How to turn your ideas into reality

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the readers of this blog to send in answers to the question “what confuses you most about board game development?” And, wow, did you all deliver! Now I have a three-month backlog of questions to get through!

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The first topic I want to write about comes from a guy identified only as Matt in the comments. In it, he says that his biggest struggle right now is having the confidence to run with his ideas.

This topic is close to my heart, so in this post, I’m going to talk about how to find the confidence to turn your ideas into reality!

Just to give you some additional context before you read, here’s my origin story, my biggest failure, and how things wound up going two years after that. I encourage you to read these three articles that so you know where I started too!

Turning Your Ideas into Reality (By Starting Badly)

Creating something new is scary. That’s true whether you’re making a board game or book, recording a video or podcast, starting a new job, entering into a new relationship, buying a new home…

You get the idea. Any change to the status quo is frightening. But for some reason, starting creative work is notoriously hard. Procrastination is a huge problem for authors, musicians, and game developers alike.

So why is this mental hurdle so formidable? From whence does this procrastination arise? To me, it’s a simple answer: fear. People procrastinate because they’re afraid. We’ll get into why people are afraid to create in a moment.

If you’re afraid to create, treat it like a cold swimming pool. Just jump in. Create something badly.

Hold yourself to no standards and just start writing or drawing. Picasso’s first painting was probably crap, too, so you have nothing to fear by screwing up. Not trying is infinitely worse.

Why Turning Your Ideas Into Reality Looks Scary (But Isn’t)

Creating something new is a little rebellious at its core. In a way, you’re saying that nothing that exists currently is what you want, and you must make something on your own.

Believe it or not, though, the creative impulse, rooted as it is in rebellion, is one of the noblest instincts in human nature. It’s how we created automobiles and the Great Wave off Kanagawa. It’s how we eradicated polio and how we’re going to do the same to COVID-19 on some sunny day in the future.

Our society glorifies creators. It makes them out to be deities when in reality, they are flawed men and women who follow their noble impulses and take advantage of the resources provided to them. To imagine yourself among them, even in some small way – such as creating a board game, novel, or film – well, it feels bold. Like you don’t belong.

That’s impostor syndrome. It’s basically a psychological pattern where you doubt your accomplishments. Left unchecked, impostor syndrome will leave you in perpetual fear of judgment, an obsession with your perceived inadequacy, and the specter of the possibility of being exposed as a hack.

Tom Hanks has it. Michelle Obama has it. Lord knows I’ve had it. It comes with creativity and boldness.

The only thing you can do is recognize your fears for what they are, and keep creating. If that means setting quotas for yourself to meet every week, do that. If it means you set an alarm for 6 am and make your board game until you have to go to work, then you do that.

To turn your ideas into reality is to run a marathon, not a sprint. It will take time, and persistence is key.

Inspiring Others to Turn Your Ideas Into Reality

Getting started is the hard part. It gets easier with time. However, it will take a long time to inspire others to help you turn your ideas into reality. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or pretend that this isn’t the case.

Before you ask others for help, see how far you can get without help. It’s not a good idea to try to turn a board game into a complete consumer product alone. It is, on the other hand, a good idea to learn as much as you can before you reach out to others.

The thing to remember when networking or asking for favors is that you ultimately want to be valuable in the relationship. That’s why it’s so important to keep creating on your own time, learn new skills, and experiment on your own. This gives you a chance to build up useful skills that you can use to serve others.

Once you do this, then you can think about inspiring others to turn your ideas into reality. But remember: it’s not about you, it’s about them.

Dale Carnegie spelled it out nice and easy for us in his super-famous 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Here are a few golden bits of advice to remember straight from the book:

1. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
2. Become genuinely interested in other people.
3. Be a good listener.
4. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
5. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Applying this Advice to Play-Testing

Now circling back to what Matt had asked about finding playtesters, here’s how you might apply these principles. You can find people who absolutely love play-testing games by searching online. That is, give people a chance to critique the game because they enjoy doing so. (There are a lot of people like this.)

Alternatively, you run a giveaway for a board game bundle. People who play-test your game get a chance to win. That way, you may get a more general audience.

Lastly, you may choose to find a group of people who mutually agree to play-test each others board games, such as a Protospiel.

In all of these scenarios, people have a good reason to help you turn your ideas into reality!

