One of the hardest things for a new project/startup is to come up with a good name…
One fun creativity exercise and business idea ideation method is using a newspaper.
Buy any daily paper (or two-three) off the rack and read them cover to cover. Most of them are filled with dystopian tales of how the world…
Researchers and first time entrepreneurs often ask me how to go about that important…
So way back we decided to try using Groupon to reach new users.
I have previously written about the Pay it Forward culture, and one of the core parts of that is the benefits of Givers Gain.
Why give?
It’s quite simple — it makes you happier, it makes others happier, it makes the world…
It’s quite simple actually.
When sitting down with the team to discuss the coming week(s) sprint or action points, the most common mistake is starting with what needs to be done, then assigning tasks to people and going from there. This usually results in people taking on too much work…
It has been said that marketing can sell anything, once. After that, it’s up to…
It seems to be almost mythically hard for people to sell well.
That’s actually one of the core traits of the best leaders.
Many people are afraid to talk about their ideas because they think other people will steal them. Well, even if you tell them about your idea, there is one vital component missing — the work it takes to make an idea come to life.
The best way to speed up any project is to shorten your sprints. At work or in…
Way to often we think we need to meet all challenges alone, shoulder responsibility and tough it out.
Why not take the time and effort to write a real card for Easter?
Show someone that you care about them by doing something we all do way to seldom these days — take time to reflect, think and phrase your words, then put them down on…
As the saying goes: “The bend is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.” There’s a…
Rest is not only physically neccessary for your body and brain, it’s also good for your…
In the debate about flying or not, with the new word “flygskam” (flight shaming) entering our…
Try to take some time now as the new year is starting up, and make a long term plan.
All this talk about sleeping 3–4 hours a night, reading three books before sunrise and a new language each month…
Sounds good but quite superhuman, I say we sleep to little and to seldom. We should be sleeping 6–9…
I wrote about the importance of getting your paperwork sorted as soon as possible when you start something to avoid unnecessary problems if / when things start going south.
When giving a 3 or a 5 minute pitch, you only have so much time to get your message…
❤Happy Valentines Day!❤
The middle ground, that’s where the magic happens. The place in-between me and you, us and them.
That’s where we meet, discuss and compare, learning from each other, reevaluating and maybe even…
The three worst ways to start a pitch imho are:
- Starting with very abstract high level value proposition that doesn’t mean anything (or everything)
Customer touchpoints are all your points of contact with your user/member/customer from start to finish. Be it a web site, app interface, sales rep meeting, phone call, support email, brochure, TV ad, Kickstarter film etc. They are used in branding and…
So you want to start over, find a new business idea, pivot your current business or just…
I had the great pleasure to listen to a live broadcast with Bruce Dickinson today, and amongst many…
When dealing with nudging, the art of “positive reinforcement and indirect…
“When angry, count to 10 before you speak. If very angry, a hundred,” said Thomas Jefferson, and it feels like…
Many startups get stuck along the way because they don’t think big enough, and equally many get stuck because they don’t think small enough to get things done every day.
Don’t confuse a sense of urgency with panic.
Per definition innovation will always challenge the status quo of regulation, otherwise…
There’s a difference between knowing a lot and telling people everything you know.
These days we find ourselves stuck in front of the screen, zoom meeting after zoom meeting, and the only way…
When writing an ad for a key resource, don’t start by writing a bunch of words that you think sound good. You need to write the words that will attract the people you are looking for, and if they are different than you are (=>which would be a good thing, think…
Back in post #43 I wrote about email intros, and I just want to stress the point of…
We often underestimate the need of trust, of a supportive group and being able to trust the system, in order to become successful individuals.
We talk a lot about the lone inventor, and we say to the individual “-dare to fail…
The mythical, magical equation for any startup is annoyingly simple, yet so hard to get right.
As the myth goes, before May 6th, 1954 , people considered it impossible to run an English mile (1.6km) under 4 minutes.
Then one day, an English junior doctor, ran the mile on 3.59 with very little training.
As the saying goes, every journey starts with one step, and considering how long time it takes to get a company up and running, make sure to pick a pair of comfortable shoes that can take you all the way.
Focus, focus, focus. If you try to sell everything to everyone, you won’t sell anything to anyone. Dare to be laser focused on that one area that you can own and master, and be the best at just that. Do one thing at a time really well.
(originally posted on LinkedIn)
One of the most common mistakes (we) engineers do, is to over-engineer our products. We kill them by adding…
In the midst of chaos, the world goes on.
The sun will rise again tomorrow, and a new day will start, pass, and end.
Take the opportunity of tomorrow as the gift it actually is. Because tomorrow is actually…
As you are building, learn which information needs to be filtered to the different layers of the organisation.
Operations — Day to day issues regarding the daily work, daily/weekly, all employees
For the past four days I have been posting the four basic steps when trying to come up with…
Lean forward.
Look for the advantages of your current situation. What can you do differently now than you did before? What has changed and enabled new thinking, new ideas, new business opportunities?
When starting out with entrepreneurship there’s a whole lot to learn. Business skills, governance of a company, leadership, management — all of which have nothing to do with the actual business idea at all.
Most businesses have some kind of ranking, official or not, of which customers are more important than others. Airlines have programs that state very clearly how important you are (or not).
