1. Challenge

First of all, I took this course to improve a business idea that I have been working on with  my business partner. It is about a marketing strategy agency. My partner and I met each  other studying International Businesses in Colombia. Then I took a master in creative and  strategy brand management, and he took a master on Marketing and sales.     In Colombia, where we live, we found out that most of the marketing agencies are focused  on advertising, as a result, most of our prospects of clients have the misconception of what  is marketing, what is a business strategy and what is the impact that these disciplines have  in their businesses. They (our prospects) think of marketing as the practice of announcing  and promoting their businesses without any other goal that rise their sales. But as we know,  marketing goes way beyond that. It actually touches every point of a business and builds a  bridge between what the people want and what the businesses have to offer. And that is a  lot more than just advertising.     So, with my business partner, I decided to try some of the Design Thinking tools that this  course has provided in order to create a new way to sell marketing and to stand out from  our competitors that only sell advertising disguised as marketing.

2. Selection

I realized that I had a problem that there was no example or guide on how to overcome it  for my country specifically. So, the most suitable tool for this was Mind Mapping. It is one  of the most useful tools. It can be used to look for repetitive patterns or insight in order to  get to more creative solutions. And in this case, we needed to find out why in our previous  research, we found out that people thought that marketing wouldn’t be necessary or  suitable for their businesses and with that in mind, how to sell them our idea in order to be  seen as completely separate from Marketing or advertising and necessary for them to  succeed.

3. Application

First, we started from the main concept: Marketing. We used colors for every concept that  it was detaching from it and used only one word at a time. As I said in the beginning, we got  to the point that Marketing is in every aspect of a business and that we both, eventhough  we studied marketing and branding, our foundations for it were in International Business,  thus, we were business men. With that in mind, we started to write down our current  reality, WHAT IS. We had at the moment a Marketing & strategy agency. But, we started to  do the WHAT IF and got to an agency that could solve any kind of business problems and  also kind of a business projects incubator. And then WHAT WOWS get to an agency that  offers everything that a business needs, but the problem was that we would have too many  employees. And finally, what works.

In what works we found that the most suitable business model for what we had, was an  business agency that had no employees but allies, that work with us depending on the  project. So, we would not have to pay salaries of many employees that may have not doing  anything for a period of time and also would be easier for us to pivot our business model  every time we would needed to.

4. Approach

I think the next time I would do the same exercise but with all of out allies. This time were  only my partner and I, and I think that the more people involved, more and better ideas will  come out.


1 . Challenge First of all , I took this course to improve a business idea that I have been working on with my business partner . It is about a marketing strategy agency . My partner and I met each other studying International Businesses in Colombia . Then I took a master in creative and strategy brand management , and he took a master on Marketing and sales . In Colombia , where we live , we found out that most of the marketing agencies are focused on advertising , as a result , most of our prospects of clients have the misconception of what is marketing , what is a business strategy and what is the impact that these disciplines have in their businesses . They ( our prospects ) think of marketing as the practice of announcing and promoting their businesses without any other goal that rise their sales . But as we know , marketing goes way beyond that . It actually touches every point of a business and builds a bridge between what the people want and what the businesses have to offer . And that is a lot more than just advertising . So , with my business partner , I decided to try some of the Design Thinking tools that this course has provided in order to create a new way to sell marketing and to stand out from our competitors that only sell advertising disguised as marketing . 2 . Selection I realized that I had a problem that there was no example or guide on how to overcome it for my country specifically . So , the most suitable tool for this was Mind Mapping . It is one of the most useful tools . It can be used to look for repetitive patterns or insight in order to get to more creative solutions . And in this case , we needed to find out why in our previous research , we found out that people thought that marketing would n’t be necessary or suitable for their businesses and with that in mind , how to sell them our idea in order to be seen as completely separate from Marketing or advertising and necessary for them to succeed . 3 . Application First , we started from the main concept : Marketing . We used colors for every concept that it was detaching from it and used only one word at a time . As I said in the beginning , we got to the point that Marketing is in every aspect of a business and that we both , eventhough we studied marketing and branding , our foundations for it were in International Business , thus , we were business men . With that in mind , we started to write down our current reality , WHAT IS . We had at the moment a Marketing & strategy agency . But , we started to do the WHAT IF and got to an agency that could solve any kind of business problems and also kind of a business projects incubator . And then WHAT WOWS get to an agency that offers everything that a business needs , but the problem was that we would have too many employees . And finally , what works . In what works we found that the most suitable business model for what we had , was an business agency that had no employees but allies , that work with us depending on the project . So , we would not have to pay salaries of many employees that may have not doing anything for a period of time and also would be easier for us to pivot our business model every time we would needed to . 4 . Approach I think the next time I would do the same exercise but with all of out allies . This time were only my partner and I , and I think that the more people involved , more and better ideas will come out .