We at Scoopinion were very happy to hear that there’s going to be another round of Uutisraivaaja this year. Such a great piece of news is a perfect way to start a year! We thought it might be useful to share some of our experiences and give out tips on why it’s a good idea to start planning for you project now already.
During the time we developed Scoopinion for Uutisraivajaa competition, the amount of positive feedback we got was enormous. One thing that constantly hit us though, was the pace we kept. When we could’ve already made prototypes, we still planned and debated. We learned that key to success is fast iteration.
- Keep your eyes open. Ideas don’t originate without observing the world around you, understanding peoples’ needs and start thinking about possible solutions. By orientating for Uutisraivaaja 2012 now you have far better chance of coming up with a good idea in Fall. So find out good sources, start benchmarking, enjoy nature (it boosts innovation enormously!) and just wonder around in the marvelous world of the delivery of information.
- Speak aloud. When we pitched the idea behind Scoopinion a year ago in New York, the reaction was stunned. “How can you share such an idea? Every single good idea in the world is stolen!” The truth is though, that without speaking about your idea you’ll never get feedback either. People in general are happy to help. Key is to stay open and appreciate whatever input you get.
- Make a prototype. Whenever you get your idea, the first thing you should do is to make it into a concrete prototype. By doing that you have to decide and come across some of the key issues you’re going to have to eventually face. We learned our lesson in May last year when we still didn’t have a working prototype and went to pitch our idea. After that pitch we build a working proto in the next few days. That allowed to already get users and form a community during last summer that surely helped in the deciding moments of Uutisraivaaja.
- Kill your darlings. How it happens more often than not is that people get very attached to their ideas. It takes some time for you to be able to get perspective and really evaluate how good your idea is. So don’t wait until the last week of application date to submit yours, but instead play around with an idea, change the perspective and write applications early on. That way you’ll have time to see whether there’s value in your idea or not.
- Be fast, be furious. Building a project just for a competition rarely makes sense. Instead, Uutisraivaaja is a perfect catalyst for you to start ideating at the very last. We probably would’ve made Scoopinion with or without Uutisraivaaja, but the competition provided us with a perfect sparring partner. The best scenario is that you come up with an idea now, start building it, turn it into something real and learn along the process so that you’re able to participate with better knowhow into Uutisraivaaja 2012!
The best thing about Uutisraivaaja is that it gathers people together from various and diverse backgrounds. You get ideas from people that normally might not feel like entrepreneurs, for instance. That’s the beauty of it: from outside of the box often come the best ideas.
The whole Scoopinion team is here to help you out if you have any questions. Follow the blog, twitter, fb and our website (www.scoopinion.com) and feel free to ask if there’s anything we can do for you.
Go Uutisraivaaja 2012!
