Why Great Ideas Fail

I ran a session at FOO camp ’11 on Why Great Ideas Fail. It was chaotic, but my goal of leaving the room with a list of reasons was achieved – and here it is.

The crowd was tech and start-up heavy, so the list is shifted towards those pursuits. But this could be the start of a book project that more broadly explores the history of great ideas. Starting with fleshing out these categories better, and then finding good stories that illustrate ideas that failed for these reasons, as well as ideas that successfully overcame these challenges.

Meta-comment: Fascinating how many of these are opposite pairs of each other (e.g. gave up too soon, stayed with same idea for too long).

Follow up: If you were there, or not, and want to be updated if this project gets off the ground, leave a comment.

Why Great Ideas Fail:

• Killed idea too soon
• Stayed with idea for too long
• Death (of person with the idea)
• Not knowing target audience
• Not Willing to experiment to find audience
• Unwilling to change direction
• Willful ignorance of economics
• Overcoming organizational inertia
• Not understanding the ecosystem the idea lives in
• Inability to learn from microfailure
• Fighting the last war
• Giving up
• Chindogu – solution causes more problems than it solves.
• Randomness
• Blamed marketing
• Failed to pitch or communicate well
• Not taking the idea far enough
• Underestimating cultural limits
• Underestimating dependencies
• Balancing how world is vs. how world can be
• Balancing Wants vs needs

Thanks to Val Aurora, I also got a list from attendees of personal reasons great ideas failed. Wide range of levels of specificity, but still interesting,

Specific failures people listed as their own:

• Forcing something on people they don’t want
• Not controlling distribution (e.g. Tivo vs. Comcast DVR)
• Not doing post-mortems
• Built an Airbnb before Airbnb, but didn’t see it through
• Not eating our own dogfood
• Building something ‘powerful’ but too complicate for the average user
• Voice version of twitter circa 2005
• Force change earlier. It won’t happen on its own.
• Launching a product before it’s ready – unreliable performance
• Not killing a project/startup faster (i.e. spinning wheels for an extra year instead of getting it out the door)
• Trusting before researching
• Not trusting my gut
• Not considering political capital within a large organization
• Trusting my gut too much
• Juggling between being your greatest supporter and your greatest critic

story by Scott Berkun

Package Designs

Malibu

Very Detailed design. Each layer of design has some meaning relating to Malibu

Doritos Packaging Concept

Great combination of color, shape and the product itself, getting rid of the floppy chips bag.

DJeep Lighter

Illustrations and typography can really change the way a person looks at the product

DCTO

The design shows a Japanese Zen doll known as a Daruma doll representing curious limbless, traditionally red-cloaked figure

Sake Bottle

A very clean and minimilastic design. The aesthetics are very Japanese

Equal Exchange Packaging

Beautiful use of typeface and color

Quick Fruit packaging concept

The cover design has been really carefully thought. It resembles the core of the fruit that would be visible if the fruit is cut in half.

Berkel’s Coffee Pack

The vintage look to the package and coffee like color gives a very beautiful look to the design.

Raisin Blanc

An old school traditional design

12 Inches Branding and Packaging

Fantasting design idea by using a printed packing tape which works well as a bottle label

Alternativa Packaging

The bursts of colors give the coffee design a very different dimension. The coffee beans have been blended fantastically into the design

Entry Identity

The way the logo has been represented on the packing makes the design look very sleek

Caffeol Coffee

Very much a monochromatic style design. The design represents the earthiness of the coffee within the package

Coffee Nova

A very sleek and black/gray gives this a very different look.

Karmoy Gravlaks

White and Black design across all the platforms with very sleek designing on the package.

Lager

Fantastic way to represent the Triple L of the Lager

Metrio Coffee Visual Identity

The combination of the name, the traditional themes and selected colours (brown, coffee, silver, blue, gold) compliment the overall design and gives the brand the classical, fresh and simple perspective it requires to make its mark.

