There’s an important phase in product and business development called
noodling. Some refer to this marinating, but I think the sense of
unravelling knots makes noodling the right phrase.
no decision,” in some cases a period of thinking is indeed called for.
In my old age, I find myself sleeping on more and more important
decisions. At Buzzfeed, we’ve fallen into a comfortable 3 stage cycle for big
product pushes. Noodling, followed by planning (scope, features,
timeline), followed by dev. We have lots of little features going at
all times, but it seems that for our team size, having one big product
in each of those three buckets at each time seems right. We’re all thinking about kitchen sinks of business and product ideas
all the time, but out noodling is more focussed. We’re talking,
researching, writing, and debating to refine our thinking on a
specific element. There’s a danger of letting noodling become paralysis, but there is
also a danger of denying short periods of creative, only modesty
structured thought. Also, while noodling, we have the other two
buckets filled. We know we have to be done noodling and ready to plan
as soon as then planning bucket empties. Otherwise we’re wasting
capacity. On the topic of noodling, I’d recommend reading “The Double Helix,”
about the discovery of DNA. It’s a great case study of how solutions
come to you unpredictably, but also, when you are in the rift state of
mind. (apologies for typos et al. Written on iPhone on subway)
