Rovio Meetup. Accidentally finding employer

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I have just attended a very interesting meetup. It was organised by Rovio to celebrate their another million downloads of Angry Birds 2.  It was a great experience and I have an interesting story that I wanted to share, so I decided to share it with in quick post.

In the morning, me and most of our classmates have attended the Armada event. There were many companies out there, however I was quite disappointed because I could not find the projects that were more relevant to my field of studies. Nevertheless, I gathered the rest of my energy and went to the Rovio event in the evening. I went to the event as a fun of Angry Birds title and a person who likes game industry as a whole. There was many companies and people from game industry, I would say there were mostly companies and people from game industry. However I was lucky enough to meet CEO of the startup which is working with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). These are the topics of the highest interest to me and are closely related to my studies. I have shared my experience with with AR development, so the CEO proposed me to do my internship or master thesis with them. And this is the great opportunity for me.

You never know what people you may meet today. Attend as many events as you can. Start building your network today!

Best,

Rustam A.

Delphi Method In User Innovation

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I was reading “The Cathedral & the Bazaar by Eric Raymond” and there I came across a term “Delphi method”. In simple terms, it is a communication method involving experts and one facilitator to solve a problem by doing several rounds of giving opinions and reviewing the solutions until they reach towards a consensus. It is mostly used in making policy making decisions, marketing and forecasting. However, from my point of view, this method is used everywhere and by almost everyone. The only difference is in the roles of experts and facilitator in each scenario. Let me give some examples to clear my point.

A housewife goes to shop for grocery. She sees different brands of teas. She is used to drink one brand A. But there are B and C brands as well which seem very tempting. Now comes the Delphi method. She is the facilitator or controller and experts are his friends who have used brands B and C and the internet which has given information about benefits of the other brands. So by viewing the opinions of experts (friends, internet), she (agent) has come up to the conclusion to buy brand B instead. More examples can be seen easily if we look at different situations from the perspective of Delphi method.

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Now comes the main point of this whole discussion. Can we apply Delphi method in User innovation? As far as my understanding is concerned, I think we surely can.

Delphi method applies in all phases of User innovation. Initial phase of user innovation is always personal itch. While facing some personal problem and trying to find a solution, Delphi method helps the user in reaching towards the final decision of doing innovation or not. Next phase is the developing of innovative product. Here Delphi method can be used to decide which resources will be used in the development process. User can involve his friends or other experts while making the decision or he can do it on its own as well. As the innovation process progresses, more users will be added and they also become the part of this Delphi method in the improvement of the innovated product.

Long story short, I think Delphi method is everywhere and can be used effectively while making important decisions in innovation process.

Regards

Amna

Another Point of View on SUP46 or How to Socialize in Sweden (Bonus Picture from event!)

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I have been to Sweden only for several months now. And I have had some problems getting used to Swedish culture, I believe many of us had. However more events I attend, more people I get socialized with.  Therefore, I decided to share my experience at the latest event me and the many other EIT students attended last week – SUP46.

My classmate has already writtenIMG_20151113_183620
a post about the event and described it pretty well. However, I have a little different impressions. Even though people were gathering in groups with their colleagues, after “a couple of beers” some people started walking around and talking to other groups. After another “couple of beers”, people went outside to have some fresh air and talk there, others went to play a table football and table tennis. Eventually I found myself playing ping-pong and discussing business challenges with a gentlemen dressed in a suit, who appeared to be a CEO of one of the Startups at SUP46. Furthermore, at such events (with unlimited beer supplies)  the toilet queue is a great place to start a conversation. I have networked and collected sevIMG_20151117_122833smudgederal business cards of o
ther entrepreneurs while waiting in the queue. There are many more p
eople I have met: CEOs of different startups, developers, H&M logistics manager and of course the guys who was trying to sell us new type of business cards. 

