Draw Your Ideas
avc.com
avc.com
1. Draw out your idea. The sentiment here seems to be more about getting the idea out of your head than planning how to implement it; that putting the idea on paper transforms it. It also lets you share it more easily.
2. Recognize luck. Dorsey discussed how certain factors come together to encourage building an idea. The idea for Twitter was several years old, but in 2005 cross carrier SMS made it easier to realize. Also his working situation (@Odio with Evan Williams and Biz Stone) allowed exploration of other things. Ev and Biz immediately understood the concept due to their blogging background.
3. Iterate. Dorsey talked about how the @, RT:, and # paradigms were user-driven, and the Twitter founders thought it was ugly and resisted it initially. Talked about Square and the need to iterate on the designed to make it polished enough for people to trust.
4. Know when to stop. Sometimes ideas just won't work, and you need to put them aside, knowing that some element of the idea might resurface later. I thought it was interesting that he couched it this way, as it is more palatable than the thought of killing an idea entirely.
I make flow-charts. I think in "connections" therefor I create huge sheets with hundreds of arrows connecting my thoughts. It is really ugly, but this is how I think, this is how I understand my world.
Also I take audio notes.
I do this because I am not a visual person. Pictures have little meaning to me.