Mousetraps and sprinkled turds: Build shit people want

I’m often reminded of Tim Kastelle’s post We Don’t Need More Mousetraps!. It’s a great post on the trap of building policy for innovation ecosystems and the importance of building things people want. The post talks about a fictional country that only makes mousetraps called Mousetrapia. Thanks to their superior education system, Mousetrapians are the absolute… Continue reading

Growth hacking is just marketing.

Today’s gripe comes from everyone’s favourite buzzword du jour, growth hacking. As defined by the wizards at Wikipedia: Growth hacking is a marketing technique developed by technology startups which uses creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure Now, you might think, that sounds quite a lot like marketing? A good marketer uses… Continue reading

The enterprise as startup – some thoughts on innovation

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison Innovation is a remarkably trendy and popular topic of late, but don’t let that deceive you. Companies have always needed to be responsive to their environment, regardless of whether that means process optimisation, new products, or new customers. The ones who were… Continue reading