Example reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I´m a founding member of an startup that works toward creating solutions for carbon  capture, based in the application of biotechnology reactors to flue gas exhaust. At  the beginning of our pathway, when we only had an idea, we won a schollarship in  an starup incubator. We initially tought that making a solution for industries will be a  huge starting point, that factories were very interested in installing our sistem and  reduce his CO2 emissions.

We focus mainly in the engineering behind the product, making it more efficient,  cheaper and smaller. Thinking that the more efficient and cheap we did it, the more  costumers would want it.

Selection

As our idea already had been through an incubation process we thought that it would  be a great idea to test it in a real environment. So we decided to run a pilot test,  which later we realized it took us more to a learning launch.

The main reason I prefer to say that it was a learning launch, was that it allow us  gathering data directly from the costumers and not from the prototype behavior, and  allowed us to learn an improve our bussiness model.

Application

We installed our prototype in a carton factory, where it operated (in data) just like we  had thought and planeed. The real discovery was when we started talking to  employees of the factory and they told us what they tought about about the  prototype. Then we started to see and find some recurrent ideas and aproaches that  we didnt had tought before.

We started making interviews with all the people involved in the hypothetical decision  of buying our product, they gave us their opinion about the product and more  important, the reason why they wouldnt buy it.

Insight

What we found was that the companies wouldn't spend money on a solution that  they don't "need", basically what they say was that, while the government dont do a  law to force them to reduce CO2 emissions they would not spend money on that

matter. Also they dont see a clearly profit in money terms to adopt the technology.  At the same time that the corporative dindt show interest in the technology a lot of  people and employes told us that they find the technology very useful and importat  to improve the life quality.

A lot of people tought that it would be great to have something similar in squares or  parks in the city, offices, schools and other places with a high concentration of  people. So we realized that it was time to change and improve our technology.

Approach

By applying the learning launch tool we discover that the assumptions that we had  made (Factories would want to cut down CO2 emission) was not true, at least not  for now. They dind´t care about efficiency at lest while there is no monetary stimuli.

But we learned that the people is very interested in a healthy enviroment, and that  they think that the these technology should be common in public places. So we  change our approach, instead of made a solution focus on factories, we started to  develop a solution made for public enviroments. We approach to the local goverment  of our city and showed them what we had devolp. We find that they tought the same  as the people and they want to implement the technology in the city. So now we are  starting a plan with the city to do a learning launch of our technology in one of the  cities most traffic avenue.

It will include an etnographicly aproach to understant the relation of the people wih  the technology, diferent strategies in social media to make it a tourist hot spot and  strategies to make the people interact with it, at the same time that they contribute  to the enviroment conservation with a tree planting campaing.

