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Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

longform.asmartbear.com

21–30 of 97 posts

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#21

If you were never allowed to provide tech support, in any form, what would have to change? Am I the only one who thinks that the answer to that question, for quite a few companies, is, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In fact, that's pretty much what we do right now."

The bigger they get, the more true it is.

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#24
post #22

One question is missing : "what if we had to pay for our environmental footprint" ? Since so few ask it in a meaningful way, I dare to say it is still, unfortunately, a pretty extreme questions for those it should be asked to.

Plenty of think tanks and NGOs are on it. Google “personal carbon quota”

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#25
I don’t hold most startup accelerators in high regard, but the one very stimulating activity we did was based on the ‘business model canvas’. It’s a marginally useful thing in itself to document all the moving parts of your business (real or imagined) but I really enjoyed a session we spent just working on hypotheticals like in this article, like what if this key resource is no longer available? What if you need new channels? You immediately realise that your business is a vector in a high-dimensional space and you can explore in any direction you like looking for some sort of fit. It was a great way of shaking us out of linear thinking, and instilling a sense of agility all the way down in a company.

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#26
post #22

One question is missing : "what if we had to pay for our environmental footprint" ? Since so few ask it in a meaningful way, I dare to say it is still, unfortunately, a pretty extreme questions for those it should be asked to.

Plenty of think tanks and NGOs are on it. Google “personal carbon quota”

Real question : is a quota the same as paying for the footprint ? Or just kicking the can?

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#27
Very thought provoking read.

One question I do wonder at times, and is probably applicable here is: "what if I removed all the constraints, what would I do differently and how would things change?". Eg: Suppose nuclear fusion is successful, and you can actually power whole of earth for 800 years with 1 cup of hydrogen. That is, you don't have to worry about energy anymore. How would that change the human behavior both in short and long term? Or to go to a more individual level, "If time wasn't a constraint for me, would I ship it differently?" and so on.

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of think tanks and NGOs are on it. Google “personal carbon quota”

Real question : is a quota the same as paying for the footprint ? Or just kicking the can?

A quota is more « that’s all you will ever get to use, nothing more »

Re: Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas

#29
post #22

One question is missing : "what if we had to pay for our environmental footprint" ? Since so few ask it in a meaningful way, I dare to say it is still, unfortunately, a pretty extreme questions for those it should be asked to.

Is it? EU talks a lot about national carbon footprint, and GCP launched carbon calculator https://cloud.google.com/carbon-footprint. Sure, noone asks this in explicit way but given current trends it feels like we are going in this direction very fast.
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