Final Thoughts

I know it’s scary to create your first game. Believe me, I’ve been there. Start now, start badly, and keep going. You’ll get better with time and persistence, believe me!

Over time, you would develop a skillset that will be helpful to others. When it’s time to reach out to inspire others to help you turn your ideas into reality, you’ll be in a much better position to do so. After all, you’ll be able to give them compelling reasons to support you (by supporting them)!

Good luck, Matt, and good luck to anyone else who is reading this post. I believe in you!

If you’re an ideas person like me, you likely come up with great ideas for businesses on the fly. You know, the kind that solves a problem that exists in the world, or that you think will fill a need that is currently going unmet.

You might get these ideas by the dozen–in the moments before you drift off to sleep, or when you are washing dishes or while going for a run. But that does not mean that all of these ideas can be converted into business ideas.

Of course, some of them might be perfectly viable. But how do you tell them apart?

First of all, recognize that ideas are just ideas. In order to turn your business idea into reality, you need to start executing them. Once you settle on an idea to put in motion, you must then conduct market research of your target market, implement a good strategy, write a sound business plan, get the right space, and the right staff.

If you are looking to turn your idea into a functional, sustainable business, here are some tips to get your plans into motion.

1. Know what you are trying to accomplish

First of all, your idea needs to solve some kind of a problem or fill a need in order to be viable. What specific problem are you looking to eliminate? Take yourself out of your own shoes for a moment and try to be objective. If you were someone else, would you pay good money for this service?

2. Know your market

You need to have a clear image of who your target market is. What problem do they have that your product or service can solve? How much money do they have? Where do they live? How much education do they have? What do they do for a living? Are they single or do they have a family? How much disposable income do they have? Where and how will they use your product? Hold a focus group and write it all down.

3. Before you invest, create a prototype

Don’t go from idea to a full-fledged business. Build a minimum viable product or a prototype first. The prototype could be a presentation or a sample of the product you intend to produce. The idea is that you create something that potential customers can hold or experience, just to make sure that your idea will actually fly. It could potentially save you thousands of dollars if your product actually doesn’t end up doing well. You can also get people’s feedback and make changes to your product before you put it out on the market.

4. Make sure you have enough of a market to make your endeavor worthwhile

Ask yourself if your product caters to a large enough audience. Is your product going to be needed or desired by enough people to make it worthwhile? You don’t need something that everyone on the planet will want, but you do need enough of a customer base, or a recurring customer base, to make it worth your time.

5. Know where you will get funding or investors

Depending on the nature of your business, you may need start-up capital. Do you have some savings, or people who will invest in your business? Also, look for funding or government grants that will support new entrepreneurs and recent graduates. Check at your local economic development office, college, or university for more information. It will also be a good idea to get an accountant to do your taxes come tax time, as there are likely expenses you can write off.

Remember, not every idea has the potential to turn into a viable business. Know when you’re making steps in the right direction, and also if it’s time to cut your losses and move onto the next project. One of the best aspects of being an entrepreneur is that you gain knowledge and experience along the way.

Coming up with great ideas is easy. It’s putting those ideas into action that’s difficult. In order to turn your dreams about the next best service or product into a tangible, valuable reality, you need to take the right first steps.

That’s why I asked ten successful entrepreneurs how they got the ball rolling in the initial stages of a certain business idea. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Assess Impact

We encourage everyone on the team to come up with ideas that get discussed in our weekly meeting. When deciding whether or not to move forward, we look at the potential impact of the idea. Does it help achieve the company goal, and if so, by how much? This approach leaves a lot of ideas on the cutting room floor, but it ensures the that the ones with the biggest impact don’t get passed over.
– Bhavin Parikh, Magoosh Test Prep

2. Invest $200

Set aside no more than $200 to test the basic idea. Get a domain and set up a landing page (easier than you think…), then simplify and test your idea with Google Adwords, Bing or Yahoo advertising. The goal is to see how many people you can get to click your link and at what rate they’re clicking. You can easily and inexpensively determine if there is even a base level need for your new idea.
– Adam Callinan, BottleCamo

3. Map out Each Stage

We are constantly tossing around new ideas, so to determine what we want to test versus what may not be feasible, we first map out each stage of the process and what is really going to be required from each department: IT, customer service, warehousing, purchasing (getting a true cost to implement it). If it is a new product, we use social media to see if there is any interest.
– Gary Nealon, The Rox Group

