Time and Innovation
How do we weigh the push and pull of innovation?
What I mean to say is, as we spend months - and in some cases years - planning and preparing a project, innovation inevitably happens around us.
Sometimes it stings: “Ah crap, I bought all of these coffee scales months ago but they just released a new version that does exactly what I need.”
Other times it’s a gift: “Wow! I’ve been looking for months trying to find the perfect grinder for our shop, and this new release has features that are going to save us so much time and money!”
The dilemma is this: we can’t wait forever for innovation to catch up with our dreams.
Writing my project ideas down into a document nearly a year ago really helped to get them out of my head and onto paper. Since that time however, many updates have been made. In fact, it feels like a document that’s constantly changing, more of a flowing river than something carved in stone.
In many ways our project is much clearer in my mind - and on paper - than it was only a handful of months ago. Vague ideas have crystallized into names of specific products. Workflow concepts which were until very recently only made possible by build-it-yourself determination, now not only exist in ready-to-go products, but through entire brands who specialize in niche offers specifically designed to meet our needs. In this way, waiting has saved us time.
At some point however, we have to make the leap. There won’t be any time left for hesitation or to wait for a new product release to make things easier. All of our careful research and reflection has served us well, and after that we’ll have to trust our instincts.
Opening your doors isn’t a commitment to never change. It’s the beginning of a long road of learning and improving. But the foundation has to be there: a solid base we can build upon without second-guessing every brick.
And we’re well-placed in time. Innovation has already handed us tools that, a few years ago, would have been out of reach. Without them, this project would struggle to exist at all.
We’re arriving quickly at the end of our research, and the beginning of building something. Ideas will become brick, and wood, and workflow. But until then, we’re thankful to have so many other people out there fighting to make their ideas become reality, in the form of boundary-pushing coffee equipment.
So how do we weigh the push and pull of innovation? We do what we do behind the bar: we weigh, then we pour. When the scale tips—when the foundation is sound enough, the tools are good enough, and the river has shown us its course—that’s the moment to move. The rest we’ll adjust in the flow.
Artwork by Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël, Photo taken by Benjamin Schwartz