Creativity is coming up with new ideas or new ways of doing something, innovation is making the new ideas and ways happen.
Think new — Do New.
… And you’ll get a negative answer.
It’s easy to talk in terms of minimizing risk, playing it safe, making sure something really works, and that’s all fine. Not only fine, but it’s sound business advice.
The best way to make sure that your product does what it is supposed to do is to use it yourself. Do it with a critical constructive eye on what could or should be improved. Be your own customer.
Might sound contraditive, but one of the basic rules of entrepreneurship is to not take (too much) advice.
What I mean is, make sure to ask everyone for advice, make sure to humbly seek knowledge and experience from people who know more than you…
One of the most difficult tasks when dealing with the enthusiastic inventor/innovator/entrepreneur, is how to comment on an idea without killing the energy of the entrepreneur.
Very often people talk about innovation being a completely novel product or service, a new invention. But if you look at the biggest economic possibilities it’s usually business model innovation that wins the race over product innovation. Yes, of course you need to…
Things Take Time.
We get so caught up with everything that has to be done by tomorrow, that we forget that it probably won’t be finished until next year.
So this one might be the opposite of what you’ve heard, but I really don’t believe in visualization where you try to imagine yourself being successful or having reached your goal.
Many people think the startup life is the life of a rockstar, create your art, travel the world…
Another short clip from my Earth Day presentation, here about the importance of learning how to learn, and re-learning in a world of constant change.
“We live in a world of constant change and a constant re-evaluation of the right way of…
One of the most effective ways of improving customer service or any customer touchpoint interaction, is by using the letter R in the creative method S.C.A.M.P.E.R
R as in Reverse.
Today, in the midst of a global crisis, we are in need of being able to follow instructions given by…
When faced with something that needs to be added to a team, the question is — do we learn this? or do we bring someone in?
You can learn almost anything. If anyone else knows how to do something, it’s obviously being done. Then all it…
When the vision pitch and the initial excitement of being in the group, startup…
So after having spent some time thinking about external factors (what’s going on in the…
If you are going to spend the next long days, evenings and weekends trying to start something, then make sure to pick something you can be proud of.
Yesterday we started our step-by-step course in “coming up with plausible business ideas” by…
Don’t make important decisions when you are emotional.
Don’t send that angry email without letting it simmer in Drafts a day or so.
Every day you are presented with opportunities, possibilities and new ways of doing something.
To be able to focus on what you should be doing, you need to learn how to say no to things, the “no” helps you focus on your “yes”.
Often I meet people who claim to have had the same idea they see someone else succeeding…
We have been taught that stress is a bad thing, but the mistake here is calling…
not by holding it under water, use a disinfectant)
One of the biggest problems we have in today’s’ digital world is that we don’t allow ourselves to be bored.
But if boredom helps cultivate curiosity, perseverance, playfulness and charitability, how can boredom be…
So I’m back to podcasting, and to start, here’s the talk I gave for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day…
Standing in front of the ketchup shelf, trying to determine which bottle will give you most ketchup per cent, whilst sipping the $4 latte you buy at least once, sometimes twice or three (!) times a day.
We’re getting closer to the final stage of how to come up with new good business ideas.
Make a drawing of the value chain with all the steps needed to create, deliver and service your product, then think about which steps add value and which ones only need to be there to complete the chain.
Not as an excuse, but as a promise.
Today I was listening to a person that was giving me their 5 cents on a specific matter…
One of the reasons that Sweden is such an innovative country, is that we most often take a very holistic…
Humbled, not only to be tributed by Josef Fallesen (and suggested by Deborah B. Lygonis) but even more so by all the comments 🙏🙏🙏
Don’t forget that what I do, what WE do, is a team effort and it takes all of us to make it work.
Too many times I see startups celebrating their latest investment and successful fund raising as if it was the goal they were aspiring to reach.
Yes, it is an important stepping stone, and yes, you must celebrate your successes.
Working from home was challenging enough when we only did it occasionally. But…
So you have this great idea, and you truly feel that this is so good that noone, EVER, has thought…
We get so worked up about chasing the perfect moment (and preferably posting it online) that we forget about the point of it all.
We worry so much about not achieving a good enough life that we end up not enjoying the one we are already…
I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t actually entitled to anything.
Idea — Invention — Innovation.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, you have new ones every day, some are part of a solution, better ones are “what if we could fix this problem” and the best ones are “This is the actual problem we need to…
Sometimes we use the expression “hope is not a business strategy” which is all good.
I travel a lot, often finding myself in a new city, and I enjoy getting a the feel of a place by…
You know how it is, you get this great idea and suddenly, with full clarity, you see the world as it should be. No one has EVER seen or felt what you just discovered, it’s like being in love. It’s amazing, the energy is…
It’s never about what you want to sell, it’s always about what other people want to buy.
What do they understand to buy? what can they afford to pay? what do they need fixed?
When trying to figure out your (first) target customer, don’t make the mistake of using fake personas. It’s way too easy to sit in a conference room and make up a persona that fits your idea of who you want to sell to.
Yes, there is a difference.
Sympathy is when you share the feelings of another; Empathy is when you understand the feelings of another but do not necessarily share them.