Imagine Alternatives

Whenever a student asked legendary Stanford Professor Bob McKim for feedback on a new design concept, he consistently gave the same response: “Show me three.”

That simple response contains a remarkable depth of wisdom.

The truth is, innovation is a low-percentage endeavor. The best way to improve your odds at innovation is to commission a portfolio of experiments, in parallel when possible.

But there’s another, more fundamental reason: we tend to think that the first idea we think of is the best. And this just isn’t true. There’s loads of research that suggests that the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

We see this all the time in class. Just yesterday, in LaunchPad, students were sharing the results of their pricing experiments, whereby they put three different ways of capturing value in front of potential users. As often happens, students were shocked. One founder said, “The worst performing result is our default pricing plan, the one we had been planning on going with all along!”

The reason we go forward with a particular plan or idea is NOT because we think it’s probably the worst, but because we think it’s the best. In many, many scenarios, questioning that assumption yields better insights, ideas, and outcomes.

So when you think up a potential solution to a problem, or a new groundbreaking idea, push yourself like Bob McKim would: tell yourself, “Show me three.”

Imagine a couple of alternatives. Maybe they’ll be even better than what you would have gone with.

You never know until you try.

Related: Request Options
Related: Consider the Odds
Related: Create A Portfolio
Related: Hack Your Creative Block
Related: Have Lots of Ideas

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