Summary and application

You’ve made it to the end of topic 2! In this topic we’ve talked about different ways you can go out and find opportunities as well as the fact that sometimes an opportunity for innovation will just appear in a happy accident. We’ve gone through six key tools you can use to identify opportunities:

1. Observation: finding opportunities through something you notice or witness which often involves being more aware of the potential to find opportunities during your daily life.
2. Self-Reflection: identifying opportunities through the act of consciously thinking about your own past experiences and knowledge. These can be both recent and distant memories.
3. Discussion: finding opportunities through informal or formal conversations with people based on their experiences, frustrations, or expertise.
4. Research: actively searching through different sources of information (e.g. academic, news, social media) to be more informed about certain topics or identify topics of interest with the goal of identifying potential opportunities for innovation.
5. Imitation: using observation and research to identify an opportunity to create value by imitating an existing product, service or business in a new market.
6. Framing: changing the scope, focus or small aspects of an existing opportunity to identify further opportunities for innovation.

Apply your learning

Now we’ve got some activities that will help you apply what you’ve just learnt and make sure you understand the key tools from this topic. As stated at the end of topic 1, some of these activities can be done by yourself, some are better done in a classroom with others, or with facilitation from a teacher.

1. Vicarious learning

Conduct your own interview with an entrepreneur on the opportunity or problem that resulted in the creation of their business.

As you listen to their story, see if you can identify which of the tools they used to identify the opportunity (e.g., observation, self-reflection, interview, reading, and imitation).

If you’re struggling to find someone to interview you can find an interview online. Some examples are this interview with the CEO of Airbnb, or this one with the CEO of Wanelo, a site with over 12 million products posted from over 300,000 stores (listen to 0:00-1:15), or finally this one with the CEO of NerdWallet, a financial education startup (listen to 2:40-6:16).

2. Virtual learning

Interview someone you know about their life. Ideally ask about a specific aspect of their life whether that’s their trip to university this morning, their experience as a parent, their last concert, or something else entirely. Look for opportunities for innovation or improvement, or for problems or frustrations in their life that could be reframed as opportunities. Alternatively, you can interview them about major challenges they know they are about to face that already make them anxious. If interviewing other students, typical points of discussion might include finding an internship or job, moving homes, or planning and saving up for your travels.

As you interview them, identify at least one opportunity for innovation. It could be something simple like something that helps them improve their concert experience or an entirely new business model that helps parents transform how they organise childcare and babysitting. Try and find as many opportunities as you can.

Choose one opportunity and use the zooming in, out and sideways method to try and completely change the opportunity. You can you go from helping improve the concert experience to using music to empower women in developing countries, or from disrupting childcare to redefining how children learn. Try and find an opportunity you care about!

3. Authentic learning

This is similar to the previous virtual learning exercise, but in a more professional setting. Interview your supervisor at work (or any professional) about problems or frustrations in their work. Now reflect on your own experience.

• Have you had similar problems or frustrations?
• Is there an opportunity to innovate and create something that can improve a specific element of your work?
• Use the self-reflection tool to identify at least one opportunity for innovation that would benefit yourself and your supervisor.