Invent and Simplify
The things I learned from leading TU20
In Dec 2018 I realized that we needed to have a stronger succession plan for TU20. From that emerge the TU20 leadership series, a 12 week set of readings and exercises that helped to prepare the next group of TU20 leaders. This is chapter 4, originally written in Feb of 2019.
What is invention?
When we flip through history books, we usually see two job titles that don’t exist anymore; explorer and inventor. For some reason these job titles have fallen out of style, now replaced by Influencer or Futurist. So why is that the case? It might be cause it’s harder to invent things. It might because other words have absorbed their meaning. Regardless, when we think about an inventor we probably image someone with frizzy hair and a wrench tinkering with something. It could be Davinci, Doc Brown, or Miss Frizzle, but the common element is usually some futuristic vehicle.
As a result of history and pop culture, we typically define invention as a new physical thing, associated with someone who is an inventor.
Inventor as a term and job title is very generic, and like business-person, inventor isnt very meaningful, because everyone invents or implements something (slightly) new all the time. It could be a way to generate power, or a modification to your family’s grilled cheese recipe.
Most things are not new…
In a world of over 7 Billion people, and many great minds of the past, we as people have already tried a lot of things out. Even if we look at the present, most variations of things are simple modifications.
A new revolutionary drug might be just an additional atom tacked on, or a new configuration.
Or the exciting new start up you’ve been hearing about might have 80% of it’s code reused from the CTO’s previous startup, because it’s another mobile app.
Or that new beat you hear on the radio might just be a mix of a16th century Indian melody over an 808 drum.
I’m being a little facetious, but the way our world is structured is that plenty of secrecy and reuse exists even in the age of the internet. This is ok, but we should recognize when something is novel and something is not. This can be very challenging to recognize without deep subject expertise, but we should use common sense when we can.
- Adding .AI to your startup didn’t add anything to how you solve a problem, it just got some investors more excited.
- Changing one atom in a drug could reduce its side effects substantially, which might end up impacting how we treat medicine.
Now the question becomes, how do we tell if something is truly a new invention. When someone says they have a new creation, it typically has 5 things to it:
- Something brand new
- An incremental, but impactful modification
- A new Technology Context
- A new Social and Cultural Context
- A new Sales Strategy
Something new
A long, long time ago (the 1960’s) Philips created the magnetic cassette, a recordable, compact piece of technology that allowed music and audio to become more accessible and portable.
But the Philips cassette + player were not mass consumption ready and did not ignite the portable music revolution…
An incremental, but impactful modification
Enter the Walkman — Magnetic cassette technology
Many things sold now are small modifications. It can be sleeker design, or just enough ergonomic modifications to persuade people to buy it. Just like chemistry, many buying decisions/reactions only happen when their desire hits a certain criteria.
Apple has been very effective of improving exciting products and making them best sellers. The iPod, iPhone, Airpods. None of these were first to market, nor had the most advanced technology. Apple made them easy to use, built an ecosystem and marketed well. And today, they are one of largest companies in the world, mainly from incremental, impactful modifications.
A new technology context
Speaking of Apple, innovation and invention often requires context. You can invent something, but without the accompanying context it’s just a toy. The context sets how it’s used as a product and as part of an ecosystem. Apple has done a great job creating ecosystems, and among the keys, was knowing when the technology, and associated products would set an invention up for success.
Apple’s iOS App Store changed the way we think about software — Engadget 2018
The iOS App store is one of these success stories launching in 2008. It was not the first hub for software, it wasn’t event the first hub for letting developers monetize and distribute their software. In 1999, NTT DoCoMo launched their developer app store. But phones lacked the power and eyeballs to fuel a true app store takeoff.
So when inventing something, it’s important to realized what other dependencies you have for success. Sometimes you have to wait, other times you can create them yourself.
A new Social and Cultural Context
In 1983, photographer Hiroshi Ueda was travelling and realized that it was challenging to take a picture of him and his wife. So he pulled out his selfie stick … but wait, that hadn’t been invented yet? Actually Ueda was the inventor of the original selfie stick, but today we don’t see his picture alongside every selfie because his invention came too early and in the wrong context. There was no social media, not likes, no filters, just memories. So the idea didn’t sell and was only popularized by Wayne Fromm decades later.
