The document discusses building new ideas and businesses through fast learning cycles. It recommends establishing weekly innovation sprints over 10 weeks to generate new product ideas, with goals of 80 ideas total, killing 60, merging 10, and progressing 10. Each Monday would involve presenting key learnings and asking for help. Brainstorming sessions on Fridays would involve new external people. Death threats to ideas would be identified and systems put in place to work on threats and decide what to kill through daily stand-up meetings and rotating leadership. Repeating this process removes risks and allows businesses to scale once the foundations are solidified.

1. The facts

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4. Deluded
Scared of negatives
Alone
Unclear
Lacking systems
Not making decisions

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8. 8
personal podcasting
and sharing audio
content

9. 9
personal podcasting
and sharing audio
content
Paypal
Facebook
Flickr
Twitter

10. How many of my clients interpret
this
Build, measure, learn
Build, measure, learn
Build, measure, learn
Pivot to a Miracle
I believe Miracles seldom happen
idea are built over time

11. Clayton M. Christensen

13. Building new Removing risks
Silver Bullet Lead Bullets
With Others Alone
Your could explain it You need to know the
to your mom business
Deadline new Had deadline before

17. We build something great, profits will follow How can we make profits out of what we built
80% product development 5% product development
10% getting new users 10% getting new users
5% finding a business model 80% finding a business model
5% other 5% other
100% 100%
We are best in class
We have 15,000 downloads this week
Our server response time is down to .8 seconds
We were listed in TechCrunch last week
Success is on the way
We are best in class
We have 15,000 downloads this week
Our server response time is down to .8 seconds
We were listed in TechCrunch last week
Success is on the way

18. 18
• There are 2 types of entrepreneurs
– Risk takers (they like the macho bit)
– Risk reducers (they like getting house odds)
• A successful entrepreneur will build a strategy that
increases odds of success from
– 10%
– to 20%
– to 50%

20. Our propsoal
Nail the
pain
Nail the
solution
Nail go
to Mkt
Nail B.
model
Scale it
(Go !)
Nail it, then scale it…
(companies fail when they miss the
foundations)

21. Our propsoal
Nail the
pain
Nail the
solution
Nail go
to Mkt
Nail B.
model
Scale it
(Go !)
My analysis

22. We build something great, profits will follow How can we make profits out of what we built
80% product development 5% product development
10% getting new users 10% getting new users
5% finding a business model 80% finding a business model
5% other 5% other
100% 100%

25. We need ideas for
things we can sell

26. Define your Request for
help
Let's get paid
Why it is important (the
story)
If we can't find a way to get people to pay
for our service, we have no business
regardless of how great our technology is,
how many people download our product
or how useful it is.
Request 3 ideas to make money that we can test
We are not interested in
A fee for use of the plug-in
People will not pay
Constraints
We have around 250 K to grow the
business, so the solutions need to be low
cost. AND we need to work with partners

31. MU = S
F
D
Meaningfully
Unique Ideas!
Leverage
Diversity
Drive out Fear
=
Explore Stimulus

33. Stimulus Available # of practical ideas invented
Low Stimulus
Medium Stimulus
High Stimulus
22
38
47
Value of Stimulus
Stimulus Feeds The Brain

34. Fast & Easier to Find
Harder & Deeper
Thinking Involved
5 Categories for Stimulus Mining
TECH Mining Market Mining Insight Mining Future Mining
3 1 2 4
+
“Gut Instincts and Ideas”5

35. COMPUTER
Stimulus sets off a CHAIN Reaction!!!

36. Traditional Model
Individual Brainstorming
draining
Before After
Suck Method
Uses Your Brain Like A
LIBRARY

39. •
•
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•
•
•
•

40. Red
Mindset
White
Target
Blue
Method
1 Apple Students Substitute something
2 Starbucks, Journalists
Combine it with
something else
3 Amazon, Bloggers
Adapt something to
it / Modify or
Magnify it
4 Ben&Jerrys, A search company
Put it to some other
use
5 Prius Data company Eliminate something
6 Nike Publisher
Reverse or Rearrange
it

41. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
4 4 3 4 4 6 1 1
Round 1 4 1 6 3 5 1 6 4
6 4 1 5 6 6 3 5
4 3 5 1 2 5 6 3
Round 2 1 6 5 1 6 6 3 4
6 6 2 4 3 6 6 3
2 4 6 2 2 5 2 5
Round 3 3 1 5 5 3 1 2 3 4
1 5 6 2 2 3 4 1
Group

42. Red
Mindset
White
Target
Blue
Method
1 Apple Students Substitute something
2 Starbucks, Journalists
Combine it with
something else
3 Amazon, Bloggers
Adapt something to
it / Modify or
Magnify it
4 Ben&Jerrys, A search company
Put it to some other
use
5 Prius Data company Eliminate something
6 Nike Publisher
Reverse or Rearrange
it
1/ 1 / 1
Apple = design and simplicity
Students love music
Substitute instead of showing the internet, show
things to buy
A fancy music mix trial list anytime someone
visits a music site with an option to buy on
ITunes

43. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
4 4 3 4 4 6 1 1
Round 1 4 1 6 3 5 1 6 4
6 4 1 5 6 6 3 5
4 3 5 1 2 5 6 3
Round 2 1 6 5 1 6 6 3 4
6 6 2 4 3 6 6 3
2 4 6 2 2 5 2 5
Round 3 3 1 5 5 3 1 2 3 4
1 5 6 2 2 3 4 1
Group

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46. •
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•
Name
Headline (in a sentence - what
makes your idea
MEANINGFULLY UNIQUE.)
Problem / Pain
Promise (Make a SPECIFIC or
numeric promise to SOLVE this
problem.)
Proof (Reason to believe)
Profit (How will this make money)
Passion (why are you excited
about this)
Death threat # 1
Action to take
Death threat # 2
Action to take
The 5 Ps

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The best organizations
have system in place to
promote fast learning
cycles and decision
making

53. An Innovation sprint at one of my clients
Objectives A weekly learning cycle every week for 10 weeks
To identify new users/ uses of their product
At least 80 new ideas, with 60 killed, 10 merged and 10 in progress
Ask for help Every Monday… key learning presentation, where do we need help now
Build ideas Each Friday a brain-storming session (with new external people)
Communicate
Ideas
One person writes up the ideas
Another lists the death threats
Systems Work on the death threats/ decide ideas to kill
External experts to validate/ give feedback on all ideas
An 10 minute standing meeting every morning
Rotataing leadership : lead, communicate, kill

54. •

55. Ask for help Be honest, be open, be candid
Build ideas Get people involved (diversity) , get stimulus
Communicate
Ideas
Clarify the idea, so anyone can understand
Identify death threats up-front
Systems Build learning cycles and get going (FAST !)
Repeat and repeat to remove risks (there will always be new ones)

56. An incredible focus on the positive => Get candid, talk about your issues
A continual search for silver bullets => Learn to look for lead bullets
Scared to ask for help => Ask and ask again for help
If they ask, too much done internally => Bring in external
What they want to do lacks clarity /
focus
=> Get clarity
Lack of systems / Lack of urgency => Keep the heat on
Avoid tough decisions and stay in a
business too long
=>
Weekly and if possible, daily
decision cycles

57. Our propsoal
Nail the
pain
Nail the
solution
Nail go
to Mkt
Nail B.
model
Scale it
(Go !)
You’re ready to scale when you’ve
removed the risks…
The right way is step by step…