But what to do with all these 'shiny objects' with respect to your service design?

Where to put these piping hot lightbulbs and their ‘a-ha!’ energy?

Surely they can’t all be traps, right?

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You’re right: here are two steps to collect and process them:

One mental and one tactical.

Step 1 - Mental: Remind yourself each idea is a hypothesis, not a solution

Even just this subtle shift can pump the brakes on an otherwise capricious decision to change course.

When you frame new ideas as something that needs to be proven or disproven, it forces you to think a bit more critically about what you would need to learn before going all-in.

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Step 2 - Tactical: Document and categorize them

You don’t want to lose these ideas! We all know how elusive they can be to try to retrieve later, which is part of why it’s so tempting to act quickly on them.

So start a barebones repository — nothing fancy, just a Google sheet, a Notion doc, your Notes app, even a physical notebook.

And place your idea in one of three buckets: Now, Next, or New

• Now: ideas that may improve my existing service offering or client acquisition for that offering
• Next: ideas that may create a follow-on or add-on offering for my current target client (ICP)
• New: ideas that may open additional client types or revenue streams in the future

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With this simple '3N' framing, you’ve instantly created a prioritization guide to help allocate your precious attention. This can be a great view to structure a check-in with a sounding board.

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So, you ask, what happens when your hypothesis doesn’t fit into one of those buckets?

Perhaps consider a fourth bucket: ‘No.’

Or at the very least: ‘Not right now.’

You can always come back to it later.

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Been feeling stuck lately, or itching to reset your service design for the new year?
​Private coaching might be a good fit. My new slate of services is on sneak peek for Lightbulb readers until Monday.

Be sure to ask about flexible scheduling during the holidays!