Now that’s a creative business model: Eternal Reefs

"I like to launch [products] early and often. That has become my mantra.  Nobody remembers [Madonna’s] Sex Book or the Newton. Consumers remember your average over time. That philosophy frees you from fear."

– Marissa Mayer, Google

Here’s a really stimulating interview with Brad Feld of Mobius Ventures (and a citizen of my homeland of Colorado.  Bonus Points!).

Definitely worth reading if you’re into the art and science of creating cool stuff.

As a boy I learned that the creators of Navajo blankets purposely weave a flaw into each of their creations.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about flaws and the process of innovation, and I’d like to explore this Navajo blanket idea in that context over the next few weeks.  I have an inkling that it may be the key to unlocking the potential of heretofore crappy service experiences, such as professional house painting.  Who knows, this just might be the next Beausage.

Before we reach that point, I need your help to answer a few questions:

1. Is (or was) this a legitimate cultural Navajo tradition, or is it a myth concocted to dupe tourists and elementary school children?
2. If it is a real thing, does it have a name?
3. Can you think of any examples from  your own work experience where a purposeful flaw became a beautiful thing?

Please share a comment below or drop me an email.

If there’s a little less action on metacool over the next few weeks, please accept this apology in advance.

You see, I just shipped the introductory version of my latest creation.  She’s really a beauty — featuring, among other things:

• a complex, powerful, yet low-power consumption bio-computer running a self-teaching, open-source operating system
• a huge amount of information storage capacity — won’t run out for decades, hopefully even a century
• completely cradle-to-cradle in terms of production materials
• low mass — all of this in a package only a few pounds heavier than a standard business laptop

Branding is still being developed and will be announced shortly.  We’re looking at a premium positioning that’s unique without being too exotic.

Our growth plan includes the gradual addition of mobility, moving from a quadraped motive system to eventually a biped mode, which we feel strikes the right balance between traction and agility.  We also expect to add advanced voice recognition, speech capabilities, and the ability to compose poetry and play the saxophone.  I’ll keep you posted.

But I’ll be busy for the next few weeks.

Here’s an intriguing interview with Gary Flint, chief engineer for the innovative new Honda Ridgeline.

This new vehicle redefines what a pickup can and should be.  How did Honda get there?  By getting out and observing real people.  Says Flint:

We didn’t look at what people were buying.  We listened to what they wanted… During the Ridgeline’s development I spent an hour
every Saturday morning at Home Depot with my tasty beverage, and I
watched people load things in the parking lot.

When was the last time you got out of the office and just simply observed people going through the stuff of daily life?  Out there lies the kind of inspiration that leads to game-changing innovation.

Next time your hear someone couching innovation in terms of
complex processes, jargon, and esoteric management theories, challenge them
with this simple question: how do you plan to enable people here to
enjoy their work?

The more I learn about innovation, the more I believe that the
organizations who innovate year over year over year are those who treat
people well, who build cultures where enjoying one’s work — routinely reaching a state of flow — is not the exception, but the rule.  If you want
to be sustainably innovative, these places teach us, then solve for
human happiness.  Think JetBlue.  Gore.  Honda.

Or even Ferrari.  Ferrari, the grandest brand in the world, red speed
incarnate.  Because it operates within the byzantine world of Formula 1
racing, where teams spend upwards of $200 million per season to design,
build and campaign two tiny cars around the globe, Ferrari could easily
be a nasty, brutish place to work.  But it isn’t, and therein lies the
secret to its formidable record of victory: helping its people get into flow.
Jean Todt, the scuderia’s leader, says this about his approach to culture:

People will give their best at work if they are happy.  If people respect their co-workers, both professionally and personally, they will want them to be happy too, and will help each other when there are problems.

Could enjoyment really equal innovation?  Yes.  It’s as simple (but
difficult) a proposition as this: to innovate well, treat your people well.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called "What’s Good Enough?"

Which is why I positively love this idea:  Good enough is the new perfect

AutoWeek has a great "compare and contrast" profile of Jesse James (from Monster Garage) and Paul Moller (Mr. Skycar).  Their respective forays into the realm of flying cars represent two very different approaches to venture design.

In one corner, we have Moller, who has spent millions and millions and years and years developing Skycar.  He has a PhD, and his venture is very much a left-brain, Master Plan kind of effort: lots of costly (time + money) engineering and analysis, supported by a huge machine for consuming large of amounts of money with big, complex prototypes.  So far he’s gotten the Skycar to hover a few feet off the ground.  It looks cool, though.

In the opposite side of the ring, we have Mr. James, ace welder and intuitive designer, an entrepreneur who knows his way around an English Wheel.  If you’ve ever seen Monster Garage, you know that Jesse is all about building things now, and doing things to the hilt.  Talk is cheap in the land of Jesse, and its a place where you build to know.  In stark contrast to Moller, Jesse’s flying car venture was a two-week, multi-thousand dollar affair, and it resulted in a Panoz Esperante that flew 350 yards.

Who learned more?  Big budget, big schedule, or lean budget, scrappy schedule?  Ventures that seek to crack open new market spaces (like flying cars — not a good market, mind you, but a new market nonetheless) face a central challenge of closing critical information gaps.  If you have suitcases of cash, and a lot of extra time on your hand, try the Moller model.  Otherwise, as a proponent of appropriate venture design, metacool has no choice but to endorse Mr. James.

My post last week on Venture Design sparked an interesting discussion about the topic of "good enough" in the world of innovation.  Victor Lombardi made this point:

Some recent experience with teaching product development to the "linear
business types" taught me to be careful with explaining the concept of
"good enough." For example, a business analyst I spoke with pointed out
we should only develop a product far enough to exceed customer
expectations; anything further is wasted development money and results in
lower profit margins. To him, this was "good enough" design. But this
thinking can lead to, for example, series of incremental improvements
and leave a company vulnerable to a competitor’s breakthrough design.

Here’s my perspective:  "Good Enough" is a worldview.  It’s a way of approaching challenges where the appropriate solution path is not obvious.  In that situation, 50% accurate information today is an order of magnitude more valuable than 100% accurate data tomorrow, because having that data allows you to take action now, and the act of moving takes you one real step closer to a workable solution — perfectly accurate info is always a day away.  Perfection equals paralysis, and the way to reach a more innovative mode of existence is to accept "good enough" as permission to go ahead and get stuff done.  Life is short.

In reality, taking a "good enough" approach to developing your offering is the key to reaching greatness.  Per Victor’s point above, if you view "good enough" as a one-shot deal and ship a turd to market and leave it there to fester, you’re only fooling yourself into a state of perpetual mediocrity.  But, if you say "this is good enough today, and I have a plan for good enough in a week, a month, a year," then you’ll be iterating your way to success, learning all along the way.  The first generation iPod was a "good enough" effort done quickly, and it taught Apple a lot about a new (to Apple, at least) marketspace.  Subsequent iPod offerings capitalized on those lessons learned — real information from real customers in a real market.  The "good enough" worldview allows you to stand on the shoulders of giants of your own making.

(metacool disclaimer:  the AMC Pacer pictured above should be used only as an educational example of how a "good enough" offering not tied to a strategic development plan will result it in a mediocre turd.  Yes, the Pacer influenced the design of the Porsche 928, but there’s no accounting for taste)