Your First Ideas Aren't Your Best

I recently listened to this Stanford podcast about the order of ideas:
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/keep-em-coming-why-your-first-ideas-arent-always-best

The basic gist is this: when ideating, the first thing that pops up probably isn't the best thing that you'll think about.

I'm working through the idea problem ALL every day I am an earlier employee at a startup that fields lots of requests for slides from our CEO and CRO. My slides often don't hit the mark the first time.

It's easy to get flustered in the moment, but recently, I've achieved an equilibrium in my reactions. It's important to ingest someone's statement about what they don't like about your product, reason through the reasonability of the feedback, and move forward. Getting emotional is a no. Straining yourself to understand why your first output isn't the best is a no. Just try again.

So, recently, I'm producing, getting feedback, and repeating. It's refreshing when you find that part of your brain that doesn't worry as much if you're doing it right and instead concerns itself with exposing as many ideas as possible. Some of them will land. Some won't. I received a "well done" from my CEO and two days later "this is very confusing." It will keep happening like this as long as I'm in this company.

Instead of attaching to either comment, I'm ingesting them as data points. Evaluating the data. Using it if necessary to iterate but trying to not lose sleep over the specifics, and mostly succeeding!