Base League, Inspiration, and Think Tank

Clear categorization for the stages of a project is a very important mindset tool in business. When various stakeholders are misaligned on the stage and its related objectives, it can lead to unnecessary misunderstandings, delays, and inefficiencies. To help alleviate those common issues and establish a baseline expectation for each stage of work, I innovated an organizational system for categories of idea development in communication (i.e., meetings, calls, emails, etc.). The system uses classification into one of three verticals for this purpose.

Base League ( innovation ) — Innovation is defined for this application as creating a complete, executable concept from zero. When dealing with innovation, one is establishing an idea that’s innovative because it’s an original direction without precedent. In my experience, innovation is similar to what one sees in early-stage tech, where decisions are made strategically but with little-to-no boundaries so that you can test limits and move fast to either fail or get to the best outcome as quickly as possible.

Inspiration ( creative ) — Creation in this context is defined as working with a set of established resources and parameters to make something new. Whereas innovation is making “something” from nothing, creation is taking the next step by giving a specific form to that “something.” Creation buffers…