The Startup Library is a crash course in entrepreneurial thinking for Library Land. It is about identifying opportunities, taking smart risks, and learning by doing. This one-day workshop will engage participants in a number of activities designed to inspire, energize, and challenge. Participants will work together to identify a problem worth solving, generate potential ideas to solve that problem, strengthen their solutions, and make a final “rocket pitch” to support their best idea.
5. think like a startup
• startups condition us for constant
change
• startups are about building a platform
• startup is a culture
(mathews, 2012, p. 4)
6. startup library: an experiment
• process over product
• action-based networking
• making over talking
• stretching ourselves
(startuplibrary.ca)
11. creative problem solving
design thinking
lean thinking
innovative / creative thinking
startup thinking
seeking novel solutions to problems
considering end-to-end customer experience
gathering customer input for rapid deployment
applying techniques to break assumptions
searching for repeatable, sustainable solutions
+
+
+
+
12. entrepreneurial thought + action
desire
smart step
act
resultlearn / reflect
bring others along
stay within acceptable loss
act quickly with means at hand
gather data
observe customers
(c) Babson College
13. eta: key points
• begin with desire (not passion)
• iterative process
• learn by doing
• act with what you have
• primary data vs secondary data
14. eta: smart step
• means at hand
• who are you?
• what do you know?
• whom do you know?
• acceptable loss
• not more than you are willing to lose
23. hot spot [definition]
“...an area of high information density,
clutter, stress, disorganization, or any
place that has a suboptimal solution.”
~ Matt Cutts
27. patron discovery
• search for problem/solution fit
• seek patron input
!
• problem validation = is your problem
really a problem? for whom?
28. earlyvangelists
• she has a problem
• she knows she has a problem
• she is looking for a solution
• she assembled a solution out of parts
• she has a budget
(blank & dorf, 2012, p. 58-60)
30. who / how (materials)
• markers
• flip chart papers with three hot spots
31. who / how (instructions)
• who would be most interested in each
hot spot you identified?
• how would you determine the
problem-solution fit?
• write your ideas on the chart paper
• time: 7-10 minutes
32. who / how (debrief)
• what did you come up with for the
“how” question?
36. framing: how might we
• how might we
• how - creative confidence
• might - looking for possible solutions
• we - the need to work together
• action-oriented
(brown, 2009)
38. how might we 1 (instructions)
• generate h.m.w. statements for your
three hot spots
• write your ideas on your chart paper
• time: 10 minutes
39. how might we 2 (instructions)
• choose the h.m.w question you want
to work with
• write it out on a new piece of paper
• tape it up near your table
40. how might we (alternatives)
• hmw make eBooks a more attractive
option to patrons?
• hmw scale IL/library instruction to the
entire campus?
• hmw deliver library content and
services to mobile devices?
41. how might we (alternatives)
• hmw make the middle seat in the
airplane the most desirable seat?
!
• hmw make it easier to find hard-to-
locate products in the grocery store?
53. sticky note (materials)
• markers (for each member)
• sticky notes (for each member)
• pre-numbered flip chart paper
54. sticky note (instructions)
• brainstorm solutions to hmw question
• one idea / sticky note
• speak to the group
• hand it to facilitator
• post it to the flip chart paper
• time: 15 minutes
55. sticky note (debrief)
• ideas flow more freely
• clear objective
• verbalizing helps members build on
previous ideas
58. forced connections (instructions)
• look at random images
• talk about them as a group
• what do they suggest?
• force yourself to make connections
between images and your problem
• time: 10 minutes
59. forced connections (debrief)
• stimulates lateral thinking
• encourages cross-pollination
• focuses on the image, not the problem
74. highlighting (instructions)
• survey your list of ideas
• each member: choose two of the most
promising ideas
• place your sticky dots on each idea
• time: 10 minutes
77. three ‘i’s (materials)
• ideas with sticky dots
• from highlighting activity
• three ‘i’s matrix flip chart
• markers
78. three ‘i’s (instructions)
• place chosen ideas in the left column
• evaluate ideas according to:
• imagination
• impact
• influence
• time: 10 minutes
79. three ‘i’s (debrief)
• evaluate ideas according to realistic
criteria
• generate team “buy-in”
96. entrepreneurial thought + action
desire
smart step
act
resultlearn / reflect
bring others along
stay within acceptable loss
act quickly with means at hand
gather data
observe customers
(c) Babson College
98. build, measure, learn
• planning steps
• learn - what do you want to know?
