What a Great Idea! 💡
How to Ideate Productively From Someone Who Ideates 24-7
My best ideas come after I get my favorite treats. 🐟
Dear Diary,
It’s been a week since the news broke about my previous startup, and I’ve used the time to rest, reflect, and learn. While I mentioned that new projects are already in the works, I felt it was important to think about what went well and what could be learned from in the future. It was a hard week to say the least, but ending with good friends and a more promising outlook on my career left me feeling refreshed and inspired for the new week ahead.
Now if you know me, you know I’m likely not just sitting around doing nothing. Even if my body is idle, my mind is ideating, creating, and dreaming. And through this last week, I sat in that state thinking about the projects in the near term and the longer term that are sitting on my plate. I’m so excited to tell you more about them in the coming weeks, but for now they’ll still remain a mystery. 🕵️
The benefit of a brain like mine is that it is rare for me to never have an idea (good or bad) that may be an inspiring path to follow. With so many ideas though, it’s important to understand how to tell a good idea from a great one (or a bad one). Especially under the lens of starting a business or committing to a new adventure, ideas and inspiration are always at the root of it all. And if you’re the ideator, you’re gonna think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. 🍞 So what are some ways you can go about understanding if an idea is worth pursuing?
I’m not going to try and explain to you how my mind works because that on its own would be a whole other blog post. But for me, when an idea comes to mind, it either feels like it came out of thin air or it stemmed from some kind of back and forth conversation I was having with myself in my head. Whether your ideas are inspired or created out of thin air, you should look at them through many lenses to understand what opportunities lie ahead.
When it comes to an idea for a business, you need to sit with it and understand how your idea applies to the following areas:
What is the idea?
What problem is it trying to solve?
What does the first iteration of this idea look like?
What are some possible ways it can grow?
What are the issues with scaling your idea for growth? Are there any known breaking points?
How does your idea contribute to society to help make the world a better place?
Why does this idea need to come into the world?
Has anyone else tried to do something similar? If so, what was their journey and what is already out there?
What alternatives can you come up with for your idea? What other ways can you solve the same problem?
Who would be the potential beneficiaries of your idea? Is there a market?
In doing this, you are looking at the idea with new perspectives, understanding if this idea has any real backbone to it and if/how it can help make the world a better place with its existence. And if in going through these questions you find yourself becoming more and more inspired and grounded in your idea, then it’s time to take it to the people.
Once I have an idea and I’m like “yeah this is great and exciting”, I’ll start casually bringing it up to people. If it was designed to help solve a problem, I’ll bring it up in problem-solving conversations with the team. If it was born in my own mind, I'll start telling people what I’m thinking. And once I tell them about it, I watch for these specific things:
Did they understand what I said?
Are they quick to shoot it down? If so, why?
What is their emotional reaction? Are they also excited by it?
What is their gut reaction? What came first once they had their lightbulb moment?
Do they start ideating off of your idea? Do they see things you haven’t seen yourself yet?
If they start ideating, what direction do they go in and why?
What do they pick up on and what falls on deaf ears?
This is probably one of the most nerve wracking parts of sharing an idea - watching how others react. This is always difficult because you’re taking the thing you were so excited about in your head and seeing how it lands with others. This could easily be where your idea dies. ☠️ However, it could also be where your idea pivots and where it is reborn. Perhaps your great idea becomes exceptional because you better understand the problem that everyone else has!
Now if you’ve gotten to this point, you probably think your idea has some legs to stand on. And while a great idea is worth its weight in gold, it only becomes of any value if it is eventually executed on. So if you’re here, it’s time to hit the google (the modern-day version of hitting the books) and figure out what it will take to actually make your idea come to life. Things you should consider addressing:
What’s your roadmap?
How long will it take you to implement version 1?
How much effort will it take you?
How much do you have to learn on your own?
Will you need to bring someone else on?
How much will you need in funding to get going?
And the money question:
How will this fit into your life?
While you may have a good idea, its execution is only viable if you can make the journey sustainable. Because if it is unsustainable, you’ll have to give up on something along the way. And more likely than not, that would be the idea you’re pursuing. 🤷
Going through this evaluation takes practice. On some ideas, you fly through it and jump right in. With others, it takes days, weeks, or even months before you decide to pull the trigger. But no matter how thorough you are with understanding what you want to do and if it is worth pursuing, your gut will be your biggest driver in making the decision.
Personally, my best ideas are always my first ones I don’t quickly rule out. No matter how hard I try coming up with others, my first is always the one that wins. And when that great idea comes to me, it is unique. It’s something that feels so simple, so clean, and so right that it undeniably becomes the center of my attention - my inspiration through the coming days. But when these moments happen - that’s when it becomes the most important to listen, critique, and explore. It’s easy to listen with biased ears that want more than anything to validate your idea - it’s difficult to get out of your own way to hear what others are actually saying and how you can make your idea even stronger. Or - focus on something you find even more inspiring.
Remember:
“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.”
- Albert Einstein
Leila Kaneda
Co-Founder and C-Suite Exec
she/her/hers
