Building The Framework For Your Idea
Once you have asked some simple questions about your idea and you have a good feel for moving forward with it, start building the framework of the idea. This is where a simple SWOT analysis can come in handy to help you build the framework for the idea. Strengths: What are you good at? Where can you utilize your strengths and talents to get the idea off the ground? This is where you can assess you team as well by looking at who you already have in place. Start also by reviewing the resources that you have available whether it be cash/credit, a solid team, access to office space and
3 Simple Questions To Ask To Get Your Idea Going
I would argue that coming up with a good idea is the easiest phase of taking an idea to market. Conceptualizing the idea takes a lot more work as now you have to start asking questions about your idea to see how it may fare in the marketplace. As a side note, you shouldn’t let questions stand in your way of getting started with an idea but it helps to ask a few simple questions before you embark on your journey. The following 3 ideas will get your idea going: Why is my idea Valuable? Who values my idea? What leverage do I have to make the idea happen? Let’s
The Value of Your Idea
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison Ideas are where all great businesses start. They are the inspiration and life blood of an entrepreneur. There are millions of people who have taken a great idea right to their grave. The true value of your idea lies in the action that comes behind it. We have all had friends who have talked about lofty aspirations and ideas only to see them take no action on it and still wonder why their dreams are not reality. In fact, most of us have probably done that at some point in time in our lives. There are
How To Move From Potential to Production
Potential conjures up thoughts of excitement (things to come) or disappointment (wasted talent). The truth is that we all have potential, the difference is how we plan and execute on the potential that we have. The thing is, everyone knows this already so the question remains, how do we move from potential to production? Moving from potential to production is a tag line that my friend Garrett B Gunderson utilizes for one of his businesses. Garrett also created a useful framework for his clients to take their ideas to market. He called it the “Cycle of Creation”. If anyone is qualified to teach product creation, it’s Garrett. A great example
What’s Behind Today’s Most Innovative Products
I was about to wrap up my posts on marketing innovation when I saw a post last night on BNET about today’s must have products that are on the market. It made me think about the opportunities that business owners have to literally shape the market. The article talks about 4 keys to innovation for these companies that became successful. 1. Innovation 2. Entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking 3. Passion, sense, and empathy for the user experience 4. Providing a solution to a problem that others didn’t even know existed. Looking at the last point, I realized that that was a great piece to innovation that I hadn’t even thought
What Big Problems Can You Solve?
When I was asked the question of solving big problems a couple of years ago, it gave me the final piece of inspiration that I needed to start my business. I knew what my talents were but had no idea how to put those to use to build a business platform until I considered the question of what big problems existed that need to be solved. Analyzing problems that exist in the market is a great way to get ideas for creating products or services. New ideas and innovation get me excited just talking about it. About 4 months ago I read an article in Fast Company titled: Wireless Electricity
A Lesson The Pioneers Can Teach Us About Innovation
We are 10 days away from a holiday here in Utah called Pioneer day. It’s basically a celebration of when the first Mormon settlers came and set up shop. Since I live in Utah and want to talk about innovation, I thought talking about the pioneers that settled the west is a perfect parallel to this discussion. The lesson that pioneers can teach us about innovation? It’s pretty damn hard to be the first at anything. For your business, innovation is no different. There are 2 types of innovators. There’s the inventor who comes up with ideas that no one else thought possible and works for years to try and
When Asking Isn’t Enough…Observe Customer Behavior
Yesterday I talked about asking your customer what they want to get ideas for new products or service. The problem with asking people what they want is that sometimes we aren’t exactly sure and, furthermore, what we think we want and how we behave can be totally different. A key piece to improving your knowledge about customer behavior is to observe what they are doing. When you want to know how your customer’s behave, don’t assume you know what they want. This leads us to creating things based really on what we want since we always think that what we want and what the customer wants are the same. Standing
What Do Your Customers Think?
Engaging your current customers is an underutilized resource for building new product idea and services. There are some right ways and wrong ways to handle this as well as some great reasons to ask your customers what they think about your business. Initially, how you ask your customers is just as important as asking. There is a downside to asking the wrong questions in the wrong manner that can be counterproductive. A couple of years ago Stanford University published a study on the matter and cautioned not to ask too many questions and place too much emphasis on grading certain aspects of their experience. Make sure that your questions are
Where Great Innovation Starts
Keeping your business on the cutting edge is often times easier said than done. There are a few fundamental things that businesses can do to make sure they keep moving forward. Great innovation starts with: Planning, Having a sold customer interaction process in place, looking at market trends and having a tracking system in place to track the success/failure of your products. Planning Anything worth doing is worth planning. This is where you set aside time to make sure that things get done and you map out how they will get it done. This is what allows everything else to happen with regards to innovation. Talking With Existing Clients/Customers Who
