growing innovation

Today I got to meet and listen to an expert on creativity and innovation, Peter Kageyama.  He was speaking to an audience of mainly government staff and planners, with a focus on how cities and states might better attract talent.  He started with the premise that creativity and innovation are the “natural resources of the 21st century”.

One thing that Peter mentioned struck me as very applicable to the development of any online project, from a social network to a business website.  He talked about the distrust of advertising by young professionals and other members of the emerging creative class.   Despite the huge sums of money poured into advertising, it only really builds awareness -  it  is just the start of the conversation.  When people become aware of something, they might then check out the web, twitter, online reviews, and other resource to try to find out the facts.

It seems to me that this message applies to each of us trying to gain a foothold on the Internet. Try not to consider your website or Twitter stream just as a form of advertising (especially if Peter is right about the level of distrust out there).  Perhaps a good way to think about it would be to figure out what part of your online footprint does the following:

• Raise awareness (you have 100% control of content)
• Provides for more social/interactive reviews/info (you have a lot less/maybe no control)

When you go to Amazon.com search for a book or product, do you believe the manufacturer’s or publisher’s write up OR the customer reviews?

You have to be willing to open yourself or your project up to what people really think and feel about whatever it is you are “selling”… but wouldn’t it be better to know and perhaps adjust what you are doing to actually meet demands/needs.  You might learn a lot and that might open up a new doorway.

So thank you Peter for a creative break today.   You can find out more about him at Creative Cities Productions.

I know from my own experience that staying on task is one of the most difficult parts of  developing any type of web project.  This is particularly true when it comes to innovating something new to you.  The power of the Internet is the interconnectedness and all those cool websites and online resources – the danger of the Internet for anyone trying to develop a serious project is the distraction of all those same “attractive” things. They don’t call it a web for nothing.

I find myself getting pulled off-task in several ways:

1. My mind is constantly coming up with new and “better” projects… before the current one is completed.
2. There is always a new add-on, upgrade, or other enhancement I just have to include in my current project.
3. Googling the web brings me to other sites similar to mine, that take time for me to fully analyze for things I might want to emulate and incorporate so my project is up-to-date with others.

The flaw with this thinking is that you can never get to 100% of your expectations in any creative venture, be it art, engineering, or web development.  If we stay in a constant state of building, we lose the greatest benefit of any web project – real-life feedback from a real project.  Getting a website or application up and running, even if it only meets 70% of your initial dreams and expectations, is going to get you to a place of success much faster than any linear time-line.

spa50.com

I have a friend Kelly, who has already proven herself as a successful business woman.  She is moving from owning a “brick and mortar” business to creating an online community for spa owners.  She has launched a website called www.spa50.com that is revolutionizing the way people run their spa businesses, based on her years of practical knowledge.  Although not a web developer, she is creating an online community.  I also know that Kelly took some bold steps to get her site launched, hell or high water.  She made the decision to go ahead, even though she wasn’t near her 100% design point. But just think about how many people have great ideas and detailed business plans, but not the focus Kelly has to execute something.

Try the following tips when you find yourself drifting off target:

1. Look for ways to simplify and launch now – be bold.
2. Use a bookmarking tool like delicious to tag sites that might have things you want to examine carefully – later: Tag and forget them for now.
3. Make specific, finite goals that you can attain in a weekend, a week, or even a single day of intensive work, then sequester yourself for that period – just like a writer creating a novel or a poem might do.  This is creative work, and your creative mind needs a space free of distractions to get that “70%” done – launch point.

Your 70% is probably way ahead of most people’s expectations in any case. Go for it!