r9accelerator and impactful solutions • create a “minimum viable product” (mvp) for each...
TRANSCRIPT
Velox Innovation
WWW.VELOX.CO.NZ
R9AcceleratorAccelerator Essentials Workshop
Tuesday, 1st March 2016, Wellington
WWW.VELOXINNOVATION.CO.NZ
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
– TOM PETERS
This programme brings together teams of entrepreneurs, developers, private sector specialists and government experts to work on projects that solve major pain points for New Zealand businesses and reduce the difficulties of dealing with government.
r9 accelerator
THE AIM OF THE 12-WEEK ACCELERATOR IS TO:
• Turn project opportunities Into
innovative and impactful solutions
• Create a “Minimum Viable Product”
(MVP) for each solution
• Test and validate these MVPs
• Pitch the solutions as fundable
projects to a public/private
sector Investment Panel on
Demo Day
Velox Innovation held an Innovation
Fundamentals Workshop for the
cohort, aimed at helping participants
experience a different mindset and
set of tools for solving complex
and dynamic problems. It was
also designed to form a strong
starting point and way of moving
forward for the ventures.
This document captures some of the key insights from the session.
The structure of the day was laid out in Kanban style format, with the plan for the days activities as follows:
START: Reviewing our agenda and deciding how we will work together
INTRO: Learning about the people in the room
CONTEXT: Scanning the existing environment
TOOLS: Equipping ourselves with innovation tools to add to the toolkit
GAME: Experiencing the power of a non-linear problem solving approach
PLAN: Touching on the ventures own objectives
CLOSE: Sharing key insights
We began with a discussion and brainstorm around the following:
Purpose - To get started, equip ourselves, form a strong collaborative and craft our own culture
Objectives - Context, methods, insights, learn, tools, models, and plans
House Rules - We should strive toward honesty, a passion for change, keeping calm, making strangers feel welcome, being allergic to “talking poos”, and being allergic to “waffling”
Alliance – A fast paced day with emphasis on practice rather than theory
start
We also decided on using ELMO = Enough, Lets Move On, when topics had been discussed for too long.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”
– MIKE TYSON
the INTROIntroduction was opened with a game designed to help participants get to know one each other. Each participant was asked to pair up and find out three questions from their partner:
• A pet peeve
• A passion
• An unusual fact
They also had to draw an accurate picture of their partner, and list contact details. Answers were stuck to a sheet and will be hung up at the R9 Accelerator space (Creative HQ).
Next, participants were asked to assemble into three groups – hipsters (designers focused), hackers (development focused) and hus-tlers (business focused). A balanced team would have a team member in each of the groups, and if not, that is something they can pay special attention to when receiving mentorship.
CONTEXT“FOR EVERY THOUSAND START-UPS THRASHING AT THE BRANCHES OF A PROBLEM, THERE IS ONE STRIKING AT THE ROOT” – COLART MILES
HEADLINES TEST
To kick off Context, Colart opened with a headlines test. He read to the group some interesting headlines, the aim being to guess if they were real or from science fiction. They were:
• “Transparent Aluminium: Now a reality” https://www.materialist.com/transparent-aluminum-science-fic-tion-now-a-reality/
• “World’s first pocket spectrometer lets you measure the molecular makeup of nearly anything” http://inhabitat.com/worlds-first-pocket-molecular-sensor-measures-the-chemical-makeup-of-everything/
• “Asteroid-mining firm’s first spacecraft deploys from space station” http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/robotic-exploration/asteroidmining-firms-first-spacecraft-deploys-from-space-station
• “Controversial DNA startup wants to let customers create creatures” http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Contro-versial-DNA-startup-wants-to-let-customers-5992426.php
• “Want your own personal satellite? Reaching space is becoming (relatively) cheap” http://singularityhub.com/2015/11/06/a-personal-satellite-for-christmas-reaching-space-is-becoming-relatively-cheap/
The guesses were mixed, but many participants guessed the headlines were real. They were in fact all real.
METHODOLOGIES
The discussion then headed towards more methodologies:
VUCA: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_comp lexity_and_ambiguity
VUCA is an increasingly popular acronym, borrowed from the military, used to describe the characteristics of the new business landscape the world is facing.
• Volatility
• Uncertainty
• Complexity
• Ambiguity
OODA: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_78.htm
• OODA is also borrowed from the military and is very useful for quick decision making:
• Observe – understand current situation, gather data
• Orientate – sort the data
• Decide – decide on a course of action
• Act – act on the new course
ALSO BRIEFLY DISCUSSED:
Holacracy: http://www.holacracy.org/how-it-works/
Singularity University: http://singularityu.org/
In this workshop, the tallest marshmallow was 54 cm high. The key ques-tion is: what could we learn from failure? What would we do differently if we have a chance? Perhaps one idea would be to make sure that any cho-sen approach offers multiple opportunities to do things differently during execution.
The key insights from this exercise were that prototyping is important and the exercise often reveals just how conditioned we are to solving problems in a linear way despite the obvious risks. Solving problems in an iterative way (e.g. prototyping) often retires risk early and yields better results.
