Ubiquitous Security - Blog #1

This dissension has also found its way in academia. Academics more frequently suggest that entrepreneurship should be studied as a practice and a design. Design scientists seek to study the cognitive processes of designers, how designers solve problems, and the role of creativity. Instead of only developing theoretical explanations on why something works, design scientist seeks to build artifacts to find out how they work. The reasoning is that the only way that scholars can fully understand how entrepreneurs build businesses is by engaging in entrepreneurship themselves.

I heard the critiques, and I believe that I should do something about it. That is why in this research project I will become an entrepreneur. It is where No Man Has Gone Before … well, only a few, and therefore I tread lightly.

In this project, the Ubiquitous Security, I study the processes to design factors that enable the introduction of a product in a marketplace. You noticed that the name of the project is Ubiquitous Security? It is because the research starts with the initial idea to introduce a product in the home / personal security sector. With today’s access to technologies, the decreasing prices, and the Internet of Things, should it not be possible to have a personal security system that one can take anywhere?

In the coming months, I will share my observations, the type of decisions I take, how I determine which cognitive processes to use, and how my decisions result in exploiting a market opportunity in the security sector. However, before I do that, I would like to lay a common ground.

I aim to understand the process of designing entrepreneurial opportunities. I define an opportunity as factors that enable the introduction of a product by individuals in a marketplace. For example, available technologies, resources, growing (civil) unrest, and government regulations are factors that influence the market desirability of a product, the technical and operational feasibility, and the financial viability.

I am particularly interested in my cognitive processes used to make decisions. We as humans have two thinking processes; fast and slow. Fast-thinking represents an intuitive decision that is fast and based on experience; it is gut feeling. Slow-thinking represents a thorough analytical process. It usually requires compiling information about the possibilities, comparing them, and finally making a decision. This thinking takes time.

The starting point of this research is when the idea was first conceived. At this stage the idea is still vague, there are no clear formed goals, and I am open to change directions as the situation requires.

At each decision, I will evaluate the originality of the decision and the adequate cognitive process. I evaluate if I have ever taken a similar decision if I have an idea of what the result of the decision should be, if I know of any other similar situations experienced by others, and if I think I can make the right decision. If I determine the originality to be low, I will use the slow-thinking process. In other situations, I will depend on my intuition to make fast decisions.

After each decision, I evaluate the results of the decision and how the decision will bring me closer to the introduction of the product in the security marketplace. In this way, I will determine how my cognitive processes affect the factors that enable the introduction of the product.

With having laid a common ground, I come to the end of this posting. I would like to invite you to join me on this journey. Let’s get surfing.