Re-design our Access2Funding Service – Mind Mapping tool

Challenge

I am currently enrolled as Startup Programs Expert in a University of Saint Francis based in Italy. My job consists in  monitoring the evolution of our portfolio through the analysis of the business potential of each project and  the measurement of the effectiveness and quality of our service offering.  Few months ago, I was facing relevant problems concerning the Access2Funding proposition: the service  conceived to help and support incubated startups in the fundraising activities. Despite the importance and  the relevance of capital to our clients, the performances of our service were very disappointing: the rate of  adoption had never succeeded the 10% of our entire portfolio since the launch of the service itself, and the  customer churn rate had been dangerously high (meaning that almost nobody renewed the subscription of  the service after the first year). It was time for us to face the reality and to understand what was the sources  of this tremendous mismatching between our offering and our clients.

Selection

We started our re-design process taking a look at the current reality (e.g. the incubated startups): our team  conducted informal interviews (“coffee sessions”, we called them) with a representative subset of our  portfolio trying to understand in a better way all the challenges and the problems faced by our clients before  during and after their fundraising campaigns. We focused our attention exclusively to the “problem-side”  (“What-is”) and we mentioned our service only with our former subscribers to find out the pros and cons of  their experience with the Access2Funding team. After 3-weeks sessions (and too much coffees) we had  amassed a huge amount of data and we needed a tool to distill all the information gathered into patterns  and insights, defining the design criteria of our new Access2Funding service. We decided to go with the Mind  mapping tool, rejecting the classic PowerPoint presentation.

Application

We booked our biggest conference room for an entire afternoon and we invited three different kind of  stakeholders to join our session: the whole Access2Funding team, some of the previously interviewed  startups, Venture Capitalists and Business Angels (for a total of 12 people involved). We posted on the walls  a synthesis of our interviews in order to explain and remind them the problem and the design challenges, we  gave them approximately 30 minutes to observe the data, in silence, and then we asked them to organize  themselves in 3 “Discussion Groups” made of 4 people each (diversity of the members of each group was  guaranteed by us). Every Discussion Group had a clipboard and some sticky notes they used to share their  opinions and group them into themed clusters on their clipboard. The second part of the session was then  dedicated to the sharing of the works done by each group, giving the possibility to every group to add and  comment the sticky notes of the others. At the end of the session I personally reviewed in front of the  audience the 3 clipboards collected, summing up in large orange sticky notes the insights and patterns of the  clusters identified by the participants.

Insight

The results of the Mind Mapping session were simply eye-opener and allowed us to rethink from scratch the  whole Access2Funding value proposition, starting from the role that incubator should have in the fundraising  activities of its startups. We were convinced that the incubator, and the Access2Funding team in particular,  had to play a role similar to the consultant’s one, supporting side-by-side the startup team in structuring the  materials and the documents needed to its fundraising campaign, reviewing the business strategy (if needed),  estimating the right financing need and choosing the typology of capital to raise (equity, grant or debt). On  the contrary, Mind Mapping revealed us a reality that was pretty different: our startups want to be  “independent” during fundraising activities. Our Entrepreneurs want to have full control and continuous

visibility on the strategy of the companies they run, and due to the strategic impacts of fundraising choices,  they are not willing to externalise these kind of activities to third parties (incubators included), preferring to  learn on their own the notions of finance they need, being autonomous in such decisions (quality that is very  appreciated also by investors). On the other hand, the session conducted, revealed us some uncovered needs  about our clients that we were not able to identify in the past: the incubator should focus on providing basic  training about finance and accounting to the incubated startups and instead of the consulting role, the  incubator should leverage on its vast network to support the startups through the exploration of the funds,  corporates or business angels potentially interested in financing the project, speeding up the whole process.

Approach

Going back in time, I would diversify the dataset of the what-is phase, integrating the information coming  from customer interviews with visual tools and some formal quantitative data. Anyway, Mind Mapping is  really a great tool to align the organization around a common understanding of the current reality, helping  us removing our own bias and approaching the world through the eyes of the customer. Now that we have  successfully identified the insight and pains of our customers, we now possess the right criteria to start re- designing the Access2Funding service.