4. Fire Bullets

We use the Jim Collins approach of firing bullets before cannon balls. Invest in small tests of the idea that will help calibrate the direction and profitability/value. Once we’ve narrowed in on the target and determined enough value is on the horizon, we make bigger investments in that direction.
– Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

5. Make a Little Bet

The author Peter Sims talks about a concept called “little bets.” I take some sort of small action toward an idea to test its viability. But the key is that the action won’t take too much time, too much money or too much effort. The only goal is to get a bit of feedback for the next iteration.
– Srinivas Rao, BlogcastFM

6. Call 10 Customers

We frequently consider introducing new products, website changes and other ideas. The first thing we do is vet the idea with at least 10 customers. We want to know what our core fans think about changes, especially those that might disrupt their expectations.
– Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

7. Critique It

Too often, when we have a good idea, we look for people to validate it. “Yeah, you’re spot on!” is the exact opposite of what we need to hear. We need people to tell us we are wrong and give us detailed feedback. If it is a bad idea, it will likely surface. If you can get through a gauntlet and still believe, then it is something to pursue.
– John Jackovin, Bawte

8. Do Market Research

Do market research to see if it actually is a “new” idea or if someone else out there is already doing it. If that’s the case, tweak it to make it entirely unique.
– Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

9. Gather Data

Before I start asking customers and even before I bounce the idea off my team, I first gather some basic data to vet the idea internally with myself. This is can be as simple as few Google searches: market sizing, checking out competitors, etc. But without gathering some basic data, it can be too easy to get excited and become emotionally invested in an idea that has no real place in the market.
– Matt Ehrlichman, Porch

10. Find Customers

Search for customer validation. Before building a product or even writing a single line of code, I always try to find someone besides myself who will find value in what I’m building and promise to use it when it’s done.
– Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics

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Scott Gerber

Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs.

All well-established businesses started with a great idea. After all, everyone has problems that need solving either by a product or some kind of service and it is entrepreneurial people like you that see the opportunity to solve these problems.

Unfortunately, a lot of people have genius ideas that never see the light of day, as the process of turning such concepts into reality is definitely a huge challenge.

Despite these challenges inherent in turning a business idea into reality, however, a well thought out business idea can become a full-time career. There are a lot of success stories, in fact, of very young entrepreneurs making millions of dollars on business ideas conceptualized in their parents’ basements.

Turning your business idea into reality is difficult, yes, but it is doable. Take a look at the five steps discussed below to get your entrepreneurial journey going.

Step 1: Draft a plan to turn your business idea into reality

This is the most important part of turning your business idea into reality: making a business plan. It forms the foundation of every business, as it essentially tells you the objectives of your business, what your vision is, what strategies you will take, and most specifically, how you are going to get your business off the ground.

With a good business plan, you will have to conduct market researches either online or offline. You will have to define and conduct research on who your target market is, and at the same time, look at your competitor and how you can make your products or services different.

Indeed, with a good business plan, you will ensure that you don’t leave any stone unturned. The objectives you set will assure you of the viability of your business idea. Without a business plan, even the best ideas won’t work.

Step 2: Consider your financing

While having your office in a guest bedroom in your house or in your basement may be a bit inconvenient, it may be a better alternative early on, as you save a lot on maintenance expenses that you can pour into your business instead.

Of course, you can always get a loan from the bank, but in times of economic downturn, their interest rates may not be very friendly to upcoming small businesses. You can also get funded by individual investors, but make sure that theirs and your visions align.

At the end of the day, many small businesses start with minimal to no capital. Once you have a running, functioning business, it will be considerably easier to access finance to allow for growth.

Do not be tempted to get a loan just to finance an expensive office in the best area of town and overpriced equipment that you don’t need, or you may be forfeiting your future as an entrepreneur.

Step 3: Register your business

In many countries, registering your business is easy and doesn’t cost a lot of money, so you should do that as soon as possible. This will give you the freedom to start selling without having to worry about the technical aspects of it, like getting the bank to approve your business bank account.

Registering early also prevents somebody else from taking your business name first before you get around to it.

The same goes for domain names; once you have a good business idea, register the domain name immediately as the cost is almost negligible but not having it will have a major impact on your marketing later on.

