What to do with those other ideas

I just saw a new comment added to an old post on what to do with an idea - its a question actually, and answering it seems like the thing to do.

The original post was about answering a question from a fellow traveler and walked through the 'doing the due diligence' and vetting the idea before building anything. But this question, from Anonymous, is 'what if the idea is not for a product, but for marketing or advertising?'. Anonymous doesn't give any any more background info, so I get to have some fun hypothesizing (and take a break from spread-sheeting).

So, where's Anonymous coming from? I'm guessing s/he is not currently in a position of power and influence which would make this question unnecessary - probably just one of the rest of us. But what Anonymous is currently doing and wants to do also have an impact on how this question is approached.

• Works in an established company and has an idea for marketing/advertising a current or upcoming product. Anonymous must do what any 'intra-preneur' would do: build the business case and build contacts who can champion the cause with the ones with power and influence ('investors").
• Works in a startup. Ditto, except it'll be at 3X speed, and you shouldn't have to build contacts in the startup (if you aren't drinking buddies, you should at least be watercooler ones) and you may beef up your story if you have some outside experts weighing in. Key point, do the homework and build the case - and you'd better be really motivated, as you're probably putting in crazy hours already.
  
• Works/studies somewhere else and has a great new idea for marketing/advertising and wants to start a company with that. Same process. Though this is a service, not a product, it is still something to sell to customers (whoever they may be), so Anonymous has to go through the same steps of scoping the market, value proposition, pricing etc. and maybe pilot (aka give it away for free) with a couple of customers before deciding this is a keeper.

There is an undeniable pattern here. Regardless of what the idea is about, and size/stage of the company involved, the first thing to do is build a business case. To sum it up (in an advertising homage): do the due!

The last lecture - another view

If you've not been totally oblivious of the goings-on in popular media (yes, that could happen even if you're not in Bora Bora watching nothing but the waves), you must have heard of Randy Pausch's last lecture. If you haven't, you could go over to the store and pick up a copy of the book version from the bestseller shelves, or find various clips on YouTube. But, do yourself a favor, take the hour or so you'll need to see the full lecture, not just the Oprah sound bites. Yes, it is geeky (he's a professor at Carnegie Mellon after all), but that has its own charm and is part of who he is. Go to his website http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/ - it's bare bones, but you can view the lecture as well as get the all-important backstory.

What's so special about this last lecture? After all Randy doesn't say anything we wouldn't find in self-help books or the secrets to success from movers and shakers - though he has lived an impressively accomplished and fulfilling life in a relatively short time. Much of the impact is from knowing that he's dying, though he doesn't dwell on that, and instead breezily moves past it with self-deprecating humor. It's the distillation of lessons from a life well lived by a very smart and caring person - the kind of person who'd make a great mentor.

So what's this got to do with entrepreneurship? Quite a lot actually. Even though he is an academic, he exhibits many of the characteristics of an entrepreneur and almost every piece of advice he gives would resonate with those of an entrepreneurial ilk. My personal favorite is the bit about brick walls being there to prove your dedication and how badly you want something. For startups, the road is not only rocky, but brick walls pop up at seemingly every turn. And not only do you, as the entrepreneur, have to bulk up to swing the metaphorical jack-hammer, you have to get your team to do the same - preferably on their own, without waiting for the caped crusader to do it for them. If you - and your team - are truly committed to your venture, you don't see just the brick wall, but you also see the cracks, the toeholds, and the myriad ways you can get past it.

Of course, like everything else, it is easier said than done, and practice does make it more automatic. One reason the last lecture hit home is that recently our team did a roadmap and targeted a mini-launch based on a date driven by the market and our business goals, and what we believed to be the must-haves in the product. The team then went off to do a detailed scheduling exercise and came back with a date that was over 2 months out from the original target. As it was all well thought out and reasonable, they felt that it was 'reality' and I should be ready to face it. I probably sounded like a woolly-headed new age flake when I responded with it being just one reality, not the one that I was willing to accept, and that my aim was to figure out how we were going to make the target date because that milestone is super-critical to our success. I was confident there was a way, though it might have appeared I was delusional. To keep it short, and sweet, with some discussion, juggling and a dash of 're-thinking' we got to the target date with an acceptable deliverable - and a hefty boost to the morale all around.

So check out the last lecture. But for a few who may be squeamish about it's earnestness, most will find it an inspiring packaging of life lessons. Much of it applicable to startups too. And a reminder that when you really want something, the goal should define the path and not vice versa.

Why startups are innovative - Reason #3

I'm sure there are a couple more important reasons, but this is the one that I'm thinking about now, so #3 it is.

Outside-in thinking. AKA thinking outside the box. Yes, that one, the one that's fast becoming an old saw, hammer or what-have-you, and is a foundation for many high-priced classes teaching organizations to innovate (does anyone still not know how to connect the dots?). Though tired, it is tried and true and most of us believe that's exactly what we'll be doing.

But there's the inevitable knowing-doing gap. Thinking outside the box can't be mandated, and you can't always rely on peppy (Dr. Pepper-stoked?) facilitators leading your team through mind-expanding exercises like associating recruiting to horses (honestly, I did one of those!). To be truly effective you need creative thought not just during dedicated brain-storming sessions, but also when dealing with to day-to-day demands, be they figuring out the right wording for an email to an angel investor or designing a stop-gap solution to a user problem. That's how a startup gets to be excellent, and not just another venture.

What helps, a lot, is an environment that is conducive to unconstrained thinking. One with constant exposure to fresh thoughts. To people who don't think just like you - at least not all the time (watching Top Chef, ok, but Top Model, huh, why?). And having a marked absence of silos is a big factore. A silo, even if one could be established, would surely crumble in a startup due to the small number of heads and the vast quantity of hats to be filled. Not having a silo means you are not isolated with others who are in the exact same function/department, so you are automatically exposes you to other perspectives. Wow, if the finance guy can routinely listen to the product marketing and the development teams (of one each!) haggling over features, just maybe, every now and then, he has an idea that blows the problem away. Often, it doesn't even have to be an idea, just a question, asked from a different point of view, is all it takes to spark a creative solution.

It is not at all far-fetched to think that the architect's casual idea can spark something for marketing or a tester's question changes the user interface. But many assume that technologists can't get inspiration from other functions like marketing because they're, well, non-technical and can't help solve tech issues. Not so. What the outside-in thinking is all about is to get you out of your current rut and look at the big picture, the forest, the planet even - and that, instead of yet another tech deep-dive, may be what you need to see the solution,. If nothing else, it may re-frame the problem and it may not be such a big deal anymore.

Lastly, it's not just that startups are able to solve problems quicker - the solutions are often more creative than they would be otherwise. as they are informed by the diverse experiences of the entire team. Being small is both a bane and a bounty - startups never seem to have enough staff to get everything done, but they sure rock at innovation.