Will products ever outdate Online Help and be Innovative?

Huh? From Management to Online help, never an easy journey... I speak because I am completely pissed off setting up my machine with a developer environment and do some pair development with my kids.. (Thanks to @rishanimates for setting up a version of eclipse on my machine that works) . So I use one of the most popular mobile development platform, dump the SDK so i can get a fresher work on some idea and then he gets stuck... we refer various online help manuals and example's available together and believe me.. what we need is what we don't get... so then a manual of 10K pages is in front of me and I have to refer to it to find that one piece which probably is not even listed there... moreover I also have to find the right word in context so I can get to the relatively closer contextual page... The whole process takes me ages and I am still left with no answer...

While doing this I am constantly reminded of Google's early year acquisition [Vark.com], a bot , a service that lets me ask questions and get answers socially. Now imagine if your users asks questions within your product and get answers to them from within your product users??? well you don't need to build a unused piece of constantly maintenance needing element.

Well the day is not far... when I was reviewing a Harvard Business Archive article on How to Stop trying to delight your customers I came across Virtuoz .. a virtual agent that answers basic questions and reduces the load of your Customer Services... of course increases your loyalty points with your customers... but then why not take a step further... instead of maintaining a data of support queries... why not let the community build this data and questions? of course with a view of moderated answers?

Here is how I think it would work....

1. User adds a bot to his IM or sees a link on your application.

2. He hits it and asks a questions

3. A bit of AI and it sorts a lists of matching questions asks to confirm

4. Meanwhile goes in the back end and fetches a response to some of the answers a preview of which is up to the user to select

5. Both questions and answers are stored.

6. Admin piece to moderate and update the Questions and Answers database

7. 2nd Version to let user select an option of product area or type of question and then guides to appropriate question and answer.. like a IVR that you face on phone when you call your banks, Airline etc

Hmmm sounds yummy... then is it a question of how much time to build? well with the options available it looks to be a sweet deal... Google App Engine of course...

Have a look at XMPP Driven mechanisms I maybe the last one to think that this can work best for several products... but it sounds real and value driven...

Looking for a fresh mind to help me do this... Are you ready?

Now do you think you can enhance your help files and be more interactive with your customers... make them feel like they are getting help real time?

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How to take your Idea to the next level?

Since we are doing so much talks around Innovation, Innovation Killers... thought it may make sense to put this one on as well... How to take your Idea to its right destination... Well this blog post is not the bible and may not be really fit it to your Idea or Innovation... but it will definitely give you pointers that will help you to do so....

This also comes with the fact that Raju (one of the dear readers) made the following comment on the blog around Innovation Killers...

When it comes to innovation killers, i would say the individual himself is the first killer. A viable seed will shatter even the hardest rock for survival. Problem is, "Innovation" is not considered as a means of survival unless we are pushed to corners with no options of 'conventional' survival methods.

I certainly agree with this fact.. many times this push to avoid Idea/Innovation comes from the Innovator himself. He waits, He is afraid, He doesn't want to risk, He doesn't care or he doesn't have time... So how does one really take his Idea from an Idea to Innovation? Or simply how do one take the Idea/Innovation to the next level....

1. Ideate / Document

Lot of Ideas die in the journey t takes from the thought itself to paper and then Implementation. The reasons are different... someone during the Adam-Eve era had an Idea of social networking.... it only took 1990's to build a Facebook. Wish those guys had documented the Idea.. they would have build something better by now ;) Not that FB is bad... but by the time it evolves it is going to take a few hundreds of years to make it perfect ;)

Well out of fun part.. the moment you get the Idea.. be it Shower or your bathroom or your bed or while you are doing some shitty work where you don't have ways to document... just pull a reminder and document your idea where you can remember it.

Before you take the next step to promote or share your Idea... make sure that you yourself become passionate about it... Keep the Idea hammer you..

1. have post its and posters around your house and room so you can be reminded.

2. Talk to yourself about it , every time you get time alone.. don't worry what people call you when they see you speaking to yourself.. cause they are going to laugh at you now but later talk about you, when you become an Einstein.

3. Focus , Focus and hammer and hammer your Idea to yourself.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.- Buddha

2. Share

Your Idea is a dead meat if it is not shared. The first step when you have some Idea in your mind is to share it.. with a small or large forum of people you like , trust. Sharing of Idea is the usual step that gets skipped out in process of Innovation... People fear there Idea will be stolen, or somebody else will take credit for it, or it will be mis used... Ideas are never stolen.. they only evolve....The fear of Idea getting stolen avoids the sharing of Ideas.. hence if you choose a forum that can be your parents, spouse, close friends, Team members that you trust on would be the right way to get feedback...

Every brain that listens to your Idea and speaks a word about it either as a feedback or as a critic is a value add to the Idea..

