coolfarming turn your great idea into the next big thing

[...]... will, be turned into new trends Nevertheless, there are steps that the creator of a new idea or the enthusiastic very early adopter of a concept can take to increase the odds of turning the cool new thing into, indeed, a new trend 4 ❙ COOLFARMING The Four Steps of Coolfarming This swarm-based innovation process happens in four steps: STEP 1 The creator comes up with the cool idea STEP 2 The creator... into the next big thing? The good news is, there are indeed steps you can take to be cool, and to convert your ideas into a cool trend This book addresses the basic questions of what the magic of cool is It shows you how to “coolfarm” your ideas, how to make trends cool, and how to become cool yourself Coolfarming tells how to convert creative 2 ❙ COOLFARMING dreams into cool products by enlisting the. .. finding the next big thing The trick is not to look for the trend, but to look for the Edisons, the cool people creating the cool trends Coolhunting means finding trends by finding the trendsetters It means being on the lookout for the four-step process involving 8 ❙ COOLFARMING (1) creator, (2) COIN, (3) CLN, and (4) CIN The earlier in the process you can identify the trendsetters, the better By the time... buddies, then extends it to a CLN by integrating feedback from early adopters of his product, and finally grows it into a global CIN of loyal customers The basic principle of coolfarming is to not directly invite others in, but to advertise the idea and let others find the group and the idea They will come because the idea appeals to them, and because they respect the flag bearers This means that the community... free forever Rather, they are risk takers who are convinced of the potential of a new idea or concept, and they are willing to invest their own resources, be it time, social capital, or money, in the new HOW DO YOU TURN A COOL IDEA INTO A TREND? ❙ 17 idea without knowing yet how they’ll be paid back for their investment If they are right in their assessment, they will be paid back in the end, perhaps... together And the rest, as the saying goes, is history CLNS Once the cool idea has been turned into a product by the COIN, people in the COIN bring the product to their friends and family In a two-way learning process, this extended group, the Collaborative Learning Network, learns the basics of the product from the COIN members, makes suggestions for improvements, and points out deficiencies of the. .. of the project, the problem owner will FIGURE 1–3 Conventional project management monitor progress and intervene if she decides that the project does not follow the plan anymore In the end, the project team delivers the end product to the problem owner The coolfarming process, as shown in Figure 1–4, is entirely different It starts with the fact that there is no problem owner There is one person, the. .. product FIGURE 1–4 Coolfarming process HOW DO YOU TURN A COOL IDEA INTO A TREND? ❙ 13 The COIN members take their labor of love to their friends and family, continuously selling their idea to them Using this group as a sounding board, the COIN collects feedback, improving the product, testing it out, and occasionally winning over a few select members to join the COIN This group acts as the Collaborative... for prey on the prairies, trying to find a wild buffalo, whose meat would carry them through the winter Coolhunting means hunting for your own buffalo in the Internet age The parallels HOW DO YOU TURN A COOL IDEA INTO A TREND? ❙ 9 FIGURE 1–2 Coolfarming is like traditional farming, but instead of killing the prey, put it to productive use between the early hunter and the coolhunter in the Internet... controllable, and yet, the expert beekeeper observing his hive will usually catch the swarm and get it back to double the honey output The same metaphor applies to organizations supportive of COINs Observe the COIN members, help them develop their ideas, provide a fertile nurturing ground for developing new ideas, and they will get their cool trends off the ground Coolfarming is “making the COINs happen”—and . could make your own ideas cool? What if you could even turn them into the next big thing? The good news is, there are indeed steps you can take to be cool, and to convert your ideas into a cool.