Media is segmented. Habits are not what they were. Culture is changing. Business is undergoing massive shifts. Technology is enabling communication, new habits and behaviors faster than culture is changing or embracing them. Agencies are in turmoil. It’s a crazy time. Some feel like they’ve been hit by a train.

Users are being considered in the design of products. We’re all our own publishers. Transparency is a new currency. The crowd is on the rise. Industrial design firms are doing marketing. Heads up, there is another train coming.

image via bridgepix

Problems are obvious. Most of them are anyway. They exist.

Most problems exist because some system is broken. They stare us in the face. They plague thoughts. We might think, “If I could just get X solved, or maybe I could just get it to go away.”

Most of the services and help we seek are to solve or fix problems. At home we get the plumbers, mechanics and the like to fix problems. At work it’s managers, outside providers and so on.

When working to create value from a problem first stand point we nearly always assume the premises of the problem, the system it was created by or that it lives in. We accept the system cart blanch. In doing so we nearly always accept the boundaries of the system and all it’s rules.

Solving problems that way can work. Sure, people do it. Sure, it can be somewhat successful. However, success is a relative term. What if we were far more interested in solving for opportunity?

Opportunities are widely available but they’re not often obvious. They need to be solved for. They tend to come from disparate ideas being combined. Most opportunities don’t yet exist. They can be tricky to “see.” They’re not yet actualized.

Solving for Opportunity… It might seem like a subtle shift from solving for problems. Sure. A problem might be why you direct your attention to finding a solution or finding an opportunity. However, a problem and it’s system need not command the boundaries, the playing field, for finding a solution. It need not be the only reason to look for a solution either.

Solving for opportunity is exciting. It offers an approach that first finds the opportunities available. Then, it crafts solutions for not yet existing value.

One approach protects value. One creates value.

image via jup3nep

I’ve been apart of a number of conversations recently regarding web startups in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. It’s curious.

I think we’re bound by the culture. Yet, I wonder if we can leverage that culture in someway and push the current community. Towards what? Towards an increase in delivered solutions. We live here but we don’t necessarily have to think here.

The Scandinavians and farms in our linage have influenced us to be stable, to take little risk, to fit-in and thereby stick to our jobs. Not terrible traits. We also have a tendency toward equity and an interest in making things work. After all that’s what you do on the farm.

I think there’s significant enough potential for our Midwestern-ness to be modified for increased yield in the startup space to be having discussions and asking questions. Foremost on my mind… where is there a climate where we can hybrid our tendencies with that of start-up activity? Does such a thing exist? We have hybrid crops. Why not have a hybrid climate of our culture traits and startup community traits?
So, why this post? Because I wanted to say “I am excited by the prospect. I am thinking about this.” You?

Down on the farm when you need a windmill you’d piece one together. You make it with what you have. We’ve have the Midwest. We have the internet. Do we want to a startup farm?

image via eye4it

Sell many small ideas before you go for the BIG one.

Selling ideas can be dramatically easier if it starts with small ideas on a measurable schedule that get’s better and more complicated over time. The big idea does not win alone. It needs a context. Start with something the client already has. Make it a bit better. Lead them toward the big idea.

It’s not unlike lawn maintenance. You got to have upkeep. With focused intention and simple action on a schedule with discipline. The weeds go away and the grass gets thicker and greener. The state of the upkeep says something about the owner for all to see. It also says something about you. Rest assured, the client sees. Or in the very least their ROI likely will, over time.

If I come to you and talk all day about the “fantastical” equipment and chemicals and pedigree of the lawn operator in my company and process virtues, and on and on, does that make you want to buy? Maybe. Likely not.

Certainly! You could mow your lawn yourself. But if I can do it better and you don’t have the time but you got the cash, all that’s left is trust. Do you trust I could make your lawn better? Have I given you reason too? If I have, you’ll give me a try. If all I’ve given is theory you’ll likely be reluctant. But if I’ve been working on a 10×10 patch in the corner that now looks great, you’re in for it, right? It’s easy to buy results.

Selling ideas in a way that is initially like tending to a little section of a yard provides an easy way to build trust. Low risk. When your work is reevaluated it’s easy to see success (or failure).

Weed and edge and feed your ideas and relationships with clients. Sell the big idea after you’ve built trust. It’s like lawn maintenance.

image via dugglesworth

I’d buy 1 seat a week on an airline that didn’t fly anywhere. The goal is uninterrupted work time in an environment where the norms include:

not talking
being out of control of the exit
having a small space that is yours
a fixed duration on a schedule
wifi and cell coverage elimination

Here’s the idea: Mount 15 rows of an old airplane fuselage on a roof top. Clip the wings but leave the cockpit and front door. Have a terminal style lobby below. Sell tickets for “flights.” It’s just like an actual flight (sounds included) except “departures” and “arrivals” are always exactly the same place.

Some are short. Some are long haul. Each provide the airplane experience but without the flight. A captain speaks over the intercom to tell you the weather and your anticipated arrival time, what you’re “flying” over, etc.

You? Would you buy a “flight” a week? You could get that unique work enviroment without actually going anywhere. It seems for me that ideas and work happens on airplanes that just does not seem to happen elsewhere. Would we be more innovative if we took more “flights”? #makethetime4it