• measure - how will you evaluate it?
• build - what do you need to build?
101. b-m-l (instructions)
• discuss the hypotheses you listed
• add your testing strategies in the right
column
• who could you talk to?
• how would you learn?
• time: 10 mins
110. minimum viable product
• just the features that allow the product
to reach the market
• bare bones
• aimed at early adopters
• helps avoid building products that
people don’t want
111. minimum viable product
• reduce amount of wasted effort
• iterate until you find the mvp
• low-fidelity
• does the customer care?
• high-fidelity
• watch adoption and use patterns
112. customer validation
• attempts to attract early adopters
• “test sell” at every sage
• testing the entire model (as opposed
to individual parts)
• validating your hypotheses related to
customers
115. mvp (instructions)
• describe an mvp for your idea
• what would you build?
• what features would it have?
• who would you “test sell” it to?
• time: 10 minutes
123. three questions
• Do people want/desire this product or
service?
• Is this product or service technically or
organizationally possible?
• Does this product or service make
economic sense?
Adapted from: IDEO Human Centered Design: Toolkit
126. scorecard (instructions)
• discuss each criteria as it relates to
your overall solution
• desirability, feasibility, viability
• give each category a score out of 10
• time: 10 minutes
130. pivot
“A pivot requires that we keep one foot
rooted in what we’ve learned so far,
while making a fundamental change in
strategy in order to seek even greater
validated learning.”
~ Eric Ries, The Lean Startup
131. pivot or proceed (continued)
• pivot = change direction
• not simply about change
• focused on testing a new hypothesis
• proceed = stay on course
• continue validating hypothesis
132. pivot (examples)
• zoom-in: a single feature becomes the
whole product
• zoom-out: the product becomes a
feature in a much larger product
• customer segment: switching targets
to a different customer segment
(ries, 2009, p. 173)
133. pivot (examples)
• customer need: recognizing a different
customer need than expected
• engine of growth: change the way the
growth strategy of the solution
• channel pivot: determining a different
way to deliver the same product
(ries, 2009, p. 173)
142. instinct
“There is no way to remove the human
element--vision, intuition, judgment--
from the practice of entrepreneurship,
nor would that be desirable.”
~ Eric Ries, The Lean Startup
149. flawed assumption 5
measure with traditional metrics
adopt and expect trial and error
(blank & dorf, 2012, p. 8-18)
150. flawed assumption 6
build one-size-fits all solutions
develop for the few, not the many
(blank & dorf, 2012, p. 8-18)
152. think like a startup
• startups condition us for constant
change
• startups are about building a platform
• startup is a culture
(mathews, 2012, p. 4)
154. references
Berger, W. (2012, Sep 17). The secret phrase top innovators use [Blog post].
http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/09/the-secret-phrase-top-innovato/
Blank, S. & Dorf, B. (2012). The Startup Owner’s Manual. Pescadero, CA: K&S Ranch.
Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design. 2nd ed. New York: Harper Business.
Creative Education Foundation. (2010). The foundations of applied imagination
(workbook). Amherst, MA: Creative Education Foundation Press.
Cutts, M. (2010, July 19). How to find start-up ideas. Matt Cutts Blog. Retrieved from
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/business-ideas/
Graham, P. (2012). How to get startup ideas [Blog post]. http://paulgraham.com/
startupideas.html
155. references (continued)
Greenberg, D., McKone-Sweet, K. & Wilson, H. J. (2011). The New entrepreneurial
leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Kiefer, C. F., Schlesinger, L. A. & Brown, P. B. (2010). Action trumps everything.
Duxbury, MA: Black Ink Press
IDEO. (2011). Human-Centered Design Toolkit. 2nd ed. Retrieved from
http://www.ideo.com
Mathews, B. (2013). Think Like a Startup [White paper]. http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/
handle/10919/18649
Osborn, A. (1953/1963). Applied Imagination. Amherst, MA: Creative Education
Foundation.
Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup. New York: Crown Business.