Six things I learned at the world’s largest open innovation challenge

5Y Impact Collective
Nov 2 · 7 min read

Reflections from the Toronto sessions of Coopérathon 2019

Written by Archana Madan

I’ve had a few enlightening Saturdays, this past month.

You see, I’ve participated in a few design jams before, but never blogged about one.

I’ve spent my recent Saturdays being “official designated blogger” at the Toronto run of Coopérathon 2019. Coopérathon is an annual open innovation jam — or more aptly, marathon — spread across five weeks, in which participants are guided through the innovation process, all the way from identifying a problem space through to arriving at a solution. Organised by Montréal-based financial cooperative and innovation leader Desjardins, the multi-city challenge runs in the fall of every year in a bid to encourage and empower grassroots innovation in all walks of life. In exchange for their enthusiasm and commitment, Coopérathon participants are invited to talks, workshops and conversations with mentors in each phase of the innovation process: problem definition, ideation, prototyping and pitching. It all ends with what’s actually a fabulous beginning for the winners: all teams pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, who then choose the winning teams, that are awarded generous pre-seed rounds of funding to help them realise their ideas.

At the Toronto sessions of Coopérathon this year, consultants from the service design and innovation firm The Moment held a series of mini weekend workshops to educate participants about the key phases of the innovation process. The lovely (and expert) folks from 5Y Impact Collective mentored the participant teams one-on-one, as they attempted to crack their “wicked” problems.

Being present in the rather neutral position of “blogger” at these sessions offered me a perspective that was quite different from anyone else’s present there — and surprisingly different from any I’ve ever held before. It was the first time I’d been exposed to the work of several different teams, working on a variety of different projects, all at once — giving me a broad and insightful overview of the possibilities. It was insightful to see teams progress from one phase of the design process to the next, week after week, refining their problems and solutions, sometimes pivoting altogether. It forced me (in a good way) to listen, understand, empathise, and analyse, while keeping judgment at bay.

Here are six key lessons I’ve taken away about the innovation process during my time at Coopérathon 2019, thanks to my unique “blogger” vantage point …

1. Don’t be fazed by a wide-open brief

Innovation briefs are often constructed to be wide open. This is because open briefs allow ample ground to play on. Solutions can come from anywhere, be of any nature, and assume unexpected forms — and a narrow brief wouldn’t allow for the necessary breadth of thought to arrive here. The first challenge, before working on a solution, then, is to arrive at a meaningful, narrowed-down problem that fits within the brief.

At Coopérathon this year, participants were presented with six major “tracks” to inspire innovation (Finance, Health, Education, Energy, Environment and Agriculture), with an objective to address one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Each track was brought to participants by Coopérathon in partnership with expert institutions keen to make a difference (such as Hacking Health in Health, and Hydro Quebec in Energy). Teams were encouraged to look both outwards (what’s happening in the world in their chosen track?) and inwards (what, in particular, do they understand and enjoy?) to arrive at a meaningful “How might we …” problem statement.

2. Tap into what you know best

Building on the first lesson, it’s good to tap into our own experiences when defining a problem statement. We all have areas of expertise — or even hobbies — that we engage with regularly. It’s quite likely that we’ve struggled in one way or another doing these things. We’ve probably wished that things were handled differently, or were organised in a certain way, or were easier to access. Could tapping into these personal experiences lead to a meaningful problem statement?

At Coopérathon, we had at least a couple of teams who used this approach. One team, comprising scientific researchers who regularly worked in labs, came up with a problem statement to do with making scientists’ access to lab equipment easier and more streamlined — clearly in response to something they’d experienced in their own careers. Another team, which included a naturopathic doctor, decided to enable easier public access to alternative forms of medical advice. Both problem space definitions were meaningfully focused, were capable of inspiring multiple solution ideas, and alluded to at least one of the six major tracks mentioned in the original brief.

3. Don’t marry your ideas

The process of innovation demands constant and consistent questioning — questioning the brief, questioning potential users, questioning other stakeholders… not to mention looking within and questioning ourselves.

