It occurs to me at the beginning of 2012 that the most obvious business decisions in 2011 are the decisions that needed the most scrutiny and thoughtful analysis. Coming up with a disruptive web product or a business idea can’t be obvious nor can it be simple; they should be both brutally ridiculed and as Fred Wilson notes, mocked and misunderstood.
My lesson from 2011 is the obvious products and ideas that are praised for their simplicity are stripped of their disruptive quality that only the unknown can offer. And when building a disruptive product or idea, the unknown is far more limitless than what is known.
Going forward, this framework sounds like an excellent litmus test to make the most disruptive and challenging ideas come to life. There is something that should be uncomfortable about building the obvious to everyone idea because it truly indicates that the upside is nil.
(via A VC: Mocked And Misunderstood)
“Nintendo and Apple stand alone at the top in finding new ways for consumer technology to entertain and inform. And that is because both companies actually put technology second in their design process. What comes first is the consumer experience; for these companies technology is useful only as it allows everyday people to have new experiences.”
Chef Roy Choi of Kogi Truck fame helped create the Korean quesadilla. He pulled $2M in revenue in 2009. Amazing.
This is the future, testing, experimentation and rapid improvements. Innovation is going to blow wide open in the next decade.
Apple’s intention for cannibalizing the iPod with the iPhone is one of the great business success stories from the past decade. To often it seems that corporations fear disturbing the golden goose or any sort of change and the rise of the iPod Touch is a great endorsement of pushing forward.
Throw away your number one for something even better.
How about, it’s dead-simple. Drop dead simple.
