Endowing ideas with examples

In Art of Gig, Venkat said “Examples, examples, examples”.

For what it’s worth, it’s the only point in the book where he repeats a word three times.

his point was that examples are table stakes for an expertise-provider, such as a strategy consultant or a B2B software product.

Examples are like currency, he says.

It makes me imagine a coin with an idea on one side and an example on the other.

An unexampled idea lacks money-weight; it floats away like a helium balloon not tied to a wrist.

Not to get meta, but let’s look at an example of an exampled idea.

Core DNA provides “headless CMS”, which is an important part of the tech economy.

First, let me set the stage with some general background: organizations create and manage lots of content – of many kinds for many kinds of people for many purposes. Maybe it’s content for tourists. Maybe it’s food menu content. Maybe it’s health information. Maybe it’s complex ecommerce information about, idk, furniture.

You can create all of that with WordPress-type CMS. But wait, do I then have to also display it on a WordPress-type site?

Not if it’s a headless CMS like Core DNA: with this tool content managed in one place can be displayed anywhere. Even really complex ecommerce content.

What you read above, that’s the unexampled idea.

Hold it in your mind for a moment, then read through some concrete examples of the Core DNA headless CMS in action:

• Downtown D.C. improves tourist experience with digital signage
• Burger King rolls out digital menu boards to 6,500+ stores
• The American Heart Association provides life-saving information via Amazon Echo
• IKEA launches an augmented reality catalog mobile app

Does the idea of headless CMS feel a little more solid now?