The client organization was looking to find the next big thing for their customers.
Larger horizon in understanding the pain points and challenges in their customers’ lives and how they can offer different products and services.
Exploration of new offers in emerging categories and market that enable disruptive innovation and aim to position them for the next wave of growth.
Looked at what role they could play in helping their customers connect their devices to benefit their daily lives.
Specifically…
Smart devices allow us to do incredible things. With digital and cloud technology, the sky is the limit. How can we connect our device to the home to benefit our daily lives? What role could the Client Play?
The client has a team of Team of 4 who were tasked to explore that.
However, they “who are lagging a bit behind at the moment.”
They had their idea (found from researching frustrations and peeve points) and now need help testing and validating their idea, and fleshing out their business model canvas.
They had done a market scan and looked at problems and they had then gone on to do 2 Ideation Sessions and come up with 90 or so product ideas and then shortlisted them
They had engaged an external service provider, but that hadn’t got them where needed to be with their milestones – to Proof of Concept stage.
This was measured by the following outcomes:
- Technology validation (can the technology be built);
- Initial Market Size (market size based on accurate data); and
- Business Model validation (does the market want it).
The problem is the lack of results certainly wasn’t their fault because there is a specific way to go about new product creation.
I knew what that was because of my background:
- I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni);
- I am a Startup Weekendglobal facilitator (I’ve been involved in 10+ hackathons events globally);
- I am a co-founder and current director of not-for-profit Startup Adelaide Inc– a not-for-profit organisation that exists to foster and support the Adelaide tech startup sector;
- I am a co-founder and administration of the Startup Adelaideforum which has 700 members;
- I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Tableaward-winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program;
- I am the former Director of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance;
- I am the former Marketing Manager of New Venture Institute at Finders University;
- I am the Australia Day Citizen of the Yearfor Unley (2015)for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
- I was recognised in Startup Daily’s“Top 50 Australian Startup Influencers” in Australia and “Mentors you should know in the startup space, Adelaide Edition”;
- I won an honourable mention in Australian Anthills30 under 30 award for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
- I am an independent member of the Business and Economic Development Committeefor Unley Council;
- I was on the judging panel for The Australian Centre for Social Innovation’s Aging Challenge in 2015.
Solution
This was recognised by the client who contacted me cold to task me come in and help them with their milestones.
No small task based on where they were at.
What I did was run the client team through an internal Hackathon style workshop – part lecture (live talking + video) and part activities (worksheets and implementation of worksheets).
I facilitated and took the lead in the direction of achieving the outcomes.
The activities I focused on to achieve the desired outcomes were:
- Market Analysis;
- Value proposition creation;
- Prototype design;
- Customer relationships and value ladder;
- Marketing and distribution channels;
- Costs;
- Market sizing;
- Revenue;
- Pricing;
- Offer creation;
- Sales and first customers/users;
- Prototype building;
- Partnerships; and
- Initial business model.
Don’t be fooled.
Although I have a very specific sequence and niche of content, a lot of this isn’t new.
It’s available online.
That’s not the value: What a lot of people get hung up on is the content and consulting.
If it was, then this team would have achieved their milestones already and not needed my expertise.
The value is in the:
- Teaching;
- Coaching; and
- Accountability.
That this style of Hackathon achieves.
Results
Speaking of results.
In the 11.5 hours I worked with the team, they finalized the following:
- Analysed the market;
- Created their value proposition;
- Designed a prototype;
- Settled their customer relationships and value ladder;
- Settled their marketing and distribution channels;
- Settled their Costs;
- Accurately sized their market (almost everyone gets this wrong, and they didn’t);
- Settled their revenue streams;
- Settled their pricing model;
- Created and off;
- Sold to their first customer;
- Built their prototype;
- Settled potential partnerships; and
- Settled their initial business model.
You can read more about this process here.
They then went on to create an amazing pitch for their board.
By the way, I’ve seen hundreds of pitches before, and this was certainly in the top 5%, and I’m not just saying that because of my bias in being involved in the project.
Testimonials
In addition to these results and based on their experience, this are some of what the client had to say.
“Orren has a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm. I wasn’t hesitant about attending the workshop and ultimately I decided to attend to get help with the mission. One of the biggest benefits attending this workshop has been learning about innovative ideas. I think Orren should run the next ‘innovation champion’” Ryan Cowled
“Always enjoy learning new and or better ways to do things and embrace the experience. I instigated that as a group we really needed some additional help to accelerate the group and Ben and Ashleigh suggested to bring you in because you’re a gun! Definitely helped to bring the team together and gave us some key points to focus on. Anyone looking to put a framework behind a problem without any clear outcome in mind. In essence, bring together and ascertain whether an opportunity is viable in a short period of time. In essence, it’s a rapid feasibility to bring together a problem and ascertain if and what the problem really is, while also ascertaining whether the opportunity is viable and how big the opportunity is and all in a short period of time.” Ben Michael
“Thanks again for your time and expertise!”
“It was really nice working with you. Thanks again.”
The average Net Promoter Score that is the clients overall satisfaction with and loyalty to the service I provided was 9.33/10.
Let me repeat: 9.33/10.
I get results.
For them, this was well-and-truly, worth the price of engaging me.
If you would like me to get similar or better results for your corporate, contact me.