Ideas vs. Noise: Crafting a system for meaningful innovation in a world flooded with information.

When it comes to "Ideas" there are some things you may have heard, and there is an underlined reality:

”I have a good/brilliant idea!"

No, it’s not, it’s just a thought

"I’d love someone to listen to my ideas"

No one will until you yell it many times, and it ends up being a really good idead

Heard

Reality

Let's deep-dive

In a rapid peace world where information is abundant and distractions are everywhere, staying focused is harder than ever. (If you’re seeing this post, I bet you were not looking for it, but something caught your attention and here you are. Hopefully, after reading it, you’ll find a way to structure things the next time something else captivates your eyes ; )

Companies have implemented tools, methodologies, and processes to achieve progress, which is measured based on set goals.

• Achieving goals on time is extremely hard.

• Those teams that achieve goals, gain markets.

• Market leaders get talented teams focused.

• When they are focused, and follow systems, many things (and ideas) are discharged.

• The bigger the company the bigger the silos, if there are no proper systems in place for innovation, there is no way to go beyond just progress and achieve accelerated growth.

The challenges around ideation and innovation within a company typically grapple with several key issues:

1. Idea Overload: In an environment teeming with information and ideas, distinguishing valuable ideas from mere noise is challenging.

2. Lack of Structure: The absence of a clear process to capture, evaluate, and implement ideas leads to chaotic and unproductive ideation efforts.

3. Poor Engagement: Employee and stakeholder disengagement in the ideation process often results from a lack of empowerment and clear communication channels.

4. Goal Misalignment: Difficulty in aligning ideas with company goals, leading to efforts that do not contribute to overall business objectives.

5. Inefficient Utilization of Ideas: Failure to effectively use the data and ideas collected, resulting in missed opportunities and wasted resources.

A Simplified Framework

Thought > Idea > Hypotheses > (Project) > Product

Thoughts >> Spontaneous thinking

Ideas >> Deeper thinking

Hypotheses >> Validation through experimentation

(Project) >> Planning (This part will depend on the size and stage of the venture)

Product >> Hands-on Building

How is a thought different from an idea?

Both could be perceived as being the same thing. But on the matter of this approach, I will be differentiating them from the quantity vs quality point of view, and for the latter, it is going to be measured based on the deepness, instead of the reasoning behind it.

So, thoughts are more in quantity and frugality, whereas ideas are those where you have invested more time and energy.

Put simply, thought is something that crosses your mind. You see, hear, read, and watch something, and from that, your intrinsic self generates a response in your mind. That response is your own perception and interpretation of what you just experienced, giving your contextual meaning of what that is, how that connects to things you know, or even how that could become in alternative scenarios after following imaginary paths.

An idea is composed of several thoughts.

When you’re working in a team

• The same ideas should have crossed our minds not just once, but several times.

• We are smart people, and when we are in front of challenges, or we see there is a problem, we can easily find ways in our minds to solve it.

• Even though we are different in many senses, we are presented in front of the same problems many times, so the same or similar solutions come to mind as ideas.

• Ideas start to change from one person's perspective once it is shared, and when shared they get better executed.

Tips

1. Take notes

• In everything we do, ideas will always cross our minds. Let's be aware of that so that we can identify a good opportunity to convert a thought into something tangible.

• In the future, there will be times in which we'll come back to the same idea, and that's an opportunity to evolve it, till it makes sense to convert it into something more than just a note.

2. Make sure to find the proper space to keep and share thoughts and ideas

• For thoughts:

  • Add them to your preferred notes tool, like Notion, Evernote, Obsidian, or Logseq.

  • Try something new and let AI help you, for which you can try Taskade, Mem AI, or Reflect Notes.

  • Keep it simple, using your OS notes apps, Apple iCloud Notes, Microsoft OneNote, or even any Google doc or sheet if that’s what will make it easier.

• For ideas:

  • Go deeper and elaborate on your team project management tools, like ClickUp, Asana, and Linear.

  • Complement your ideas with customer feedback using Canny.

Most Ideas are usually just Thoughts

To get to a Great idea, there is work to be done

From a Great Idea to a Great Product, Steve explained it pretty well: