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Solu­tion design: How impact start-ups can test their solu­tion ideas

You’ve come to the right place if …

  • you want to found an impact start­up or are already in the mid­dle of it with your team.
  • you have devel­oped inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to a prob­lem.
  • you know your tar­get group and their needs.
  • you have built an effect stair­case.

This chap­ter helps to …

  • get feed­back on your solu­tion ideas.
  • to find the best solu­tion.
  • to rec­og­nize where there is poten­tial for improve­ment.

Col­lect feed­back on your solu­tion ideas

To check the effec­tive­ness of your solu­tion ideas, it is best to mir­ror them direct­ly with the tar­get group. Inter­views are ide­al for this. Use spe­cif­ic ques­tions to eval­u­ate the poten­tial, accep­tance and impact of your solu­tion ideas. This will pro­vide you with valu­able feed­back for fur­ther devel­op­ment. You can pro­ceed in the fol­low­ing four steps:

1. select suit­able inter­view part­ners

This is cru­cial for mean­ing­ful results. Make sure that as many dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives, back­grounds and expe­ri­ences as pos­si­ble are cov­ered. In addi­tion to peo­ple from the tar­get group, you can also inter­view experts and peo­ple who work in a sim­i­lar envi­ron­ment, for exam­ple.

2. devel­op inter­view ques­tions for the tar­get group dis­cus­sions

The fol­low­ing sug­ges­tions for ques­tions serve only as exam­ples and must be adapt­ed to your solu­tion ideas and your tar­get group. Where appro­pri­ate, you can offer mul­ti­ple choice, a rat­ing scale or open answer fields.

Eval­u­a­tion of the pro­posed solu­tion

  • Which aspects of our solu­tion do you like the most?
  • Are there ele­ments of the solu­tion idea that you con­sid­er prob­lem­at­ic or inef­fec­tive?
  • How easy is it for you to under­stand and use our solu­tion?
  • What sug­ges­tions do you have for improv­ing our solu­tion con­cept?

Rel­e­vance and accep­tance of the solu­tion

  • How like­ly is it that you would use our solu­tion?
  • What would moti­vate you to active­ly use our solu­tion?
  • What could pre­vent you from using our solu­tion?

Assess­ment of the poten­tial impact

  • To what extent do you agree that our solu­tion can con­tribute to pos­i­tive changes in your envi­ron­ment?
  • What spe­cif­ic pos­i­tive changes can our solu­tion bring about?

Fea­si­bil­i­ty and resources

  • How real­is­tic do you think it is to imple­ment our solu­tion in your envi­ron­ment?
  • What chal­lenges or bar­ri­ers could there be?
  • What resources or sup­port do you need to use the solu­tion suc­cess­ful­ly?
  • Would you use our solu­tion on your own or do you need sup­port?

Coop­er­a­tion and com­mit­ment

  • How will­ing are you to active­ly par­tic­i­pate in the fur­ther devel­op­ment and adap­ta­tion of our solu­tion?
  • What kind of sup­port or coop­er­a­tion can you offer us to fur­ther improve the solu­tion?

3. write an appeal­ing cov­er let­ter for the inter­view

Clear­ly for­mu­late the expec­ta­tions of the par­tic­i­pants. Assumes that many peo­ple will ask them­selves in advance what exact­ly to expect and whether they need to pre­pare. Explain how long the inter­view will take, what its pur­pose is and empha­size that no spe­cial prepa­ra­tion is nec­es­sary. Thank the par­tic­i­pants in advance for their time and empha­size how impor­tant their con­tri­bu­tion is to the project.

4. cre­ates a pleas­ant atmos­phere

It is the basis for an open and hon­est con­ver­sa­tion. Start the exchange with a short intro­duc­tion and explain what your project is about and why you are con­duct­ing the inter­view. Make sure the par­tic­i­pants feel com­fort­able by cre­at­ing a friend­ly, relaxed envi­ron­ment and giv­ing them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask ques­tions or raise con­cerns at any time.

Next chap­ter: Real­i­ty check

You have gath­ered feed­back on your solu­tion ideas and now know where there is room for improve­ment and which ideas are most pop­u­lar with the tar­get group.

The next step we rec­om­mend doing a real­i­ty check for your solu­tion ideas and pri­or­i­tiz­ing the tasks at hand.