Execution is more important than the idea
I am obsessed with the idea of visualising Metadata. But more on that later....
Reading this article prompted some thoughts....
I often talk to people about cool or Innovative business ideas they (or myself) have had.
Everynow and again I meet somebody who mentions they have had the best idea in the world, but its so unique that they need an NDA before they would discuss it.
My response is normally a measured
Bollocks!
I have talked to enough people who have taken a product or idea successfully to market, had people they know do it, or even invest regularly in supporting people to do it.
(Not to mention watching Dragons Den on TV, one of the few times I blob on the couch in front of that life stealing device)
Its all about execution not the idea.
Feel free to create a business plan, but remember a business plan at the beginning is a guess, you wont know what guesses were right and what guesses were wrong till you start doing.
Most often you can't (or dont want) to do this on your own. You need to inspire people to join you on a journey. You can't inspire them if you put a massive barrier in the way before you will even talk to them.
And remember if after talking to a few people (or a few hundred) nobody seems to get it. Its either a bad idea or you aren't articulating it right. Either way stop and have a think, its not time to execute yet until you can clearly articulate
- what it is
- what it does
- why somebody wants it
So today I found another of my many brilliant ideas stolen!
Managing your rewards via your smartphone
Well the guys who have stolen it have been doing it a while, they have built a product, taken it to market, got some customers and I have never even meet them.
So what did I do?
I signed up, cause I know what it is, I know what it does and I really want it. Hell I thought of it!
Ps. Im particularly peeved they stole my idea about having my iPhone tell me what cafes are nearby and which has the best deal for me. That was a piece of brilliance.
Pss. They havent stolen my idea of being able to see how many cheese scones are left in the cabinet from my iPhone, but I wish they would.
Simplicity = Change and Focus, My favs to follow at the moment
Steve Jobs always displayed the essence of simplicity in everything he did. Sometimes he took it a little to far, for example when it came to furnishing his house.
There are 3 people I blog stalk at the moment, that take the status quo, and via a combination of instilling focus and striving for simplicity are changing the way people do things in their areas of specialisation.
Stephen focusses on techniques for visualising data, in ways that are simple and quickly tell a story or give an answer to a question.
He is also good at looking at other peoples visualisations and providing some "feedback" on improvements. A classic example is here.
And I agree with him when he critiques the big BI vendors for their lack of innovation .
Seth's blogs and books are the essence in simplicity of conveying a message in as few words as possible to achieve the job(s) of getting the message across (excuse the pun 
Like Steve Jobs focussed on removing as many things that weren't needed from Apples designs, Seth seems to be as ruthless with removing words from his books and blog posts. But like Apple it works.
The area Seth is focussed on at the moment is to explain to book publishers how their market is radically changing, and like music monopolies, if they don't try and change their business models they to will see their market being cannibalised by the digital revolution.
If that isnt change I dont know what is.
I had the pleasure of sitting around the corner from Rowan when he was at Xero. The one thing I remember the most was his complete focus on measurement.
When we wanted to do something he would always say how would we measure success. Not from a "its a dumb idea", or "that will never work" but from a "if we dont measure the success of it, how do we know we should do more of it, or change the way we are trying to do it"
After years of training and experience in pre-sales I am definitely down the gut feel end of the spectrum, but these days being part of businesses thriving in consulting, product development and innovation I find im starting to focus on a little more on measurement.
My perfect measurement blend
So in context of measuring success, my perfect blend is a combination of all three of these chaps focus's:
- Make sure we can measure and prove it
- Make measurement as simple as possible, with as few (or should that be Godin) parts
- And make sure its visualised in a way that is the easiest to view
So from a BI perspective, simplicity in measuring wether we are going where we want to (and think we are) going, can be described via:
The power of one
- One metric
- One page
- One place to go
- One view
So now I know what I want.
Next we just have to define, design, build and implement it.
BI 2.0 Series – iBI where are you?
The world of computing for consumers has changed markedly over the last couple of years.
We now google rather than search, we Facebook rather than face to face, and we constantly eye devices that begin with the letter i.
But in the world of Business Intelligence I haven't seen anywhere near the level of innovation that we have seen in the consumer market.
This series of blogs will concentrate how the innovation in the consumer market could be applied to Business Intelligence, and the value it would add.
- Search
- Collaborative BI
- Mobile BI