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats - Howard Aiken

3. Brainstorm

Just sharing the Idea is not enough. It has to be brainstormed. Pros and cons, Issues and uses, UVP(Unique Value Proposition) of the Idea needs to be brainstormed.. Unless this is done the Idea will never take a good shape. This brainstorming can be done with the same group that you shared the Idea or even slightly bigger forum. One or few brainstorming sessions on your Idea can make that Idea one Killer Idea.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas - George Bernard Shaw

4. Find the right Sponsor

Whats the use of having a great Idea, if you don't find the right sources to get it to its destination. If you have a great Idea find your Manager, Team member, colleague or even Yourself. This person is the person who would help you succeed with the Idea. He is the one who is going to invest in your Idea. If you have an Idea about building a Software , or a Feature in your current software.. discuss it with your Product Owner, Manager and get some resource for it. If it is process driven find your Team , colleagues who would help you implement it.. if it is a individual task find free time for yourself so you can have time to implement what you want to Ideate.

A sponsor-less Idea is difficult to get through... find the right people who would finally put there bucks on your Idea..

The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time - Henry Ford

5. Know when to quit

Ideas can be so addictive and mind controlling that they dont let you fail.. the passion towards that Idea never lets you go away from it and the thought that success is next block will keep you going... this is a good sign of passionate behaviour. But if you want to succeed in a right way then you should define on when to stop your effort on your Idea.

A developer wanted to build a framework, he went to the Product Team demanded that he wants to spend his initiative on such framework. The Product team gave him 3 months. Few months post the initial time lines he had planned he was not able to deliver it, he became so passionate and defensive about it that he would not get off it.. Eventually the Team started taking it as a issue and finally decided to call it a quit as similar frameworks in market had already erupted and they would have helped the product without doing any inhouse work.

One has to decide the right time to call it a quit if the Idea is not triggered well... because all things dont end like the Fool's Gold.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along! - Arthur Clarke

6. Keep it Alive

If the mother of the child doesnt trust the child, no one would ever... Trust your Idea. Work on it. Keep it alive if it is getting delayed, Keep it alive , Give it oxygen and blood. No matter what happens no matter even if your Idea fails to launch, Even if you have to stop in the middle , even if it has failed to convince other, even if it has failed... Keep it alive.. Evolve it and make a better launchpad for it.

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Manage your vision

A lot of us are visionaries, not all you can say but many. Of people I have met in my life quite a few have been visionary.. They had Vision to grow, Vision towards various things.. they inspired me, they got me think of how to become one. I learnt from them and then tried to do the same.... but then over my last discussion with one of the developer I realised that vision is like a stray dog.. it can be a good guard of your neighborhood, but if left alone it can be one hell of a menace...

Yes.. I mean it.. like your dog your Vision needs a caretaker. Vision needs to be managed too, like our finances, like our spouses, like our expectations.. Vision also need to be managed and that too with more care... You very well know what happens when you don't manage your finances.. you are one bankrupt person end of the month isnt it?

Non-Managed vision is creator of bigger problems. It leaves the implementers and the visionary un-satsified. A while back I got a chance to work with a Sr. Executive had a vision to do something really good in field of technology and open source market. He kept on bombarding his thoughts on himself "I need to do this" "I need to do that".. this lasted for quite some time before he realized that he cant do it all alone and he had to rely on others to convert his vision to reality.. he chose the best ones that were available, formed a small start up unit and tried to get his vision on track... In a span of 1 year his creative team of five was left with 2 including him. The only person left believed that they could achieve everything they thought. Great ideas, Exceptional vision.. yet the path and approach screwed it up... when he gave up he told something in one word "Never carry luggage of ideas on your journey, you will not be able to decide which ones to keep and which ones to throw up and in the end you will be left with just luggage"

So to bring you back on track... today I had a chat with a Developer who is involved in a Knowledge Transition on one of the legacy products along with our Architect. During the discussion we discussed the approach and how to handle the transition. We started discussing and discussing and perforated our vision to smoothify the whole transition... in process we started adding things that would smoothen the life of the product to some extent.. soon I realized that visionary thoughts had taken over the plain and immediate needs and we started asking
"I want this" , "Like this" , " By this period" blah blah blah... the confused developer looked at me and said "I surrender"

Yes.. its very important if your vision is not managed.. so how does one manage his her vision...here is my view...

1. Snap a grid of your vision, split it into major sections.. work, personal, technology and so on.. every single concept, phenomenon, idea or thought put them into the bucket..

2. Keep on adding comments and keep your vision in a evolving mode.

3. Dont just throw your excel sheet at some poor soul.. Vision is easy to cook, hard to digest.

4. Find the right time to bring the right elements. You will not want to think of building your muscles when you are down under high fever..

5. Put a review date to each of the items in your vision list / lists. Visit it religiously.

6. Dont hesitate to strike them off.. A huge list may give you a feel of visionary but in reality it will also make you look a non-organized executor.

7. Vision is futuristic , but has to be linked to present tense.. so dont burden your present or future.

Now if you too are a visionary or have some or the other items in your vision.. check your vision, form it well, organize it and better "MANAGE IT" before you destroy what exists.

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