The selfie stick was invented twice, two decades apart, by men on opposite sides of the world — and both times it was the result of problems experienced on a European holiday. — BBC 2015
“The idea of taking a picture of yourself was very new back then,” - Ueda
The cultural and social context of Japan, along with the lack of accessible cameras doomed the original selfie stick from succeeding, and only a change of scenery resurrected it years later.
A new Sales Strategy
Stepping away from products themselves, sometimes all it takes is a new Sales strategy.
Now you might be thinking, what do sales and marketing have to do with product invention?
- It’s about making people think something about your product.
- Marketing and Sales techniques can be innovative.
If your goal is to make money, convincing people that a cheap, existing product is innovative is a great way to go. Why waste your time and money, trying to create something new.
If your goal is to great something better, you still need convince people that your invention is useful for a couple reasons:
- First versions are rough around the edges
- People might not see the value without user experience thought
- You need money to try new iterations and bring it to market
Now, most startups that try to invent something then sell it typically fail do to a lack of product market fit, but even from a pure R&D perspective, you should be able to convince your company or institution to keep letting you spend time on your
Sharing Innovation
From a technology lens, the modern open source movement makes this much easier with things like programming languages (python, ect) or frameworks (react, angular, ect). With this, we get more complete version of previously used products that we can adopt to our own use cases to make the world more productive.
So how do we invent?
Let’s go back to why we invent something.
We might do it by accident. Or we might do it on purpose.
Accidental Inventions
There are two types of accidental inventions.
- Some occur because you set out with one goal in mind. Say you want to make to make a new refrigerator cooling gas, but get a non stick coating instead.
- Sometimes you take a chocolate bar to a radar system and notice that it melts in your pocket.
Example one was the invention of Teflon, when a chemical reaction went wrong. There was an original goal, but within that domain something new happened. This might seem like an accident, but it’s wouldn’t have occurred without the domain equipment or knowledge.
Example two was the precursor to inventing the microwave. It still required some knowledge of the domain and a job at a radar facility, but was a little more random; someone walking by a radar tower could have experienced the same phenomenon.
In both cases, it’s useful to understand an area you are trying to work on, you’ll have a higher probability of inventing something new. Without domain knowledge, we don’t notice some of the amazing things that happen every day.
Problem solving
If we invented something by accident, amazing. But most of us aren’t as fortunate to have something amazing happen to us. We usually do things in our lives that help us achieve a goal, such as taking us from path A to B.
- It can be a new route to work or school.
- It could be a new way write software.
- It could be a new snack when you haven’t been shopping in 2 weeks.
Usually we can use most of what already exists in our world, and then add our own, small contributions. This is how the academic system works. You spend years doing research with the hope that one day, your hard work can be recognized with a Ph.D.
This contrasts to the startup world, where companies follow a more boom and bust model; you either convince everyone your product is a game changer, or you get ignored.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
It’s a pretty good motto actually. Reduce the problem to its core. Reuse what you have, Recycle existing things into something better.
We often get caught up in the details and forget the problem we are trying to solve, this is why consultants exist.
Consultants exist because:
- Companies need to trust someone rather than their own employees
- Consultants come in with no premature assumptions
- They have knowledge and tools
- They are good at marketing their value
- If things go wrong, you have someone to blame
I’ll let you order these for yourself, but I’ll say if you can step back from a problem, clearly communicate and have credibility with upper management, you will do well.
So how do consultants do their work … reuse, reduce, recycle.
They have frameworks and case studies they re-apply, they have a method, and they have really expensive billables.
Example of a consultant methodology
This is a methodology that BCG came up with, to classify company products and help prioritize efforts going forwards. It’s not complicated, it’s easy to apply (try it out on TU20 programs) . But it works, when there is chaos in a company and you need to simplify your products, you need a method to go through the madness.
So How Do We Invent?
Figure out what the problem is. Figure out what the actual problem is.
Wait what does that mean?
No one is signing up for our events!!! -> No one understands what TU20 actually is!!!
This is hard and requires a lot of work. There may be many problems and usually a failure is a death by 1000 cuts.
But! This shouldnt stop you from trying to find the biggest flaws in what you’re currently doing. If you solved your top 5, or dare I say top problem, you’ll be in much better shape than before.
Look at what others are doing.
Same industry, different industry.
Same company, different company.
Look for existing solutions, in the vast majority of cases someone has figure it out. And if you can’t copy paste the solution from slack overflow, you can make small tweeks based on an existing idea. Just make sure to give credit where it’s due.
How do we remember to Invent?
