Skip to content

Stuck? Take an R&D Day

Whenever I’m stuck creatively, I head over to my R&D department to see what they’ve got cooking.What I mean by that is that I start thinking like I’m in the R&D Department instead of the lame report-writing department. This is all pretend because I don’t have an actual R&D department.R&D means research and development if you weren’t sure.Most of what I do is a one man show so that means I’m customer service, finance, research and development, reports, product 1 team, product 2 team and product 3 team.Being in all these different places at once can be exciting but it can also be a little stressful. There are products to push out, admin tasks to handle, new crazy ideas to come up with.My favorite place of all is research and development. Here the new ideas see the light of day. You can do anything you want. You can try new things, experiment, just try stuff just for the sake of it, all in an effort to bring new, innovative ideas to the table. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. The important part is to play with new ideas.Some of these ideas might grow into whole new products or an entire new business. Others might just be the perfect solution for an issue you’re having with one of your products or services. You never when they might come in handy. You might even be able to give them to others who could use them.Most of the time you’ll be in your work mode. Cranking out work on product A or B or doing work for client C. This can get monotonous though and you may find yourself doing the same work over and over again. Time to switch things up. Head into Room 1, as the guys at the 99 Percent refer to it,  and get some big airy ideas out, do some brainstorming, and try out something new.Who knows. What you come up with in your R&D time might be the next big thing.

Tags: