Day 1: Today is the first day of our Boma Accelerator course. We have three days at Peppers Bluewater Resort in Lake Tekapo to really get stuck into our projects and listen to some great speakers. Big thanks to Christchurch Airport and Boma New Zealand for making this happen.
Our first activity was a Triangles Collaboration - we didn't even use hand signals like this version says you can, no-one knew who we were trying to get next to. Our group managed to do it in just a couple of minutes. Lots of fun and really interesting to watch the little adjustments towards the end. This is something I'd try with a group, a great starter.
Kaila Colbin had some questions for us, along with lots of her amazing advice.
How is your project like a business? We talked about having stakeholders, resources, a plan and selling your idea to an end user.
Who are your users?
Who are your customers? Customers could be funders. There is a difference between who is funding you and who you are selling to. Some funders may want money back as well.
New ventures all have: Product, Team, Channel and $$
Channel - channel to market, how you reach them. For example Xero - their channel to market is accountants and then they push it out from there.
Monetisation Strategy - could be none, giving of your own time
Minimal Viable Product - what will this look like?
Need a Friendly Beta Customer - someone who will tell us honestly what worked and what didn't. Need robust and transparent feedback.
Who will be doing this role for us? You need someone to put it in front of - if you're not embarrassed by it, you've waited too long. It's very hard to be objective with your own stuff, you need to show it to others.
Design
Test
Iterate
and then repeat the Test and Iterate as quickly as possible
We have to understand the value we are creating, it solves a need. Need to test that it is delivering the value. It's cheap to get feedback on paper, building it can be expensive. It's easy to do on paper and get feedback.
SFD - Shitty First Draft. The story we tell each other when triggered by emotion. The "I've never been good enough", "What have I done?" also hold true for projects. We shouldn't worry about what the Minimal Viable Product looks like.
Minimal Testable Increment - what's the smallest thing that would be useful? For my own project it will be a page on a website at this stage, even though my plan is for much bigger but it will get it out there for feedback.
Polarity Management
4 groups:
+ve things about stability
-ve things about stability
+ve things about change
-ve things about change
Each pair supports each other - like breathing in and out, need stability and change but there are often people leaning more to one side.
Change side - innovation
Stability side - execution
Raymond Loewy - designer of the Greyhound bus, coke bottle and many more - designs that when you see them, they couldn't be any other way - this shows the MAYA principle - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.
When you think about innovation you want to see it in action first - some are so far advanced you can't envision it. Need a balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar. One mental hurdle at a time. Eg Elon Musk Tesla - he has a vision for the future but needs to do this in increments that people can handle.
There is nothing to say you can't do things, but needs to be something people can handle - new cars will be test driven so can't change things drastically. The Apple Newton was a flop but their first iPhone worked because it just expanded on what we already knew. Things can be before their time and not work, thats the MAYA principle.
Our driverless bus at the airport is interesting in innovation - there is no law saying you have to have a driver behind the wheel, but there is a law saying you have to display a registration in the front window. These don't have a front as they go both ways.
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Influence - you have stakeholders. Tip #1 - no one cares about you. Tip #2-10 - no one cares about you. Instead of telling it from our own perspective start with what your stakeholder cares about and find the intersection with what you care about. Here is how my thing fits your need.
Adoption curve - understand where people are coming from. Marianne Williamson "if we are honest with ourselves"
Need to keep oscillating between the big vision and the next step. How is the next step likely to help me to get to the big picture?
Geoffrey Moore Book "Crossing the Chasm"
Adoption curve
Early adopters are happy to buy early
Early majority are mainstream
Late majority - everyone is on board so I have to as well
The chasm occurs because of who we look to for clues to whether to buy or not. Say you have a tool for schools, they will ask "what other schools are using it? Need social proof (see later on Principles of Persuasion).
Visionaries would say "I'll find a school that will try it". The second person may say "That school is crazy to do that". Early majority do not regard them as credible. They need to know a product is good enough. Visionaries are happy to tinker with it but Early Majority need a complete product, they don't want to play.
The solution to crossing the chasm is to find a Beachhead Market. What is the smallest group you can test and market for so they can be a reference for others? Be specific eg law firms of between 2 and 20 people in the South Island of NZ. Super easy to find.
Cialdin Principles of Persuasion
Reciprocity - I do something for you, you do something for me
Scarcity - doesn't even have to be actual, fear of
Authority - 4 out of 5 prefer this
Consistency - propaganda - same thing over and over
Liking
Consensus
Social proof - if you see someone similar doing it you are more likely to engage, we are tribal beings. biggest fear is if we get kicked out of the group.
We had some time today to work on our projects - so nice to be able to get stuck in and not have any distractions. A great night out for dinner, star gazing (albeit in VR due to cloud) and a soak in the hot pools. A long but lovely day. Looking forward to Day 2!
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