How I automatized Startup Weekend learning experience with Zero to Hero Matrix
Our goal in Startup Weekend is the attendee’s growth. The growth of people. And it becomes more evident when it’s an Youth edition.
Last week, I facilitated Startup Weekend Youth Recife. The first one for attendees from 14 to 17 y.o. in the city where Maracatu echos— we had an Edu “Youth” edition last year for 11 to 13 y.o, the first one outside the US. We have a report here in portuguese.
The role of a facilitator comes with responsibility. I could list here all day long what we do in a SW, but in the end, our goal is only one: to create the best experience to the attendees.
In a Startup Weekend edition, that means growth. The awakeing of an entrepreneur’s mindset through a creation of a Startup with a bunch of people you’ve just met. Yes, in “54h”.
We kindly prepare an Entrepreneur Journey to those who dare to adventure. To transform let’s-creat-cool-app-mindest to let’s-solve-problem-mindest (Yeah, Design Thinking). There are tools like Lean Canvas to support the journey.
And the best part is, Zero To Hero — they named this after me.
Joking.
Zero to Hero is a roadmap of six stages:
- Ideia;
- Problem found;
- Problem validated;
- Solution found;
- Solution validated;
- MVP;
- Pitch.
I like this one Luiz Fernando Gomes made.
That’s cool because it guides the attendees through the weekend. They know the goals they need to accomplish and see how they are doing compared to other groups as well.
We show them that SW is an evolution. Goes up and down. Here in Brazil, at least, we’ve been using this roadmap in every 90 editions we had in Brazil.
But, things can get better, right?
In our slack, Marcos Medeiros came up with an interesting question: Which Zero to Hero is the best?
What? Which? He must just missspelled. Maybe he meant Witch. There’s only one ZH. Maybe he wanted to know some different illustrations like that one Luiz draw.
For my surprise, João Drummond answered “well, I like to use this matrix version.”
Instead of a roadmap, we use a matrix to evaluate each stage of design thinking.
“So, we show that’s not a linear thing” added Roberto Braga.
Just that. So simple.
And we’re back to #SWYouthRecife,
“So, we’re gonna make a Zero to Hero?” asks one of the organizers with excitement.
“Yeah, but let’s try something new” I respond. Ideas still blurred, but, they would become clearer as I wrote them down.
So, I just followed what they said and lot of supposing. But I think it was just it.
And the experience was incredible.
Comparison: ZH x ZH Matrix
One of the weak points of tradicional ZH was the need of repeated follow-ups.
In this version, as it comes with the 1) evaluation with color post-its and 2) time stump, we can rank which group need more attention and if someone is already attending them.
Before that, we only knew where the groups were, but not when. So the coaches had to go to groups over and over again.
Benefits:
- Better follow-up;
- Focus;
- Time performance.
How we use it?
Simple. We separate three colors of post-its and each one corresponds to a evaluation, like a traffic sign.
- Green: Well done! Keep doing great.
- Yellow: Doing well, but there are some tasks yet.
- Red: Not good.
The post-it doesn’t go blank. The coach writes his name and time when did that evaluation down so everybody can see by whom and when the post-it was pasted.
Wrap up
A picture is worth a thousand words, so:
Optional Add-on
You still can make a map of the venue, so everybody knows where the teams are. It’s up to you.
