UniBo, Toolkit | New pre-incubation models
Partners
Knowledge Transfer Office of the University of Bologna
Case
We design a pre-incubation experience able to enhance KTO’s resources and peculirities
Action area
Training
Capabilities
Co-design, Strategic Design, Lean start-up
Year
2021-2022
The project
The Knowledge Transfer Office (KTO) of the University of Bologna is the unity dealing with the protection and valorization of the university’s industrial property, spin-off enterprises, and start-ups through initiatives and pre-incubation processes to develop and manage actions aimed at business creation.
On the occasion of Social Business Change, Shifton supported KTO in the design and co-facilitation of a training and pre-incubation experience around the themes of social entrepreneurship and sustainability.
The challenge
How may we create a pre-incubation experience able to enhance the peculiarities of the University of Bologna’s Knowledge Transfer office, maximise its effectiveness towards external stakeholders (students, seed investors, and partners), and optimise its internal processes (facilitation and commercialization)?
The strategy
The approach that inspires the entire path is that of learning by doing. The approach that inspires the entire path is that of learning by doing. To facilitate the involved students in acquiring tools to design and develop new entrepreneurial ideas, Shifton elaborated an approach based upon the hybridization of two different methodologies: Lean Startup and Design Thinking.
The first one focuses on the parcelization of the activities that bring to the launch of The former focuses on parcelling out the activities that lead to the launch of an idea and the execution of tests and experiments: research, hypotheses, testing, and learning. The second is characterised by alternating moments of convergence (creating choices) and divergence (making choices), passing between iterative phases: research, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
The process
We started by understanding KTO’s needs through a listening workshop to define a shared challenge and common objectives with them. Based on the emerged needs and opportunities, we co-designed the first part of the overall pre-incubation experience, designing a hackathon model and a toolkit to support the development and prototyping of new business ideas during the hackathon.
In the next phase, together with the KTO experts, we facilitated the hackathon organised by UniBo during Social Business Change, prototyping and testing the effectiveness of the toolkit with the participants.
Starting from the solutions selected during the hackathon, we co-designed the second phase of the pre-incubation experience, dividing it into six phases which allowed us to offer, together with the KTO experts, on-the-field support to the involved students. The six phases guided the students in developing and prototyping their business ideas, enabling them to experience a direct and constant confrontation with the challenge partners, culminating in the development of a final pitch.
At the end of the course, we systematised the learnings and implemented the development process through a retrospective session with KTO.
The impact
The designed pre-incubation experience enhances KTO’s specificities and experience, providing it with a distinctive and recognizable pre-incubation model and empowering its collaborators in facilitating the journey within the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural context of the university.
The hands-on, design-driven approach that defines the entire experience fosters the cultivation and development of new business ideas within the university context, providing students with standard tools and methods that cut across their diverse backgrounds, facilitating the creation of a direct dialogue between university and enterprises. At the same time, by incorporating collaborative and group dynamics, the course nurtures the emergence of new relationships and conversations, becoming an opportunity for social and cultural exchange within the academic journey.
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