Entrepreneurship.Basics. Getting started.
In the first week of the Entrepreneurship journey, we had to answer such questions as what is entrepreneurship and why it exists? What problems does it solve? What could be defined as a problem, which is worth to be solved? Until it gets too abstract and philosophical, the basics of the entrepreneurship fundamentals lie in challenging status quo, how things are (not) working at the moment.
Entrepreneurship is a kind of umbrella term for 1) getting information, 2) detecting and crystallization of the problem 3) succeeding or failing while solving it 4 )learning from it 5) repeating.
There are already some established frameworks for every stage of the entrepreneurship process, which allows structuring this whole process by correctly putting a sequence of actions and reactions. One of the known frameworks is Design Thinking, which is known by its simplicity yet applicability to identify the right problem to solve.
Design thinking framework consists of 5 main steps: 1) Emphasize 2)Define 3)Ideate 4)Prototype 5)Test.
This framework comes handy in times when the fundamental problem of humankind is solved. We are not starving. We have a roof above us. We have a specific position in society. Hopefully. Due to complexity in our world today, people invented many processes to solve the basic needs of humankind, such as hunger, security, health, and other essentials. Some of them are more complex than others, but they have a purpose of making a life of people less suffering. Hospitals, markets, e-commerce, payment systems, subscription, delivery, and a lot more are invented by people to standardize and decrease the uncertainty of various events on which people do not want to depend on.
What role the design thinking plays? Design thinking could be described as a thinking guide. For me, design thinking is using System 2 — thinking slow from Daniel Kahneman`s concept. In his work “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” Kahneman distinguished two kinds of systems of thinking — fast and slow. Shortly, the fast or unconscious one is semi-automatic and is based on intuition and habits. The latter, the conscious, is related to computing and is dealing with more complex problems. Design thinking is System 2 because we are using critical thinking, which requires conscious analyses and definitions as well as orientation and self-reflection. To define a problem, we have to question the existing or not existing process, which would solve the particular issue. By firstly empathizing, we could detach from the process and ask the feelings about the specific process.
Emphasizing, from my viewpoint, is the process when we have already defined our hypothesis, and we test it by gathering new feedback from new people about it. It the era of data, this part allows much broader research and allows to collect not only emotional but actual behavioral patterns of the people by analyzing their digital footstep.
After gathering the data, we have to make some conclusions about it. Does the freshly acquired information contradict with the current? If no, we could say that we have an agreement on how the particular process should work. But if it does conflict with our definition of the process, it means that we might be not correct while trying to find the pain which could be predicted or cured.
After correctly defining the pain, using all the tools we have, we now are open to think about all available solutions for it. The Design Thinking approach guides us to ideate and again use the imaginative brain without any frames. Thinking out of the box might be handy in coming up with the extraordinary and unconventional solution for complicated problems. The creativity of entrepreneurs was never undervalued and could be named as one of the good traits entrepreneurs should develop. After coming up with the various vectors and ideas about the possible solution, we have to run our cycle one more time to validate our solution to a particular problem.
Does your solution solve a defined problem?
If yes, great. Otherwise, most often, the correct definition of the problem and vector for its solution comes with time. The more you undergo the process of problem validation by iterating with a customer and their generated data, the closer you are to define the problem that has to be solved.
