My speed dating experience… Previous Monday we practiced in class Ad discovery and creative lab two methodologies which helped us to move on with our startup projects: Speed dating and World café methodology
Describe the process of "speed dating" you have participated. How was the interaction experience overall?
Speed dating was the first method that we practiced. There are three main roles : the pitcher/ dater ,who presents the main idea of the startup, the questioner ,asking 2 questions and giving 1 top advice/ feedback to the pitching person and finally the observer who gives feedback to both pitching person and the questioner -feedback person. First , the pitcher/dater gave information about his startup and the questioner asked him about further information. This had to be done in a very short time period and that was the most challenging part. Then the observers, who were just listeners up until this point , had to give their feedback at both daters again in a short time deadline .And then we repeated the whole procedure.
Pitch in 3-4 lines what is your startup project and link to another article
Our team is “The Chocomists: The alchemists of chocolate” and our start up is called “El Mejor: the best chocolate of all” . We are chocolate lovers and makers and our fundamental idea is to take down the myth that chocolate is unhealthy. We produce chocolate based on raw cocoa bean and other high quality ingredients. https://medium.com/@gmitsoulas98/el-mejor-chocolate-8b21d7fb9f28
How was the experience fast-dating pitching to your peers?
It was a very unique experience, something very strange and new for us that we haven’t done so far. It’ s definitely an experience that a startuper should have, because you meet a lot of new people and you have to explain your idea and help them to understand it in such a small time period , which is very challenging. As a startup you are going to face a lot of challenges, especially if you want to grow your business, so this was a very good practice for me as a startuper.
What did you learn by pitching to different peer-students?
It’s quite difficult to present your whole idea to another person in only to 3 minutes and make him successfully understand of what exactly you are talking about. So you have to be very focused and as clear as possible while presenting your thesis, otherwise your dater will get confused .At the same time you have to make sure that you have his attention and that you don’t sound boring . After talking to different people from various teams I realized that since everyone is different you can’t approach them at the same way every time. I also noticed that each person reacted differently to our idea. Of course there were similarities within their opinions, but there were also major differences.
What did you learn by responding to questions and feedback?
This was a very useful step of the procedure. Basically I learned to listen at my dater very carefully and then answer to him as clear as possible . When it comes at the feedback part I found it quite helpful ,because it really works as a piece of advice from a person that doesn’t participate in your idea and is just listener of your vision . If you think about it his feedback could practically work as a future client’s opinion about your product or your service.
What did you learn by asking critical questions and giving feedback to your peer-students?
This was also a very important stage ,because I was able to use the information that my dater gave me about his startup and find out what it was missing from his idea or what wasn’t . I asked questions about the parts that I didn’t understand completely and at the feedback part I gave my thoughts on the other teams idea .
What did you learn as an observer?
As an observer I learned how to work as a multitasker, because I had to listen, think ,take notes and watch the whole conversation. I had to write down everything that I found interesting about our startup and the startup of our fellow students and in the end use that information in order to provide feedback .After this procedure I was sure that in these types of conversation an observer is really needed and his role is huge because he can provide a high-quality feedback.
Coming to World-Cafe format- changing tables and meeting new startup fellow-students founders
What this format added to your experience, understanding and what are the most valuable take outs for you and your startup project?
World -café was also a very helpful tool , because we talked to people with different startup ideas ,but we found as a team useful tips that we could use if we really want to expand our startup. It was really important for me personally to realize that not everyone has the same opinion and of course they can’t give you the same feedback. I had the opportunity to realize that throw Word café ,because I was able to talk to various teams and meet a lot of new people .
Finally, how this fast forward combined methodologies helped you ( or not) in further moving ahead with your project?
There were lot of questions and feedback about the product’s cost, about our main target group, about the usability of our product and about the flavor and if it really differs from all the mainstream chocolate that are right now available at the market. Most of our fellow students that tasted our chocolate prototype during the conversations were pretty positive and enjoyed the taste of it. When we answered their questions and most of them thought that our idea has opportunities. There was only one person that told us that our chocolate is tasty ,but he doesn’t find anything different from common chocolates. But that person actually gave us a really good piece of advice .As he said since we are targeting at people who have health issues ,our product shouldn’t be pricy, because these people usually have lot of health care expenses, and a high price is going to prevent them from buying our chocolate. This was something that we haven’t thought up until this conversation. Generally speaking through this process we realized that our idea ,our startup is validated ,and we can take our project to the next point ,but first we have to figure out, using that feedback that these methods gave us, how to fill the gaps that we found in our projects.
#addiscoveryandcreativelab
