Deep-Tech 4 Dummies’ Post

🔍 Where is the value in your technology? When pitching your technology to investors (of any kind), clarity of reasoning about your project is everything since often you’re up against hundreds of other ideas. The chances that you will win are small if you are not able to stand out from the first interactions. For this reason, your message must be sharp and impactful, and this is where the 𝙃𝙚𝙞𝙡𝙢𝙚𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙢 might help you. Developed by George H. Heilmeier, former director of DARPA, this framework is designed to help innovators articulate the “why” and “how” of their technology. By addressing 6 fundamental questions, you will increase your chances of engaging in meaningful conversations with potential investors, winning prizes and grants, or attracting attention toward your project. Which are these questions? And what kind of content must be evaluated to provide meaningful replies to these questions? Find it out in the new post on Deep-Tech 4 Dummies https://lnkd.in/dy6A97U6 Follow Deep-Tech 4 Dummies if you want to learn how to improve your chances of attracting resources. Have a look at the blog: https://lnkd.in/dMiiD3Hm And support the project here: https://lnkd.in/dRNwviz2

At the core of expertise lies a firm understanding of the fundamentals and internal workings of the technology you are using. In the dynamic landscape of modern tech, expertise isn't just about surface-level knowledge—it's about mastering the intricacies that lie beneath the surface. 🌟 At the heart of true expertise lies a profound understanding of both the fundamentals and the internal workings of the technology we engage with. It's not merely about knowing how to use a tool; it's about comprehending its inner mechanisms, its nuances, and its potential. Think of it as exploring the inner workings of a finely crafted timepiece. To truly appreciate its craftsmanship, you must understand the intricate gears and mechanisms that drive its functionality. Similarly, to excel in the tech realm, we must delve deep into the core of the technology we utilize. Why is this understanding so crucial? 🤔 It empowers us to troubleshoot effectively. When we encounter challenges or glitches, a comprehensive grasp of the technology's workings enables us to diagnose issues accurately and find solutions efficiently. It fuels innovation. By understanding the foundational principles and internal workings, we can push the boundaries of what's possible. We can identify opportunities for optimisation, enhancement, and even disruption. Meanwhile, this deep understanding fosters confidence and adaptability. In the ever-evolving tech landscape, those who possess a solid foundation and a keen insight into internal mechanisms are better equipped to navigate changes and embrace new technologies seamlessly. In essence, expertise isn't a destination; it's a journey—a journey of deep exploration, continuous learning, and relentless curiosity. By understanding the core of the technology we wield, we unlock boundless opportunities for innovation, growth, and impact. Let's embark on this journey together! 💡✨ #Expertise #Technology #Innovation #ContinuousLearning #TechJourney

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐲! 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞? 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟⤵️ ... Every concept, no matter how complex, can be expressed in simple terms, and it's essential to do so if you aim to sell your idea. ⚠ Scientists (guilty as charged ☝🏽) and founders, when pitching their innovations, often used to think that what they describe 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐥. 💵Actually, it's often the opposite, and it can make the difference between 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭. See below 😉 Recently, I came across a report about an experiment at the National Ignition Facility. Presented scientifically, it would read something like:🔬 '𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮-𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴.' ❌ Lost right? Now, consider a journalist's interpretation of the same concept: '𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯.' ✔️How clear is this ? 𝗦𝗼, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀? 1️⃣ To persuade your audience (especially investors) about your idea, it's fundamental to communicate in 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬. 2️⃣ 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 industry-specific 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐬, shortcuts and abbreviations. Substitute them with lucid, straightforward expressions. 3️⃣ Failure to 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 what you're putting across means you may miss out on potential funding opportunities. Simplifying may be harder than complicating things, but it's a journey that's worth the effort ! #startupsuccess #presentation #investors #performance #tech #science #phd

📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚 📕 #BookWormWednesday 📕 📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚📖📚 Approaching Chapter 7 [Technology Accelerators] of #GoodToGreat, I must admit I didn’t expect to gain much. Surely the tech to be discussed when the book was written wouldn’t still be relevant today… But, these principles are not only still applicable, they may actually be #Timeless. Frankly, Tech has existed in some form or another arguably since the beginning of time. And, the one who leverages it best wins. Here are a few chapter notes: 📑 - Technology can only be great when applied to coherent concepts that reflect the intersection of Passion, Potential, and Profit (HedgeHog Concept Circles) 📑 - “Tech-Induced change is nothing new. The real questions are ‘What is the role of the Tech?’ and ‘How do Great Orgs/People think about and leverage technology differently?’ 📑 - “When used right, tech becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.” 📑 - “Tech without a clear hedgehog concept, and without the discipline to stay within the 3 circles, cannot make a company great.” 📑 - “Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.” 📑 - “Technology by itself is not a primary cause of greatness nor decline.” 📑 - “Thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability, not an asset.” Talk to me… what hit home for you?

