Workshop Title
The learner is expected to manage complex tools to understand a concept idea and its value
The learner is expected to manage complex tools to understand a concept idea and its value
- Duration: 5 hours
The learner is expected to be able to manage complex tools to understand a concept idea and its value.
The learner should be able to:
- Identify theories and principles connected to concept ideation
- Determine ideation concepts for value creation
- Evaluate winning and valuable concept ideas
This workshop focuses on the idea generation in a first step and will then continue with a concept on evaluating a created business idea. It is important to understand the importance of getting a business idea right from the beginning to avoid failure and ensure success.
The workshop includes 2 activities of high intensity and is paired with individual or group exercises – the decision on how to implement the workshop can be made by either the trainer or the learner. The main aim is that trainees will come up with a business idea to solve a problem and evaluate it in more depth to see if it has potential. A final pre-selection of a solution shall be made.
It needs to be clearly communicated to the learners that this workshop can only give a first insight into the topics and more self-studying and elaboration needs to be done at a later stage.
This workshop aims at familiarizing VET students with the concept of ideation and the importance of the evaluation of a business idea generated in the process named before.
There will be an introduction to design thinking. Throughout this introduction the main principles as well as the major steps will be discussed in detail. Within this first part of the workshop, trainees will have the chance to come up with potential business ideas for the existing regional priorities – this might be green energy, improvement of critical infrastructure, sustainability issues, etc. The trainer needs to guide the trainees through this whole ideation process and needs to strongly focus on the idea that is going to be developed. It is essential that the trainees understand the process to distinguish between the individual steps. The trainer will also show the trainees how the ideation process can also be applied in a business setting which can support the VET students in their future workplace.
Further, the whole design thinking process will be gone through to give the trainees a complete and comprehensive overview. Once the trainees have completed this task, more work will be done on the elaboration of a business idea to ensure that it can also be evaluated. Evaluation in this case is connected to data collection to make a “go” or “no go” decision to get a preliminary idea of the value of the business idea.
Experiential workshops may entail a form of resistance by the participants as, in order to be successful, their active participation is required. Thus, if the participants are a bit distant, a couple of ice breaking activities may be required, however every experienced trainer know how to deal worth such situations. Furthermore, some concepts presented may need more details in order for the participants to achieve the learning outcomes and that is why the additional resources are provided by the partnership.
In addition, challenges might be connected to the topic itself and identifying a potential problem and coming up with a business idea to solve it. Innovative thinking is critical in this step as well as the willingness of trainees to think outside of the box.
Therefore, it is essential to have engaging trainers that support learners and motivate them to go through the process of idea development and evaluation, even though there is the chance that some ideas might be identified as “no-go” ideas.
Step by step instructions for the preparation and implementation of the workshop
The trainer should start with an introduction to the workshop, presenting the learning outcomes and giving a short introduction overview.
Introduction to the design thinking process
Step 1: Make a short introduction to design thinking and the principles connected. In this first step it is also important to discuss the core questions to be answered in design thinking.
Step 2: Introduction to the five (5) steps of the design thinking process.
Step 3: First, it is important that trainers give a certain frame for the process, meaning a certain problem statement to which solutions/business ideas are generated. Possible scenarios can be, very recent ones, dependency on oil and gas and energy switch, shortages in the regional supply chain, sustainability measures to boost local tourism and create awareness, … Certainly these are not limits but suggestions. If trainees, already have an own idea, it is certainly also possible to continue working with this idea.
Step 4: Focusing on the ideation process, the trainers should work on elaborating a business idea together with the trainees to solve the problem declared within the beginning. There are many options – trainees could be working on an individual basis but it is also possible that students work in teams on the creation of specific business ideas. It is important that when it comes to the idea generation that trainees focus on business ideas that can positively influence the local society.
In order to start the ideation process, first trainers should introduce to idea generating methods, introduce them to the trainees and let the trainees use them to come up with potential ideas.
Students now have 45 minutes to use the techniques presented in the first place to come up with a couple of ideas for potential businesses. Afterwards each trainee or team of trainees should present their outcomes to other mates and feedback should be given by the trainer as well as by the other trainees. Trainees then have the time to adapt their ideas to continue working with them.
Step 5: Once, ideas had been generated, the trainer should give further insights into the steps 4 & 5 of the design thinking process and continuation of working on the business idea. Certainly, trainees can only work on a rather theoretical way and but the trainees can elaborate an action plan.
Introduction to the 5 steps to evaluate the potential of a business idea
Step 1: The trainer needs to go through the 5 steps with the trainees. Within this introduction it is important that the trainees always keep their own idea in mind. Within this stage it is important to inform that the evaluation of the business idea is essential to decide on whether it makes sense or not to continue putting timely and monetary efforts into the continuation of the idea.
Step 2: Trainees will get some more insights on how to define a target market and on how to create a person. It is important in this step that the trainees create a persona for the target group(s) identified. Therefore, a template will be provided. Trainees should then present their persona(s) to the other members to get a good understanding of different personas.
Step 3: As for the third step within this activity, a template for macro- and micro-level analysis is available to trainees and the trainer. The trainer shall take up on the template and explain the importance of a market analysis once a business idea has been created. This can only be a crash course – still students receive some insights on where and how collect data for conducting a market analysis. Learners will start with collecting data for their previously developed business idea. Major sources of sources will be presented to the learners.
Step 4: Once the target market as well as the target groups are well understood, a lot of data is collected which builds the basis for the “go” or “not go” decision. Trainees need to make a call within this part and explain why they would like to proceed with their idea or not. The trainer will be supporting as a coach. Students shall work in the timeframe given and shall discuss with the trainer throughout the development process. Certainly, this can only be a first draft but shall give the students some ideas.
Resources
Training rooms, pens, paper, flipchart, colorful markers, sticky notes, projector, template printed in A3
Generally, trainers should be initiating discussions and through these discussions making sure that learners fully understand all concepts before applying them.
