“Romeo-Juliet” and “Dev-D”

I am writing this to help myself and people I work with coping everyday with pressures of innovation and creativity, if you have such struggle enjoy the ride.

I neither made any commitments nor I have any desire to make brevity as my friend, I know I am challenged in articulation but I also know I love story telling, so here comes another story about my life and “Romeo-Juliet” and “Dev D”.

In my life many a times I choose to take my own path fighting myself with obvious choice as compared to what some one called “near suicidal” choice or in simple terms I choose unconventional option.

This journey forced me to cross intersections, where creativity was expected out of me.

I do not have any memory of ever painting unlike my son, I never wrote a piece of poetry or shayri, nor ever went on to stage, so I believed I am not blessed with creative instincts.

I always thought, creativity goes along with innovation, to innovate is to create and vice versa. So, in past and today I have felt challenged and handicapped. This story is about how I am struggling and coping with it.

Necessity is mother of invention too, so I unknowingly build a framework, which after practicing and enhancing has become integral part of my value system.

Now, in my current role, again I am challenged and unlike past don’t have this business as hobby or don’t have anyone to blame or look back. And, on top I am someone like who speaks English with struggle and am in Japan like Tamil Nadu. To avoid complication and let only one person struggle, we have decided to make our official language as Tamil. My current job also or perhaps only includes building innovative products, features, process and business. So, I am in a fix.

Finally, one day I had a Deja Vu and I found my framework. The great “Romeo-Juliet and Dev D”.

Its fascinating to see how powerful and thoughtful Romeo-Juliet and Dev D is and everyday it is evolving.

Let me “again” establish here that my creation and innovation scope is limited to myself and fellow colleagues who are developing software products and someone similar who has similar upbringing and environment.

Challenges I faced and continue to face-

1) As a common man, we are expected to get inspired and learn from role models, but when it comes to creating or innovating some thing we think it is bad to look at role models, we carry latent guilt or let me say it, we think it is bad to copy.

2) As innovators we have this urge to do something brilliant with enormous pride and build something that has never been built but are clueless where to start and what not to do.

3) We as individuals and team have so different and diverse views that building a coherent theme or abstract in coherence becomes mother of problem.

4) We spend more time in spinning new and unlimited ideas without end in sight and every idea looks worthy

5) Still what we build is not something customer appreciates, our technical or business pride and fatigue of hard work makes us emotional and does not allow us to see what customer really want or why should he use our product.

I am not sure how many of you face this problem, but I personally do and I see it brewing around my environment too.

I haven’t figure out the magic key to success, but I have found few frameworks to deal with, it came out while dealing with scenarios with my colleagues and now I am working hard to explain it and evolve and mature it.

“Romeo-Juliet” and “Dev-D”

Let me explain “Romeo-Juliet”

1) In software business though we claim we have a breakthrough idea, but most of the application development we do are in sphere of solutions and not operating system type core work. So, effectively we develop or automate what problem/process is already there. The basic problem we solve or address existed before we started building solution.

2) So, to me it is a situation where the scenario existed centuries before. Like the best love story called Romeo-Juliet written by Shakespeare the great and the generation after him including mine, several people wrote their version of basic plot two people in love, one rich and other people and enacted it.

3) Thus, I inspire our team to look at ideas/processes/products/solutions etc that already exist. Learn from them, improvise from them and not carry guilt in adapting “Romeo Juliet” and crafting our own version of “Romeo Juliet”

Similarly, “Dev-D”

1) Devdas is a similar popular plot, most men in India who got heart broken and got drunk and felt like Devdas

2) Yet, someone recently made movie by “copying” the same plot in modern context and movie is just amazing.

3) Thus, when we improvise, or get inspired, adapt the new delivery in current context. Look at “Dev D”, it has Paro, it has “other female”, Devdas gets drunk, he does everything old Devdas did but in current context, and guess what it has 18 songs and people like me are thrilled and enjoyed. Look at Rock version of sad Devdas.

Hope you got sense of what “Romeo-Juliet” and “Dev-D”. For some of you it may sound boring, if it is then you are wasting your time, go out and enjoy the weather and stop reading. Those, who have innovation and creativity as challenge and want to spend more time reading continue.

I do re-collect my first venture which was forming a club to organize fashion show and I had named it “Ayachee”, then my first fast food was called “La Cartel’s”, then next restaurant was called “Cross-roads”. Ayachee was just after school, La Cartel’s and Cross-roads were in college and at that age, neither I was exposed to any large global economic marketplace nor I had any interest to study branding, so my basic instincts were to “copy” and “improvise”. During my school days there was a popular band called “Apache”, during college our group/gang had self kept name “Cartels” which I got inspired from some latin mafia, some of my old college friends may remember, the color choice of our main display were inspired from Cadbury’s display format. So, sub-conciously I was observing and absorbing and improvising.

The journey continued, went to Middle East then to South Africa where I studied competitors and understood their alliance strategy and then went on becoming first ever alliance manager and developed our alliance business. Later went to US and was again on a spot. We (safe to say “I”) had no experience of launching an Indian software product in North America, I did not have many role models internally within company or externally as other Indian companies as successful or even failed attempts, so I had to step out and embrace internet.

At this stage of my life I was fortunate to study life of Jack Welch and Akio Morita simultaneously, which was very enriching experience as I compared and contrasted two management styles, but among many things one that stayed and made a definite impression was Jack’s philosophy of learning of ideas even outside the company and adopting or implementing (note I couldn’t write “copy”)

In my endeavor to launch product and then sell services, I distinctly remember I would study competitors get inspired, study parallels get inspired and then improvise and implement.

Now, I tell my fellow colleagues,

1) Building UI-Show me where is Romeo Juliet?

2) Building Logic-Show me which Devdas sucks?

3) Building Business Model-Same old question!

Audience, got to say “it works”. Now we as a team has a common lingo, common framework.

This blog I have not written to piss people and start a debate on plagarisim. This is to inspire when dealing with new feature development, building some thing new, at that time looking at what is available and finding what it does not do well is a proven product development strategy, not that I have read, but I experience it everyday. Infact, marketers do a good job by comparing and contrasting two product and showing why new is better then old.

So, guys chill and embrace “Romeo-Juliet” in life and build your own “Dev-D” and see the difference.

Cheers