Re - design our Access2Funding Service – Mind Mapping tool Challenge I am currently enrolled as Startup Programs Expert in a University of Saint Francis based in Italy . My job consists in monitoring the evolution of our portfolio through the analysis of the business potential of each project and the measurement of the effectiveness and quality of our service offering . Few months ago , I was facing relevant problems concerning the Access2Funding proposition : the service conceived to help and support incubated startups in the fundraising activities . Despite the importance and the relevance of capital to our clients , the performances of our service were very disappointing : the rate of adoption had never succeeded the 10 % of our entire portfolio since the launch of the service itself , and the customer churn rate had been dangerously high ( meaning that almost nobody renewed the subscription of the service after the first year ) . It was time for us to face the reality and to understand what was the sources of this tremendous mismatching between our offering and our clients . Selection We started our re - design process taking a look at the current reality ( e.g. the incubated startups ): our team conducted informal interviews ( “ coffee sessions ” , we called them ) with a representative subset of our portfolio trying to understand in a better way all the challenges and the problems faced by our clients before during and after their fundraising campaigns . We focused our attention exclusively to the “ problem - side ” ( “ What - is ” ) and we mentioned our service only with our former subscribers to find out the pros and cons of their experience with the Access2Funding team . After 3 - weeks sessions ( and too much coffees ) we had amassed a huge amount of data and we needed a tool to distill all the information gathered into patterns and insights , defining the design criteria of our new Access2Funding service . We decided to go with the Mind mapping tool , rejecting the classic PowerPoint presentation . Application We booked our biggest conference room for an entire afternoon and we invited three different kind of stakeholders to join our session : the whole Access2Funding team , some of the previously interviewed startups , Venture Capitalists and Business Angels ( for a total of 12 people involved ) . We posted on the walls a synthesis of our interviews in order to explain and remind them the problem and the design challenges , we gave them approximately 30 minutes to observe the data , in silence , and then we asked them to organize themselves in 3 “ Discussion Groups ” made of 4 people each ( diversity of the members of each group was guaranteed by us ) . Every Discussion Group had a clipboard and some sticky notes they used to share their opinions and group them into themed clusters on their clipboard . The second part of the session was then dedicated to the sharing of the works done by each group , giving the possibility to every group to add and comment the sticky notes of the others . At the end of the session I personally reviewed in front of the audience the 3 clipboards collected , summing up in large orange sticky notes the insights and patterns of the clusters identified by the participants . Insight The results of the Mind Mapping session were simply eye - opener and allowed us to rethink from scratch the whole Access2Funding value proposition , starting from the role that incubator should have in the fundraising activities of its startups . We were convinced that the incubator , and the Access2Funding team in particular , had to play a role similar to the consultant ’s one , supporting side - by - side the startup team in structuring the materials and the documents needed to its fundraising campaign , reviewing the business strategy ( if needed ) , estimating the right financing need and choosing the typology of capital to raise ( equity , grant or debt ) . On the contrary , Mind Mapping revealed us a reality that was pretty different : our startups want to be “ independent ” during fundraising activities . Our Entrepreneurs want to have full control and continuous visibility on the strategy of the companies they run , and due to the strategic impacts of fundraising choices , they are not willing to externalise these kind of activities to third parties ( incubators included ) , preferring to learn on their own the notions of finance they need , being autonomous in such decisions ( quality that is very appreciated also by investors ) . On the other hand , the session conducted , revealed us some uncovered needs about our clients that we were not able to identify in the past : the incubator should focus on providing basic training about finance and accounting to the incubated startups and instead of the consulting role , the incubator should leverage on its vast network to support the startups through the exploration of the funds , corporates or business angels potentially interested in financing the project , speeding up the whole process . Approach Going back in time , I would diversify the dataset of the what - is phase , integrating the information coming from customer interviews with visual tools and some formal quantitative data . Anyway , Mind Mapping is really a great tool to align the organization around a common understanding of the current reality , helping us removing our own bias and approaching the world through the eyes of the customer . Now that we have successfully identified the insight and pains of our customers , we now possess the right criteria to start re- designing the Access2Funding service .