Design Thinking for Startups
The success of entrepreneurs and founders in startups often depends not only on the innovation, the marketing, and sales strategy but also on the methodologies from Ideation to Minimum Viable Products (MVP) and then productization. Design Thinking is one such methodology that could help balance innovation with achievable execution for success. This article highlights the innovative Startup Assistant approach that combines Design Thinking with Design Sprints and Low Code/No Code platforms for Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
The following illustrates the Design Thinking Methodology
The Definition phase scopes the Startup's market opportunity with a clear statement that is achievable and measurable. This phase defines a clear focus of what the innovation is all about.
The Research phase uses techniques such as Personas, Interviews, and Observations to discover the needs and prioritize, especially as relevant to the innovation's essential focus: Customers.
The Interpretation phase uses empathy techniques to consider the emotions of the Customers. It also uses techniques such as the Fishbone Diagram to map the cause and effect.
The Ideation phase involves brainstorming techniques and collaborative sessions to come up with innovative ideas. Prioritization in this phase balances business value with ease of implementation to identify a low hanging fruit.
The Prototype phase turns the low hanging fruit into demonstrable solution forms. These forms can be used to get immediate and early feedback from the target personas.
The Evaluation phase tests and refines the prototype(s) through persona feedback and iterations.
Startup Assistant provides comprehensive Design Thinking workshops that capture all the Design Thinking Methodology phases with hands-on exercises for concrete deliverables for the Startup.
Prioritization
Prioritization is an essential milestone in Ideation. The Startup Assistant approach for Prioritization progresses through the following phases:
Specific criteria for Prioritization.
Individual Contributor Ideation.
Consolidated Group Ideation.
Identification of low hanging fruits for prototyping.
Startup Assistant conducts in-person or virtual remote prioritization workshops. The deliverable will be a backlog of startup product innovations and/or products that balance business value with ease of implementation. For the latter, Startup Assistant brings its deep Low Code/No Code development platform and tools expertise to assess the Minimum Viable Product implementation scope. The prioritization workshop usually takes about 2-3 hours. It identifies the first iteration of the Startup's solution.
Prototype and Evaluation
Once the target low-hanging fruit is identified, it needs to be further refined, prototyped, and evaluated for potential refinements. It then needs to be followed with an actual Minimum Viable Products.
Startup Assistant leverages pre-built templates to conduct a Design Sprint workshop – that usually takes 4-days but also results in at least a mocked-up version of the low hanging fruit and even potentially a working prototype leveraging a Low Code/No Code platform. Startup Assistant will recommend the optimal Low Code/No Code platform for the MVP.
This sounds like a lot of effort - especially for startups. However, it is critical for success. At its core, it is a lean enterprise approach – with the operative word being "lean." Many startups fail because they lack a rigorous yet robust methodology to come up with and evaluate a prototype. Startup Assistant will recommend a robust roadmap and tooling depending on the product's scope – always staying within the 4-day Design Sprint 2.0 parameters.
Contact us at info@startupassistant.io for more details.
