"They were smart, experienced, and deeply committed to building something meaningful. But despite their talent, their work felt...flat. They were completing tasks, but they weren't creating anything truly innovative. They weren't challenging each other's thinking. They weren't imagining possibilities beyond the obvious ones. Then something shifted. During a planning meeting, someone asked a question that reframed the whole discussion: "What problem are we really trying to solve?""
"And that's when I was reminded of a simple truth: Real innovation happens when people think together. The Myth of the Lone Genius For generations, we've romanticized the idea of the lone visionary - the single brilliant mind who creates something extraordinary in isolation. But that's not how great products are built. And it's not how innovation actually works. Even when an idea begins with one person, it is shaped, refined, improved, and made real by many."
A product team that had been completing tasks without innovation regained momentum when a reframing question — "What problem are we really trying to solve?" — spurred lively debate and new ideas. Team members challenged assumptions, built on each other's thinking, and quickly produced the beginnings of a breakthrough. Innovation depends on teams acting like teams: sharing purpose, curiosity, and creativity. Individual ideas are shaped, refined, and made real by many. Teams provide the friction, feedback, and diverse perspectives that turn good ideas into great products. Successful teams pursue understanding, debate, explore, and collaborate closely.
Read at Mountaingoatsoftware
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