Google Innovation and The Pretotyping Manifesto

Google Innovation and The Pretotyping Manifesto

I'll be speaking very soon about innovation and The Pretotyping Manifesto (note: not prototyping). It's a concept that works well for any type of engineering, testing, or idea. Here's a brief preview...

The talk starts off by discussing the odds against innovators and how the deck is stacked against you from the start. Most engineers begin with trying to come up with THE killer idea. But you quickly realize that ideas are cheap. We all believe that our own ideas are good. As a matter of fact, most of us LOVE our own ideas to the point where it clouds our judgement. In parallel, there is a strong desire to jump in and build something after a great idea has been identified. Sometimes swarms of well intentioned people join in and "help." Quickly innovators can find themselves in the weeds or feeling disconnected from their original dream. So, what can be done? The idea is to use pretotyping and to focus on techniques that allow you to: Build the right it vs. Build it right.

Last time I did this talk, it was called: "the best keynote of any tech conference ever!"

I'm looking forward to seeing some of you the week of March7th when I'll be in London. In addition to dropping into the Google office, I'll be speaking at QCon London. If you want to attend (at a cheaper rate than normal) here are the details:

• London event March 7-11, 2011.
• My personal "promotion code" will save you £100 if they enter this code during registration.
• Promotion code is: COPE100

Hope to see you in London,

Patrick Copeland

Senior Engineering Director, Google