Idea genesis
A couple of days ago I struck on an idea for a new search system which would consistently produce results more relevant than Google. So in this post I’m going to detail the process I used to get this idea in the first place and others like it.
I don’t believe that ideas “just happen” or “pop into the head”, I’m very much of the view that we develop them with repeatable steps. This is what this article is about – how to generate ideas.
I started thinking about this by noticing that most good business ideas can be traced back to a source (which I call their “idea genesis”) in one of three ways, in this post I examine those three ideas, and then explain how I use them to generate new ideas, including the Google-beater I mention above.
I use three simple strategies for generating ideas:
- The concept transplant
- Amplify the essence
- The inhibitor remover
Each overlaps with the others, all are interrelated, all of them seem to work. I look at each one in more detail below, then I talk about how I use them to generate new ideas.
It is important to note that at their root all of these strategies rely on an idea which is already working. Why take the risk of trying something which hasn’t already been proved?
1. The concept transplant
The first strategy is exceptionally simple. Take an idea which works well, and apply it somewhere it’s not being applied. Making sure that you are not stepping on any patent toes and adding in your unique twist gives you your new proposition.
Social networking, for example, is nothing remotely new. People have been networking socially since the birth of man, people were even using the Internet to socialise and form networks, long before anything like “Web 2.0” was even considered.
The Facebooks and My Spaces of this world just took something which was already happening and did it online. eBay, took the concept of auctions and put them on the web. Guy Kawasaki’s start-up Truemours, just took the human desire to gossip about rumours and put it on the web. Aroxo – my own start-up – takes its base concept from the “physical” world, and applies it to the web. We are by no means out of ideas.
2. Amplify the essence
This is my personal favourite. This strategy helps us isolate surfacing human trends and needs. It requires that we look at something which is working, isolate the human need which is driving it and the amplify it. My Web 2.0 blog post attempts to do this for Web 2.0. Take something which is working well and isolate the core human drivers which sit beneath its success.
Starbucks, for instance, isn’t popular because it sells coffee. It’s still number 1 because no-one has quite captured its essence. Starbucks is a moment of solace, an air of sophistication, it’s a break from the storm in a crazy world. It is also excellent execution.
Apple’s success comes from its positioning of the computer as an expression (even extension) of its owner’s personality and from making computers easy-to-use.
3. The inhibitor remover
Here were looking for what is stopping something from working, typically in another medium, then we find a way to remove that inhibitor. Essentially, ideas which should take off, but hasn’t.
Instant messaging on mobiles hasn’t taken off in Europe. Why? Because people think its expensive being online all the time. And yet in most countries, it isn’t. An easy fix.
Video content on your computer (Joost, et al) hasn’t taken off. Why? Not because of a lack of content, but because being at a computer is not relaxation time, it’s active. But people consume television style content (as opposed to short YouTube clips) whilst sitting comfortably on a sofa.
The final step – applying the strategies
It is easy to trace successful business ideas back to an earlier Idea Genesis using these techniques, but knowing this doesn’t create potential Google beating ideas on a daily basis, that requires an application of the strategies. And this requires a few more steps:
- an understanding of where you want to apply the idea (e.g. online targetting seniors, mobile/cellular targetting youth/how to beat Google, the next eBay)
- knowledge of these strategies
- exposure to plenty of completely unrelated, but successful ideas and business models
In the Google situation, I started from the premise that nothing lasts for ever, just as with Aroxo we’re setting our sights on eBay, for Google there will be a better way performing search. Then I’ll make sure that I’ve got a good understanding of the 3 strategies above by reviewing them in my mind a few times.
Finally, as I spend my time during the day, I’m constantly looking a how something is done and try to apply it using the strategies to my area of interest. Before you know it you’re finding ideas cropping up regularly.
I do this as a constant day-to-day process and maintain a list of potential ideas which I add to often. I find it useful as I walk around to evaluating and conceptualise the ideas I see around me, thinking how else and where else they could be applied.
These strategies can yield a lot of ideas, but not all of them are going to be brilliant brainwaves. Which means we need a way of sifting out the false positives which involves turning a rough idea into a worked-through proposition. And that’s the next post.
As ever comments encouraged!
Got this far? Sign up for the Aroxo beta trial, if you use the sign-up code “blog4″ we’ll chuck in $5.00 free credit when we launch in October.
August 15th, 2007 at 00:01
Matt:
Thanks for the tip on your recent blog post. I’m interested in finding out how you winnow out the bad ideas and grow the good seeds into full-fledged winners. I included a small reference to your post at http://blog.innovators-network.org and hope our readerships can find some synergy! The blog looks great, BTW. I especially appreciate the generous use of white space to increase readability. Onwards and upwards.
Best regards,
Anthony Kuhn
Innovators Network
August 15th, 2007 at 18:40
Very nice article, it gives entrepreneurs like myself a chance to believe that great ideas are still on horizon (and we haven’t run out of them) and that new business models are possible based on existing business models and platforms which have bene around for years (Google, Ebay).
Nobody thought that Yahoo! would be knocked out of the top position in search but guess what…? We were all wrong since Google came along and completely detroyed Yahoo!
I’m in the online video sharing business so when you say this marketplace hasn’t taken off you are right and wrong. It has because there have been billions of videos watched to date but your right the mainstream audience perhaps hasn’t taken to this medium because of the “relaxation factor” and/or viewing on a 17″ screen isn’t always the best. The future depends on the adoption of technologies like Apple TV for this medium to really take off.
I signed up for your company’s beta testing on Aroxo so I look forward to that (but how can sellers sell for cheaper than Craigslist.com?) and your future blogs as well!
Jeremy