Achieving Creative Product Nirvana (Transmission #267)

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My goal with every GEM article, whether that be a Radar entry or a full-fledged Transmission, is to prompt deep thinking. To delve into topics we don’t encounter in our day-to-day lives. I want to surface new perspectives you haven’t heard before. Show you interesting use-cases from far-flung corners of the world. Probe into every corner of our industry and those we can learn from.

I am often asked, “how do you keep up the pace?” Truthfully, some weeks are a real struggle. I get writer’s block, like every other writer.

One of the great things about GEM, and I’ve designed it this way purposely, is that we don’t have to publish content. While I don’t like going a week or two without a strong essay, we can. We don’t have an incentive to push out content for the sake of generating pageviews and clicks, so we’ve built a business that allows for quality in everything we do.

I’m able to wait until an idea strikes that hits all those marks discussed above—something interesting, thought-provoking, and worth your time (and mine).

Writing is my art form. Your product is yours. If it’s not, it should be.

Creativity is the lifeblood of innovation. How do you continue to push the bounds, day in and day out? How do you come up with outside-of-the-box ideas that turn into a transformational product feature or viral growth loop?

I’m a consumer product guy at my core. That’s always the lens I strive to bring to the table. Great product building comes from allowing the crosspollination of ideas and information in your life to influence your product’s journey. All the while, building breathing room into the process so as not to be a hamster in a wheel, but rather allowing time for greatness to reveal itself.

There’s no right or wrong way to strike inspiration (to each their own), but here’s the process I go through to tap into my muse.

CORN FIELDS
Every single day, in everything I do, I look for new tidbits. These could come from a news story, a differentiated product, a conversation (or, word, even) overheard in a restaurant, witnessing an animal in the wild, a particularly insightful answer to a question in a podcast, or a shitty personal experience with a product or service.