How to turn an idea into a product - Marshall Brain

The Eight Rules

All humans are entrepreneurs

• Develop a Competitive Advantage

1. Assets
   1. Skills that make you unique
2. Aspirations
   1. What do you want to get out of life, will allow you to work harder and enjoy what you do
3. Market Realities
   1. Where will your skills be the most valuable
4. “Because of my [skill/experience/strength], I can do [type of professional work] better than [specific types of other professionals in my industry].”
5. My Assets
   1. Empathy - to read and listen to people and discover what they're truly looking for
   2. Curiosity - to explore new possibilities and make connections others wouldn't

ABZ Planning

1. Be flexibly persistent
   1. Plan A is the current job and skills you're working on
   2. Plan B is a minor pivot if Plan A doesn't work
   3. Plan Z is your fallback options if it all goes to shit so you don't end up on the streets
2. How
   1. Make plans based on your competitive advantage
   2. Prioritise continuous learning
   3. learn by doing - plans are great but action is best

Network and Relationships

1. Build genuine relationships
   1. Empathise and help first
   2. The fun factor
2. Cultivate strong and weak ties
3. How to strengthen and maintain your network
   1. Be valuable to others
      1. Classic small gifts
         1. relevant articles
         2. introductions
         3. advice
   2. Be a bridge
   3. In touch and top of mind
   4. Navigate status dynamics when dealing with powerful people - don't suck up but be accommodating

Find and create opportunities

1. Increase your luck by
   1. Being curious - ask questions, look for opportunities where others only see problems
   2. Court serendipity and good randomness
      1. This involves doing things not just waiting for the world to fall into your lap, meeting with people, building product, talking to Customers
   3. Connect to people - opportunities tend to be attached to other people

Intelligent Risk

1. Build risk resilience
2. Small risks often protect against infrequent big risks
   1. Back burning vs a big bush fire
3. Often not as risky as you believe it is
4. You'll never be fully certain, if you are it's often too late
5. Is the worst case scenario tolerable or intolerable?
6. Can you change the decision mid way through?

Network Intelligence - Who you know is what you know

1. How to pull intelligence from your network?
   1. Who to ask?
      1. Ask domain experts
      2. Ask people who know you well
      3. Ask the smartest people you know
   2. Ask good questions
      1. Converse with them don't interrogate - offer your own opinions don't just ask question after question
      2. Adjust the lens of the question
         1. Wide question to figure out what you should be focusing on
            1. Is grad school a good way to get into architecture?
         2. Narrow question to determine how much weight to put on each dimension
            1. Is Cornell a good grad school for architecture?
      3. Frame and prime
         1. Framing positively and negatively
            1. Whata re the top three things you did right when you joined
            2. Whata re the three things you wish you had done better or got the chance to try
      4. Follow up and probe

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1. Link to page

2. Above is my takeaways and summary of Marshall Brain's guide to turning ideas into successful products