1. Jump to the next curve. Too many companies duke it out on the same curve. If they were daisy wheel printer companies, they think innovation means adding Helvetica in 24 points. Instead, they should invent laser printing. True innovation happens when a company jumps to the next curve–or better still, invents the next curve, so set your goals high.
Scan the horizon constantly
Be one of the most forward-looking organizations, always evaluating the latest technology developments to see what may (or may not) be relevant to your business. Experiment, learn, try new things, and push the boundaries of where you can take your products and business.
These are the guys that developed a Google Glass application for mind mapping, only to see Google pull the Glass project less than a year later. Michael’s response when I asked him about it in our live video Q & A earlier this year? He simply says that is part of being at the leading edge: You take gambles on emerging technology. Some pay off. Some don’t do much. And some will fail. Regardless of the eventual outcome, you can be seen as the guys who were leading the way, and this in itself will attract more innovators to your business.
An important lesson here is that you must be aware of what’s out there, before you can possibly try to innovate in line with trends and technology. However, as the brilliant expression about dead fish illustrates, you should not only look at innovation that aligns with trends, but also at possible ways to get ahead of the trends, by doing something that seems counter-intuitive or particularly ‘left field’!
In order to develop better ‘radar’ mechanisms to help spot what’s out there? In reality, working closely with innovative companies like MindMeister and our other software partners is a great way for us to know what the bigger companies are paying attention to, and therefore what might be most relevant for us to explore and understand. Another lesson here: choose your partners wisely, and work hard to build a genuinely collaborative relationship that provides mutual benefit, including shared learning.
Stay hungry, and keep moving
“Whether you go left, or go right; it doesn’t matter, as long as you keep on moving”
I admire the admission in the article that they perhaps “coasted a bit” and “could feel the company losing momentum” after they reached a certain level of growth. It’s perhaps understandable that when you reach a certain level of success and stability in your business, you might take your foot off the gas a little having worked like crazy to get there over the preceding years. Make no bones about it, the life of a struggling entrepreneur/startup business is exhausting, stressful, and precarious. I should know…!
It’s therefore unsurprising that achieving a degree of success might result in easing up a little, but Michael and Till seem crystal clear that you cannot allow it to happen. Again, the need to constantly check what’s happening in the wider world seems to be a useful counter measure, as it may jolt you in to life again if the comfortable situation you’ve created is potentially threatened by something new in the market!
The key lesson for other businesses out there who are yet to reach that ‘comfortable’ stage? Perhaps think now about the things that keep you and your team motivated, and ensure the next era of the business retains some of the things that drove you on through long hours, low/no salaries, and the numerous false dawns that came before! Always have the next big goal ready, and never settle for the stage you’ve reached.
Anyone out there who says the mobile apps industry is not moving forward is simply not paying enough attention to the arena. Or they are looking in the wrong places.
There is a huge amount of investment and innovation within the mind mapping space, and the leading companies in the space are working collaboratively, creatively, and intelligently to drive greater adoption of the mind mapping tools and processes. We see huge things on the horizon that should excite anyone who takes an interest in this space.
2. Don’t worry, be crappy. An innovator doesn’t worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness if it’s truly innovative. The first permutation of a innovation is seldom perfect–Macintosh, for example, didn’t have software (thanks to me), a hard disk (it wouldn’t matter with no software anyway), slots, and color. If a company waits–for example, the engineers convince management to add more features–until everything is perfect, it will never ship, and the market will pass it by.
3. Churn, baby, churn. I’m saying it’s okay to ship crap–I’m not saying that it’s okay to stay crappy. A company must improve version 1.0 and create version 1.1, 1.2, … 2.0. This is a difficult lesson to learn because it’s so hard to ship an innovation; therefore, the last thing employees want to deal with is complaints about their perfect baby. Innovation is not an event. It’s a process.
4. Don’t be afraid to polarize people. Most companies want to create the holy grail of products that appeals to every demographic, social-economic background, and geographic location. To attempt to do so guarantees mediocrity. Instead, create great DICEE products that make segments of people very happy. And fear not if these products make other segments unhappy. The worst case is to incite no passionate reactions at all, and that happens when companies try to make everyone happy.
5. Break down the barriers. The way life should work is that innovative products are easy to sell. Dream on. Life isn’t fair. Indeed, the more innovative, the more barriers the status quo will erect in your way. Entrepreneurs should understand this upfront and not get flustered when market acceptance comes slowly. I’ve found that the best way to break barriers is enable people to test drive your innovation: download your software, take home your hardware, whatever it takes.
6. “Let a hundred flowers blossom.” Innovators need to be flexible about how people use their products. Avon created Skin So Soft to soften skin, but when parents used it as an insect repellant, Avon went with the flow. Apple thought it created a spreadsheet/database/wordprocessing computer; but, come to find out, customers used it as a desktop publishing machine. The lesson is: Don’t be proud. Let a hundred flowers blossom.
7. Think digital, act analog. Thinking digital means that companies should use all the digital tools at its disposal–computers, web sites, instruments, whatever–to create great products. But companies should act analog–that is, they must remember that the purpose of innovation is not cool products and cool technologies but happy people. Happy people is a decidedly analog goal.
8. Never ask people to do what you wouldn’t do. This is a great test for any company. Suppose a company invents the world’s greatest mousetrap. It murders mice better than anything in the history of mankind–in fact, it’s nuclear powered. The problem is that the customer needs a PhD to set it, it costs $500,000, and has to drop off the dead, radioactive mouse 500 miles away in the middle of the desert. No one at the company would jump through those hoops–it shouldn’t expect customers to either.
9. Don’t let the bozos grind you down. The bozos will tell a company that what it’s doing can’t be done, shouldn’t be done, and isn’t necessary. Some bozos are clearly losers–they’re the ones who are easy to ignore. The dangerous ones are rich, famous, and powerful–because they are so successful, innovators may think they are right. They’re not right; they’re just successful on the previous curve so they cannot comprehend, much less embrace, the next curve.
Via: Guy Kawasaki
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