Guy Kawasaki on Innovation
Guy describes each statement in his list. I’m going to consider them from other angles and other blogs I have read.
- Jump to the next curve – in other words, change the game. This is easy to misunderstand – “But I can’t write games that don’t work on hardware that isn’t available.” Duh. That’s not changing the game. That’s playing the old game with more intensity. Changing the game is like Katamari Damacy – making a novel and unusually memorable offering. In regular business, it’s finding a new way to interact with the customer, or finding a way to use no equipment to make your product, instead of buying the latest HL-5000 wampilator. You’re probably all rolling your eyes at this point… there’s no doubt it’s hard. That’s what makes it so important, and such a great benefit for your business. Seth Godin and Kathy Sierra talk about this all the time.
- Don’t worry, be crappy – Software-wise this is correct in many cases, but not all. It’s also tricky to get “the right kind of crappy” – things that aren’t as easy to use as they could be – ok. Things that don’t work at all – bad. In a non-software businesses – this is probably not a good strategy.
- Churn, baby, churn – also tricky, at least in software. A lot of people don’t like having to update and install software. If your non-software business is always adding capabilities and services, that’s probably a good thing.
- Don’t be afraid to polarize people – Hard on the emotions, but probably true. Kathy Sierra talks about passion extensively.
- Break down the barriers – Absolutely good advice. Be persistent, be patient, at least for a while. It helps if you can measure your progress.
- “Let a hundred flowers blossom.†– Let people use your stuff the way they want to, not just the way you want them to. This was hard for me to accept originally – I felt that I owned the concept, and it was very frustrating to hear that people might use it in other ways, because I felt like I lost control. But those ideas are opportunities for you to make new versions of your product/service (see Churn Baby, Churn).
- Think digital, act analog – A strange way of saying – focus on happy customers over cool technology.
- Never ask people to do what you wouldn’t do. – Duh!
- Don’t let the bozos grind you down – That’s a big reason I started this blog and forum, as a way to help entrepreneurs talk, share information, and help each other past the bozos!