Challenge

I am working in an association that supports cluster of technology startups to grow and expand their  businesses despite the national economic and political context.

In a highly competitive environment and globally connedted world where technology is rapidly  changing, a key aspect for success is to empower the startups with appropriate skilled labor in  response to the potential demand. For that, designed programs of capacity building through  international certifications, training courses and coaching are being implemented to upskill the  workers and increase freelancing and outsourcing opportunities as cre part of our association’s  strategy.

The second key aspect is to have access to markets. The local market limitations and potentials are  pushing the startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers to use their talents and skills for external market  penetration which could drive better opportunities for youth and startups and thus enhancing the  economic opportunities and job creation with more 70% of youth unemployed in my country in 2018.

The main challenge here is to drift our association’s strategy from focusing on the technical assistance  and capacity building only towards the inclusion of market penetration and readiness.

Selection

To gain the buy-in from our stakeholders, I have decided to use visualization tool with appropriate  data. Visualization tool is vital to represent the data in context, provide better insights that could easily  attract the understanding of participants and to get them more interactive about the approach.

Application

To gather the needed data, I have first made a desk review of the available studies that analyze the  demand and supply sides with future recommendations. Based on its findings, I have also shared a  survey with the startups to have more insights about their current products and services, the markets  that they are trying to penetrate, what channels did they use to approach new business opportunities  and others. Then, I have invited the startups to a focus group with our board of directors and started  to visualize the results and the roadmap.

I have shared an end-to-end approach of how capacity building which is our current focus is the base  for the next breakthrough of market penetration showing the relationship between the two  components. Having the appropriate know-how is vital for businesses but without the appropriate  tools for creating business linkages, there is a missing piece in the puzzle.

I have then shared more visualized figures about the key findings of the survey, the interest of the  startups, their current potential and linked it with the opportunities available that I checked from the  desk review.

The group of stakeholders were impressed by the findings, they have started to discuss the idea in  depth. Some startups as well have started to share their stories in details. The board of directors then  approved the new concept and decided to include it in our new strategy.

Insights

The use of visualization tool was of great help to share and the show the ideas and initial findings in  an understandable and interactive way. Understanding the whole picture and digging deeply into the  various steps and their results have highly attracted the participants.

Approach

For the next, I think that I would apply journey mapping as  well to the ideation and understanding  what is status. I can gain more insights about the process which would increase the understanding of  the needs.

