Reach Beyond Yourself

Here’s the most-engaged-with post in all of my d.school classes’ Slack channels:

“Would anyone be interested in staying after class tomorrow to brainstorm experiments?”

What distinguishes an exceptional founder from the aspirational masses is the ability to craft scrappy experiments to reduce risk. And as every founder engaged in a rigorous experimentation cycle knows all-too-well, the well of experiments will run dry quickly without a robust ideation practice.

The reason that Slack post got so much engagement was that these founders had learned to appreciate the perspective others brought to their own work: they’re not trapped by the same ways of thinking about the business!

One of the easiest ways to think out of the box is to talk to someone else. Not just strangers — valuable as they can be — but outsiders who have a different perspective on the problems you’re facing. They’re much less constrained in their approach to your business. They’re not nearly as precious about protecting “prior art” as you are.

But here’s the thing: you have to have a crew, and you have to be willing to be vulnerable enough to ask for help.

It’s one of the primary values of the classroom environment, as it creates a built-in learning cohort: with sufficient context on one another’s work, cohort members can make meaningful contributions to each others work.

Some (like Mr. Beast) might even argue they’re the key to exponential success.

So here’s the question — especially if you’re not in a school environment — who’s your learning cohort? Where can you go to reach outside your team for perspective?

We’ve got a crew on discord if you’re looking for one.

Related: Flex Your Idea Muscle
Related: The Value of an Outsider’s Perspective
Related: Draw On A Network
Related: Rally A Cohort
Related: Gather Lunatics

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