It’s my final semester at Belfast School of Art and I’m embarking on my final year module, Major Project Prototyping, one last time. I started teaching this module two decades ago, so it’s fitting that this is one of my last modules.
Around this time of year, I always receive worried emails (this year, Slack and WhatsApp messages) 1 asking:
What do I do if discover my idea’s already been done?
The truth is: there are no original ideas, everything is a remix; and zero to one ideas are few and far between.
Do it better.
Just because something’s been done already, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Look at Get Invited. There was already Eventbrite.
We didn’t see Eventbrite and give up. In fact, it was the opposite: We saw Eventbrite – and frustrated with aspects of its interface – we thought, let’s do it differently! (Unfortunately for us, our friends at Tito had exactly the same idea at exactly the same time and were pitching their competing product to exactly the same event organisers. That, however, is another story.)
We thought we could do the idea of ticketing justice, approaching it in a different way, emphasising delight and that’s exactly what we did. The last time I checked, we’d passed $5,000,000 in revenue.
Every time I see that number, especially all those zeroes, I feel immensely proud of what Kyle and David created. Remember: They were students when they embarked on the journey, so anything is possible if you put your mind to it.
Perhaps you have an idea and while you’re doing your research, you see someone else has done it. It’s fine. Do it better.
There are so many terribly designed products in the world. Take one and fix it, or take one and design a nicer experience (better still, do both).
Alternatively, find a problem that you think exists and fix that (you’ll find that others have done the same and, again, it’s fine). There are seven billion people on the earth: 7,000,000,000. I guarantee that out of all those people others will share the problem you have too.
There’s so much room for delight.
Perhaps you’re doing something for pleasure, something creative or artistic. You’re not solving a problem, per se, you’re doing something for enjoyment. That’s fine too.
The world just now isn’t the happiest place (the pandemic is just the tip of a very large iceberg of unhappiness). There’s an urgent need for happiness engines. Why not use your talents to add a little joy to the world?
Returning to those 7,000,000,000 people, there will be others who love what you’re doing. So do it. Don’t hold back.
Finally, it might sound obvious, but: Make a start. The only way to finish an idea is to take the first step and start working on that idea. Choose your strongest idea, start working on it and learn as you go. As you work on your idea, it will evolve. Embrace that evolution and keep going. You might end up in a different place and – again – it’s fine.
Get started, share your work as it evolves and good luck on the journey ahead.
#everythingisaprototype
It’s my last semester – and we’re in the midst of a massive mental health crisis amongst students – so, fsck it, I’m breaking the rules and using non-official tools: Slack and WhatsApp.
We should be meeting students where they want us to meet them, not imposing dreadful virtual learning environments (VLEs) on them. We need to use channels that our students use, because they urgently need our help and support.
[return]
