Feature ThinkSprint
In our new hour-long ThinkSprint session, Sam Reid and Scot Morrison, founders of innovation agency ThinkSprint, will be stress-testing three real innovation ideas crowdsourced from the book trade. How will this experiment work? A week before the event, a brief document for
atendees to fill in will be circulated. Then, 48 hours before the event, the ThinkSprint team will put those ideas to its global team of entrepreneurs, and a select group of consumers, for feedback. It’s a great opportunit to
test out and refine those ambitious innovation projects you want to embark on, but haven’t been able to clarify, justify or commit to just yet. Here, Sam Reid explains why the experience will be valuable to atendees...
Thinking, fast and... fast
The Problem New technology is creating lots of new behaviours. As a result, businesses are eager to innovate and seize the new opportuni- ties that are arising. There’s no lack of good ideas that might work, but there is a lack of proven ideas that do work. Most innovative ideas will not work, for reasons you can never predict. When excite- ment is high and optimism takes over, we quickly assume too much. Therefore, a fast way to test big assumptions is essential. Before jumping in at the deep end, vali- date that: consumers care about your idea (there’s a market); you can make money from your idea (there’s a business model); and you can execute your idea (there’s a capabilit). It’s simple stuff, yet it’s not seen enough outside of the start-up world. In a start-up, the usual mission is prety straight- forward: prove the idea creates value on the smallest budget in the shortest amount of time; focus on something simple that you know you can test; then move onto the next assumption, and repeat, until a meaningful product or service starts to take shape.
The Solution “To invent you need to experiment. If you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.” Guess who? Jeff Bezos (again). He’s built Amazon this way, from the ground up. That’s why it’s able to innovate across so many fronts. It’s a way of thinking—and it’s not rocket science. On paper: “Sure, we totally think like that.” In realt: “We can’t take our eye off sales.” Net result: “We have lots of great ideas, but they never ship out the front door.” If that sounds familiar, this session might be helpful. Here’s how it works: you have an idea which you think has potential, but it’s not fully formed or tested, so you give it to us; we uncover blindspots, then tune and test the idea in 48 hours; you get some objective facts to help you plan what to do next. And here are the tpes of things you can throw at us: we need a <insert shiny new tech> strategy. How relevant is this to our customer needs? We’re going to invest in building <insert app, website, bot>, what do we need to understand to make sure we do it in the right way? We’re thinking of launch- ing a new <business model>, what might we have missed that could impact its success? Taking these sorts of questions through
Pictured above are ThinkSprint duo Sam Reid left and Scott Morrison. Full biographies for the pair can be found in Meet the Speakers (pp16–23)
www.thebookseller.com
the “test and learn” process will save your company money and encourage the pursuit of bold ideas. (Caveat alert: if belief in quick experimentation and acceptance of failure doesn’t come from the very top, it’ll never take root and create meaningful impact. So pay atention, publishing leaders.)
The Session To keep in line with the themes of the conference, we specifically want ideas that falls across any of the following categories:
Business models What can we learn from the video-on-demand business? e.g. Is it possible to have a subscription model?
On/offline How best can digital and physical spaces work together to sell more books? e.g. You might be toying with geolocation but will it really work?
Tech From VR to games, how (should) book people be using interactive tech? e.g. You’re about to invest in a VR experience but is there really a market?
If the above sounds interesting and you would like to get involved, then start collect- ing the ideas and keep an eye on your inbox as the conference approaches...
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