- One of the things that really hurt Apple,
was after I left, John Sculley got a very serious disease.
And that disease, I've seen other people get it too.
It's the disease of thinking that a really great idea
is 90% of the work and that if you just tell
all these other people, here's this great idea,
then of course they can go off and make it happen.
(somber music)
- What's up guys?
I'm in Los Angeles today, land of dreams really.
People come here from all around the world
to start their dreams in TV and film.
Down the street at Anaheim, there happens to be
one of the most magical places on earth, Disney.
(Disney music)
- This is not Santa's workshop.
It's just one section of a creative world
where new attractions for Disneyland are conceived.
- My COO Jen Wolf was just telling me
about how Disney does their imagineering.
It's this thing called the Disney Method.
It's a way to think when you're trying to create
something brand new.
The Disney Method comprises three elements,
three different questions,
What should we build?
How should we build it?
And why should we build it?
That first room is for dreamers.
Can we live in an ideal world and in that ideal world,
what do we want in it?
The dreamer stage is obviously the most fun stage.
It's the part that I really like as well
and if you're watching this channel,
I suspect a lot of you guys like it too.
If we had unlimited resources, what would we do?
This is sort of known as the brainstorm stage.
If you have an idea, don't say no, say yes and.
It's sort of the improv stage.
It's so powerful to sit down with people
and all get into that mode.
This is the truly collaborative aspect of creation
when you sit in a room and try to think of what world
we want to live in.
What would the ideal solution be without regard to cost,
whether it's people or money or time?
What's important about this stage
is helping you orient which way do we want to go.
This stage also might actually produce a laundry list
of things that we want and that's okay.
This again is the stage where we say yes and.
The second room that's very important
is the room for realists.
This is the pragmatic, practical side
of thinking about how to implement something.
Remember, in the dreamer room, we didn't think about cost.
We didn't think about people,
we didn't think about resources.
And once you have that laundry list of the ideal world,
we've got to go into the realist stage
and try to figure out how can we actually implement
that ideal world.
- There's just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship
in between a great idea and a great product.
- This is also often the stage
where you have to think about priorities.
When you have limited resources,
you have to choose your scope.
What is something that's achievable within our milestones?
- There's tremendous trade-offs that you have to make.
I mean, there are just certain things
you can't make electrons do.
There are certain things you can't make plastic do
or glass do.
- Startups in a nutshell are driven
by these two stages interacting.
First you come up with the direction,
that's the dreamer stage.
Then you've got to put together a plan.
You've got to hire people, you've got to raise money,
you've got to deploy that money well.
The best founders can switch between the dreamer world
and the realist world very quickly.
Not all founders have this,
but it's important to have that skillset on the team
and for those people to work very closely together.
The ideal outcome is not a list
of unconstrained things to do from this stage.
The ideal thing is almost to prioritize Gantt chart.
Here are the resources, here's when we need them,
here are the dependencies.
Out of this stage, the ideal outcome is a great plan.
At the end of that, you can have the finished product.
That's powerful.
And the third room is the room of the critic.
This is the room where you ask why.
Why should we do this?
This stage is about asking questions
about who gets affected.
Who would be against it?
Who gets hurt by this?
And if the costs are too great,
really maybe we shouldn't do it at all.
This stage is about hardening the plan from the realists
and then the dreamers into something
that you can really stand behind.
The critics are what help get a good plan to be great.
You need all three, dreamers, realists and critics.
What should we build?
How should we build it?
And why should we build it?
If you can answer those questions,
you're on the right track.
- It's that process that is the magic.
- Thanks a lot for watching.
I'm just having fun making these videos so, take it easy.
(upbeat music)