One of the greatest misconceptions in innovation is that folks start with a good idea. How rarely that’s true. Here’s to starting, followed by enlightened iteration.

Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs — and what propelled their project forward — have made me wonder whether the sterile calculus of today’s valuation-obsessed start-up culture has its priorities out of whack.

Innovation is a numbers game, which is music to my ears since I’m a statistics nerd. One of my favorite counterintuitive statistical truths is Bayes’ Theorem. Study it to beat the entrepreneurial odds.

Peter Sims, author of Little Bets and founder of BLKSHP suggests that a movement is superior to a network in a few distinct ways.

A message for young folks: amidst the frenzied pace of life, it’s tempting to veg out whenever you can. “Doomscrolling” is real! Instead of whittling away the hours, creative geniuses make good use of found time.

The challenges to creativity inside of large organizations are well documented. But it’s a mistake to assume therefore that nothing creative happens inside of big companies.

Lots does. But it’s often hard to see…

I have been consistently disappointed at how few stories are widely-told about remarkable women in the history of innovation. Even so, I was shocked to see research on how broad a phenomenon the underrepresentation truly is.

Pat Brown, Founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, is delighted that many vegetarians refuse to try his product. The best entrepreneurs are just as deft at disqualifying customers as they are at attracting new ones.

How do you know when it’s time to iterate?Founders have to be willing to adapt based on real-time feedback, and iterate accordingly.

After a dozen years teaching at Stanford’s d.school and consulting with the world’s top leaders, the most useful measure of creativity that Perry Klebahn and I have found is deceptively simple.

The single-most enjoyable hour of work each week is the hour I deliberately shed the “teacher’s” cap and put on the student’s. Instead of showing up to talk, I show up to listen. But boy does it take intention to protect that time.

Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs both illustrate that the sterile calculus of today’s valuation-obsessed start-up culture doesn’t put nearly enough premium on a particularly elusive ingredient: love.

We see sick days as days we can’t work. As a few classic examples of transformation demonstrate, perhaps we should see them as a gift — an opportunity to receive a new vision of the future.

The holy grail of venture building is to create “network effects” through “demand-side increasing returns.” You’ll be surprised that some consider a network to be the second-best form…

Legendary Stanford professor Bob McKim used to give design students a simple assignment: keep a bug list. This was decades before computer programming gave the term the meaning it has today.

Whenever a student asked legendary Stanford Professor Bob McKim for feedback on a new design concept, he consistently gave the same response: “Show me three.” Those three words contain a remarkable depth of wisdom.

Spectacular entrepreneurs craft clever experiments. But a robust experimentation practice demands a rigorous ideation ritual. In Stanford’s LaunchPad, we tell aspiring founders to do this.

Amidst the frenzied pace of life, it’s tempting to veg out whenever there’s a down moment. “Doomscrolling” is real! Instead of whittling away the hours, creative geniuses make good use of found time.

Trying to figure out whether you have a good idea? Don’t ask people what they think! A better way to assess a new concept is to give folks the opportunity to vote without realizing it.

The best entrepreneurs are just as deft at disqualifying customers as they are at attracting new ones. Pat Brown is delighted by the fact that many vegetarians refuse to try the Impossible Burger because it disgusts them — but that’s ok: they’re not his target customer!