your product better and this will always keep you in focus with the features and enhancements you keep adding.

What is your Why?

Kill ideas liberally

Leave a reply

Usually, when you get an idea, we get emotionally connected to them. What happens when we get emotionally connected is that we loose the ability to see through all aspects of the idea.

How to address this?

Here is a simple exercise to look at the idea objectively.

Document the idea completely and as much detail as possible. Once you are confident that the idea is documented in detail, we start the exercise.

For one complete week, keep thinking on the idea and only look at positives of the idea. Only positives. Be as optimistic and positive about the idea. Keep documenting all the points you can think of. If possible share the idea with your friends or closed ones and ask them to also share their optimistic thoughts. Document them.

The following week, only identify all the challenges and pessimistic thoughts about your idea. Now, find another set of close friends and family (who have not been part of the previous week). Ask them to critic your idea and document all of them.

Now, objectively look at all the optimistic and pessimistic comments and club them to the respective components of the idea.

Look at the results and by now you will understand if you wish to take the idea forward or not.

In short, if you have to kill the idea, do it liberally, but not for any other reason.

Focus on Method, NOT Outcome

Leave a reply

After you have finalised your idea, and decided to jump into execution, it is very important to do the bigger planning.

You can use the Business Model Canvas to fine tune your plan. However, you should also focus on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Many entrepreneurs (including me) get fixated on the bigger goal of what we want to achieve and forget to look at how we want to get there. This is quite frequent. But, the key to achieving what you need is to ensure you focus on the method to get there.

I want to get to becoming a successful entrepreneur and the go-to Ideator in the world. How do I get there? Sub-consciously i started writing about 13 years ago. Was not regular, but was writing something or the other. When YouTube came into existence, I created a Channel to start sharing video stories. I did few videos and after that stopped. After seeing many YouTubers, I thought I should have a pretty good setup to do, but on the other hand, when you see how these YouTuber’s started, every one had a humble beginning and over the years they migrated to better tech.

This year (2023), I finally started to focus on writing, didn’t want to see the number of views I am getting or the comments, but just write for 100 days, everyday. I opened my notion and started planning. I planned for 20 days posts and started to write. Over the last 80 days, there were days i could not (Could not write for 3 days since there was a death in the family), but remaning 77 days, I never missed a day. This post is also part of the 100 day writing project.

What this gave me is the amazing idea of turning these posts into a book. My book on Ideation now has a framework and my goal is to get this done by end of Jan and hand it over to the publisher.

What changed in the last 80 days?

My inhibitions of not bothering about what people think, how many views am getting or the number of comments. I am sure one day, this will be a huge source of knowledge and reference for many visitors and my writings will come on the top. It’s just a matter of time.

So, don’t get fixated on the destination, focus on the method and what you want to accomplish each day, am sure you will get there with your product too.

I can also give reference to HAPLO, my first startup completely self-funded. What started as a SaaS platform for Co-working spaces, now is a SaaS for Commercial Real Estate. At times, I feel a small $150,000 funding would really help push the sales, but unfortunately no one wants to invest in PropTech. Biggest question is the returns in the domain. But, I strongly believe this sill definitely be a million dollar idea (it will be way more, but using the word). But this will take time and there were many days when I felt that I should just close the company. Still need to pay loads of loans back to people, but either will blessings or my commitment, they are just being patient with me. I am sure I will give back everything.

Will share the story of HAPLO in a later post in-detail****.****

So, keep going. Focus on how you are getting things done.

Importance of trying new things

Leave a reply

You are hungry, do you go to your favourite place to eat or try something new? You are meeting with friends, do you go to the regular pub or try a new pub?

Constantly, we get into the situation of having alternatives or just go with our comfort decision.

To develop creativity, one should definitely try new things.

In the most famous Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance, Robert Pirsig says, instead of the regular conversational opener “Whats new”, try “Whats best?” It’s not easy. You don’t have a best every day.

As an Entrepreneur and Ideator, how do you get ideas? in one word “by observing”. What do you observe and how do you observe? The more frequently you see and experience different things, the more regularly you keep thinking of doing something different. For instance, when we shift or build our own home, we have a lot of ideas. Once settled, the creative flow decreases and over the period of time just stick to cleaning the home. But, when we visit someone’s home and you see the beautification, again our creative juices flow and we get excited to do something new in our home. Why does this happen? What happens when we stick to a routine? There is nothing wrong in it, but neurons activity becomes monotonous.

