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Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

Despite the complaints about a few thousand government employees losing their jobs, the private sector has been gung ho on AI replacement theory. Big Tech is cutting tens of thousands and we’re still early in the cycle as they say.

Is the sky really falling this time?

I don’t think so.

Humans have adapted to new technology since the invention of the plow. And we’ll manage AI too. But we need to focus on innovation. Something the machines are not very good at.

I revisit an older post this week as food for your own innovative thought.

Let's get into it.

• Gmail users may wish to read online since some parts may be clipped.

• Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Innovative Platforms

  • Create Inexpensive Disruption

• Modern Tools

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Yes - AI is replacing tens of thousands of white collar jobs.

And it’s happening at a breakneck pace that should make us all think about where the puck is heading.

You may want to pay attention to Mike Rowe if you have teens and twenty-something kids. He’s got his finger on the pulse of jobs that are NOT being replaced by AI.

Peter St Onge named names of tech companies laying off thousands last week, but explains how humans have always improved their lives after technology upgrades.

Pearl clutching doesn’t work.

Innovation does.

And I’m not talking about the way corporate has built cool office space with new age chairs to form an ‘innovation lab’. Corporate innovation has slandered itself by thinking a little brainstorming and random creative genius can be ginned up at will. No amount of white boards and design thinking can magically create innovation.

Problems are too siloed in corporate America. In fact, 95 percent of corporate innovation efforts fail to meet stakeholder expectations (Deloitte).

Small business – and individuals – have more freedom to truly innovate.

Years ago I stumbled on one solution to the silos by having designers, coders and project mangers all sit together. They hated the bullpens.

But daily interactions and water cooler discussions yielded better projects.

Silo cross-communication made it easier for my small business to deliver creative solutions on time and budget. And the results were good enough to get repeat business.

I read a lot of books trying to improve innovation in that service business.

• Design thinking

• Financial management

• Brand differentiation

• Application development

• Product Design

We iterated and grew by improving the process of designing online applications - but in hindsight I’m not sure how much we really ‘innovated.’

Guy Kawasaki was an early Apple evangelist who became an author, venture capitalist and speaker. I borrowed a lot of my innovation thinking from Guy. Extra credit if you’ve read his Art of the Start.

No part of Guy’s Innovation TED talk is about flashy new technology.

Innovative Platforms

I first heard Larry Keeley speak on Innovation at a construction conference over a decade ago.

• He taught MBA classes

• His research was extensive

• And his client list was growing

His team had looked at thousands of innovative companies from Henry Ford to the modern internet. And they found similarities they did not hypothesize:

Innovation could be categorized into 10 distinct types

Importantly, the most innovative companies of the past 100+ years had engaged 5 or more of these types and had used all 3 colors to create differentiated winning products.

These types of unique innovations created enormous corporate value.

I had spent most of my early career on the right side of this scale making online applications better via user interface design, removing customer service friction and web site branding.

I added 10 Types thinking to my digital product development toolbox for a data product redesign.

Instead of just improving the interface (brand) and adding features (product performance) we worked to add new payment options, 3rd party data sets and useful channels requested by customers.

The relaunched product enjoyed a 25% sales increase. And another 20% increase the second year.

Innovation can be systematically created leveraging this platform.

Doblin was bought by Deloitte but Keeley is still worth listening to.

Create Inexpensive Disruption

Innovation does not need a corporate lab or a million dollar budget.

It doesn’t require a room full of Bozos sitting in Steelcase Gesture or Herman Miller Aeron chairs.

SaaS, and more recent AI tools, allow inexpensive software solutions to be crafted into a technology stack that scales as needed. One person can build an enterprise.

Uber and AirBnB didn’t write millions of lines of proprietary code. They used readily available SaaS tools - and a little of their own special sauce - to totally disrupt the travel and hotel businesses.

As Guy Kawasaki says, we all need to be exposed to Bozosity. You’ve probably had plenty of exposure to Bozos in your work life. You’re immune now. Build something your way.

• Your ideas are the differentiator.

• You can borrow the platform concepts.

• You can adapt the lightweight tech stack.

• You can skip the fancy office and innovate from your screen porch.

Don’t listen to the Bozos.

The opportunity from AI far outweighs the loss of today’s jobs.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

How to Hack a $1.3T Market

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Well-known firms like Maveron have already invested. Pacaso even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

Join notable firms like Greycroft as a Pacaso investor today for just $2.90/share.

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Free Knowledge

How To Build a One Person Solo Business Using AI.

This video gives you the exact step-by-step playbook to build a solo business using AI. Discover how to launch a solo business using AI tools even if you have zero followers, zero funding, and zero technical skills.

Recommendations

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Visual Crapshoot