Make most of what you have got

We haven’t discussed about innovation for quite sometime. Today lets talk about dealing in innovation with limited resources. This is the case quite often too. We feel the spark of great ideas but then we let it go due to a seeming resource crunch. Seldom its money. Mostly its time that we say we don’t have. But I am not going to talk about time management. That’s one topic beaten to death. So lets focus on the other important issues.

So the crunch you would generally feel, other than time, will be either be money or technical know how. The money is not so important. We will come back to it later. The technical skill is a much bigger hurdle than generally anticipated. And later you discover it, the more it hurts. Because it completely blocks you. No amount of time or money will then help.

Now obvious thing to say would be to update your skills and keep learning and blah blah blah. I prefer different approach.

Just in Time learning

Basically, you don’t learn something, until you know you will need it soon. It doesn’t mean you wait till the very moment you need it, then block the work and start learning. Its Just in time. Just when you anticipate its the right time to update or acquire certain skills. No bullet lines Use common sense. Evaluate you learning speed, available time, etc and figure it out.

This way you can mitigate the risk of technical know how to a certain extent. But some time the JIT learning will tell you that the time required is not feasible or perhaps, the technicalities are way too complicated for you. In such case, I suggest you extend your team. Or build one, if one is not there already. Its better to collaborate with subject matter experts, rather than trying to learn and become one. But to ensure control over things, I suggest you acquire basic knowledge, even if you are taking services/help of an expert.

Now about the money. Well that’s where the real test of innovation is. Before you start looking for innovative ways of raising funds. Spend some time over what resources you have at hand. What can be borrowed feasibly. Brainstorm over ways you can implement your idea with whatever you have got. You will find mostly you can use inexpensive ways to simulate the actual implementation. This would help you gathering funds because you will have a working proof of concept.

 

Think New

Always think of something new; this helps you forget your last rotten idea.

                                                             Seth Frankel

Look at this way. The only way to erase old memories is to create new memory. Now its upto you; what kind of memories you create. Be careful, because they are the only thing that will stay with you….till the very end.

 

How to handle criticism?

We often face criticism. In our personal life as well as professional. In fact, where-ever we interact with other persons, there are chances we might face criticism. Now don’t confuse criticism with harassment. Harassment is NOT even superlative degree of criticism. Lets start with understanding it.

What is criticism?

Criticism is others showing disagreement or disapproval of our ideas or actions. It usually consist of pointing out of our mistakes and shortcomings (of our actions/ideas). Though there are various direct and indirect forms of criticisms, we generally get the idea when it is and what. So instead of trying more on defining it, lets jump straight to handling it. That’s what I think would be more relevant to you too.

How to handle it?

Whenever you face criticism, you should first realize that others have as much right to express their opinion as you have. So you should respect it. Because criticisms are generally negative comments, you need to be sure of what is getting criticized. In most cases, its our ideas or our actions that are criticized. Realizing this only is the first step. Because then you know that you are not being criticized but its the idea or action that is getting criticized. This way you alienate yourself from all negative comments.

I understand that you might be feeling very passionate about your idea. Or you would have taken some action in rightful spirit. But this does not mean when they are criticized you take it to your ego or worse, make a prestige issue.

You should start by calmly explaining your thoughts and reasons. The facts and the circumstances. The logic and the rationale behind it. Most of our actions are function of our knowledge and the circumstance. Under similar conditions, quite probable that others will do the same. So try to get them to empathize with your situation.

Sometimes, we our-self start feeling guilty because its a genuine mistake. Instead of having that add to the negative comments, you can use it to counter it. This technique is also called fogging. So when someone criticizes, you accept the mistake right away and mention that it was due to so and so reasons and perhaps next time you won’t repeat your mistake. You can also make others indulgent by asking what they would have done. This shifts the focus from what you did to what they would have done. Thus, fogging creates a maze where the negative comments simply gets lost and never reaches you.

Anticipating criticism also helps. It takes away it surprise value. So, if you are prepared, you are not shocked by it. You have you thoughts and your plan of action already in place.

 

She sells Sea shells on the Sea Shore

Yeah. yeah. You can speak it. May be fast enough too. But that not am talking about exactly. You know whats the tricky part in this tongue-twister? Sells. Shells. Sells. Shells. So its about selling. There. You got me now. So tell me one thing. Was I able to sell it to you? Hell yes. You are still reading me.

