New Infographic 'Double Diamond of Business Ecosystems'
Innovative Dutch | Serious Games for Serious Professionals
New Infographic: Linking Design Thinking with Customer Development
For a game that we've been designing recently, we wanted to create an explainer that visually links Design Thinking (DT) with a more wider ecosystem approach - for which we chose Steve Blank's Customer Development (CD) Framework.
Centrally in the visual is the Startup Growth Pipeline, following a DT approach with external validation based on CD. To help the students relate these to more common frameworks such as Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and Eric Ries' The Learn Start-up, we've included some minor references to those as well.
The complete the ecosystem perspective, we've visually included the way that startups can influence the success of their growth pipeline - through key strengths delivered through Simon Kavanagh's learning arches approach - and measure performance in 4 easy-to-capture startup metrics.
Please follow the link to read more about the infographic and to download it in full detail.
Discover the Differences: Our Expanded Game Portfolio at a Glance
Over the past year, we’ve expanded and refined our suite of educational games to meet diverse learning needs. With four unique offerings now available, each game focuses on different facets of innovation and entrepreneurship. To help clarify the key distinctions and benefits of each game, we've developed a detailed comparison matrix. This matrix outlines the varying perspectives, core theories, and complexity levels of each simulation, ensuring you can find the best fit for your learning goals, whether it's mastering internal processes or navigating external innovation networks.
Bringing the Business Model Game to Life in Your Course
We recently had the opportunity to showcase how the Business Model Game can transform course dynamics and deepen students' grasp of entrepreneurial strategies. Here’s how the gameplay unfolded:
Workshop 1: Persona Development
Teams start by building customer 'personas' that represent target markets for other groups in the simulation. Each persona reflects unique values, needs, or features, creating diverse customer profiles to target throughout the game.Workshop 2: Iterative Product-Market Fit
Armed with limited initial data on their persona, teams enter a cycle of research, development, and refinement to discover the best product-market fit. This process is supported by our simulation model, which evaluates their fit based on input and strategy. To conclude this stage, teams pitch their value proposition and business model, sharpening their communication and strategic thinking skills.Workshop 3: Scaling and Investment
In the final phase, the focus shifts to scaling their business concepts, building out more complex elements of their model, and seeking external investment. Performance is assessed using our “EntrePulse” metric, which measures customer response. The team with the highest score is crowned the winner, underscoring the impact of strong customer alignment.
This engaging game format works as a full-day immersive session or can be split into shorter workshops. To ensure a smooth experience, one of our facilitators guides the initial session, with subsequent follow-ups possible virtually.
Happy learning,
Jan