successful journey is the planning and preparation stage

Welcome to the War Room – Tips on how to prepare your War Room How to get more out of your next innovation session – How to make sure you actually capture useful results from innovation sessions Find your personal strengths as a Founder – Understand your own strengths to understand how you might contribute to a team

Why ValidateIf Validating is so important, why do you only get to work on it in the 6th step of the Double Loop? Well, because you need to do a bit of groundwork first, so that your validation will make sense. That being said, the first time you go through the Double Loop, you’ll want to keep the steps leading up to validation to a minimum.
You want to go through the Point of View, Understand, and Ideate steps – but you’ll do it fast, so that you can get outside information in.
Besides, it is important to understand that a lot of the more qualitative, early stage research that is often lumped together with ‘validation’ is part of the Understand stage of the Double Loop.
The reason is that there is a big difference between observation, research, and gathering information and data and running actual experiments to validate a hypothesis.
The former is more akin to what designers do when they come up with new ideas, when they build up their perspective and combine new sources of information. It is ‘messy’, personal, and can be less structured.
The latter happens in the Validate step. You’ll get your riskiest assumptions together, define hypotheses based on these assumptions, and figure out ways to validate them using experiments. That is a more ‘scientific’, rigorous approach.
Tools for ValidateIn Design A Better Business, the following tools are part of the Validate step: Riskiest Assumption Canvas – How to find your riskiest assumption Experiment Canvas – How to create a solid experiment Validation Canvas – Combine and track multiple experiments Validating is HardDoing Validation is hard. Not only do you need to come up with the right assumptions to validate, but there are tons of ways to actually setup your hypothesis and run an experiment. And to top it off, you need to do it all in a rigorous, systematic way so that you can trust the results.

Additional ArticlesBesides the tools above, the following articles and tools may help you get up to speed:

How to find your Riskiest Assumption – How to think about Riskiest Assumptions What Lean Experiment to run? – How to decide which experiment to use next How to run experiments for Idea Validation – Experiments you can run to validate your early ideas How to run experiments for Product Market Fit – Experiments you can run to validate your Product Market Fit How do you know if your experiment was a success? – You got experiment results, but how can you tell you can really trust the result?

What is Scale?You’ll still be iterating and pivoting, but rather than working only on your value proposition, other things come into play. How will you organise the delivery of the product or service you sell? How do you start marketing it? How do you get investment?
In Design A Better Business, the main focus is on the Double Loop. However, the chapter on Scale still does have interesting tools and insights you can use to bring you to the next level.
The important thing to understand in the Scale chapter is what Steve Blank calls playing ‘moneyball’. Rather than trying to wow people with shiny powerpoint presentations that look great but lack any supporting business facts, make sure you can prove your business works. Make sure you have the revenues and the enthusiastic customers investors want to see, and that you can show your business is growing. Make sure you have your bases covered, and that you have validated your biggest risks are not going to kill you immediately.
And the only way to really do that is by iterating through the Double Loop, having the right, informed Point of View on your market, and prototyping and validating your product and service.
Tools for Scale Investment Readiness Level – A consistent way to map out where you stand on the ladder to Investment

What is a Prototype?First of all, it’s important to define what we mean by Prototype. When they hear the word ‘prototype’, some people think of complex, technologically sophisticated devices or applications.
But what we mean by a ‘prototype’ is simply anything you can show to potential users or customers to get feedback.
It could be as simple as a statement with a few questions, or a sketch on a napkin, or it could be as complex as an almost finished piece of equipment.
The important thing to understand is that you want to find the cheapest possible prototype you can use to get the feedback you want.
What is the shortest route to your goal? What takes the least amount of investment to get you the results you need to validate your assumptions?
Tools for PrototypeThe book Design A Better Business [Link] has the following visual tools for prototyping: Sketching Prototype Canvas

