Jean-Paul D.

Over the years I had awesome brainstorm sessions that made us all feel connected, innovative, and pumped about what we envisioned. I also experienced overwhelming sessions that left everyone drained and confused. Here are a few directions that never failed getting only the best ideas out: - Pick one: Either the main project stakeholder leads the session or hire an external consultant to organize it. Make sure that the person leading does not get their authority challenged during the sessions. - Warm-up: Creativity needs the right mindset, so open the session with an activity that will relax your crowd. Anything from stand-up jokes to breathing exercises to going back to memory lane with them works. - Have fun: Fun makes it unforgettable.

At slock.it we developed a patented solution that made it possible for IoT devices to securely access and execute Ethereum smart-contracts. Here is what I've learned in the process: 3/3 Credit where credit is due - Here I care to push the "Educate your team" mentality far far away. Decision makers must be active members of a highly motivated and tight-knit team, and onboard them into the strategy, risks, and rewards of the product/IP development boat. Role or any kind of segregation and alienation is what that will erode the IP advantage by one way or another. Furthermore, it is much more fun and wholesome experience when you are all in into building things together.

At slock.it we developed a patented solution that made it possible for IoT devices to securely access and execute Ethereum smart-contracts. Here is what I've learned in the process: 2/3 Pick a license strategy early on - We had a nice early-stage product when we finally defined our commercial and legal strategy. We had to go through the painful and super-long process of picking our product apart looking for library licenses, and then go through finding new libraries and providers that aligned with our commercial license and strategy.

At slock.it we developed a patented solution that made it possible for IoT devices to securely access and execute Ethereum smart-contracts. Here is what I've learned in the process: 1/3 Find a customer/partner to test your product - We ended up attacking multiple fronts of use cases, which felt like we were painful slow to deliver product-grade software, when we actually had a pretty hard-working and solid team. This will also guarantee your product is first to market.