The LAB: Monetizing Twitter with Attribute Dependency (February 2009)
Venture capitalists could increase the value of their investments by applying a corporate innovation method to those investments. Take Twitter for example. It just received its third round of funding – $35 million. Yet it has no revenue, no business model…just the promise of such. It is the perfect time to innovate.
I decided to take the challenge to create new concepts for the Twitter platform that have the potential to earn money. Others are chasing this, too, including the Twitter management team. It reminds me of the early days of Amazon when many (including me) wondered if the company would turn a profit. The difference between Twitter and Amazon is an important one. Amazon started with a business model in mind. From there, it had to achieve economies of scale. Twitter started with none. Economies of scale do not matter until it can define a viable business model.
Let’s see how innovation can help.
I used the Attribute Dependency template of Systematic Inventive Thinking, a method of innovation that works like no other I have found. Attribute Dependency (or AD for short) differs from the other templates in that it uses attributes (variables) of the situation rather than components. It is a powerful tool and more challenging than the others in some respects. It yields amazing results. You start with an attribute list, then construct a 2 x 2 matrix of these, pairing each against the others. Each cell represents a potential dependency (or potential break in an existing dependency) that forms a Virtual Product. Using Function Follows Form, we work backwards and envision a potential benefit or problem that this hypothetical solution solves. Innovation!