What is Ideation?Trying to come up with new ideas can be hard. Staring at an empty page, a kind of ‘writer’s block’ can easily grab you, and your mind just won’t come up with new ideas. Wouldn’t it be great if your brain just had a switch to put it in creative mode?
Well, it has!
Think about it. Where does any new idea come from?
Chances are, ideas just ‘pop’ into your head, seemingly coming from nowhere. And there probably are moments and situations where that ‘popping’ is more frequent. Situations in which you have more new ideas.
For me, it’s when I go running, but perhaps for you it is when you wake up at night, when you’re in the shower, or when you’re stuck in traffic.
Everyone has these moments.
Configure your brainThe trick to finding your personal ‘on’ switch is to identify these moments. Figure out what they have in common, and re-create the right conditions when you need to become creative.
Your brain has different mental ‘modes’ in which it operates. Some of these modes may be great to make decisions, some may be great for social interaction, others may be good for getting a lot of work done efficiently. And there is also a ‘creative mode’.
To get better at switching on your creative mode, you need to learn more about your own mental modes. You need to learn how to consciously configure your brain for the task you want to achieve. It’s something creative people practice every day. This ‘brain configuring’ is something that you get better at by observing what happens when you’re in a creative vs. an uncreative mode.
For example, I know that if I want to really solve a problem, I need to think about it really hard for a few hours, and really care about solving it. Then, I have to wait a day or so. And only then, my ‘subconscious’ will start yielding interesting solutions. The process can’t be forced. If I would press on after the initial hours, and try to push through directly, I’ll just get tired and hit a brick wall.
Also, I know that if I want to switch on a creative mood, it will take me around 30 minutes to get into the ‘zone’. I know my brain will come up with some really crap ideas first, but that’s ok. I just have to keep going and trust my brain to get me better ideas once I am past this initial stage.
The way I learnt (and am learning more every day) about configuring my own brain, is by observing and evaluating my thought process in various situations, writing my experiences down in a logbook. Also, I keep experimenting with new approaches after talking to other people about their creative ‘mode’. And if something works, it gets implemented into the configuration routine that I use to switch my mode of thinking.
What you can do: Keep a logbook. Note down in what situations a particular mental mode worked well, or didn’t work at all, and try to evaluate the circumstances. What were you doing/thinking before? How long did it last? Experiment. Create experiments in configuring your brain, doing different things to stimulate certain mental states. Read about the creative process of others, or ask creative people you know how they get into the ‘zone’. Create configuration routines. These are short step-by-step routines to get you into a specific mental state. Practice them when you need to go into that state. Soon enough it will become second nature. Unblock yourselfThere are also some things to stop doing. Some things are enemies of the creative mode of thought. We have learned to see our mind as a machine, and we are pressured to be efficient. So we naturally try to be ‘efficient’ about creativity. It is possible to be more efficient (although I’d go for effective rather than efficient myself) — but going at it in a direct approach is counterproductive.
For instance, if you have a goal, and try to come up with ideas, it is easy to immediately judge each new idea and see if it achieves the goal. If you look at it like that, 99.9% of all ideas will look like crap. It is incredibly rare that a fully formed solution will pop into your head that ticks all the boxes.
It turns out, judging ideas immediately is very counterproductive. The brain works by association: it uses context and examples to latch onto and create new ideas. Especially when you have a bunch of half-formed ideas on the table, your brain is very good at taking parts from each and creating new, better ideas.
You need the initial ‘crap ideas’ in order to get to the good ones.
Think of these ideas like ’stepping stones’. They are the raw ingredients you can turn into something amazing later on. Besides, judging ideas isn’t any fun, because what happens is you’ll sit there, punishing yourself for not coming up with any ‘good ideas’ and feeling super uncreative — and all the while, the only thing that’s blocking you is you.
Another really important blocker is having a super rigid point of view. If you go into a creative session without any flexibility, then you won’t get anywhere.
So rather than defining the solution you’re looking for before the session, having goals set in stone, and judging each new idea on if it meets those goals, next time try something different:

Don’t set fixed goals. Instead define clear Design Criteria that you can use afterward to rate your ideas . Timebox an hour or so to come up with ideas. Defer your judgement of ideas until after time’s up. In this way, while ideating, you’ll feel secure that you’re not losing direction, because you’re going to check the outcomes against design criteria afterwards, and you’ll feel less need to judge ideas immediately. You’ll be able to go with the flow, and come up with tons more ideas — and a percentage of those will be surprisingly good, I promise!
Of course, there are other blockers as well such as stress, and many other things that might block you personally. Using the logbook, you’ll probably uncover a few of them. What could you achieve if you managed to avoid just one of those blockers?
Read the rest of this post on Medium
Tools for IdeateThe book Design A Better Business covers the following tools for Ideate:

Creative Matrix – Boost creativity by filling a matrix Business Model Ideation – Create new ideas for Business Models Wall of Ideas – Fill a wall with 100+ ideas Innovation Matrix – Select the most promising ideas based on criteria

