“We want to buy it” was one reaction from a guest at Show and Tell 2.
This is a common reaction to most Show and Tells; something which I take a sign of success (we’re on the right track) yet cringe with the thought ‘no - it’s a PoC; a prototype rather than a product‘.
Judging by the number of good questions, the audience were engaged in the topic and saw potential in what was been demonstrated.
- Question: “Are we looking to automate the entire resource discovery process”
Answer: “No. We can’t. The IOs are irreplaceable. The skill of the IO to analyse and synthesise simply can’t be effectively replicated by algorithms. The algorithms developed can reduce the number of irrelevant sites but there will be a number of false positives and we will lose a number of false negatives.”
- - Question: “Are we going to tell the users we are harvesting their tags?”
Answer: “No. By revealing who we are tracking could distort the results - Del.icio.us is just one open, programmable human reviewed repository of websites. We are simply compiling a selective list of candidate websites - not users.”
- - Question: “Are we going to use the suite of tools on the edna collection”
Answer: “Yes - as an interesting exercise in checking consistency of edna data considering the number of IOs who have entered the data over the years.”
- - Question: “Is there a User Interface for this?” [TC: interprets as “a programmable via the web”]
Answer: “No. This is for internal use. Nice idea though ~ could expose this to the web programming interface to mash things like websites and feeds.”
Our reaction to how Show and Tell 2 went, the team came to some conclusions:
- Run through was essential, it identified areas requiring
- clarification
- missing elements
- structural changed
- Provided confidence when presenting
- Remember get to the shiny stuff quickly:
- break down each steps
- show what you did and then explain the theory as you go.
- Use a variety of approaches:
- Show it and then Tell it.
- Statistics are interesting if you wrap meaning to it.
- Ground it in reality: create benchmarks for your innovations
- Don’t be afraid of being to technical: but do focus only on what’s core, using plain English.
- Be as visual as possible: avoid unnecessary ‘text on screen’ presentations
- Engage with the audience: ask them questions.
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I once heard a senior Government Minister say something like ‘“We want to buy it” after a show and tell. It is at once both gratifying and unsettling. I think something like an incubator is required to take the eggs created in a PoC and provide the conditions required to hatch and rear young chickens!
Look out for a pingback from theprocessofinnovation.com
Fang
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[…] While talking with Andy about his ‘Clips on Slime’ diagram, it became clear that the end of a Proof of Concept (PoC) project can be rather unsatisfying. No matter how clearly we tried to explain that a PoC finishes where a functional specification begins, the amount of remaining work to bring an idea to a completed product is always underestimated. UPDATE: I see Tom has just experienced this at show and tell 2 for one of his projects. […]
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