Wait why would we forget to invent? One day you will get old (or just have an old soul) not be as hungry anymore for change. The world will wear you down where you put 100% rather than 110% of what’s required, and you start putting work on the backburner, either because you have other priorities, or have been burned for trying to make change. In essence, people get comfortable when things work and they take their eye of the ball, assuming that will keep rolling in the same pattern.
But that’s not how the world works. Things change so you have to be ready. One of things you want to do is focus on the customer (we’ll talk about that soon). The second is to focus on the outcome of your products and services rather than what you currently do. There was a Ted Talk on innovation and Guy Kawasaki describes this concept as a “Mantra”. If you stick to this mantra and excel, you won’t be held back with what you currently do. That doesn’t matter in the long term as much as making sure your outcomes make sense.
The paradox of invention
Science is based on the concept of learning what others did, and improving it. But ironically, by reading more, you lose the ability to see new perspectives by synthesizing the old. I.e you learn how to solve that type of problem. If you read the Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye, he comments on how many of the stories are the same, they stem from the bible and classics, and how the hero’s journey is one of these constructs.
Enabling Invention in an organization
To enable invention:
- People need to be motivated to invent
- They must be willing to speak up
- You must be willing to experiment
- You have a good feedback loop
What limits each of these steps, is lack of enthusiasm or desire to change. The easiest way to demotivate someone is have them put in a lot of effort and then have nothing to show for it.
Motivation
This is hard and requires a whole mini series. But people need purpose, recognition and benefit.
Speaking up
You want people to feel comfortable speaking up. People have different personalities, some are more comfortable speaking up. Don’t let people dominate convos.
Have people write down ideas before a meeting so they share and build rather than talk about the repetitive ones.
Provide constructive feedback, point out things you like and then concerns you have, let people correct them. If you are not sure why people are suggesting it, ask. Your assumption might be wrong. It also lets you to build off some things they are trying to address.
“Let’s put TU20 on the blockchain”
“Can you explain your idea more”
“We need to have a reliable way to track people’s activity and it sound cool”
“I think these are important parts, but do we need blockchain for that?”
“No …”
“I like your thinking, but let’s keep brainstorming on these two issues”
Experimentation
People should be encouraged to try stuff out and there should be a focus on learning and responsibility. You’d like to do a technology give away, cool, think it through, do a good job. Don’t create a flaming dumpster, but make something simple to test out your idea.
Feedback loop
Make sure to give timely feedback on decisions, and to comment on positive ideas. Also support successes and help scale them up.
Why Simplify?
Lower costs
The tesla model three is currently the top rated car in consumer reports and it costs around 60k in canada. What happens if they improve the manufacturing to the point where they can sell it for $30k? Every other car company might go extinct.
But for the past year they have been in production hell, one of the concerns has been that producing the car has been complicated.
Or if they don’t lower the price, they’d just be printing money with their margins.
Oh and at scale, they are now producing more batteries than all the other car manufacturers … combined.
Identify weak points in the process
The simpler your process that easier it is to identify what the weak links are. By probability it’s easier, and you can identify ways to make each step more efficient.
Example
TU20 Recruitment Process
Identify Goals For The Year ->
Identify current team skills ->
Identify missing skills ->
Decide what kind of candidates you would like to recruit ->
Check TU20 member pool for skills ->
Use linkedin to reach out to high potential students ->
Make posting for applications ->
Read over profiles, select top X candidates ->
Invite them to an interview and ask them to prepare a list of ways to improve TU20 ->
Review exercise ->
On board with summer meetings.
This might have been longer than expected, but you have to be thorough in identifying your steps. You can’t just list three obvious steps and call it a day.
Increase decision making agility (am I sounding like a consultant yet?)
If you have a simple process, it’s easier to onboard new people, explain it to different stakeholders and automate. These are all useful things.
Tasks before our meeting
Pick a thing related to TU20, come up with ideas how to improve them, then simplify those ideas. Make sure to these in two discrete steps, do not try to simplify something before you’ve fully explored the idea!
Some areas for inspiration:
Recruiting TU20 leaders
TU20 member retention
How to attract sponsors
New events
Questions for the meeting
Why is simplicity difficult?
How can we minimize the harms of the innovation paradox?
What is something you wanted to invent as a kid (pick one)?
What’s harder for you, thinking of new ideas, or putting them into practice?
Why don’t large companies innovate well?
