Empire Angels + NYC Startups
Introducing Startups to a New Way of Ideation
Role: Innovation Consultant/Account Manager/Workshop Producer for ORGE Innovation
Innovation Consultant/Workshop Producer: Eileen Ellis
Knowledge Brokers: Sophie Hou, Danielle Christophe, James Frankis, Nelson Lo, Divya Khandelwal
Clients:
Empire Angels is a New York City-based angel group comprised of young professionals focused on supporting early stage technology ventures through seed and Series A funding.
ORGE Innovation Consulting is a design-led innovation consultancy that provides organizations structured methods to help them stay innovative. ORGE Innovation offers services in the areas of Knowledge Brokering, Open Innovation Consortium, Design Strategies, Project Framing, Innovation Capacity Building, and Leadership Mentoring.
Bruce Nussbaum is a strategic partner at ORGE Innovation, author of Creative Intelligence, writer for Fast Company, professor of Design and Innovation at Parsons The New School for Design, and is the former assistant managing editor in charge of design and innovation coverage at Businessweek.
Sponsor:
Indira is a female-founded startup that specializes in customized hand-dyed silk bridesmaid dresses, groomsmen attire, and matching decor.
ORGE Innovation partnered with Empire Angels to create an event dedicated to introducing NYC startups to ORGE's methodology of Design Thinking. Over the course of a 1.5 hour workshop in Indira's Soho workspace, complete strangers- startup participants and selected experts- created six intricate and buildable ideas through ORGE's unique ideation process. The night was closed with a talk about creativity and the power of play by ORGE partner and author of Creative Intelligence, Bruce Nussbaum.
Open Innovation Consortium
Experts in social enterprise, finance, software and experience design, and startup advising were brought in to participate and contribute ideas to the startup groups.
Project Framing
Since the workshop was tailored to startup members, activities focused on technology, people and culture, and business and market trends analysis, user type identification, and concept creation based on the user personality.
Knowledge Brokering
Knowledge was drawn out, shared, and channeled not only from participants' direct interests and expertise, but also from their own personal experiences and abilities to extrapolate internalized information.
Design Strategies
Activities were structured taking into account participants' physical movement, visual design interpretations, interpersonal interactions with other members, natural thinking processes, and progression of idea formation. Through the use of design strategies, communication silos within the organization were able to be broken and program ideas were generated without the impediment of conforming to established and slow-moving formal procedures.
Innovation Capacity Building
Participants were exposed to a systematic way to generate new, innovative ideas using targeted activities- a thinking process that could be carried forward and applied in their other personal endeavors.
Workshop Structure
Trend Timeline and Clustering
Participants rotated among groups to identify trends, patterns, and unique traits pertaining to technology, business and market, and people and culture, then clustered key themes. Flashcards used to prompt individuals indicated the most recent news in every area drawn from Twitter.
Emerging User Profiles
Drawing from the emerging trends, groups described four different user types through collages and attributes.
User Personality
Further analysis was conducted on one chosen user type, in which the user's personal information, dreams, fears, likes, dislikes, and company preferences were explored.
Day in the Life
Thinking in terms of the user profile and personality, a day in the life scenario was built, wherein the emotional highs and lows during the day were mapped.
Concept Ideation and Use Case Scenario
The final concept was drawn from identifying the problems and opportunities in the Day in the Life framework, while incorporating the profile of the user. A use case scenario detailing through drawings how the product would be used was also included.
Ripple Effect
This framework was included to predict the future effects of the proposed product on the user's life, the community and network, and the market and industry as a whole.
Role-Specific Tasks
Project Leader and Account Manager
The role included all aspects of the project from start to finish, including event promotion, operations and logistics, recruitment and training, and workshop design and production. The partnership between Empire Angels and ORGE was initiated and managed by me, including the design and development of the workshop event through working closely with the partner, speaker, and sponsor.
Workshop Production
The entire workshop production was executed by me, including facilitator hiring and training, project scheduling, and interaction with our Empire Angels partner and our invited speaker, Bruce Nussbaum. Participant outreach, public promotion, and event space acquisition were conducted in collaboration with our Empire Angels partner.
Workshop Design
The workshop strategy was designed by myself working with the Empire Angels partner. This consisted of the overall flow, activities, timing, and the hiring of specific facilitators according to their traits and experiences.
Workshop Materials Creation
The preliminary subject matter research, rough drafts and final materials drawn in Adobe Illustrator, as well as the planning of the material arrangement in the space was done by myself.
Knowledge Brokering and Workshop Management
Knowledge brokers were assigned to manage one or two groups at a time, with timing, overall workshop management, and additional knowledge brokering assistance conducted by myself.
Team Recruitment and Training
The facilitators for the workshop were recruited by myself, and each person was trained individually by me. Additionally, the main speaker, Bruce Nussbaum, was a contact I was introduced to through ORGE to participate in the event.
Event Promotion and Customer Acquisition
Since this was ORGE's only paid event open to the public, extra attention was spent on promoting it through social media channels, networking, and direct personal outreach done by Empire Angels and myself.