Activity Title
Building a Business Together
Duration
3:00 h
Group Composition
Small to medium-sized groups, ideally 20 / 25 participants, to allow for effective brainstorming and collaboration
Materials Needed
Whiteboards and markers or flipcharts, sticky notes and pens for brainstorming sessions, computers or tablets with internet access for market research, prototyping tools (digital or paper-based) for creating visual mockups
Tips for the Trainer
- Facilitate brainstorming sessions, guiding participants to focus on key aspects of their business idea.
- Encourage open communication and collaboration among participants.
- Provide constructive feedback on the ideas and drafts.
- Ensure that the session remains focused on the objectives, particularly aligning business ideas with landing page creation.
Objectives
- Assist participants in articulating and documenting all essential elements of their business idea.
- Align initial business ideas with the structure and content necessary for an effective landing page.
- Guide participants in creating a visual prototype or mockup that represents their business concept.
Activity Description
This session involves participants in brainstorming and documenting their business ideas. They can do it in pairs, or on their own. In this exercise we will include 4 different elements:
1) Finding a problem; 2) Thinking on possible solutions; 3) Target audience (who will pay for that solution); 4) and USP - unique value propositions (unique angle of your product or unique selling angle);. The process includes conducting competitor research and documenting their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. The session culminates in summarizing the draft to focus on key aspects necessary for the initial launch, effectively integrating the business idea into a compelling landing page.
It is very important to mention that we are only doing a hypothesis, that it’s better done than perfect, and that this is a learning process.
1 hour - Brainstorm a small business that you would like to start:
- Conduct brainstorming sessions focusing on aspects like problem, solution, need, target audience.
- Use any tool
Tip: Tell this instruction like this is something easy to do (even though it’s quite hard). We want to achieve to make participants think, come up with any idea, work on it, and later on analyse it to see why is good, what can be improved, or why is not good.
30 minutes - Market research and competitor analysis
- Guide participants in conducting online research to understand if there is a market for their idea, does their idea fit in a context where it going to be sold
- Remind them about the importance of differentiating their business idea in the market with USP
1 : 30hour - Prototyping and mockup creation
- Use prototyping tools (digital or paper-based or any other tool, even legos) to create visual mockups representing the business idea.
e.g. If they are building a digital service or solution, maybe they can cut 2 A4 papers in smaller parts and use each small paper as one block of the landing page on their future website. One block is a headline with a sub-headline, other block is an illustration that explain their product etc.
Debriefing
The debriefing phase of 'Building a Business Together' is designed to facilitate reflection on the business idea development process, discuss the challenges encountered, and explore the application of these experiences in real-world scenarios.
Pose a couple of key questions:
- How did the brainstorming process go?
- Did you block somewhere and why?
- Were you enthusiastic about your idea and why? or why not?
- How did your market research influence the development of your business idea and prototype?
- What insights did you gain from creating a visual representation of your business?
- How can you apply the skills and knowledge gained in this session to real-world business scenarios?
- What are the next steps you plan to take in developing your business idea further?
Expected Outcomes
- Have a well-documented business idea, with a clear understanding of their target audience, value proposition, and market positioning.
- Create a preliminary visual mockup or prototype that aligns the business idea with landing page content and structure.
- Enhance skills in market research, business idea articulation, and visual representation of a business concept.
- Make participants go through the process and understand the process