Weeknotes #224
I did:
Deadlines looming
Deadlines are getting close. Pressure is on. It’s been another busy week finding the gaps in our understanding. That’s what happens as the things we’re working on reach a higher level of fidelity. It’s interesting to see how we react to find the knowledge gaps, make decisions, refine and reduce scope, and quickly learn new things.
Dissertation
I wrote the title and abstract for my the research proposal for my dissertation.
Title: “A review of the innovation processes and practices used within the charity sector, and recommendations for improvements to innovation strategy to support new product development.”
Abstract: “Charities of all sizes across the United Kingdom face increasing pressures to deliver services that adapt quickly to meet the changing needs of their beneficiaries and yet innovation across the sector is stifled by a low appetite for risk and ineffective use of innovation models.
Where innovation can be seen to occur within the charity sector it typically follows first or second generation approach from the Innovation Framework Model with little application of an innovation strategy that utilises Open Innovation models, the spaghetti view of innovation process, or business model innovation.
In reviewing the recent use of innovation processes and practices used within the sector, by charities and by supporting organisations such as agencies, this study will provide an analysis of the current state of innovation capabilities and offer recommendations of innovation models, processes and practices for the charity sector to utilise in innovation strategy to support new product development.”
Bivariate regression analysis
I’ve been trying learn about statistics and prediction as part of the research methods module I’m studying. My maths knowledge could be described by the equation Mk=0 so I’ve got to rapidly get my familiarity to the level where I can do things like bivariate and multi variate analysis.
Read
Ideas
I thought a bit about how we manage ideas so read Cheap Ideas in the Junkyard, Ideas are just a multiplier of execution, and How To Treat Your New Ideas.
Thought about
Where failures are handled
Market failures are handled by the state. State failures are handled by the Civic space (charities, etc.). Where are failures in the Civic space handled? Bluntly by the state through more regulation? Or are those failures not handled at all?
Digital footprints
A good digital presence is an asset. David Perell has said something along the lines of his Twitter following being more valuable than a college degree, and there are plenty of others of the opinion that personal branding, working openly on the web, writing, etc., will bring good things (customers, collaborators, whatever) to you. Digital footprints is an interesting metaphor. It allows people to track you down, follow in your foot steps, or see where you’ve been. Tread thoughtfully.
Problem-first or market-first?
The entrepreneurial thinking says ‘problem-first’. Find a problem worth solving, usually a problem you face so you know it well, develop a solution and find an audience that also wants to solve that problem, and then sell your solution to them. This is then called Product-Market fit, or as Tim Jones phrases it, “I’ll know that my product solves my problem when I have users that use it, love it, pay for it” (As an aside, that’s an interesting frame for metrics: usage, devotion/advocacy, revenue). Contact that with the approach more usually adopted by established businesses. Market-first. Being already well-known in a market and knowing that market well, companies look to introduce offers into nearby verticals or horizontals. So, pick a problem and then find the market that has that problem, or pick a market and then find out what problems that market has (of course this is an over-simplification but its interesting to compare the two approaches).
Tweeted
Some lessons I learned from running five days of remote workshops…
Cennydd Bowles tweeted some advice on running remote workshops, including that cats should be introduced (I mean, obviously), and about using group tools like Miro. Having done a few remote presentations (which are very different and much easier from running workshops) I find it interesting to see some of the learning that is happening around how to do remote ‘x’. (I must finish his Future Ethics book some time soon…)
Government doesn’t need disruption, or even innovation
Bill Hunt, a Chief Enterprise Architect for the US government, tweeted some interesting thoughts about what government needs from technology, including Laurenellen McCann’s “Build with, not for” and how technology is almost never the solution to the problem, something that anyone who works in tech/digital knows.