I predominantly work alone (nature of my work) and I stick to a routine. Once a while, the routine gets boring and change places. When this happens, my brain starts working like a Ferrari.

It is very important to try something new every week, if not every day. Try to do something different in your routine each day to bring out your creativity or do it as frequently as you can and see the difference.

How to prioritise you ideas?

Leave a reply

Every day, each minute you have some idea popping out in your head. How do you channelise your energies to find the right idea(s) to work on?

Let me share with you how I do it.

I use Eisenhower Matrix.

This is a task management method, how did I customise this into an ideation tool?

I work on 2 things – HAPLO, our startup and Studio NAVAKA, my writings & consulting LLP. I distribute my time based on the weeks plan.

To write down and follow up on my ideas, I use TickTick and customised the template to suit my needs.

This is just for my ideas. I keep writing them down in this template. I created another matrix where i use that on weekly basis. On Saturday, I sit down to look at the upcoming week and put all the things I need to get done and select an idea or two to brain storm with myself.

To organise my ideas, I use Evernote and Notion. Evernote has all the links and articles which I reference and Notion has all blog writings. For articles and the book am working on, I am using LivingWriter, a cloud based book writing app. There are a lot of bugs, but its working for me.

So, how do you organise your ideas?

The power of Observation

Leave a reply

Yesterday, I was doing a virtual session for group of school students organised by GUSEC and UNICEF. These students are in 8-12 class’s. Initially, I was a little apprehensive if i can do justice to them in walking them through Business Models. How can I relate the examples? Also, many are also from Hindi medium and I really get very conscious with my Hindi, especially when I know the other person knows the language more fluently than me ?

The session started and I have to admit, these students are much more capable and matured than most of us are.

Let me give you an example. When I ask the participants How do you generate ideas?, many give different answers and mostly they don’t get the right word. Yesterday, when I started my session with this question, one girl (probably in Standard 8 or 9) instantaneously answered “By Observing”. I was blown away. This is the first time someone gave me the correct answer in the blink of an eye. I understood this session is going to be tough. Through the next two hours, many had questions and asked without any inhibitions. Questions ranged from,

  • How do I know I have a powerful idea,
  • Can I build a business without actually having to run the business
  • How do I license my idea to someone and generate income.

Can you believe these questions? Trust me, I have never come across any grown adult who had these questions in any forum I have visited till date.

Now, coming to the main aspect. From the first answer i got from the little girl, I started referencing Observation during most of the session.

Observation is very important and powerful for ideators. Only when you observe do you really understand the problem and the possible solutions.

Have you watched Big Vape? Its a limited series on Netflix. Its the story Juul, the vape which created a revolution. The keen observation of James Monsees and Adam Bowen (who were friends and smokers too) led them to create something which give the kick of smoking, but without the side effects. The story of how it created a revolution and then fell is a different story, but what I am focusing here is their observation to create the pod. The design, the convenience and the ability to charge it using your laptop, made it a huge success.

What Ideators need is the ability to see through the problem, experience it and then start working on possible solutions. Without experiencing the domain, you cannot build a solution.

Observe, it is the key to a successful idea.

The First Rule of Ideation

Leave a reply

Let’s accept,

There is no such thing as a bad idea!

So, how do you begin your journey to validate if your idea makes sense or not?

Define

Define the problem in as simple words as you can. What are you trying to solve. After you write, share it with you family or friends and ask them to explain back to you what they understand. Keep repeating the process until they tell you exactly what you have in mind.

Gather

Start collecting as much data as you can on the problem. Who else is solving this problem, how are they solving, what is the new thing you are going to add, how are you going to make it more simpler for the consumer?

Research

Take your problem definition and the solution you have in mind to a potential customer or client. Ask them what they think of it and if they would use your solution. You will definitely learn more form the first person you meet. Add them to the list of upcoming features list. Keep repeating the process until you convince your potential client.

Analyze

Analyse what you have envisaged as a ideator. Bring all the data together and identify your costing and your marketing plan.

Value Preposition

Identify the Value Preposition of your idea – What and how is your customer going to benefit using your idea. Go as vertical as you can to get to the depth of the value preposition.

Does this make sense?