Step 4: Hire technical staff

Take a look at your strengths and weaknesses and how they affect your business. Accept the fact that you can’t be good at everything, and that you are better off spending your time building your business than getting mired in the nitty-gritty of running a company.

For example, keeping track of your finances for tax and accounting purposes take a lot of time, and so does organizing your paperwork. You’re better off hiring someone to take care of those things so you can focus on more strategic tasks.

If you want to do something yourself personally, though, consider getting extra training to update your skills. You can get free courses online in areas like sales and marketing, as well as general business management.

This is especially important if your core skills are technical. No matter how good your product is, you’ll need to be able to sell it and manage the cash flow as well, or understand how it’s done, so you can be on top of all the crucial tasks your company needs done.

Step 5: Advertise your business prior to launch

Don’t advertise only once you have launched. Even before, it is important to let people know about your product.

Make sure to leverage the power of social media and advertise your company to build up excitement over your launch. Continue your marketing efforts afterwards; your business idea is not unique, and you have a lot of competitors.

Even if you are not a salesperson, or you have someone assigned to sales specifically, make it a point to put your business out without being obnoxious about it. Ask your family and friends as well to pass on the word in their own circles and neighborhoods.

The best way to advertise, of course, is through your website. It has a potential reach of millions of people worldwide, and you can’t afford not to have that reach.

You don’t even need to worry about websites costing thousands of dollars to make. There are website builders, like Bookmark, that uses artificial intelligence to design a professional looking website in your niche within just a few minutes.

Take the first step to fulfill your dream of entrepreneurial success. Act on your business idea; with a good business plan, clear business strategies, and an online presence through your website and social networks, you will definitely have a chance of turning your business idea into reality.

Entrepreneur’s New Year’s Guide

You’re reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

When you have a great idea for a business, the thrill can drive you headlong into an energetic launch. But wait. Statistics show that over 50% of businesses fail in their first five years– with 30% failing in the first year alone.

There are several reasons why businesses go down, but this early failure rate is usually the result of poor planning. For a business idea to succeed, you need to follow methodical procedures to ensure you launch from a firm base. And the first question to ask is whether your idea is as smart and original as you think.

1. Research the market You may think you’ve come up with a fool-proof idea, but is there a market for it? Many businesses launch, only to find someone else has already had the same idea and has got into the market first. Or the potential market is so small that you’re never going to be able to make a sustainable income from it. You need to carry out a full market analysis of your idea and the target audience to ensure your idea is really going to fulfil a need.

Start by doing a SWOT analysis on your proposal, defining all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with it. Involve all your business associates, or friends and family members if you’re working alone. Going through the process will help you to evaluate and refine the concept at a high level- questions to ask include:

• What demand is there for your idea?
• If it is a product, who will buy it?
• If it is a service, who will use it?
• Who else in the UAE does this already?
• Are they successful and, if so, why?
• What price can you put on your product or service?

As you build up answers to these questions, you will form a clearer picture of whether or not your idea is sound. If it’s not, let it go.

2. Compile a financial plan If your market research is positive, and you decide to proceed, the next step is to put together a financial forecast. This will become a valuable guide when you’re up and running and is essential if you’re applying for funding. The more thorough your market research and your financial plan, the better chance you stand of securing investment. This also applies if you’re relying on friends and family for launch capital– often the preferable option because the terms are more favorable. But take a professional approach and make sure you have an agreement in writing. There’s nothing like unpaid debts to turn a relationship sour.

Your financial plan is a key part of your overall business plan, forecasting how the figures will add up. It needs to include sound estimates of overheads, cash flow, income, profit/loss and investment stages, usually projected over three to five years. Of course, these figures will be largely theoretical, but they need to be based on reality, so do your research. An accountant or business startup consultant will be able to help you.

3. Position your product or service So, you’ve ascertained that there is a market for your idea, and that the figures work out. Now it’s time to prepare your idea for market. You need to be able to describe quickly and clearly what it is you’re selling. Potential customers have a very short attention span, so you need to grab them in a matter of seconds.

Start with the benefits. What will your product or service do for its customers? What need or problem will it satisfy? Explain it in language that your target customers will understand in under 30 seconds. When Steve Jobs of Apple launched the iPod in 2001, he didn’t describe the new device as an MP3 player with a 5GB hard drive. He introduced it as “a thousand songs in your pocket.” The audience understood the proposition immediately. When you’re happy with your messaging, test it on friends and family, or your startup consultant.

