BRX Pro Tip: How to Move From Idea to Execution
Stone Payton : [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, let’s talk a little bit about how to move from idea to execution.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:12] Yeah. A lot of people have lots of great ideas, but they never get past the idea stage. So, I think it’s important to really move from idea to execution, and that execution doesn’t have to be a full-blown rollout. It just has to be, let’s test it in the marketplace.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] So first, you have this idea. You see a problem that needs a solution or you think of a solution that needs a problem. Whatever it is, write it down. Then, kind of wrestle with a little, play out different scenarios. What’s the best-case scenario? What’s the worst-case scenario? Could it work? Where are the holes? What are the weaknesses? What are the strengths? Is there a way to test it on a small scale? What’s the worst thing that can happen if I test it and I roll it out and it fails? What’s the best-case scenario? What’s the upside if it succeeds? Is it worth the investment in time? Is it worth the investments in money? Is it worth the investment in terms of resources? Is this a distraction? Am I doing this just to hide from some other work that I should be doing instead?
Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] Now, most ideas are going to die here at this stage. But if you give yourself a deadline to say, “Okay. At the end of this exercise, I’m going to give myself three days to make this decision. I’m going to either move forward or I’m not going to move forward.” And if at the end of three days you’ve decided or haven’t decided, then you’ve decided you’re not moving forward. But if you decide to move forward, how can you get feedback from the market as quickly as possible? Who are the people that this idea impacts the most and how can you test it with them as quickly as possible?
Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] Even that test doesn’t have to be perfect. You just want to get it in front of the people that really can benefit from this and see if it’s going to get any traction. So now if you get traction, keep testing, keep rolling it out further. If you’re not getting traction, pull the ripcord, get rid of it. If you don’t get traction, bail and move on to the next idea or take an iteration of this idea and combine it with some other idea.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] But all these exercises of testing these ideas, they’re part of the learning process. It’s teaching you to kind of execute. It’s teaching you what works and what doesn’t work, and you really have to double down on what works and you’ve got to get rid of the things that aren’t working.
