What's The First Thing You Do When You Get An Idea?

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Ideas strike at the strangest times :grin:

But what do you do when you get an idea? From software testing to suggesting feature designs or improvements.

I talk out loud a lot when I get ideas! I do this to help me fully form the idea, it’s never really polished when it pops into my head. Once I’ve talked it out a bit with myself, I write it down. I used to start by writing the idea down to come back to it but then I ended up with a lot of notes for ideas that didn’t really make much sense :sweat_smile:

What about you? What’s the first thing you do when you get an idea?

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What I should do is write it down. Depending on the idea I mostly talk with the team about it, perhaps a quick mention at the standup or during lunch to see what they have to say about it. If it’s catchy I’ll work it out and present a ‘POC’ of the idea.

If everyone is against it and they provide good arguments then I’ll drop it. If they didn’t like the idea but I still do believe that it would be beneficial, I’ll work it out also to prove them wrong :wink: If it didn’t work out well… nobody has to know :slight_smile:

But yea writing it down is the first step because sometimes you just don’t have time in the moment you get the idea. It should be an instant reflex which I’m still struggling with!

Kind regards
Kristof

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I have a lousy memory so I have become adept at taking notes. When an idea hits, if I don’t write it down I have a tendency to chew it over endlessly, iterating, challenging it etc. If I spit it out onto paper (or digitally) I can “put it away” until such time as I want to dedicate time to it… which may well be never.

Google Keep is my personal repository, OneNote my work one. I like having the separation, it keeps things in their own bubbles.

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Depends what it is and how important or urgent it might be. I have a notes app on my phone if I’m out. A white board in my home office area. I sometimes open a doc and start writing to dump everything out of my brain. I do know that if I don’t list things in the order I want to go back to them they never see the light of day again…

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I can relate to all of this.

I need to write it down or I will forget it, unless it makes a comeback at a highly inappropriate time.

I love Keep and One Note for these things, and generally try to keep them separated, but sometimes Keep gets a bit of work stuff as well as it’s significantly easier to use on my phone.

I used to be all about the post-its, but that’s less good for the environment, I’d often lose them and my handwriting is atrocious.

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I can relate to this.

I have a bad memory too and so i make sure to write down each and every important thing or ideas.

It helps me alot and works kind of checklist to make sure i have covered evenrything.
Sticky note and One note my fav one.

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