Technical knowledge is cumulative, but human behavior must be relearned. All technical knowledge is built atop the inventions and discoveries that precede it. That’s why technology proceeds forward (with occasional setbacks) year after year. But human behavior and human systems don't have cumulative knowledge. Each person has to learn how to communicate, interact, and resolve conflicts on their own. They learn in their families and in schools and among their peers as they grow. But everyone has to internalize these lessons through experience, and figure out their own strategies as they go through life. Some people are better at it than others. And depending on personality and accumulated wisdom, some may forget and have to re-learn some lessons multiple times. The same is true for organizations. Institutional knowledge provides lessons and structure, but how an organization behaves depends on its people and the roles they play. This is part of why you see young companies with young founders making strange decisions or committing obvious mistakes. They don’t have the experience to know better. Not that experience always yields better outcomes. Blindly following past practice leads to stagnation. Sometimes those strange decisions lead to better ways of working, organizing, and achieving goals. The tension between experience and experimentation, like in science, leads toward progress. It’s messier and takes longer and has to be relearned with every generation.

The essence of the lessons on innovation in project mercury boil down to this. "Don't fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with and deeply understand the problem." Aka your customer's most critical 'jobs to be done.' Folks didn't just want faster horses. They wanted streets with less horse sh!t. If you can find what *literal crap* you can stop doing while still enabling the job to be done, you'll have a product, process, and approach people will want to support. N.B. power-user 'feature creep' looks like crap to a lot of novice users. Solve a small problem 100%, don't settle for an 80% solution to a huge one.

#Reversethinking, also known as #reverseengineering thinking or reverse logic, is a problem-solving approach where you start with the end result and work backwards to determine the steps needed to achieve it. This technique can help uncover different perspectives, identify overlooked assumptions, and generate creative solutions. Here are some ways reverse thinking can be applied: 1. Problem-Solving : Instead of asking "How can we solve this problem?" you might ask, "If the problem were already solved, what would that solution look like, and how did we get there?" 2. Innovation: By imagining the ideal outcome or product, you can work backward to identify what steps need to be taken to reach that outcome, potentially revealing innovative ideas or methods. 3. Troubleshooting: In diagnosing issues, you can start with the current problem and work backwards to find the root cause. 4. Planning and Strategy: When planning, you can start with the desired outcome and reverse-engineer the necessary steps, resources, and milestones to get there. 5. Learning and Understanding: When learning a new concept, you can start with a complex solution or advanced concept and break it down into its foundational elements. Reverse thinking can be a powerful tool because it shifts the focus from conventional forward-thinking approaches, often leading to new insights and unexpected solutions.

We hate to break it to you, but implementing new tech isn’t going to make all your problems disappear. 🪄 You can’t get quantifiable results from technology alone – you need to improve and evolve your strategies, too. Tech tools’ outputs are only as good as their inputs. All the insights in the world won’t mean anything to your open rates if your subject lines are lackluster. Any time you add a new tool to your tech stack, be sure it’s accompanied by thoughtful and methodical strategies to get the most out of your investment. 

Putting "impact" on your web page is easy. Generating real impact is hard. Enter an effective Logic Model (Theory of Change): a structured framework that links activities to outputs to outcomes to max the likelihood that constrained resources are used effectively to drive measurable, meaningful & goal-aligned impact. Follow this link to my Talk Nerdy to Me blog and download a handy template. https://lnkd.in/gDPAdUv9 I'm sure there are bits I missed. Please do reach back with comments and feedback!   #Impact #Innovation #StartupSupport

https://lnkd.in/e2DbGVEr Informative video of The Three Horizons Framework, interesing tool when thinking about innovation and transformative change.