4. Build your brand The most successful businesses are instantly recognizable in many ways: their name and logo, their strapline, their colors, their use of imagery, their tone of voice. All these factors make up their brand. You don’t have to be a large, established company to have a strong brand. By paying attention to all these aspects, you can build a new brand that quickly catches on and gains recognition.

Consistency is key. Your brand needs to be an unwavering reflection of your values, but it also needs to reflect the values of your target customers. You can develop your brand personality by thinking of your product or service as a person or an animal, for example.

With the help of a branding expert, you can translate your brand personality into a look and feel and tone of voice, with brand guidelines to follow for consistency. It’s the consistent application of these guidelines across all your marketing that gives your idea life as a brand.

5. Set up a legal company With your big idea developed and tested, you’re now at the stage to formally set up your business. There are various ways you can do this in the UAE. Cutting corners, though, could jeopardize your company before it even starts. The best approach to setting up a legal company is to use a reputable company formation specialist. They will listen to your needs, explain the options and propose the best way forward. They can also complete all the paperwork, set up a corporate bank account and make sure you stay legally compliant.

Patience is the key when turning a business idea into reality. Applying the above steps in order should help avoid the pitfalls of building your house on flimsy foundations. Most importantly, share the process. Listen to constructive criticism and take professional advice. After all, this could be a life-defining venture.

Lots of people have great ideas. Many people imagined the iPhone, virtual reality and companies like Uber decades before they actually happened. But, there is big difference between thinking of something and actually executing that idea to become real. Bridgit Lombard is one who consistently turns great ideas into reality on a grand scale. A millionaire before the age of 30, Lombard is a fearlessly ambitious entrepreneur and has amassed an amazing track record in a few short years to prove it.

Starting at Deloitte in London as the Head of Brand and Business Development, covering 21 regions in the U.K. and Switzerland, Lombard helped establish Deloitte’s first I-Board to embrace and drive innovation, which produced 212 million in new product and service launches. She then went on to work with clients such as Sony, Diageo and Virgin building brand and marketing strategies.

Then Lombard founded Tenega Group, a London-based global management consulting practice where she and her team pioneered a proprietary approach to investing in down markets to build measurable consumer loyalty. This led to a successful exit within three years.

Recruited as CEO of Nathan Sports and its parent company Penguin Brands, Lombard, a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), was responsible for business operations across 47 countries. During her tenure, she created a values-based company culture and achieved industry-breaking multiples on the sale of both assets, with a ten- fold value increase between 2010 and 2015. Her efforts solidified Nathan as the No. 1 running essentials brand across the globe with more than 81 percent market share. Her amazing business accomplishments garnered her the 2015 Leader of Innovation Medal from Philadelphia University.

As she readies for her next entrepreneurial adventure, Lombard was kind enough to take time and share her proven process for turning worthy ideas into fantastic reality.

This 2-step process with help you turn your ideas into reality.

Many times, when we wish to accomplish something big or something new, we wonder whether it is really possible to do so! The people around us may also question the feasibility of the idea.

What makes it even tougher is that, in order to turn your idea into reality, it often requires daily efforts from your side over a period of many years.

How can you possibly stay motivated and committed to an idea?

In order to further understand this situation, let’s explore a parable.

if someone told you that “there is water all around you,” at first, you would probably think that guy is crazy.

But if you take a closer look, you will see that the statement has some element of truth in it. After all, there is water vapour everywhere in the atmosphere, which is called humidity.

For instance, at a temperature of 30°C (degree Celsius), a volume of air can contain up to 4% of water vapour. However, at this point, the concentration of water is negligible. Hence, it might even seem meaningless talking about it.

But, what if this concentration of water starts increasing? Then this seemingly invisible water vapour would start forming clouds and eventually falls to ground as visible rain.

The very same drops of water that seemed negligible at first, would then eventually collect into a river and later join together to form the ocean.

Doesn’t it seem so magical that something that was originally so small and invisible, can eventually transform into something as massive as the ocean!

This bizarre transformation became possible only because of the consistently increasing concentration of water vapour and scale. This analogy rightly captures the process of transforming our dreams into reality.

Persistence and Resilience

Originally, an idea or a dream is only an invisible concept inside your head.

