On Thursday, 17th February 2022 the Ashesi Design Lab organized a fellows workshop in partnership with Ashesi Entrepreneurship Centre. The workshop ,which was to kick off at 3pm, was aimed at helping students, faculty and staff better conceptualize ideas for funding and project management support from the D:Lab. Participants were led through design thinking frameworks such as journey maps, empathy maps and business model canvas to prepare them for support.
It was some minutes into 4 pm, and the participants began to trickle in, the few who were not available, had sadly been caught up in evening classes. Usually, the idea of a workshop might spur images of noise, bee-like movement and creative dissonance, but this workshop was different. A contributing factor could be the sheer exquisiteness of the location, a banquet hall. Perfectly cooled, gleaming tiles and draped from floor to ceiling with beige crepe curtains, the room resonated with professionalism. Still, a more likely explanation for the orderliness and quiet could be the grants at stake, four $1000, and two $2000 business funds, to be battled for in a two-hour sprint.
The event kicked off with the Distribution of Cardboard and other creative material by the event facilitators, as various teams waited for the arrival of their members.
There was an introductory address by Emmanuel Derry. Later on, Dr. Gordon Adomdza discussed the main ideas behind the Design Lab, and made the following key quotes; “We have to be intentional in the way we engage the people who are interested in starting something…Not everyone who wants to invent or create, wants to start a business”
“Creativity is not just about classes, it requires the use of extracurricular activities.”
“At the D-Lab we put ourselves at the very forefront of innovation."
Dr. Gordon Adomdza urged the participants to not just focus on business models but also on creativity. The participants were then given the guideline for the day, starting with problem identification. which involves the analysis of a chosen problem, dissecting it’s root causes and identifying the stakeholders.
The following problems were tabled during the workshop:
Team 1- Fragmented procedures encountered by Senior High Graduates Before Entry to University in Ghana.
Team 2- Lack of access to IT centers and proper training for aspiring technology students.
Team 3 - Lack of licensed cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets offering easy and instant access.
Team 4- Educational Accessibility
Team 5- Merging recreation and Mental Health Initiatives
Team 7- The Lack of inclusion and competence in the Fashion industry
Team 8 - Lack of support systems for farmers, to enable them produce consistent levels of crops of produce to the market.
The next step was persona mapping, which refers to the selection of a potential user and modelling them accordingly based on age, location, name, social status, income, profession, needs, and many other characteristics relevant to the problem space. Such knowledge allows us to answer the omnipresent question: “How best can we exchange value with our user?”
What followed was the journey map of the persona step. This is the strategic assessment of the processes a user goes through in order to get utility from a given product. It is an in-depth, time-dependent assessment of their everyday activities.
They then did the value fulfilment blueprint, which is a stage by stage diagrammatic template, showing how an entrepreneur plans to get a product or service across to a user. The last step was constructing the business model canvas. This is the template that encompasses the essential elements of running a business. It includes customer relationship mapping, customer segment, key partners, key resources, key activities, channels, revenue, and cost structure.
WRAP-UP
Two hours later, the time was up, and team’s were called to make their presentations. After the presentations, a conclusion was drawn. Due to the unavailability of team members, an alternative approach to selecting the finalists was reached. Each team would present a 3-slide voice over presentation due for submission four days later. This greatly evened the playing field and was met with a lot of enthusiasm. The refreshment and photograph session followed shortly after.
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