Apidays New York 2024 - The Good, the Bad and the Governed by David O'Neill, ...
Innovate! - How to Walk Backwards
1. How to Innovate!
or
Learning to Walk Backwards
Jonathan Palley
SD2C 2008
http://www.idapted.com
StudioChinese | EQEnglish
2. Three Goals
The Mindset of an
Innovator.
Innovate small. It will grow big.
Learn to love the question: “Why?”
3. The mindset of an innovator:
A man (or woman)
walking backwards
4. A man walking backwards...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.
8. Understand Direction at
all sizes
• Where is the platform/product going?
• Where is the project I’m working on going?
• Where is the area of the code I am working
on going?
• Where is this class going?
• Where is this function going?
10. Things Technology
Innovation is NOT
• Building new features on an existing
concept.
• Copying with slight modification
• Make the Chinese/American/Girl/Rails/
Scalable version of X
• This is about business model, not
technology.
11. Make Meaning
(make the world a better place)
How can this be done more efficiently?
What is wrong or unfair with the world/
society/etc.?
13. Paradigm Shifts
Change the way people think about solving
a problem.
Change the way you think about solving a
problem.
(This is hard, but worth it)
18. A Paradigm Shift Works
if it..
• Saves time or money (efficiency)
• Improves length/quality of life
19. If its a business, it must
make money
• Will many people benefit from this paradigm
shift?
• Are they willing to pay for it? How much?
• Tip: Advertising does NOT work. Not in
this economy
• (People that will benefit) x (Willingness to
pay) x 0.10 = potential size of business
20. (Side Note: Paradigm Shifts Take
Time)
Google 1995
iPod + iTune 2001
I.C. 1960
(Hard economic times are often good for paradigm shifts)
22. A man walking backwards is...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.
28. Gain Perspective
Look outside your field
There is nothing fundamentally new, only
new ways to mix things
29. Example: The Longitude Problem
How to find a ships longitude at sea?
Royal Observatory: The answer is
in the stars
Harrison: Woodwork/Mechanic -
found the answer in how you build
the clock
32. The Why Game!
• Ask the question: “why?”
• Then ask the question again.
• And again
• And again
• And again
33. The “Why
Game”...warning flags
• “There is no other way”.
• “That’s the way it is always done”.
• “That’s the right way to do it”.
• “That’s how a famous person did it”
34. We have a direction and
we are looking at where
we have been.
Now what?
35. A man walking backwards is...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he
passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.
36. 3. The last thing you did
is right in front of you
48. Iterate In Your
Conversations
- Stops innovation
No - Useful to keep focus
- Builds on idea, but still stops.
- Useful for correcting something
Yes, but ... that immediately won’t work
- Builds on ideas!
- Allows “small” ideas turning
Yes, and ... into “big” ideas.
50. A man walking backwards ...
1. Knows the goal he is walking towards.
2. Looking at where he has been.
3. Looking most directly at the last thing he passed.
4. Doesn’t walk straight.
55. Embrace Mistakes
• Perfection = Stagnation
• Mistakes lead to new ideas.
• Why was this mistake made?
• How do we prevent this mistake from
being made?
56. We don’t like to know
we are wrong
We rarely are right
Successful people are not “right”. They are good at
identifying when they are wrong and fixing it.
57. Data
Listen and Learn
Talk - Talk about mistakes in a constructive way.
63. Rubygems
• “apt-get”/CPAN like system for Ruby
• Written by a few guys to solve a problem
with distributing shared models (few people
used ruby at that time).
• Got a bit bigger, so started rubyforge
• Enabled creation of Ruby on Rails
• Huge industry around Rails. New paradigm
for web development.
• Many applications started around Rails