Avoiding Whitespace + Being Nonconsensus
Part 2 of 3
Last week, we looked at Inflection Theory and why it’s important to change the game instead of simply being better. This week, we look at how to avoid being obvious and consider the idea of being nonconsensus. Let’s dive in-
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Whitespace and Pain Points
Many of us were taught that the way to innovate is to seek human-centered problems or pain points.
Design thinking and user or human-centered design are based on these ideas:
- find a ‘problem to solve’ or a pain point
- ensure that it has a large total addressable market (TAM)
- determine how to address the ‘problem to solve’ — perhaps through a design sprint or other generative and narrowing design activity (ideas!)
- select the best (or top) idea
- determine your serviceable addressable market (SAM)
- create a prototype
- target your SAM
- iterate
- create an MVP
- iterate
- launch
Traditional business strategy is based on whitespace or ‘whitespace opportunities.’ Whitespace can be untapped markets or areas of opportunity in which there are currently no competitors. In both cases, whitespace and pain points refer to perceived opportunities in the here and now within the existing system (even if the intent is to challenge the existing system).
Using the principles of Mike Maples, Jr. and Peter Zeibelman’s Inflection Theory, using whitespace and pain points as the starting point is why most start-ups fail. The ideas one creates to solve for these “opportunities” create obvious ideas that enter an existing market in which the incumbent is already heavily favored to win.
Does the world really need the “Netflix of…” or the “Uber of…”? They might, for a time, but anything that has a parallel in something that already exists is living in the here and now. What Mike and Peter argue is that to be pattern-breaking, you have to look forward instead, seeking inflection points and insights on how to harness them.
As a reminder:
- An inflection is an external event that creates the potential for radical change in how people think, feel, and act.
- Insight(s) are non-obvious truths about how one or more inflections can be harnessed to radically change human capacities and behavior.
(Check out last week’s newsletter if you want the full discussion.)
Ideas generated from a whitespace or ‘problem to solve’ lack the foundation an inflection and insight provide. The ideas you create are guesses, lucky shots in the dark that you’re hoping you can fumble forward into something valuable.
If these ideas hit a snag and need to evolve or pivot, the best you can do is fall back on your user types (sometimes presumed user types), the validity of the problem to solve, the list of ideas you thought of during your ideation session, your target market, messaging, prototype, or... Do you feel like you’re spinning yet?
When you begin with inflections and insights, you have a foundation, a possible vision of the future, and how it might be harnessed, from which to make intentional and thoughtful choices on how best to move.
(In defense of pain points and whitespace, it is possible to build businesses by pursuing these opportunities, but sometimes it’s not. Why not? Because simply being ‘better’ or filling a gap isn’t often enough. And following a trend definitely isn’t enough, either.)
Do you agree? Could it be true that the pursuit of whitespace opportunities or user pain points prevents us from creating true pattern-breaking and game-changing new ideas?
Nonconsensus and the Future
In order to pursue pattern-breaking ideas, one needs to see a future others don’t see:
“Most people don’t know the new powers that are available for them to harness. They don’t recognize that a new thing has appeared in their environment that empowers them to do things they’ve never done before. As a result, they continue with business as usual, unaware that the power to create radical change is there for the taking.” -Mike Maples, Jr.
It can be challenging to imagine what might be coming, but it is possible. There are methods and tools that can assist with futures exploration, such as futures mapping, scenario planning, and implications wheels. However, the most important tool in anyone’s tool one’s toolkit is a nonconsensus mindset and nonconsensus behavior.
Nonconsensus is independence of thought and mind.
It is pursuing something at the edge because it interests you or you’re obsessed with it. Nonconsensus opens new fractals of knowledge that have never been opened before. It creates a new future.
Nonconsensus is different from nonconforming. Nonconforming challenges and pushes against the existing system. Nonconsensus plays a different game. It’s independent of the existing system, and it’s an early push into a new possible future.
As was mentioned last week, you won’t transcend the status quo by working in the existing system or playing in the current game with obvious whitespace or pain-point-solving ideas. Instead, you need to be nonconsensus.
Inflection theory, being nonconsensus, and changing the game aren’t just tools for founders or start-ups; they’re tools for all of us.
- We can all seek inflections and get a sneak peek at the secrets of the future.
- We can all generate insights from the inflections we see and use them to see opportunities, make decisions, and understand possibilities.
- We can all be nonconsensus or have a nonconsensus mindset that will allow us to see things others cannot.
» How will we use them, and what will we do? Look for Part 3 of 3 of this series next week.
References:
This post is sponsored by Northome Group
Northome Group’s fall summit is coming up! It’ll be a morning of new insights, new ideas, and nonconsensus! (P.S. It’s free)