Every action, no matter how small they are, that is directed towards achieving a dream; represents the drops of water. These water drops would eventually come together to form a stream.

Thus, with every action that we take towards achieving our dream, we are increasing the concentration and the scale of the idea.

This is why, it is very important to not shy away from taking small steps even though they might seem insignificant at that moment in time.

Always keep in mind that in order to transform an idea into reality, persistent effort and resilience is crucial. With every step that you take, you are laying a brick in your wall of future dreams.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling. Lucretius

Believe in your idea

Another important thing to take note here is that the process of turning dreams into reality starts inside YOUR head. Only YOU can see the vision and no one else can.

Therefore, it is very important to trust yourself when there are others criticizing you. These so called critics, around you, might not be aware of the process of turning dreams into reality. Even if they know, they surely would not know of your vision, the way you do.

Your ideas might seem bizarre and impossible for others. But for YOU, the vision already exists in your head. All that is required right now are actions directed towards the vision.

Achieve Your Dreams

You can realize your dreams by implementing the following 2-Step Process to Turn Your Ideas into Reality:

1. Form a vision of the idea in your head.
2. Increase the scale and concentration of the idea by taking consistent actions directed towards achieving the dream.

Always remember that the process that converts invisible water into an ocean involves consistently increasing the concentration and scale.

The same process can be applied to transforming your dreams into reality.

If you do so, ultimately, YOUR dream will become YOUR reality.

This was a guest post by Igor Smirnov

Igor Smirnov is a Psychologist, blogger, chess Grandmaster, Internet entrepreneur.

Igor is the founder of KeyToVictory – popular blog about self-improvement. We share ideas, strategies and inspiration in order to turn your dreams into reality.

You’ve just dreamed up the next big app or program. but now what? Whether you’re a developer, a product manager, or a CTO, turning your napkin sketch into a fully functioning piece of technology will require a lot of know-how and a little elbow grease. But it doesn’t have to be an impossible task.

1. Do Your Due Diligence

Before you sit down to write a line of code, you will want to do some research. Does your idea already exist? Who are the competitors and what do their products look like? Stepping into a space that’s already crowded can be daunting, but if your idea is bringing something new to the table, you’ll be better positioned for success.

Next, and perhaps most importantly, is there actually a need for your app? And would your app idea address the need in a useful way? To answer these questions, Samuel Shields, Open Banking Developer Evangelist for Citi FinTech, says you may even need to take a very basic crack at realizing your idea before you solicit feedback from your network. “A lot of times there’s value in making anything from a low-fi prototype all the way up to some working code that illustrates what your experience may look like. Not something that you intend to be your final vision but something that allows you to ask people, ‘Hey this is my core concept. What do you think? Does it fulfill a need?’”

2. Select a Builder

Once you’ve cleared your idea for takeoff, you’ll need to identify an engineer who can actually make it fly. Do you want to handle the heavy lifting yourself or with a few technically skilled friends, or would it be worth the expense to bring in an experienced outside firm that could tackle the project? Cost, aptitude, and speed to market are all factors to consider. It is always enticing to take a DIY approach, but since getting to market as quickly as possible can be crucial to any idea’s ultimate success, enlisting some outside help may be your best bet.

3. Utilize an API When You Can

As you and your team begin to build the framework for your app, you’ll save a lot of time (and money!) by finding relevant application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate into your system. If you find yourself having to explain what an API is to investors or other team members who aren’t as tech-savvy as you, help them wrap their heads around the topic by explaining that APIs are simple ways for applications and business to communicate.

So what does this API look like? If your app needs a shopping function, for instance, you can save yourself a lot of work and expense by leveraging the shopping system already developed by a big e-commerce retailer or a payment solution a financial institution like Citi has built. Sure, you could build the function from scratch yourself, but given the complexity of some of the systems you will likely need, you may be setting your timeline back by months or years. Bottom line: Don’t reinvent the wheel when an API can get you where you need to go.

4. Test, Test, Test

Experienced developers and project managers know all too well that every product’s path to reality is dotted with inevitable snags and glitches. To minimize the delays these natural bumps in the road can cause, it’s important to test your product during and after the development stage. By constantly running automated tests as you build your app, you can help improve the stability of your finished product while also gaining a deeper understanding of how, when, and why things break—and more importantly, how to fix them.

