‘OUR EXPERIENCE AS A WHOLE’
Last Monday, during our advertising and public relations workshop, we had the opportunity to try out two methodologies, in order to enhance our startup project: a. Speed dating and b. World Cafe methodology. In general, we communicated with other groups and exchanged thoughts regarding our startup attempts.
In total, we speed dated with three different startup groups. To make this procedure work, we communicated through role-play, while one student was the pitcher, another was the questioner and lastly there was the observer. Every pitcher had a few minutes available to present the main characteristics of their startup company and the questioner afterwards would ask for relative clarifications/offer some useful feedback. Finally, the observer would add the comments they gathered from the session.
My team and I are called ‘The Chocomists: the alchemists of chocolate’ and our idea concerns the production and designing of a special chocolate based on raw cocoa bean.Our product’s brand name is ‘El Mejor: the best chocolate of all’. This sweet is mostly aiming to diabetics and individuals who are facing health issues and crave for a tasty, non harmful snack . For further information, please visit: https://medium.com/@gmitsoulas98/el-mejor-chocolate-8b21d7fb9f28
From my perspective, this experience was truly useful for every team member, even though it seemed a bit challenging. Analytically, the pitcher learns to present some basic elements about the company at a limited time. In other words, the student becomes selective about the necessary details which need to be refered. Moreover, the pitcher comprehends the need of speed while talking, simplicity of meaning and clearness. Furthermore, the pitcher learns ways to keep the dater’s attention attracted and becomes more creative while thinking of supporting arguments. Finally, by answering possible questions the pitcher learns to be more inventive and on alert.
On the other hand, the person that undertakes the questioner’s role gains a lot of benefits through this procedure. The questioner learns to pay attention to their dater and process the received information. The student learns fearlessly to express their point of view. Apart from these, the student learns to give helpful advice. This person could even act as the devil’s advocate and ask questions which may constitute some food for thought regarding possible gaps.
As an observer, the student learns to distinguish the useful information during the conversation and write it down quickly. He/She is also in charge of noticing the dater’s facial expressions that reveal their feelings and thoughts. Simultaneously, the student should list the useful feedback that the questioner offers them in order to study it later. Actually, this feedback is the key to improvement. Consequently, the observer is exercising in multitasking.
The World Cafe format was an interesting methodology that assisted my team to gather various opinions and realize our project’s advantages & disadvantages. We learnt to support our vision and be open-minded to new ideas. Meanwhile, most of the daters were satisfied with our chocolate and this sign was very encouraging. It gave us the drive to continue the hard work.
These combined methodologies moved our startup company a step further, mainly due to the feedback. Specifically, during our pitcher’s presentation, the daters tasted the piece of chocolate we prepared. Some of them liked the chocolate’s taste, while others didn’t find anything special regarding the flavor. A dater thought that the chocolate was bitter just as dark chocolate, but in a more delightful way. Afterwards, a questioner noticed that we should produce a bar with nuts and dried fruit. Finally, another dater asked about the chocolate’s price and highlighted the fact that diabetics may possibly spend regularly a lot of money on their treatment.That’s why they may not want to add more expenses to their daily budget. For this reason, we should sell our product on an average price at first. The above remarks inspired our team with new innovations. Stay tuned!
