Improve your business model with the innovation toolkit
Innovation toolkit
Turning an idea into a product and subsequently bringing the product to the market can be a messy process. When there is no clear step-by-step plan, creative tools can serve as an aid to ask yourself and collaborators the right questions at the right times.
The ImpactCity Start-up toolkit was developed to support impact startups in doing the right things, and doing those things right. Challenging assumptions, improving the way of working and a focus on human values and needs are core to the approach.
We would like to encourage you to work in sprints of one to two weeks, after which you evaluate your product or service together with stakeholders and end users. This iterative approach, with a concrete product at the end of each phase, allows for the development of a product or service in a structured manner, while constantly improving its relevance in context.
There are tools in four areas:
1. Establishing the Value Proposition
What am I going to do? What is my idea? How does this relate to the offerings of other businesses?
The Benchmarking tool can be used to research the playing field: which companies/organizations offer similar products or services? It can also be used to come up with new ideas to a problem, by comparing the problem and its context to a solution in a similar context.
Use the Value Proposition tool to clearly formulate your value proposition: what do you offer to customers? How does it help them? What sets your offer apart from the competition?
Use the Business Model canvas to map out how you will deliver the proposed value to your customers.
2. Designing for people
How am I going to validate my idea and create products while maintaining a customer-centric focus?
Design Thinking can be described as an approach, mindset or a set of strategies used by designers to solve problems in a creative, iterative, collaborative way.
Use the Build, Measure, Learn tool to map out your own assumptions and think about how you can disprove or validate them.
Get a clear picture of the people you are designing for by developing a Persona.
The Customer Journey tool can be used to look at the way the customer interacts with a company.
3. Teamwork
How do I work in a team?
Learn about organizing work with Agile methods and discover ways to make learning and feedback part of the development process.
During regularly occurring Retrospective meetings, the team reflects on the way they work, after which they define concrete improvement actions.
The Agile Teamwork tool is a questionnaire you can use with your team to see how you score on five factors of Agile teamwork.
4. Customer relations, marketing & sales
How do I communicate and market my ideas?
Communicate your story with your customers via social media.
The Pirate Metrics tool is intended to introduce the concept of “funnel metrics” which can help you devise a marketing and sales plan in which the concept of funnel metrics is used.
Public speaking is an important skill to develop, as you will need it in many different situations and it can create opportunities for you.
Connecting with another person is one of the highest forms of communication. At the heart of it is good storytelling.