Modul 4
May 11, 2019When given the task to screen ideas on how to deal with “fake news” I found a quite surprising pattern. Even though I gave a high rating on the majority of ideas with regards to the criteria’s; How good do you think the idea is, originality and user value – most of them received a low score when it came to the criteria’s; producibility and profitability.
The way I assessed the last two criteria’s was in junction with a third criteria, namely payback-time. As established we live in rapid changing times and new ideas appear constantly. Therefore it is important to assess whether any given idea can be transformed into a profitable business within a certain time frame. The uncertainty on how long it would take to turn an idea into a business gave most ideas a low score. For example, how long does it take for IT-specialist to create an algorithm that scans the Internet for facts and what critera’s must be set for the chosen sources?
Linked together with producibilty is profitability. In my assessment some ideas, that were original and had high user value, also required a high initial investment and competence. The question is how much time will it take for the business to reach break even? And even if it at some point reaches a positive cash flow will it be enough? Or could the initial investment capital instead of been used to finance other (better) ideas that might come up during the process of launching the first idea?
Another factor to take into account is how risk-adverse one might be. In more occasions than others I tend to be risk-adverse, which might be considered a personal trait. This often means that I need a complete picture and financials before making an important decision over an investment. I am sure this factor also influenced my low scoring regarding produciblity and profitability.
The idea that received the highest mark when it came to producibility and profitability was a concept, which I Know already exists but not in a way that analyzes facts, namely the idea “Origin”. Since the idea is partly built on technology that already exists such as the “copy-paste link” I think it would be easier to launch this idea. In addition other companies who use this technology often gets its revenue from ads meaning that at least one route of possible revenue is known.
Finally I would like to end by saying that it was a pleasure to read all of the original ideas but that it is important to know that my scores are influenced by the amount of risk I am willing to take together with the amount of competence I have with regards to a specific idea.