How to refine intuitive ideas by learning from failure?
"Figuring out how to show that your problem is wrong, is in essence how you work your way through innovating." (Dr. Luis Perez-Breva, 2017)


WEBINAR
Yesterday afternoon, I was invited by Rapid Youth Success Entrepreneurship (RYSE) to conduct a webinar on their RYSE Online 2021 program, an online course that equips aspiring founders with the basics of entrepreneurship, on "how to refine intuitive ideas by learning from failure?"
"The goal shapes the plan. The plan shapes the action. The action achieves the results. The results bring success." (John C. Maxwell, 2007)
In the presentation deck, I talked about framing our mindset to conceive failures as negative results from the outcome of trial-&-error experimentation, so we can empirically embrace failure to learn why things did not work out. Particularly when we're innovating.
Beside learning from post-mortem analysis, I encouraged our audience to practice pre-mortem analysis which uses prospective hindsight to "generate better decisions, predictions, and plans".
Reason being, research showed that "pre-mortem analysis reduces teams' overconfidence significantly more than other critiquing and risk-analysis methods do" (Veinott, 2010).
I also talked about the advantages of no-code tools/platforms to quickly build and test our intuitive ideas with real customers at low cost.
Check out over 300 no-code software and tools: NoCodeList
For instance, here's a simple no-code stack to build a website or web-app:
- graphic user interface: Bubble or Webflow or Makerpad
- configurable database: Airtable or Notion or Google Sheets
- user input form: Typeform or Jotform or Google Forms
- connecting everything together (pipes): Zapier or Automate or Integromat
Lastly, I was asked to share my recommend readings to help aspiring founders grow and equip themselves in starting a business.
Here's my top 10 reading list on entrepreneurship, 'design-thinking-based' validation, management, tech startup, innovation, venture capital, and failure:
- The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
- Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp et. al.
- High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
- The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen
- Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld
- Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong by Luis Perez-Breva
- Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It by Scott Kupor
- High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People by Elad Gil
- Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell
*Disclaimer: Numerous excerpts were paraphrased from the books and articles as cited below in my presentation deck for your further reading.
Author
Paul Lee, Co-founder & CEO, Flipidea
Citation and republishing
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References
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Bubble. (n.d.). The best way to build web apps without code. Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://bubble.io/
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By invitation, Paul occasionally conducts guest lectures and seminars on the topics of business management, tech innovation, startups, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and financial investment.
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Last edited on 21 October 2022.