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Experimentation: on the path for innovation

31.Aug.2007

We all have loads of ideas. They come out of nowhere and sparkle our minds with possibilities. But that’s usually about it. The large percentage of creative thoughts never leave our brain. And we all know that ideas alone don’t go far without execution.

from DesignNotes

Experimentation

I’m currently reading The Ten Faces of Innovation and I stepped into the Experimenter chapter. It can only be the most preponderant role you have to take to innovate. Many great ideas simply don’t start off because no one dares to try them. And sometimes is not a question of fear, because most of the times we have really nothing to loose. Maybe it’s just our inertia working, we might just have other things on our hands or we’re just thinking about if someone would even care about our experiment.

A mistake everyone usually commits is while experimenting is to keep their results to themselves. Although there are eyes and opportunists everywhere on the Internet, we must keep our confidence in what we make and that nobody can implement our idea better than we can. And this way you can gather useful feedback. Maybe your idea wasn’t very good after all, but you can always take some good experience from your community. Therefore, you should always try to open up you innovation process.

Web Prototypes

I get frequently ideas of new web-based services: some are just utilities, others exploit a new released API and others can be only a new way of presenting information. Basically all could be represent by simple prototypes. However, being myself a Ruby on Rails developer, the simple thing of running rails new_project seems like I’m starting already a big thing and not that was not what I wanted. I’ve been trying out Camping now, when I get a quick idea. While it’s allows faster prototyping, I’m still not proficient enough in it to keep up with my thoughts. Or maybe it’s just my dilettant character.

I would like to know how you experiment your ideas, specially if you’re a web developer, although I’m sure innovation and experimentation are global. Can you make wonders just with pen and paper, or do you need to get your hands dirty?

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4 Comments

Nice post, I liked specially the part of "Although there are eyes and opportunists everywhere on the Internet, we must keep our confidence in what we make and that nobody can implement our idea better than we can. And this way you can gather useful feedback." As for "how do you experiment your ideas", I for one am an adept of pen and paper, or a nice whiteboard... Quick and effective.

mind booster noori / 31.Aug.2007 at 11:47am

A clear whiteboard/paper and a fresh idea can certainly be very powerful. Although this is a better way to start the planning, mainly because you aren't affected by the technical limitation, you also have to get your hands dirty so you really know where you're steeping into. I guess you should plan not for the long future, but for a close future... bringing the gap between processes closer.

fabiopedrosa / 02.Sep.2007 at 01:36am

I think real testing occurs when you build up a fast prototype and get 1%-2% of the estimate target population to pay for it. With pen and paper you're not testing anything besides your imagination.

nuno morgadinho / 03.Sep.2007 at 11:10am

Nuno, you'd probably know this better than me since you work in a real company, but when developing some interface i, you should test it by yourself, or give it to a coworker to test, so you can get the obvious comments on it. Of course this is in early stages. The "real" testing of course occurs before the final production and is a must-have in my opinion.