Fishing For Good Ideas
The Best Way to Come Up With Good Ideas...Without Apples
One day in the late 1660’s, Isaac Newton supposedly came up with the theory of gravity after watching an apple fall. If, like Isaac Newton, you can think of world-changing ideas independently and spontaneously, no need to keep reading.
For the rest of us though, great ideas are usually a result of collaboration and iteration. For higher-level software engineers, ideas are a big part of the value they provide.
The great thing is you don’t need to think of new ideas from scratch. The majority of the time, you can get ideas from others and build upon them.
Start by talking to your internal stakeholders! They usually have a lot of ideas.
In some instances, those ideas are already great and if so, lucky you. You just need to get buy-in and execute - everyone’s happy.
Most of the time though, those ideas need more noodling, but they’re still a great starting point.
Start with that solid idea
Refine it
Collaborate on it
Refine it some more
…and, eventually, it’ll be a good idea - maybe even a great one!