After a couple of years dabbling in the Start-up world and working in organisations where “New-Ideas” are actively encouraged, I’ve had a lot of time to ponder what makes a good idea. How do you know an idea is good? I feel that we are so quick to judge idea’s a good or bad, that sometimes we dismiss ideas because we can’t see how they would work for us or solve a problem that is important to us at the time.

I have a passing interest in impractical cars, and years ago when I first saw that Porsche were going to be manufacturing SUV’s I thought it was the craziest idea I had ever heard. Why would someone want a Porsche SUV when they could have one made by a manufacturer who’s bread and butter is SUV’s? Where were they going to find people silly enough to buy these cars? I hadn’t really given it much thought until I started driving to work everyday and on my commute started to notice the increasing number of these vehicles on the road. After doing a bit of research it looks like my initial opinion on these cars was totally wrong and in 2018 Porsche sold more cars in a year than it ever has in it’s history, with the SUV range being the highest sellers. How did they know this would work?

I guess big companies have teams of people working on honing ideas and creating a demand for their product and using the success of their name to build their sales. How can we test out ideas without a big marketing budget and teams of people giving feedback? If it had been up to me and my opinions, the idea wouldn’t have been shown the light of day.

Why do some ideas succeed and some fail?

The start-up world tells us that idea validation is key to having an idea that works. Continual validation and willingness to change direction or ‘pivot’ if things aren’t moving along in the direction you hoped is key to building something that people want. We are lucky today, as we have built a world where consumers or potential consumers are more than willing to give feedback on products via forums, user groups, and social media (whether it is what we want to hear or not).

Understanding a problem that truly exists and working towards solving that problem, with validation from those experiencing the problem will move closer towards a successful idea than an unsuccessful one.

Is there a formula for creating a good idea or is it all just trial and error?

The internet is full of lists and guides on how to come up with great ideas. I don’t think there is a formula that can be applied or a series of specific steps, but there are a couple of things to be mindful of …

No idea should be an island…

In the past, people used to be happy for a product to have one purpose. The calculator was a marvel when it was created, and years were spent improving the calculator – adding batteries, solar power, more decimal places, more scientific functions, making it smaller so you could wear it on your wrist – but the main aim of the calculator was to calculate things. I remember thinking my older brother was amazing (and very naughty) when he told me to key ‘58008’ into my Casio solar powered calculator and turn it upside down, you could make words with your calculator! (albeit a very limited number and none that served any purpose). Today, calculators are a bit of an afterthought, consumers just expect them to be there when we open our phones, login to our computers or ask our Google Home to add up some numbers. Most actual calculators are probably relegated to forgotten space at the back of the bottom desks drawer.

Today people expect any new ideas/products to have multiple purposes. Launching a product to solve one problem will be great initially, until the users think about other problems they have either as a result of their original one being solved, or just the next most important thing on their problem list. There can then be an expectation that the product you created should be able to solve the other problems also. Open source software, and people sharing their work on GitHub and StackOverflow will extend the life of a product by allowing ideas to be integrated into other products to offer users the experience they expect. We just have to be open to sharing our ideas.

Technology-lead idea creation isn’t always bad…

Does the technology you use dictate the ideas you create? If it does, is this necessarily a bad thing?

Numerous times I’ve heard that when creating a start-up, your idea shouldn’t be dictated by the technology you choose. If you are an expert in a certain type of technology and you have a great idea using that technology, then I think go for it. As long as you don’t work in a vacuum and take time to discuss and validate your ideas, using something familiar will remove a big part of the how you are going to deliver on your idea.

Whats next?

My prediction for the future is that the “Next Big Thing” isn’t going to be anything new at all, but just lots of little ideas mushed together to find a better way to do something that we are already doing. Idea-Mules, if you will, will form the basis of are how we are going to solve today’s problems.