Organizing Ideas

May 09, 2004 | View Comments (11) | Category: Web Business

Summary: How to organize ideas and the sharing of an idea of my own.

Of all the assets that a company possesses, ideas arguably are the most important. Ideas from individuals continually flow during the companies existence and you can find that many companies learn to capitalize on these ideas. Some companies fail because they start with an idea that does not evolve enough. With just a little group collaboration the idea could blossom into something even better. Something that would prove successful down the road.

I think I might have more ideas for websites and businesses than the average man. Most times I am fortunate enough to have my notebook around to write these ideas down. Other times I am not so fortunate. As an organization it can be difficult to ignore the ideas of your employees' and still succeed. So the question becomes how does a company most effectively organize these ideas?

The Tools

It is possible, but not very effective, to have every employee carry around their own “idea notebook” and at the end of the week/month rip out all the pages and place them in a huge pile. That way the organization of ideas can begin. Like I said, possible, but not effective.

Surprisingly the tools needed for such a venture already exist, yet many companies fail to utilize them. I use this blog to organize my ideas and to create active discussions. Down the road I am able to look back at the entries and have a better viewpoint of how everyone views the topic. The beauty of it is, everyone else gets to see these ideas as well no matter where their location in the world.

Basecamp

I have been using 37Signals' online project management application, Basecamp, for two different projects. I have no idea if this business venture by the guys at 37Signals is proving successful or not, but if it does, one of the main reasons would surely be because it makes the flow of ideas almost transparent. Anyone in the organization can view what ideas someone else is thinking. Clients get to see how your company works and this helps to build trust.

The archival of ideas can cause many people to hesitate about doing something like this. Some companies like to deny that they said something in the past. But if you ever been in the position where one of your managers stole an idea of yours then you could always go back into the archives and show the company who had the big idea.

It’s Classified

I don't think that companies should be discussing company secrets in the public, but there are plenty of other issues that should be made public to everyone. I have kept many of my ideas to myself out of fear that someone else would take them. However, I can see how many times if I had shared these ideas that they could have grown faster and possibly even became a reality.

John of WebWord.com fame posted a very nice entry not too long ago titled, Building a Blog Marketing and Media Company. This in itself is a great idea and I was surprised to see John give out his idea and thoughts of what the company could do. He mentions that he has no time to start on such a venture so it was cool that he would share it. I would have liked to see an active discussion on his idea, but I am sure there were many others who saw the idea and thought to themselves how great it was and decided to keep it to themselves. It is quite possible that someone with the skills and resources is working on this idea right now.

One of my ideas

I have had this idea in my head for some time, but always hit a roadblock and can never formulate it as thoroughly as I would like so I figured I should share it since this is what the whole entry is about. I know there have been more times than I could count that I needed an idea of what direction I should take a site. As a designer you should be able to research for ideas, but sometimes that only takes you so far. I thought it would be cool to provide a place where designers could brainstorm their design ideas with others without fear.

For example, if I wanted to create a car site I would share my thoughts and ideas at the moment and let people begin to brainstorm with me. You cannot gain feedback from individuals until you have provided enough feedback in return. A fair trade type thing.

Of course this idea would require that many designers drop their ego and have no qualms with the sharing of ideas. Maybe there is already a site like this, but I have yet to find it. Like John, I have no time to work on something like this so I am throwing it out to the public.

Let them blossom

You may feel that one idea you have can make you a lot of money, but how would you feel if you let that idea blossom and that idea makes you millions? It's up to you to decide what you should share and what you shouldn't, but make sure you have a way to organize them.

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Comments

Posting on mothers day... bad Scrivs

Andrew (http://kempt.org/blog)

So what does that make you? :-)

Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)

Very interesting article!

I have 2 comments:

1: I have tried using varies project management system to track ideas, but I always run into the same concrete wall. In a project management system you always need Start and End dates - and ideas is not a project (yet). Some may turn into projects, some may be rejected and some may be set on standby for an indefinite period of time. But neither has Start and End dates. If you still use your project management system and just fake the dates; you can kiss goodbye your resource management.

So far, I use a separate idea database (categorized).

2: Sharing ideas is always a great thing - but it is not a one-way thing (unless you like communism :)). If you share something you also expect something in return, that might be cool cash, new clients, the feeling that you have made a difference, recognition, or a similar favor in the future.

