October 21, 2005
Qualities of Successful ODIs
Overall
- The idea is very easy to get.
- The idea is very quick to get.
- The idea is easy to communicate to others.
- The idea is new.
- The idea is big.
- The idea is edgy.
Lower Risk- Give people their money back if the idea doesn't reach a pre-defined tipping point!
- Make it possible to contribute in very small ways and still receive some benefits.
Increase the UpSide- Give contributors recognition. Give special benefits to early contributor (e.g., the first 100 people to contribute will be acknowledged as founders on the web site). Firefox gives recognition via a roll call.
- Allow people to get recognition for the success of the overall project and the success of their contributions.
- Make the founders have enough skin in the game that they're willing to promote the site to others and even invest more time/money to protect their initial investment.
Posted at October 21, 2005 05:38 AM
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Excellent breakdown. I think you are definitely on to something with this notion that a successful ODI has low risks, and can more or less guarentee small scale returns, however, at the same time, as the possibility of a big return.
It leads me to start to consider ODIs in a pseudo-economic manner. What's the require investment for users to participate? What's the expected return? An idea that had a small chance of a *big* return, and a big chance of a small return, and no chance of a big loss, will generate a high expected return. Perhaps capturing this notion that people are drawn to things that will almost definitely give them a little satisfaction (in terms of entertainment, recogniction, money), but has a chance of something big.
