The creative behavior of experimentation underscores the value of daring to launch and learn. It emphasizes that perfection isn’t essential; rather, it’s the willingness to launch and iterate that leads to innovation and champions the art of redefining products and ideas through the ongoing process of trial and error.
How to Kindle the Experimentation Spark in Your Team
- Launch quickly. Any mistakes you make will bring valuable insights.
- Treasure input from other people.
- Iterate as many times as you need to — it’s how you improve.
- Shed your fear of failure and embrace learning.
- Celebrate the diverse perspectives in your team.
Experimentation Use Cases: Google, Apple and Dyson
Years ago, Google was not the only company in the Internet search engine game. Microsoft was also in the running, as was Disney. But how many of you actually use Bing, the Microsoft search engine? Does anyone remember the name of Disney’s erstwhile search engine? (go.com, by the way.)
The reason is that Google was first to market. One reason they were first is that they knew this: their product didn’t need to be letter-perfect before they put it out there. The other companies wanted all the kinks to be ironed out. Their search engines barely saw the light of day.
The lesson is this: Whether you’re talking about a product launch or a presentation, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Make it as good as it can be within the designated time constraints, then launch it and improve it through the inevitable vicissitudes of trial and error.
The iPhone is a great example. How many of them have you owned in the last ten years? How many have family members owned?
That’s another thing that Steve Jobs was right about. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about being first. But being first was the beginning, not the end. Apple was improving, or iterating, the iPhone with every subsequent version, and you were the focus group, the test dummies, as it were. Another way of putting it is that Apple was prototyping at our expense.
With the first iPhone, the screen often cracked. Fixed that. The volume button didn’t work very well on the second iPhone. Fixed that. That camera wasn’t all that great on the iPhone 3. The corners were too square on the iPhone 4. Year by year, Apple kept improving their product, and consumers kept buying them. Did they ever.
Sir James Dyson did the same thing with his vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. For these business geniuses, it was all about getting a product 85 percent right and out the door.
The same principle applies to presentations and pitches. It’s natural to want ours to be pitch perfect, but that’s a problem for at least two reasons. One, no presentation will ever be perfect. It can always be improved. And two, with that kind of attitude, you are closing your brain to the ideas and feedback from your audience.
5 Tips for Implementing the Experimentation Spark
Some of the best feedback I ever received came from Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner. He not only single-handedly saved Disney from being broken up by Wall Street raiders back in 1984, he also always challenged all of us to Think Bigger — and come back with truly audacious ideas.
“Do you mind if we tweak your idea a bit?” he said to me when I was pitching an idea for the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. “Instead of leading with ‘Disney’s Animal Kingdom, opening April 22,’ which could come across as far too commercial, let’s go with the tag, ‘Disney’s Animal Kingdom — Disney Gone Wild!’”
That is so much more fun and creative! Many of the people in the room when you’re presenting will always have more experience than you. They want to add value. Let them.
Here are some top tips for successfully implementing experiment spark:
- Embrace the concept of “good enough for now” to launch quickly and gather insights.
- Welcome feedback from others and view it as a source of valuable input.
- Remember that iteration is key; strive for improvement with each subsequent version.
- Cultivate a mindset that prioritizes learning over fear of failure.
- Empower your team to contribute diverse perspectives and ideas.
After you implement, you’ll experience practical outcomes including:
- Rapidly adapting to evolving market trends and end-user/customer preferences.
- Redefining products and ideas through real-world testing and user feedback.
- Encouraging creative problem-solving by embracing trial and error as a means of improvement.
- Achieving higher levels of success by focusing on iterative progress.
In summary, know this. An important part of any Innovation culture is the permission to fail fast. Failing fast allows you to take the lessons of failure and apply them to a product or idea and make it stronger.
By embracing the experiment spark of innovation and success, combining daring exploration with strategic refinement and with the spirit of creativity in mind, your commitment to improvement becomes the key ingredient for transformative breakthroughs and lasting achievements.