This constant questioning throws up meaty insight from time to time (as it should!). It’s important to allow this insight to truly and honestly reflect in our work, by keeping our personal bias and subjectivity aside. It’s quite possible to fall in love with our own ideas, so much so that we are unwilling to evolve them in response to a promising piece of insight we’ve just uncovered.

I’ve seen this happen: people fall in love with their initial ideas, then fail to evolve them as the project unfolds — resulting in disjointed and unfocused conclusions. These conclusions often lack the clarity required to inspire and drive the following phase of the innovation process.

4. Get comfortable with ambiguity

The real world is diverse and ambiguous. Innovation, as a process, works hand-in-hand with the real world — that’s what makes it work. That’s also why the innovation process is as ambiguous as the real world itself.

This ambiguity can be hugely frustrating to an innovator — and this is well known. Mirela Pirlea, the Coopérathon lead who organised the event in Toronto, once told me that she was curious to track participants’ emotional responses to the different phases of the innovation process, as they progressed along on their projects. There are highs and lows, there’s confusion and disappointment, and ambiguity is to blame for much of it.

The only way is to have faith — in oneself, and in the process. The process is designed to help us wade through information and manage the ambiguity.

The coaches and mentors at Coopérathon this year helped participants with just this: they did the job of keeping participants on track towards arriving at solutions, by helping them cut through the noise. They asked the right questions to understand where in the process the teams were and provided (lightning!) feedback to bring them to the correct next step.

If we’re persistent, open-minded, and follow the process, we can be almost sure to conquer the ambiguity and arrive at some meaningful conclusions.

5. Respect process, but don’t get carried away with it

Now, this might seem a tad contradictory to the point I’ve made above, but let me explain.

While it’s true that process helps put structure to one’s work, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing: it’s possible to get lost in the process. It isn’t hard to lose sight of objectives and timelines, endlessly “explore”, or dwell on information that isn’t quite relevant to the project at hand. This wastes time and resources and does little to meaningfully move the needle on the project.

It’s important for us, as innovators, to have the maturity and confidence to proactively bring every phase of the innovation process to its natural conclusion so that the project can progress.

6. Keep an eye on the “why”

Participants at Coopérathon this year were asked to begin with the “why”. Why were they choosing a particular track? Why a particular problem statement? A participant even confided in me that he was slightly overwhelmed by the idea of defining and committing to a lofty higher purpose, right at the get-go.

The exercise of defining the purpose often seems a bit “fluffy” and rather disconnected from the practicalities of the project. Why should one bother at all?

Because the world is ambiguous, and it helps to have a singular guiding light to guide us through it all.

The singularity of the purpose helps inspire the team, keep everyone on the same page, and align the team’s activities and decisions. It helps the audience better relate to and understand the product when included in a sales or investor pitch. Going forward, the purpose often becomes the foundation to the culture within the enterprise.

The purpose is a tool to create coherence, an effective component of the sales pitch, as well as a long-term commitment towards the world.

At Coopérathon this year, there were lessons to be learnt, but also friends to be made. Thanks to the competition’s unique structure spread across six weekends, it was easy to bump into familiar faces all the time and come away having created some meaningful relationships. The community is tight, strong, passionate, and genuinely supportive — no matter your interests or objectives.

“I love being a part of the journey. We watch a bunch of strangers — without a clear direction, team, or idea — turn into close friends, and eventually co-founders of a social enterprise.”

— Roxanne Nicolussi, Founder of 5Y Impact Collective and head design thinking coach at the events

So if you have a vague, socially impactful start-up idea cooking in your head right now, I encourage you to go on the Coopérathon journey next year — you absolutely won’t regret it.

Make sure to come back to this blog post when you’re there.

5Y Impact Collective

Written by

5Y is a socially mindful design and research collective that draws on a talented network of collaborators to solve problems that matter. www.5Yimpact.design

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