Go to market strategy: the importance of understanding the dynamics of human behavior.
Creativity and Innovation can help our schools to thrive.
by Kylan Dempsey, Creative Writer, Gooddler Foundation
Following the Business Model Hackathon on the 31st of June, the young participants in the GOODdler Youth Incubator met again two weeks later for the next stage of their social entrepreneurship projects: developing a Go To Market Strategy.
I followed two teams, Apollobox and Skilledreader, over the course of the eight hour workshop as they figured out how they were going to get their businesses off the ground. Team Apollobox (Mahika, Sara, Katerina, and Priscilla) were well into development of an all-in-one box of supplies that could deliver hands-on music theory education to schools that can’t afford a full music program. By the time of the market strategy workshop, they had already assembled a box full of inexpensive supplies that could be used to make rudimentary musical instruments, as well as detailed instruction booklets explaining how to walk children through the activity and how the instruments work. The team had already got some feedback from their potential customers — teachers, — on their solution, and attempted to to user-testing on a 5-year-old relative. The results, they said, were enlightening. As it turns out, trying to get a 5-year-old to do anything is hard — it is this real life feedback that helps GOODdler participants develop the right mindset to succeed as entrepreneurs or other change agents in our rapidly changing world.
Meanwhile, Rohan and Joseph on Team Skilledreader had already built a prototype of their app that aims to improve the reading level of kids up to the fifth grade. Their app aims to engage kids in learning to read using an idea gleaned from the entertaining world of video games: a comprehensive score system and leaderboard. As explained by Rohan, children will complete timed activities, and the app will compile a detailed score based on time, accuracy, and other factors that they can then compare to the scores of other kids locally and globally. The prototype of the app already included a startup screen, menu screen, and some preliminary games. More is sure to come.
All of this was prepared before the workshop even began. But before diving into the wonderful world of Go To Market Strategy, the facilitators gathered the participants together for an extended interactive metaphor offered by the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership. The participants were told to always stay equidistant from two other participants of their choice while trying to get as far from the center of the room as they can. When the facilitator called for the game to stop, those who managed to get farther from the center then others while staying equidistant from two other participants were asked about their strategies. The same game was then played again, only this time the facilitator called a halt before anyone had settled into their chosen position. Although they attempted to copy successful models from the previous round, most people were caught close to the center and many of the participants broke the “equidistance” rule. The group then reflected on the lessons from the exercise. Here are some of the learnings shared by the participants after the debrief:
- “Just as it was smarter to stay in the room where I could see everyone, it is ideal to be aware of your stakeholders’ positions in your strategy making process. You would want to avoid a situation where you’re bumping into each other or not seeing what they are up to. I also liked the lesson on challenging our biases: eg. biases on the time we assume to have and the leadership bias. Strategies cannot assure one success but it’s better to have a plan and not be reactionary but also be open to changing one’s plan as the market continues to change.“
- “I learned that people will assume the rules are the same after something has been done, even if only once, and the truly successful have a new strategy that works faster without assuming many things.”
- “I learned the importance of understanding the dynamics of human behavior and the value in understanding how the rules work and why they exist in order to create change.”
Ginell Santos, a philanthropic advisor to The EACH Foundation, has generously volunteered time to collaborate with team Skilledreaders and ApolloBox to facilitate Go To Market Strategy.
Rohan and Joseph Skilledreader are executing their plan to bring their app to four schools with which they already have connections. These would serve as a trial run, or proof of concept. Step number one would be using these trial schools to get verified statistics on the effectiveness of the app. The next step would be to get a smart looking app store profile. After this, many ideas were proposed. They could give a presentation at a seminar or occupational conference that school administrators attend. They could target teacher’s unions, the Department of Education, forums frequented by teachers, and publications read by school administrators. This raised a couple of questions. What do teachers and administrators actually read, and where do they get new ideas and methods? What strategies are employed by the makers of similar apps?
Rohan and Joseph also considered possible ways to broaden their market. They had already planned an eventual expansion to prisons, because literacy rates among the incarcerated population are well below average. Now they considered other options. They could create a version optimized for special education classrooms, or a version for ESL learners. But creating an ESL version would have to have an entirely different focus than the base app, which is designed for children whose native language is English.
There were also many unknowns that could affect their market strategy. If they used the same app globally, they would have to deal with a language barrier. The Apple IOS operating system needed to run the app is not universally available. There will need to be a way to quickly and effectively address bugs in the app and push out local and global updates. And they will constantly have to design new games to keep the app fresh and engaging.
Meanwhile, the four members of team Apollobox were asking many similar questions. Their box full of supplies for hand-crafted instruments would have to be inexpensive in order to appeal to their target market of low income schools. It would also come in two sizes: a “classroom” size and a “100 student” size for multiple classrooms. They had also already worked out how the music theory component of their product would align with California state education standards.
Team Skilledreader then turned to spreading the word. The first step needed to be getting user testimonials and set up a website, similar to what Rohan and Joseph planned for their app. Then they would need to identify schools that lack music education, get more contacts at schools, try cold calling teachers and administrators, and create a blog or newsletter.
Both teams then sat down to figure out how to truthfully advertise themselves. Choosing exactly the right words and sentence structure proved to be surprisingly important — and difficult. How to define Apollobox in one or two sentence proved especially tricky. But by the end of the day, when it came time to present their market strategy, the team had come up with something appropriate: “We are a one of kind solution to ubiquitous budget gaps in fleeting music programs around the country”. All across the board, considerable progress was made over the eight hour workshop, as all the teams laid out their next steps toward making their proposals into reality. Although the Youth Incubator program can only go so far as to prepare the participants for entry into the real world of social entrepreneurship, both teams are strongly considering marketing their products for real. With the progress they already have — even before the program is over — they’re confident that with a little effort they really could start improving education in the United States and around the world.
Interested in participating in our next Social Impact Youth Incubator? Apply here. To receive information about the Gooddler Social Impact Youth Summit sign up to receive updates here.
About us: Gooddler Foundation is a 501(c)3 US Charity that aims to create a resourceful networking platform for young people from all socioeconomic backgrounds to grow with the desire to contribute to common good and inspire them to become a part of solutions to the most pressing global issues and issues plaguing communities they live in by giving them tools to create sustainable and profitable businesses.
To provide participants with cutting edge thought leadership and support that includes insights and frameworks from top-level academic research, real-life case studies, and rigorous mentorship, the Gooddler Foundation partners with the Institute for Evolutionary Leadership (IEL) — a California-based social enterprise that helps individuals, teams, and communities intentionally drive systemic transformation towards a more just, sustainable, and flourishing world. Through its educational services IEL has been enriching, transforming, and co-designing educational programs, fellowships, and incubators with strong focus on addressing deep systemic root causes of complex global and local challenges. IEL’s modules have been ranked top 1–2 compared to social innovation modules provided by Stanford D-School, OpenIDEO, and other prominent organizations in the field.
