THE IDEAS PROJECT — DAY 27

Day 27. The last blog piece was inspired whilst on a run listening to an audio book of ‘How to consciously design your ideal future’, and again, this idea came to me whilst on my morning run. Kinda on theme of needs vs wants, and the value in building things that people need.

OLD IDEA 1: Product Development

OLD IDEA 2: Build for needs, not for wants.

NEW IDEA: Tools not Toys. Tools are something you need to solve an enduring problem, toys are something you want to satisfy short term desire. When building great products, build tools not toys.

Five Whys:

1. The best organisations have a clear purpose; the problem they are trying to solve in society.
2. The biggest and most enduring problems, are to address societies needs. Which are distinct form societies wants.
3. When designing and building products it best to address these deeper needs.
4. When we have a problem, we’ll seek a tool which will help us solve that problem.
5. Therefore when developing new products; build tools, not toys.

Question: How do you make buying decisions? Do you distinguish between needs and wants? And, therefore tools and toys?