Innovation lessons learned from a week with global startups
This post was first featured in UX Planet here
Last week I had the pleasure of spending a few days mentoring startups in all things UX, innovation, and development at the Humanitarian Grand Challenge in Munich. This week-long innovation accelerator, hosted by the WFP Innovation Accelerator and Grand Challenges Canada, included 25 startups from 18 different countries all working to scale innovations to solve humanitarian problems.
Over the course of this inspirational week with the startups, I had the opportunity to help startups think through some of their UX challenges as well as learn from their creative problem-solving techniques. Below are just three of the many lessons learned from a week with the team.
3 Lessons learned:
Innovation comes from everywhere. The innovators gathered during this week came from an extremely wide range of disciplines, backgrounds, and countries. Some are for-profit social enterprises and others are nonprofits. Some, like MedMagLabs utilize an age-old technique to save lives today. Others, like SurgiBox, use new technology to bring safe, sterile surgeries to the most remote places. Never underestimate the power of large or small ideas to bring about huge change.
Think about the consequences (good and bad!) of partnerships. Amalee Nsour of WFP led a post-it session on business development and partnerships and how best to strategize these relationships. Early-stage startups like the innovators present can find themselves aiming for partnerships to increase their legitimacy and funding, but this can often come with giving up decision-making power. Talking to peers about lessons learned from partnerships can help innovators come up with better partnership strategies
Step back from the problem and define what success would look like in 10 years. Emma Proud and Lea Simpson of Brink hosted a session on innovation and problem-solving. Their advice was simple but impactful: rather than focus on the problems of today, take a step back and define what success would look like in 10 years. For example, success in a latrine project could be 80% of women in refugee camps using proper toilets (up from the current 24% today). Rather than focusing on one small solution (increased lighting in bathroom areas), focusing on the goal allows one to identify multiple areas for improvement (a need for more lighting, a need for safety from scorpions or snakes near bathrooms, physical space between male and female bathrooms, etc.) This creates space for innovation.
Never underestimate the power of talking to your peers. Just from being in the same room, the innovators and mentors took the time and space to workshop their problems and come up with new, innovative solutions for their grand challenges. Above are just three of the many lessons learned from a week of rich conversations and stimulating sessions. I have no doubt that the 25 innovators of the Humanitarian Grand Challenge will continue to scale up creative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Discussing the role of tech in disaster response