A great example: I was a beta tester for TypePad (not a big deal, many people beta tested their product). During this time we came up with several ideas and TypePad returned the favor by giving every beta tester a lifetime discount of 20% (Notice: TypePad did not inform us of this until after the beta test was completed). This is a great way to encourage loyalty and to have people share their ideas in the future.

Another example: Very often when people pick up on ideas from fellow bloggers, they return the favor by pointing out that it was not their idea.

The point is that sharing is like teamwork - If somebody helps you, you give something back.

BTW: A great car site? You mean like 37BetterMotors? :)

Thomas Baekdal (http://www.baekdal.com)

There is a website somewhat similar to what you're talking about called halfbakery.com. It isnt based on any specific community's niche, but the concept seems somewhat similar: people register accounts, post their ideas and other members leave comments and rate the ideas. its a fun little site that doesnt take itself too seriously. something like that exclusively for the design community would be interesting... I dont really see egos being the issue of not sharing ideas, just thatour ideas are our jobs and it isnt possible to copyright an idea, just an actual tangible product, so there's no way for total protection with something like this.

eris (http://www.erisfree.com)

I would imagine that in a large enough company a blog would be a great way to share ideas and get the brainstorming going - though the flat commenting structure would be a hinderance.

Anyway, the ideas could be organized by category(ies), be archived and would be searchable.

I suppose once an idea matures to a point, say it's accepted to be 'cultivated', moving to something like Basecamp would be the next step. This would allow different angles or components to be dealt with separately but in the same container.

I know that this is sort of what you've done here - sans basecamp - I wonder how this would work in a larger office environment. I know that at university it would have been useful, particularily between universities (doesn't that sound familiar?).

Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)

Very interesting indeed. BTW - is there a cheaper alternative then $19 a month for Basecamp?

Also, speaking of getting ideas organized, does anyone here happen to have any resources or links that can point me to a nice questionaire that takes a client down the design/development path about what they want for their site, and then allows me to document this information nicely while having another sheet that discusses the pricing structure and how much their project will cost.

I realize sitepoint has one called the "Web Designers business development kit", but I just don't have $190 bucks laying around

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Bryan (http://www.gamecubecheats.info)

Bryan,

You might find this link from Macromedia's Website Production Management Techniques : Resources a good place to find some of the documentation you're looking for.

As far a pricing structure, it'll be up to you to analyze the feedback your client has provided via the briefs to make a determination how much providing that service is worth.

Additionally, I think there was a good post here not too long ago regarding pricing that you might want to refer to as well.

Mark (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)

One of the most difficult problems with organizing ideas is just writing them down. Forget organization for a moment and just think about how hard it is to capture ideas. I'll often have 3-4 good ideas at once and I simply don't have the time to capture them all.

But is is more difficult than that. The ideas often don't overlap so I can't merge them. Or, the ideas come in different forms. For example, I might have a good design idea but it is very visual, so I can't write it down. I need to draw it. However, if I am using a writing tool for one idea, it can be tricky to switch to a drawing tool in a reasonable time frame.

Assuming that I can capture my ideas, and they are organized, how the h3ll do I find a way to search through my various media? That is, even when organized, it is hard to search, for example, images and text at the same time. How often do YOU tag your images and drawings and flows with good meta data? Be honest!

And the information flow is only going to get worse if I have my way. I want to capture all of my cell phone calls, emails, digital photos, vehicle moves, land line calls, WiFi uses, web sites visited, and more. I want it all recorded. We're not there yet, like I want, but we're getting there. After that, I'll start worrying a lot more about organzation.

John S. Rhodes (http://webword.com)

Bryan -
ProposalKit.com has (or at least, used to have) a perl script you could pop onto your server, customize, and let your client walk through to get their needs down in a usable format. I know Scrivs has used their products for some of his other stuff, so maybe he has some feedbackon that.

And Mark... "I think there was a good post here not too long ago regarding pricing that you might want to refer to as well."
yeah, and if Paul ever gets search turned on on here, maybe we can find it.... heh

JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)

#10

Bryan: You can checkout how zeldman and his gang do it with the Happy Cog Project Planner. That should give you a good headstart.

As for pricing checkout Setting the price: Part II, which was under the Web Business category that JC shouldn't have to search for :-P

Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)

#11

John -

Actually you can combine your various media by scanning or saving it as a PDF file. In acrobat, you can then combine all those seperate pages in one document and assign searchable and identifiable metadata to it.

Someone at 37svn suggested this method a while ago in a similiar topic, but they - like 9 rules - have no search function.