See honey? That's why I need a brand new Jeep Wrangler...

it's all about creating American jobs!!!

...you DO love your country, don't you?

Nail It....then scale it

Yesterday I had an opportunity to sit down with a good friend and trusted advisor who gave some excellent advice with regards to a product release, or even a company startup. His name is Lee Gibbons, and he has been a pioneer in the LDS media space and has also founded several successful businesses. Needless to say, I value and respect his opinion greatly.

While discussing the build and potential release of a facebook application that would behave in a very specific way and would allow members to reach out like never before, he gave two pieces of advice. He said,

First nail it...then scale it.

What this means is that sometimes ideas must be proven on a smaller scale before they can be "sold" to larger audiences. "Nail it" is a charge to "go and do" and means to create a prototype, in its simplest form, and figure out how this thing will work, what kinds of features will it have, exactly how will it behave, etc. And of course we'll need data. So after we build it we'll want to perform a limited release just to see how it is performing and if it is actually being used. Then, with a successful limited release it becomes easier to take that data and prove the concept so that the idea can be embraced and implemented by the greater organization.

He also said

fire a cannon down your own street first.

This means that if the product doesn't create value on a small scale it likely won't have legs on a large scale.

What this means is that you should make a little noise with your initial launch among your own peers and network. If people don't come outside and take a look around to see what all the fuss is about, then you probably don't have something remarkable enough to be a purple cow.
Lee said he learned this lesson the hard way and he has two failed business experiences to show for it. In each situation, he felt he was really on to something and he built the thing without "nailing it" or "firing a cannon." In each instance, a consultant he was working with warned him that it wouldn't work. "If this will work for legal people, why aren't lawyers back in Utah already adopting it?" his consultant asked. Lee would respond, "Oh, that's different...they are not part of a large agency like the big firms here in New York." The takeaway? If it (insert YOUR IDEA here) is not adopted by the few then it most likely will not work for the many.
I was grateful to hear both of these pieces of advice as they seem very sound and can likely save me alot of time and frustration. He also had another very interesting comment wherein it felt like he was speaking directly to me. He made the comment that if an idea will not leave us alone, and just keeps coming back to our mind then it becomes our stewardship.

And this is one idea that I just haven't been able to shake. So now comes the hard part...nailing it.