The Competitive Advantage of the Remix
So, today I had to print out a new set of clips to attach the Holo lens to a hardhat. The original design for the clips was mine, but I didn’t print that design. I printed the latest remix. Both my colleagues and my CEO sometimes wonder why I freely share a lot of ideas and do so so openly — It’s because I understand advantage the remix. The remix is essentially crowdsourcing, and if you don’t have a lot of resources or a lot of time it can be the best way to take an idea from somewhat schematic, or even just proof of concept/MVP, to useful, working design without actually putting in the time.
The Holo lens clips are a great example. I made up the first generation while watching football. I think I went through two design failures (and an interception) before I had something that was workable. I tried out those clips for a couple of days to make sure that they were not going to fail, then I shared them with everybody on Thingiverse and anyone else who would give them a shot. To date, they’ve been downloaded only about 200 times. But if you’re going to download a pair, don’t download my original. Download the remix. It’s a better design.
The reality is, I don’t have a development staff and I don’t have a huge amount of time to spend running down all the problems with my design. So I crowdsource it. I can also guarantee that my first design, taking all of four hours, is not going to be the best possible design. My goal is not to sell the clips but to get the best design to use for myself, my company, and my colleagues. So in some ways, the first design is more scope-of-work or a place to start. I will admit that I get a kick out of making things and seeing what people will do with them, but that does not make crowdsourcing a less effective tactic.
In the same way, I don’t have the time to make the number of mistakes that are going to be involved in making a process or a workflow work perfectly. So, I make a minimum viable process and share or do a presentation on it — whatever I can do to get a team of people working on it who share my goal.
I realize that this is going to give a lot of CEOs and managers heartburn, and I do understand the desire for competitive advantage based on innovation. However, I would argue it has been demonstrated time and again that trailblazers and first adopters often run into too many problems to actually make those ideas a true competitive advantage. Also, I would say that most companies can’t turn on a dime. They need time to adapt, so sharing does not mean you will lose your edge. I was lecturing on point burst scanning and integrating it with construction software back in 2012, sharing workflows etc. (Somewhere Jim Reese or TSI have the videos — thanks for taking them down, it was a bad hair day). The market didn’t change to incorporate reality capture because I let out some sort of secret. What happened was, I got to talk to a lot of people who share their ideas and together we came up with better answers and faster workflows. I’m sure almost anyone who has ever taught a class or given a lecture has experienced the same thing.
Don’t get me wrong, a huge number of ideas, workflows, and other proprietary assets do provide a significant competitive advantage and should be actively protected. I have a number of things that aren’t to be mentioned outside of the people needed to execute them and even they only need to know so much. However, there are a much larger number of things that, if shared, can be improved quickly and more than likely will never be well-used in their current form. Ultimately, a company only gets an advantage if they can execute, and do it better then someone else. That’s why a practice of remixing, sharing, and sourcing, if done well, is the best competitive advantage a company can have and should not be feared but embraced. For the construction technologist and mad scientist types in particular, having a developed strategy for getting feedback and advice on ideas and designs outside of their immediate resources should be an essential part of the implementation and development process.
