Gen AI in Innovation: Building Genius Teams

As we approach the 2 year mark of the generative AI revolution, it's time to shift our focus from individual tasks to boosting collective team performance. Life is a team sport, and AI can help us play better together.

Reid Hoffman , co-founder of LinkedIn and Silicon Valley pioneer, likens generative AI to a “steam engine of the mind,” set to transform our professional and personal lives profoundly.

The McKinsey & Company article Gen AI: A cognitive industrial revolution based on an interview with Hoffman highlights generative AI’s potential to enhance communication, reasoning, analysis, sales, and marketing, truly transforming the cognitive landscape. It also muses on the range of possible uses at work and in all aspects of our lives.?

To demonstrate, Hoffman asks two gen AI bots ( ChatGPT and Inflection AI 's Pi) to help him write two different ways of introducing himself to the readers. Hoffman seems amazed by both versions–especially the amount of detail. “The fact you could so easily generate two pithy introductions says something significant about how far AI has come in the last couple of years,” he says.

The three innovator archetypes

Hoffman encourages everyone to experiment with gen AI as the best way to learn about gen AI:

Ask yourself, “What kinds of things might I experiment with? What did other people experiment with, and how do I learn from them?” One of the more interesting things about these new agents and models is that you can ask them how they can help you.

While Hoffman's advice is valuable for individuals, it overlooks a crucial component of team innovation. Drawing from Stanford University Graduate School of Business Innovative Technology Leader program, I've identified three essential archetypes for innovation:

1?? The Experimenter: The one who jumps in and starts prototyping ideas immediately.

2?? The Observer: The quiet, attentive one who watches and analyzes experiments, often leading to breakthroughs.

3?? The Trend Watcher: The one who constantly monitors the competitive landscape.

Each archetype plays a unique role in the innovation process.

Hoffman's approach covers experimenters and trend watchers, but misses the critical role of observers. Observers provide unbiased, independent evaluations that elevate experiments to new heights. It's challenging to objectively assess your own work, making the observer's role invaluable in the innovation process.

The unsung hero: how an observer saved the day

To illustrate the power of the observer, consider this true story shared by renowned physicist Richard Feynman about his college years:

During a fraternity hazing ritual, Feynman and his fellow pledges were blindfolded, driven to a remote area, and tasked with finding their way back. Most were anxious, intensely focused on the problem. However, one student in the group, Maurice Meyer, maintained a lighthearted attitude, cracking jokes throughout.

When the group reached a critical intersection, it was Maurice who provided the breakthrough. While others argued about directions, Maurice calmly suggested, "Go this way." Irritated by his apparent lack of seriousness, the group initially dismissed him. But Maurice explained: "Look at the telephone lines. Where there's more wires, it's going toward the central station."

This observation, which had eluded the stressed-out group, proved to be the key to their solution. They walked straight into town without a single wrong turn.

This anecdote perfectly encapsulates the value of the observer in innovation:

• Observers often notice crucial details that others miss due to stress or narrow focus.
• A different perspective, even if it seems unserious at first, can lead to breakthrough solutions.
• The ability to see the bigger picture and make connections is vital in problem-solving.

Genius teams thrive in an open innovation ecosystem

I recently mused on Genius teams and shared learnings from my Series B startup Synadia on why goofing off is great for innovation. Today, I'd like to share our not-so-secret innovation accelerator: the observers of our open source ecosystem.

At Synadia , we believe in an open ecosystem of innovation where all three innovator archetypes come together to build things that have not been dreamt yet. Our open source NATS.io community and the developers using our software completely drive our technology roadmap. We’re constantly engaging with the ecosystem, interacting–and getting helpful feedback. We’ve invested significantly in resources to help with the developer experience too: documentation, video tutorials, and sample code resources.

I deeply believe the open source community offers the ideal playground for innovation (as defined at Stanford) with this unique blend of personalities Innovation thrives in an open-source community, where:

? Experimenters build and maintain the core code.

? Observers integrate it into their app stacks and provide critical feedback.

? Trend Watchers identify trends and share insights.

However, it's crucial to recognize that these roles evolve over time in a healthy open-source ecosystem:

• Initially, those who create the core code are the experimenters.
• As the project matures, code creators and maintainers often transition into the role of observers, while the community becomes the primary source of experimentation. Community members bring new ideas, pull requests, and fresh perspectives on the code.
• Maintainers observe the community's direction and integrate these new ideas.

This evolution is critical for the health of open-source projects. If maintainers fail to observe and adapt to the community's direction, it can lead to forks, loss of interest, and ultimately, the decline of the project. The ability of maintainers to shift from experimenters to astute observers ensures the project remains vibrant and relevant.

At Synadia, we’re trend watchers, seeing new trends in app development, like the need for the new type of apps that can thrive at the edge. We run experiments on what additional value our NATS-based tech stack can bring distributed app builders and innovators. We need our community—customers, users, and OSS contributors—to observe and test the tools we provide.

This community of innovative heroes feels vital. They lift us up. Because of them (and their bold experiments) we are indeed a mighty team, and as Hoffman says, bringing "promise to profoundly alter our professional and personal lives."

Following great feedback from our open source community, we just added the missing piece of the puzzle with the launch of Nex that completes our groundbreaking #NoStackTechStack trifecta: #compute (Nex), #data (JetStream) and #networking (NATS)

???????Join our private beta, be part of our open innovation ecosystem and start building today! ? https://www.synadia.com/blog/synadia-cloud-applications-private-beta