I really like this talk by Sam Martin about "man spaces".  Same came up with this really interesting talk by putting Principles 1 and 2 to work:

• Experience the world instead of talking abou experiencing the world
• See and hear with the mind of a child

His talk isn't the kind of thing you could whip up out of one's imagination alone, but it does depend on his intellect to synthesize the wonderful narrative we hear above.  Taking the time to get out in to the world, and then having the ability to see clearly, are two keys to bringing great stuff to life.

Great presentation structure and delivery, too.

Over the weekend I spent some time fooling around with an iPhone app called ColorCapture Ben.  The way it works is you take a photo of a color you like using your iPhone, and then this app from Benjamin Moore shows you the closest matching color chip from their collection, and then serves up a listing of complimentary colors and so forth.  I found that it works equally well sampling a Barnett-Newman style solid color field as it does mixing across the various colors found in a Seurat-like shot of a lawn.  Even if you're not in the market for some new paint, it's a wonderful source of quiet, adult entertainment if you ever find yourself, say, attending a live performance of music designed for the toddler-preschooler demographic.  As I frequently am.

It's also a great example of Principle 3 at work.  Principle 3 states that we must always ask "How do we want people to feel after they experience this?". If you've ever painted a room in a house, you know that there are many areas that could stand some improvement, and indeed there has been quite a bit of innovation lately in the areas of zero-VOC paint formulations, easy-pour paint containers, and new application tools.  But those are all about the paint or conveying the paint to the wall, and when you think about it, there's so much more to the painting experience.  The beauty of Principle 3 is that, by asking that you put yourself in another human's shoes, it forces you to consider all of the non-obvious aspects that make up an experience:

Another part of the challenge lies in thinking about usage through
time.  We often design for those few moments that make up the core
value proposition.  But what about all the other experiences?  How does
it feel to start using it?  What does mastery feel like — is it
exhilarating or boring?  How does using this expand our human
experience?  How does it influence our environment?  What does it feel
like to extend one's relationship with the offering?  Does it help
someone get to a state of flow?

I don't know about you, but for me, the entire process of choosing a paint color is terrifying.  Mistakes are expensive, and because it is difficult to sample paint colors accurately, iteration in a baby-step kind of way (Principle 10) is also tough.  This is where ColorCapture steps in.  For example, for a while I've been meaning to paint one wall of my bedroom green, but I'd rather go clean my garage than have to choose the right color of green amongst the hundreds of choices available to me — the paradox of choice at work.  With this new app, I can take a picture of my wood floor (the dominant color in the room that I need to play with), and then boom!, I have the green I need, or at least a handful of greens.  And now I can start painting, and to start painting I'll go buy a gallon of Benjamin Moore Natura.

While I don't think Principle 3 is the most powerful of the principles, it certainly is one of the most foundational.  If you can put it in to action, you're well on your way.

Seth Godin has written a really important post:  The hierarchy of success

When it comes to the art and science of bringing cool stuff to life, this point is especially important:

As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the
hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias
in dealing with people and problems?… Sure, you can start at the bottom by focusing on execution and
credentials. Reading a typical blog (or going to a typical school for
16 years), it seems like that's what you're supposed to do. What a
waste.

When trying to get something done that's been done before, it's important to look at credentials of execution:  Dr. Heart Surgeon, I hope you've done this surgery many times before, and done it well, and had a chance to learn from your mistakes and those committed by others.  But when faced by the challenge of creating value where none has existed before, what's important?  As Seth points out, it's mostly about attitude and approach.  Those are the lifelines to get you from here to over there when everything is foggy and unknown.  Those are what get you to a viable strategy that makes certain executional tactics more or less relevant.

If you're trying to create the right team to go after something revolutionary, you can't ask "show me all the similar things you've shipped".  You can only ask "how many times have you stepped in to the abyss, and what have you learned about how to do it better?.

For more, see Principle 17