Even more important, says Citi’s Shields, is getting actual users on your application. “It’s like that mug I made in elementary school: I was so proud of it and I brought it home to my mom and it didn’t hold water.” Through testing, you may find out your initial hypothesis doesn’t hold water, but there may be an even better thread of an idea that leads to a different (winning) idea.

5. Find the Right Distribution Channel

With your tech idea finally a reality, it’s time to sell it. As with any product, it’s important to know where your customer lives. If you’ve got a consumer-facing product, you’ll probably want to stake out space in one of the major app stores. On the other hand, if you have created a specialized business-to-business product that serves a specific industry, you may be better served with a narrower channel devoted to that industry. Once you’ve identified the right channel, pay attention to both its cost structure and restrictions—your code may need to be compliant with their standards and practices. But once you’ve cleared those hurdles, you’ll be in business!

By: Kevin Eikenberry

As important as creativity and idea creation are, they require action before any idea will have real value. These six ideas from Kevin Eikenberry can help you take that all important next step on your ideas.

The team faced a significant challenge on the project. After a very successful brainstorming session they felt they had several ideas that would address and alleviate the problems they faced. They were truly energized by some of the ideas they generated. But soon, the glow wore off, because these ideas, in order to help, needed to be implemented, and the project was already behind schedule.

Dawn was a person you could always count on to get things done. So it won’t surprise you to know that her manager went to her often with a new idea, a new project, or a challenge to overcome. The list of ideas on her plate was overwhelming, even though she did get more accomplished than most people.

Aaron was one of those guys who were always coming up with a new idea. If you needed help brainstorming, everyone knew to call Aaron. Unfortunately for Aaron too often after the fun of generating ideas was gone, the list of ideas to implement was daunting.

Perhaps it was one of these situations that lead to someone raising a question in a recent workshop; “Kevin, how do I learn to turn ideas into action steps?”

As a person who has helped individuals and groups work on their creativity this wasn’t initially a question I was expecting. Typically people are looking for ways to come up with more, and therefore better, ideas. Immediately though I knew that this was an equally valuable and important question.

After reflecting on the question I have identified 6 actions you can take to help you implement the great ideas that you have created or are given.

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The Six “Gets”

Get Aligned. Whether you are an individual or a part of an organization, there are goals and objectives in front of you. What are the most important things that you are trying to accomplish? Having a good idea isn’t enough. The idea must also be relevant and important to your goals. Ideas that don’t pass this first test should be set aside for later (or never).

Get Clarified. Ideas in their infancy are fun and exciting, but they are seldom complete or crystal clear. Before taking action on your ideas, make sure you truly understand what is meant by and involved in the idea and what results you expect. This step is especially important for ideas that will be implemented by a group, as not everyone will have the same clear picture of the idea until it is clarified.

Get Organized. If your idea has passed the first two tests, it is time to plan. Figure out the implementation steps. Think about the timeline. Put this idea into the larger scope of your efforts. Time spent in planning and organizing will always pay dividends.

Get Help. You may not be able to turn your idea into reality by yourself. Your planning should help you see where you might need other experience, insight or another pair of hands. This is true for teams as well. Think about what resources you will need and work on lining them up early on. When you do these things your idea will become real much more quickly.

Get Focused. Once you have decided which idea(s) to implement and have a plan, you have to make the time to make it happen! Getting focused means creating the space and time to turn the idea into reality. It has to move from the idea stage into action. Focus your energy on making that happen.

Get Over Them. You may have an idea (or many) that you love. Remember that there is a big difference between a good idea and the right idea. You may have many good ideas on your list. For some of them the time isn’t right. Some of them don’t aren’t important enough. Some won’t be completely aligned with your goals and objectives. That is ok. In order to implement our best ideas sometimes we must be willing to let go of, or at least defer some others. When you are willing to do this you improve your chances of implementing the others you have chosen.

Any one of these suggestions above will be helpful, but when you take them together they will help you as an individual with your own ideas and priorities; as a leader in sharing and prioritizing ideas; and as a team to decide what to work on and who should be involved.

In the end, as important as creativity and idea creation is, it requires action before any idea will have real value. These six ideas can help you take that all important next step on your ideas.

Copyright © 2006 – All Rights Reserved, Kevin Eikenberry and The Kevin Eikenberry Group. Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services.