Innovation Needs Roundup

How do we know which ideas to pursue?

The transition from ideation to execution reminds me of tending a perennial garden. There's lots of stuff growing there but not all of it is desirable.

• Ideas sprout up everywhere, in places we don't want, and usually a lot faster than we can control.
• Good ideas, like perennials don't look like much when you first plant them.
• Bad ideas can be aggressive and crowd out those needing nurturing.
• Good ideas produce sustainable, year-to-year, growth; bad one's are seasonal.
  
• Bad ideas attract as much attention as good ones yet are designed to be viral (dandelion).
  

Most ideas are weeds, we need a weed killer.

Personally, I need to heed my own advice -- lots of ideas; some should be killed. Although at $9 a pound 'wild greens' (aka weeds) are the new gourmet food and maybe I should sell them.