Next steps: Sharing your opportunity

In this module you’ve completed three topics focusing firstly on what an opportunity is, particularly in relation to innovation. Following that, we explained how you can find innovative opportunities. In this final topic we’ve talked about how to evaluate the potential value of addressing an opportunity.

You are now equipped with the mindset and tools you need to identify a valuable opportunity for innovation. Once you’ve got this opportunity your next step is to explore it! To do this you need to be able to articulate your opportunity so you can share it with people and potentially find a supporter or someone to join your team.

Articulating your opportunity

One of the easiest and clearest ways to articulate your opportunity is to use a ‘how might we’ (HMW) statement. This will be a short question that starts with ‘how might we’ and focuses on a particular audience. For example, Ingrid might be exploring the opportunity of ‘How might we empower refugees to settle into Australia?’ Eli could be looking at ‘How might we help young professionals minimise the need to use multiple technology accessories?’

When developing your HMW statement you should focus on the audience you believe will benefit from the potential value you’re creating. For Ingrid, her audience is refugees, and the value she wants to create for them is about empowering them to settle in Australia. You need to ensure that your statement clearly identifies your audience and indicates your focus area where you are intending to create value.

Rehearsal for your ‘how might we’

One way to understand the HMW, is to look at an existing company and try and think about the ‘how might we’ they are addressing. For example, Airbnb’s opportunity could have been something along the lines of ‘how might we connect people looking for somewhere to stay with an available place to stay?’ or ‘how might we empower people with spare bedrooms to generate extra income?’ Note how the audience and the focus area changes with the shift in wording, so you need think carefully about how you can articulate your own opportunity.

Go out and innovate!

Now that you’ve got an opportunity and can communicate it, you’re ready to go out and share it. You can adapt your ‘how might we’ sentence and flesh it out into a pitch that you can take to things like hackathons, Startup Weekends or a class on entrepreneurship. Coming prepared with an opportunity will help you to delve into really creating a valuable innovation.

You’re now more ready to go out and be innovative and entrepreneurial whether or not you have an opportunity - it’s up to you to apply what you’ve learnt! 

‘You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great’.

Zig Ziglar