THE MARSHMALLOW CHALLENGE
http://marshmallowchallenge.com
Each team was given a standard set of materials and the instructions to build a freestanding structure that can support one marshmallow within 18 minutes. The height of the marshmallow was the key metric for success.
Participants were encouraged to use this as a metaphor for the critical assumptions in future initiatives… in other words, find the ‘marshmallow’ in every project.
Marshmallow = hidden assumptions!
TOOLSThe group was asked which tools they would most like to learn more about in the time available, and KanBan, Retrospectives, and Customer Development were chosen.
Customer Development
Colart went over the customer development process.
Kanban - http://leankit.com/learn/kanban/what-is-kanban/
Colart took the group through an exercise demonstrating the power of KanBan:
HELPFUL RESOURCES:
Steve Blank: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2058/The-Customer-Development-Process
Steve Blank is recognized for developing the Customer Development methodology, which launched the Lean Startup movement
Eric Ries: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201110/eric-ries-usability-testing-product-development.html
Eric Ries is recognized for pioneering the lean startup movement, a new-business strategy which d irects startup companies to allocate their resources as efficiently as possible.
Pragmatic Personas: http://www.agileweboperations.com/pragmatic-personas-concrete-exam-ples-of-your-users
Concrete examples of your users.
We very briefly touched on other methodologies, but here are some resources for the following:
Value proposition design: https://strategyzer.com/books/value-proposition-design
Agile: http://agilemethodology.org/
Lean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing
GAMEThe Ball Point Game was invented by Boris Gloger, and it helps to emphasise the importance of communica-tion and the exponential patterns that can emerge from iterative approaches. The group was encouraged to become one team and then follow the instructions for processing each ‘widget’ in the box. The result of each iteration was recorded and later discussed.
Key insights shared:
• Each iteration was an opportunity to learn and re-invent the process
• Having a deliberate time box around projects is beneficial
• Communication was a challenge. Critical information and ideas were often lost in the collective monologue
• Consistency and rhythm seemed to be positive factors
• With everyone ‘self-managing’ the role of managers became to enable others to do their best
• The team were able to generate an exponential performance curve by applying an iterative process
• Having a bad experience can make a team more cautious for future iterations
• Decisions may have been different if steady growth was seen straight away
The team carried out five iterations which quickly became positive following an exponential growth pattern in results.
PLANThe group was invited to form a plan by first looking out towards a 3 year horizon and to define what “stunning suc-cess” looks like. The teams were asked to decide on a suitable reward should they reach their goals. The teams then work their way back and assign goals and rewards to closer horizons (1 year, then 6 months, 3 months etc). The output of this exercise prompted discussion about how important it is to think about incentives for the journey.
They were asked the following questions:
• Where does each venture want to be in one week, one month, three months, six months, and one year?
• How do you know you’ve achieved each milestone?
• How will you reward yourself if each one is met?
Colart also shared another technique for developing long range decision making called: “AYAT” (which stand for A Year Ago Today). It’s best used as a regular habit surrounding any important decisions being made. Every time an important decision comes up, place a meeting reminder in your diary for 12 months from the date. In this reminder, write a note to your yourself reminding you of the context for the decision, the options you considered, the choice you made and the impact you had intended. After a year you’ll start getting reminders for all these decisions that you made a year ago and these become important reflective learning opportunities and can often reveal deep insights.
CLOSE“IN THE DESERT, IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, GO ALONE. IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER” - African Proverb
We had a review of Likes and Changes, went over the purpose, objectives, and house rules again.
Likes included:
• Circle format of the chairs was great for talking.
• Working with other teams meant relationships were strengthened
• There was a good balance between theory and practice
• Standing up was a good change
Changes
• By skipping over methodologies the depth was left behind
• A central network needs to be created for communicating – Slack, Facebook
• Need to be conscious moving forward of any “learned helplessness”
The team were asked to have a few moments of silence, and then share their reflections to begin bringing the day to a conclusion. It was clear that whilst many tools were just skimmed over, it appeared as though each person had taken away useful insights. Here is a sample of the key take-aways shared:
• Groups where everyone talked equal amounts were most successful – insight
• shared by group member
• Culture is critically important
• Learning by doing makes it easier to absorb new tools,
• The group could have been braver during the games
• Often people get too caught up in the present to look into the future
• Busy is the new lazy
• Pivot earlier and often
• In the marshmallow game there was a trade-off between height and strength
• Some group members are more institutionalised than they thought
• Kanban helps you to see where you’ve come from and where you’re going
• Limit the Work In Progress – do one thing at a time. The example used was very tangible
• Create an etiquette for your team – will help for company culture when bringing in new team members
• Don’t underestimate how influential your thinking patterns are for your venture and future
• Remember to fall in love with your customer
• Have a third party check on your goals regularly
We may have mentioned that “outcomes tend to be sensitive to start conditions”. We hope you will agree that this Innovation Fundamentals Workshop can be used as an opportunity to set the best possible start conditions for what could be a defining few months for the R9 Accelerator cohort.
Thanks to all of those who gave their time and attention throughout the day.
Key Contacts: Colart Miles: [email protected]
Shawn O’Keefe: [email protected]
Elyse Wyatt: [email protected]