Week 6 - Post-It, Post-it on the wall, what’s the best idea of all?
The year 1974 is famous for many things, such as, The Godfather Part II, the first pocket calculators and the birth of Leonardo DiCaprio. But not only, it is the year of a simple, coloured and revolutionary invention: the Post-It, commercialized only some years later in 1977. We all know its success, but behind it there is a less known history of accidents and mistakes. In fact, Silver Spence was working at 3M and had to create an extra strong glue, but he came out with a super weak adhesive. In spite of two remarkable characteristics, it could be peeled away and re-used, no one thought about a good marketing mix. The turning point was reached by Art Fry, Product Development Engineer, who also sung in a church choir. While singing in the choir, he had the idea to use some of Silver’s glue to keep the papers, which were always falling down, in the hymnal. Basically they should put the adhesive on a piece of paper and stick it to anything. So after years of constant rejection and further developments, Post-It notes finally became a must-have in the offices around the world. (Read more: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/post-it-notes-were-invented-by-accident/).
Anyhow, what’s the link between the Post-It and this week of Bootcamp? Well, first of all it teaches us to never give up and keep trying. Second, we are working on the Business Model Canvas a tool to design, describe and invent our businesses. We fill it using Post-Its because they embody two important features: they give relevance to our ideas - usually people write them lists of things-to-do or motivational quotes - and of precariousness because it is not a big deal to change a Post-It with another one. Basically, they allow us to focus on the elements of our innovation, but at the same time to be flexible enough to change them as soon as possible. Their practical characteristics reflect the mind-set we need.
An example of this is embodied by the crew Smart Social House. These guys are developing a new concept of housing: temporary and sustainable condominiums with additional services and co-living spaces which improve the quality of life of young couples and workers out of towns. Not only, their eco-friendly solution will be built in the so called black-holes of the urban area of Treviso, those abandoned places with old disused buildings. For this team this week has been particularly useful because the Business Model Canvas has helped them in re-shaping their business confirming many parts, but challenging other believes. As said by the members of the crew, they finally managed to organize their project distinguishing between long and short - run objectives. While working on the value proposition last week, in fact, they focussed mainly on the prototype, losing a bit the bigger picture of their innovation’s plan. Now, that they have in front of them all the parts of the Business Model Canvas, they can connect the value proposition to other dimensions, such as the costumers segment, the channels, the costs and the crucial partners. Having in mind these links and also having gathered addition info by testing the prototype, they are ready to iterate their idea. For example, they broaden the channels through which they want to reach their target users adding a directly developed website (http://smarthometreviso.wix.com/temporaryhome) and advertising boards around the city. Besides, the group has also taken into consideration the after sale dimension that had been put aside, but plays an important role in terms of the planning costs and revenues.
Just two weeks are missing, but many are the things to be done! Good luck to all the crews!