So that’s the deal am talking about. It all about selling. Do YOU know how to sell? Shut up if you were about to say its MBA stuff. Because its not. And don’t tell me its not something techies need to worry about. Because you know it very well. You wouldn’t have forgotten your last appraisal so soon.

So dear. You need to know how to sell. If you don’t want to take bath, you still need to sell that idea to your mom, to you wife….whoever shouts at you more. So next point is, we already know how to sell. Only we are able to sells somethings better than other things. And why is that?

Think. Think.

That is because the things you sell better are the things you really wish to sell. Are the things that you believe in. You really really want them to. And also happen to know about them. Off course. And that is what that gives you the motivation and the energy to convince others. Unless you believe in it, how can you sell it to others? You can’t convince others juts like that. So if you want to sell something – you have to REALLY want to sell. Now hey, just your conviction in your idea won’t do. You need hard facts too. And a good story as well. And then how to weave the two together, will decide how good you sell it.

 

How to develop an Idea?

Self assessment should give you enough to be convinced of your own idea. If not, its not worth pursuing it. Now, the next challenge is to write the idea in an explainatory way. Start with writing an abstract for it.

Abstract

One page is all you have, Write your idea in concidse way. Use short sentences. No Jargons. No unnecessary technical details. What is problem? What is the solution? Pros and Cons. Thats it.

The abstract is helpful in a way that you can keep it handy for later references. Send it to conferences. But, since it didn’t captured all your thoughts, we need to write a detailed document.

I know we all hate documenting stuff. You would be eager to jump straight into implementing it. The running proof of concept is worth more than the document about it. May be. May be not. We can argue either way. But I would recommend you write it first. And I will tell you why.

Detailing

The detailing part is very boring. You would want raher be implementing it than writing about it. But tell me would even feel like writing about it once you have implemented it. I know some pieces you might want to implement to verify if it works or not. This is subjective area. Do what common sense suggests.

So when you finally prepare yourself for detailing, read your abstract first. The detailing would be on same lines. Start with problem. The variants of the problem. Give examples if possible. Now what your solution is. Write details. Diagrams as much possible, A picture is blah blah thousand words. End with summary and references. Summarize what you achieved. Pros and Cons. References are very helpful. Think of it. Couple of months down you revisit the idea. Won’t all the links be very helpful.

Keep the abstracts and detailed version with you. Whenever you get a chance you can publish them as article or submit to conference. If its patentable, you will keep thanking youself that you wrote it.

 

How to develop an Idea?

Ideas are flash of brilliance. Once you have struck an innovative idea, next challenge is to develop it. The idea can be developed into publication, in patent, or in a product. It can be many other things as well. But the crucial thing is to develop it. When we think we can hardly manage the speed of our thoughts. They run, they flash, they go all over and then disappear back in memory if not captured. We will talk about Idea Capturing too but later.

So once you have an idea, once goal should be save it from idea poisoning. (See my previous post on idea poinsoing). Take pen and paper and write it down. Make a list of gaps. They are the grey areas that make or break your idea. Now hit the Google and try to fill the gaps. When you are doing that, keep a story in mind, An idea is useless unless you have a use case.

Self Assessment

A reality check. Before you go and publish the idea to world or file it for patent, be a strict judge. Verify your facts and processes. Be sure about your idea. Will it really work? Is it worth spending efforts and resources? I am not asking you to be pessimist but it is important that we know believe in our idea before try and convince others about it.

to be continued...

 

Idea Poisoning

When you are aiming for a patent, you need to be very cautious. Once you Google it and read related stuff, you tend to think on the similar lines. That exactly poisons your idea. It no more remains novel. But you might feel the need to search to complete your story. I would recommend you spend some time with pen and paper before you hit the net. Write down your idea. Be as elaborate as possible. Most of us still can write faster than we can type, thats why I recommend pen and paper. Draw. Make diagrams. Don’t bother your story is incomplete. Write what you have thought, leave the gaps. In fact jotting down what you would want to search for the gaps might come handy. Now hit the net. This way you can be sure what you have thought remains original.