How to spot opportunities in ever changing technology landscape

Technology landscape evolves by the day due to the effort of several individuals, universities, companies and government agencies. There are two kinds of evolutions – building new technology for solving something and using technology as a lever to solve something. Technology evolves faster with the wider usage in real-life applications. In order to spot opportunities and explore them,  a structured experimentation approach will help.

As an Intrapreneur / Entrepreneur, if you want to spot opportunities with changes in technology landscapes, you mostly focus on applications. Finding answers to a set of questions is an easier way.
Try some of these unconventional ABCDEFGs:
Assumptions – what existing assumptions this new tech is going to challenge, change? – Opportunity for new products, solutions, and applications
Barriers – what barriers are required to cross for adoption?; what new barriers will this tech introduce for potential users/ applications? – Opportunity for hand-holding, consulting, training, solution accelerators
Constraints – What constraints are to be dealt with in adopting?; what constraints this new tech is going to introduce for potential users/applications? Opportunities to innovate on business models
Dependencies – what new dependencies this new tech is going to introduce for potential users/buyers/applications? – Opportunity to introduce complimentary services and solutions.
Experiences – what changes in experience is this new tech is going to introduce for potential users/ buyers/ applications? – Opportunity to build new offerings and displace existing competition
Future-shifters – how does production-supply-consumption pattern change due to this new tech leading to a full transformation of customer involvement in the process? – Opportunity to build a new base of customers and transformational value networks
Global-scale – how does the technology adoption expand across the globe? -Opportunity to start local/ hyper-local and scale globally by partnering.

Every set of answers will provide you a list of opportunities to explore. The key to success, however, is dependent on three factors: Scope, Speed, and Scale of your pursuit. Since everyone around you will be more-or-less at a similar stage, you will always have a level-playing-field. Early starters always have the benefit of quick win or feedback to win better, quickly.

be a #dreamerdoer