What makes a great idea?

Part 1: The right perspective, the right product

Mindset first

We’ve all sat pondering from time to time: what makes a good idea? Is it the idea itself? Is it execution? Is it timing, or luck, or maybe a bit of all of the above? After all, I’m sure most of us have read that luck equals preparation multiplied by opportunity (to the power of network, or nepotism).

Jokes aside, fortune favours the brave — those of us who will put our own namesakes on the line to reach a destination we know we are destined for, those of us who will leverage our network as much as our smarts to ensure something succeeds. But there is really so much more to a product’s success. A multi-faceted diamond with occlusions invisible to the naked eye, success of your product is all incumbent on a few key factors, some of which I will explore below, but some of which, unfortunately, need the investment of time, patience and in some even more unfortunate cases, hefty school-fees by way of learning what does and what doesn’t work within your product or consumer model.

Before diving into the key factors that make or break a product, it is important to consider your mindset first. I’ve compiled a list of what I feel to be some of the most important aspects of building a product, that preclude building the actual product.

Going into your journey with the right mindset and expectations not only fortifies your ability to get through the rough patches, but also allows you to truly enjoy and appreciate the smooth waters. For if it was not for the journey, what point does the destination hold?

Always aim to delight your customers

At an event honoring the twentieth graduating class of the 10,000 Small Businesses program at LaGuardia Community College in New York, Warren Buffet, who needs no introduction, pitches one piece of sage advice to small and large business owners alike, “never stop thinking about how to delight your customer.” Beyond simply satisfying them — the supererogatory action of affecting purposeful delight is the magic that turns a customer into a lifetime partner.

“When you wake up in the morning, start thinking about it, at night think about it and then dream about it. No company has ever failed that had millions of delighted customers and you start with them by getting them one at a time. There is no substitute for hard work.”

Which segues elegantly into my following point:

There is no substitute for hard work

Let that sink in for a while. Many of us look for shortcuts — a quick-tab to the success sheet. Only consistent (or rather, persistent) work will get us where we want to be. Don’t take shortcuts. Resign yourself early on to hard work — it usually pays off.

Michael Bloomberg, founder of the all famous Bloomberg group of companies, says that, while it’s important that we all find joy in what we do, some of us have come to scapegoat luck as a viable stand in. It’s always directly or indirectly related to the effort we put in, by reinforcing the notion that the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Don’t be afraid to pivot

Kerry Healey, the president of Babson College, a Massachusetts based college for entrepreneurship, suggests that we embrace change along our journey. Don’t be discouraged if the business you end up with differs to the one you started out to pursue. Change is an inevitable part of our product journey, and by extension, life itself — adaptability favours those who can masterfully tick tack their way through an effervescent landscape. Adapt or die, evolve or dissolve — casting our mind and eye on one singular destination point always inevitably sets us up for failure. Treat your product development journey as an active enactment of the evolutionary chain — Darwinism at its finest. Make sure you’re always taking the opportunity to refine and redefine your product concept.

In your journey you will be guaranteed to be faced with difficulties, challenges or failures, in the industry we call them blockers or showstoppers. The idea is to learn from these very quickly and pivot, landing on the idea or solution that eventually works.

Think of your concept as a laser pointer that has a single origin source and a target destination. In a perfect world, that beam would shine straight ahead, onto the target. Now what if we put a block of wood in between the laser and the target? It will surely obstruct the light — and for the laser to still reach the destination source, we’d need to set up some carefully constructed mirrors to bounce the beam from point to point to eventually hit the target. Each mirror in this analogy can be seen as a strategic opportunity, because what mirrors also allow us to do is gain a different perspective — giving us a multitude of options to reach the eventual endpoint, ones we might not have considered beforehand with our tunnel-vision locked and loaded.

Keep your vision front and centre

It is important to always put your product front and centre, along with your customers. Experience design and service design will always nudge us toward success, as we’ve already learned from Mr. Buffet earlier, however, never lose sight of your vision. Think about your business and product often, your next steps, where you are as well as where you’re headed.

Delivering value and delight to customers, while focusing on what matters to your business from a mechanical standpoint can sometimes be seen as an artful craft akin to a mating dance. There is convergence and divergence as you ebb away to tighten some nuts and bolts on your concept only to flow back together in delivering further value and delight to your customers. This balance is integral. Your product will not exist without its customers, that is a plain fact, but the opposite of this is true as well. Put in the time to nurture your vision, chart course constantly, and the rest will follow.

Know your product and your purpose

Following on from the above, furthermore being able to articulate your product’s purpose very clearly and concisely in a simple sentence not only helps you stay on course for what you want to (or need to) achieve, but it further allows you to magnetise, attracting interest in might-be customers or strategic partners. If your 10-word-or-less summary doesn’t excite or describe, you’ve probably overcomplicated something.

Refine your 10 words until you have something, short, sharp and impactful (more on this later) stick it front and centre, you will always stay on course and allow you all the opportunity to attract the right interest from the right people, for you will need support on this journey. By this extension, knowing our purpose very clearly also becomes a living breathing litmus test on attracting the right people. As you may look to bring people into your team, your inner circle, on hearing their ‘why’, if the passion from your initial product purpose is not echoed back in any shape, manner or form, you know you have a questionable fit. As Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter concisely puts it, “…any skill can be learned or taught, but passion cannot.”

Follow TouchFoundry on Medium for Part 2: A recipe for success.