The point I was trying to make is – sometimes it is not easy to get to know new entrepreneurs but it is not impossible. Swedish people are very talkative and nice people (after a couple of beers) . So go to as many events as you can, be open minded and enjoy your time!

And here is the bonus picture as promised! IMG_20151113_180717

SUP46.Networking experience

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There are about 7 bln people around the globe. We never know, who and how will influence our opinion, help us or even mess up everything, what we are doing.

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Last friday, 13th of november, I have visited SUP46 to meet the most exciting crowd of the Swedish Start-Up world, entrepreneurs, investors, developers and many more. This is the perfect time and place to make new contacts or meet up with old friends.

There were quite a lot students from EIT Digital program also. I have spotted several behavioural patterns:

  1. People stayed only with people they knew
  2. None of us went there prepared (we had no clue, who is going to be there)
  3. Nothing changed during the event (we have stayed as a group and never got new contacts)

For sure, it is a matter of practice, if you are comfortable with starting talking to strangers, if you are confident with your knowledge and etc.

I searched for advices for people like us, about how we can overcome this problem and what i have found:

  1. Keith Ferazzi “Never eat alone”‘
  2. Tim Sanders “Like-ability Factor”
  3. Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

This is must read books for us, to start better networking!

Impact hub. Service scaling

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*All additional materials are proudly stolen from http://www.impacthub.net/ website

During the ME1033 course we are talking a lot about innovation and the businesses we might or might not create. We are mentioning the steps, which could lead us to become a successful entrepreneur. But we had zero thoughts about what happens next. Where do we go? How we proceed?

Let me introduce you to one of the Stockholm business HUBs, Impact HUB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswJJBJZQgE

They are always welcome to meet new people and regularly throwing free lectures

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So, few words about my experience there:

Short cut about the lecture*:

This workshop covered service as the second most important part to user/customer loyalty, the increased expectations from users, how to serve users on a global base and create a seamless user experience throughout the customer journey.

Few valuable thoughts I got after the lecture:

  1. Businesses are turning their business models to service models. The main path, which companies are using, it is providing service when person needs it. Big and small players, who want to stay up to date with the current times are letting their customers to customize the provided services (Subscriptions based apps, services are good example. You are paying only when you are using them).
  2. It does not matter what and how good are you doing business. Your customers are going to look for more and more. You should be ready to add extra value to your business. (Good example is MindApps yoga app, they providing yoga guidance and also the knowledge base).
  3. If you want to grow, you have to keep in mind, that growing is about interaction. You cant just hire more people and it will work, it won`t.

Moving further, you have read that our customers are going to need more. So, how we can understand, where we are now and where to go? At this point we can use the Customer journey model:
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(Useful reading and a source of the picture http://customerthink.com/what_is_customer_experience_a_synopsis/)

From Awareness point to Purchase is mainly marketing and Sales responsibility, but after Purchase, the main journey begins.

If your friend is not happy with a new app or piece of technology and sharing his/her bad experience with you, most probably you will not buy the same thing and vise versa.

Were you prepared to get the feedback from the client? Does your business have service support? Are you accessible to your customer? When your customers need you? Where are your users, I mean literally, in Spain or China or around the globe? What do they need?

All this questions will pop-up the second you will get your first customer. One of the main advices that Johan provided was: How to manage global expansion if you are small? Just don’t go global!

Learn from one market, gain experience and grow your team. Learn your customers’ expectations. Do not lie to your customers, that your support is available 24/7, if it is not.

Keep in mind, that you have always work on your product, listen to your customer. Stay in touch with them.

Relationship between User and Producer Innovators

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We all agree that innovation is important because it can fulfil the user needs, benefits the society and helps the firms to gain profits. There are also lots of other benefits of innovation but the most important factor which determines the quality of innovation is the originator of the innovation. Now here comes the interesting part. Most of us will say that the originators or sources of innovation products are manufacturers or firms which sell them. However, it is not true.I  will try to explain the real originators of innovative products which are Users

First of all, let me clear the difference between users and manufacturers.

