Posted on

Fail smartly to innovate: Invest a little, learn a lot

Every successful entrepreneur talks about how they kept trying (and failing!) until they found what worked for them and became successful. In this process, failing can be seen as a part of the innovation process. The trick is to fail often to be able to test ideas and quickly get feedback. But the cost of failure has to be low so it doesn’t threaten the entire project.

Here are some tips on how to innovate and fail smartly. (Excerpts from the book Mastering emergent strategies (Harvard Business Press) Continue reading “Fail smartly to innovate: Invest a little, learn a lot”

Posted on

Make space for new ideas to grow

Jason Fried is one of the brain who built Basecamp the minimalist and powerfull collaborative online project management system. the author of Getting Real, an extremely inspiring book on design, simplicity, minimalism and effectiveness.

I already posted a video of him discussing Why work doesn’t happen at work.

Here’s another inspiring article on simplicity and innovation :

“while it’s hard to cut back, it’s good to remember that subtraction can lead to addition. New shoots, new sprouts, and new ideas often need new room to grow. They’re waiting, but you need to clear the way.”

Read the full article: Pruning: Making room for something new

Posted on

Understand the patterns and qualities of generative design processes

This thoughtful article explore traditional design methods (usually rigid frameworks) and why people usually don’t follow them. The author’s analysis, inspired by Christopher Alexander Patterns and Bill Mollison’s permaculture ideas, lead them to a new framework that describes a dynamic process of immergence, crisis and emergence: Continue reading “Understand the patterns and qualities of generative design processes”