Breakfast Aid

The design makes the product to be really wanted by consumers. First Aid is a collection of supplies and equipment for use when in urgency. In the same way the design of this product compliments the purpose of the product.

Weil For Tea

A very visual way of striking the consumers mind.

SanCor Sublime

The design really compliments the name of the brand that is “Sublime”

Cuervo AZT

The design gives a very traditional and a very detailed view if the product.

Bigelow Tea

Superb use of typography and color makes the design loo beautiful

XCTR

Great use of illustration and a very detailed design

+359 Wine Range

The real purpose of the design was that everyone should not only see the label as an image, but to feel it and sense it with their fingers.

Urban Influence Holiday Promo

The typography and the desing on the wooden box makes this a very interesting packaging.

Kırıkkale

Ataerkil toplumu KADIN mı yarattı?!

KADIN VE ERKEK EŞİT MİDİR?

*Bu nasıl bir sorudur ki asırlardır herkes sorar; fakat cevabı bir türlü bulunmaz.Aşağıda yer verdiğim bazı ülkelerin sıralamasında kadına en azından seçme ve seçilme hakkı konusunda (sözde) "eşitlik" veren devletlere bir göz atalım.

*Sonra düşünelim; NEDEN kadınlara seçme hakkı vermek için bu kadar yüzyıl beklendi diye!!!! İlk bilinen demokratik seçimler -eşit olmasa da- M.Ö. IV.yy Antik Yunan şehirlerinde görülür. Soylu "erkekler" dönemin meclisinde oy verip fikrini söyleme hakkına sahıpken kadınlar, köleler ve o Yunan şehrinde doğmamış olanlar oy kullanamazdı. (Öncesi olmakla birlikte) O vakitlerde başlayıp kadının kölelerle eşdeğer tutulması yaklaşık 2200 yıl devam etti -hala da bu devamlılık bitmiş sayılmaz-...! Peki bu, kimin hatası? Yoksa kadınlar eşitliği yeteri kadar istemediler mi?

* Bir annenin çocukların yetiştirilmesindeki payı tartışılamaz derece büyüktür.Şimdi, bir kadının iki çocuğu olduğunu düşünün.Biri erkek, diğeri kız.Çocukların büyüme esnasında, kıza "Sus! Konuşma, ağabeyine karşı gelme!" ; erkeğe de "Sen erkeksin ne dersen olur" şeklinde yaklaşan bu insan yine birKADINdır.Bunun asırlarca bu şekilde devam ettiğini düşünürsek bir noktadan sonra artık bu durum otomatikleşip olağanlaşınca erkeğin egemenliği kaçınılmaz bir hal almıştır.

*Acaba ataerkil bu düzeni KADIN mı yarattı?

--->Asagida, bazi ulkelerin yillara gore kadinlara secme ve secilme hakki vermesinin siralamasi yer almaktadir.

*Yeni Zellanda ---> seçme hakkı 1893 yılında, seçilme hakkı 1918'de
*Avusturalya --->1902
*Finlandiya --->1906
*Norvec --->1903
*Danimarka --->1915
*Kanada --->secme hakki 1917 yilinda, secilme hakki 1920
*Sovyet Rusya --->1917
*Avusturya --->1918
*Almanya --->1919
*ABD --->1920
*Ingiltere --->1928
*G.AfrikaCmhr ---> ırklarlarına göre; 1930'da beyaz ırka, 1984'de Hint ırkına , 1994'de de siyah ırka, oy hakkı tanımıştır.
*Turkiye --->1935 (Belediye secimleri icin 1930, muhtar secimleri icin 1933)
*Fransa --->1945
*italya --->1945
*Yugoslavya --->1946
*Romanya --->1946
*Bulgaristan --->1947
*Belcika --->1948
*Arnavutluk --->1958
*Isvicre --->1971
*Isvicre'ye bagli Applenzel---->1990

G Milat

Michael Jackson MTV Black Ribbon (HQ)

counting machines