  • Users of the products are people or firms who use the product
  • Manufacturers are the firms or organizations who sell the products

So there are two basic components in the whole innovation process and there is a clear relationship between these two acting components.

The key point is that every innovation starts with user. It is the user who is always the originator of the innovation product. This whole process can begin because of the following factors related to user:

  • User finds a problem or need and he wants to fix it but there is no solution available in market
  • User wants to innovate because of enjoyment or pleasure
  • User wants to innovate something because he wants to learn
  • User wants to innovate for social welfare

No matter what the reason is, it is the user who starts to innovate. Manufacturers do not take part at this point because they see no market here. As the user builds a product, other users see the benefits and modify or improve the product for their own needs. Gradually, the product starts to be used by many users, each adding something in the product innovation process.

Now the manufacturer jumps in and says to users that their part is over, Now it is his time to take the product to the next levels, He takes the product and makes it in a fancy way and sells it.

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Producers believe that the product is their innovation and the first user innovative product which is in fact a part of their whole product is just a crap.

Users make their innovations products open so that other users can help them to improve the product.

Today, manufacturers are driven out of the innovation products because

  • Users are better in creating them
  • Users are greater in number than manufacturers
  • Users can combine the best solutions by other users because they share it open
  • Users can get the best of all solutions but no producer can because of Intellectual Property

So the moral of the story is that users are feed stock of innovation process and there is a need for protection of this precious resource of innovation by the community.

 

Circle of Innovation

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Hello Everyone, this is my first post on this blog site on entrepreneurship and innovation. Tomorrow we have a second lecture of Open and User Innovation and I am really looking forward to it. I have read an assigned article to us and I have analyzed it with my own understanding and concepts which I have developed so far. I think my first post should be about sharing my analysis which may help others see this article and understand it with a different perspective. Lets see what I have understood and got from the assigned article on Finding your Innovation Sweet Spot.

Product developers are always getting this advice from the Marketers that customers are always right or customers get 100% of the votes. Entrepreneurs should develop something which should meet the needs and wants of customers. They should develop products by placing themselves and perceiving themselves as their current and potential customers. But what really a person needs or wants cannot be describe or explained clearly. If it is easily explainable and identifiable, it means there is something already present in the market which can fulfil that need. This is clearly not an innovation which is desired for entrepreneurship. So if the customers can’t explain clearly what they need, how entrepreneurs can develop something according to their needs and problems. If a company tries to extend the features of its existing product little bit, it cannot be able to lure the customers to take out the money from their pockets to buy that new product easily.

One way to deal with this problem of making customers break their established ways of spending money and buy your new product no matter how much it costs, is to think out of the box. This means think for the new product service without bounding yourself to one domain. But this also rises the issue of how can we reach a best solution or develop a service or product if there are infinite different domains of thinking our service into. It can lead to coming up with an idea which can totally contradict the current position of the company in the market making it difficult for the company to pursue that product for a long time. For example, Scott Company which made sanitary paper tissues and towels went into making paper dresses for the party as being a novel and new idea for marketing. This idea helped the company with big sales and profits but the company was overwhelmed with big promotion and sales eventually and ended this product saying that it was a paper tissue company, not a dress manufacturer. Scott only used this idea of disposable paper dresses to advertise its new paper products but it lead to creation of an industry of paper dresses which was not the motivation of the company behind this innovative product.

 

 

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So the simple solution is that think freely far enough from existing products but keep yourself inside the imaginary circle of company’s position and capabilities in market. This is what we call finding your sweet spot of innovation. The above circle diagram shows how one can move within a circle of company’s position and capabilities using five patterns of systematic inventive thinking to develop something innovative.

Hope the above explanation helps the readers to think about innovation by binding your thinking power within a circle of company’s limitations with choosing an existing product as starting point or center of circle and moving away from the product by applying one or more out of five patterns for thinking in a systematic manner until reach your final destination of innovative product,

Regards

Amna