Podcast 077: Do you have to spend years in the Pain Cave?
Introducing Rob Snyder, unfolding, and big juicy spiders
First, a big warm welcome to folk who’ve come to Trigger Strategy by way of
from – there are loads of you and we love having you here.For anyone who doesn’t know Rob, there’s a healthy overlap between Rob’s ideas and ours – though we’ve travelled there via quite different routes.
And we found ourselves talking over these ideas in a recent podcast, including:
Why, no, you can’t break down an idea into a set of clean hypotheses to “validate”
Why you (probably) want to find a repeatable case study instead of shipping code
This Pain Cave you mentioned … can you skip that? Maybe with a Time Machine?
A tip to spot a founder who’s going to drag you deep into the Pain Cave
How to use Pivot Triggers to scaffold your way to the case study approach
Introducing “unfolding” as the way to design buildings, businesses, even lives
How to save face while taking the necessary risk of looking silly
And we end with something we’re puzzling over: what do you do when you want to build a life around the work you love to do more than you care about building a business that taps into demand? If we still hope to find demand that overlaps with something we’ll be fulfilled to supply, are we just mucking about in the Pain Cave?
How to listen:
Or search for Trigger Strategy Podcast in your pod-player of choice
As ever, you’ll hear some stories from our pasts, some methods to try, and some background noises from blustery Bournemouth.
Linky goodness:
Rob Snyder’s Path to Product Market Fit (in case you haven’t found it already)
Innovation Tactics: https://bit.ly/innovation-10
Time Machine: Front | Back | Fear-driven Development
Pivot Triggers: pivot-triggers.com
A fab article that references Christopher Alexander’s Unfolding
Oh wait a BONUS! Podcast 078: Criticisms of selling before building
In this follow up, we’re stepping back into the Pain Cave to talk through some of the criticisms that Rob (and we) often face when we suggest the approach we do.
We think these criticisms misunderstand what we advocate, but they’re also sound points that come from real scars, so it’s worth considering when they might apply.
First, we consider the position that we should follow a proper research and design process and build the right thing at high quality from day one, not throw spaghetti at the wall. Sometimes this is the right way, but mostly it’s just not possible.
Second, we face the deep-seated fear of selling “vapourware”. Nobody who’s healthy wants to follow in Elizabeth Holmes’ footsteps, promising stuff that can’t actually be realised and spiralling into a web of fraud. Darn right! But that’s not at all what we’re suggesting anyone does.
All this brings us to talk through the concept of Bounded Applicability. No ideas are suitable for all projects, products, etc. That goes for the repeatable case study approach too. So how can you think about what’s appropriate in your situation?
How to listen:
Or search for Trigger Strategy Podcast in your pod-player of choice
Linky goodness:
Until next time,
Tom & Corissa x
P.S. Are you also wondering what the heck’s goin’ on in tech? Please take 10-15 mins to join this huge gathering of stories from people like you on the front lines of digital work in 2024. Your experience will be included (anonymously) and you’ll get to see all the stories and data for how everyone’s getting on right now. 👉 https://bit.ly/stories-from-tech
Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
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