Additional Articles

Besides these tools, there are a few more links I want to share with you that will help you become a master of Ideation:

How to be the creative genius in your next Ideation session – Article with a crash course in boosting your creativity Shortcut 1: 100 ideas that always show up – Why reinvent the wheel? Shortcut 2: Hack your ideation with Business Model Patterns – Use this list with 100+ patterns to piece together new business models

Additional Articles

Besides these tools, there are a few more links I want to share with you that will help you figure out prototyping:

20 Prototype Tricks to Validate your Startup Idea – 20 kinds of prototype you can use to validate with

Additional ArticlesBesides the tools above, the following articles and tools may help you get up to speed: How to Unsuck your Startup – What to focus on next The Startup Readiness Level – Where you stand as a startup on the road to success The Startup Calculator – Calculate different scenarios for your startup’s growth easily

Four ways to use Personas in Innovation – Tips on different ways to effectively use personas Persona Canvas Examples – Examples of persona canvases Three ways to understand Customer Needs – Customer Needs are at the core of understanding your customer, but how do you find them? Get clarity on your surroundings with the Context Map – Examples on how to use the Context Map

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The fact it is in the center is not by accident. Your ‘Point of View’ governs your entire innovation journey!
But what is it?It’s your North StarIn design, having a Point of View means having a unique perspective on the world. This unique perspective combines all the diversity, knowledge, and experience of your team, and describes how you and your team want to tackle your project.
It answers questions such as: What are the unique values you bring to the table? What skills and experiences define you as a team and set you apart from others? What are your collective goals? What is the vision you are trying to achieve?
This makes your Point of View your North Star. Your ‘guiding principle’. It’s the reason you want to undertake the project in the first place. Your Point of View comes into play every time you want to make a decision on your journey.
It’s not staticAn important thing to realise is that your Point of View will change over time.
When you start your project, you’ll start with a Point of View. It’s unavoidable. You and your team bring in that Point of View the minute you walk into the room. It’s just a very rough and uninformed Point of View, and it’s not yet a collective one either.
During your innovation journey, you will uncover new information, conduct experiments, and grow your understanding of the project, and this will inform and shape your Point of View.
That means it will always reflect your team’s perspective on the problem you’re trying to solve and its context. That informed point of view will mean that you’ll be making different decisions based on new data.
An exampleImagine two teams, both trying to come up with a solution that helps people transport from A to B. Starting out, Team One is motivated by creating a thriving, profitable business, while Team Two wants to create a sustainable business that also has a positive impact on the environment.
These two teams will make very different decisions from the very start of their innovation journey.
At the start, members of Team One have the conviction that the best way to achieve their goal is to create a mobile app that helps travellers plan their journey. They plan to make money from ticket sales in the app. While researching what travellers think about this solution, they find out that travellers don’t want yet another app. They want access to modes of transportation that they don’t own themselves.
This new data changes Team One’s perspective. They let go of their idea of building an app. They have learned something. Using this new data, they start working on a solution that gives travellers access to shared mobility vehicles.
In this example, at the core, the new data doesn’t conflict with the goal of the team to build a financially profitable company. They are able to shift gears and adjust.
It can also happen, however, that new data conflicts with the deepest ‘non-negotiable’ values of your team. What if Team Two, in the example above, finds out that their solution will have a huge negative impact on the environment? When forced to choose between profit with a negative impact, and going out of business with a positive impact, they would rather stop the project altogether.
Mapping your Point of ViewIn the example above, both teams’ views are fine, and they help them work towards what they think is important. Their Point of View helps them make decisions they can get behind.
But what if, within the team, or towards stakeholders, this Point of View is unclear? What if you don’t all agree? What if your key stakeholders or investors don’t share your Point of View?
You’ll run into Big Trouble. With capitals.
Not sharing the same Point of View, goal or vision is right up there in the top 20 reasons why startups fail, under the header ‘Founder Problems’.
That means it is super important to make your Point of View explicit. You need to map it out, and keep track of it throughout the project. The tool ‘Design Criteria’ helps you to do just that.
It also means you’ll need to have some tough conversations with the team right from the Prepare Stage onwards!
Tools for Point of View 5 Bold Steps Canvas – Helps you put together a compelling vision Cover Story Canvas – Another team vision tool Design Criteria Canvas – Define the non-negotiables for your project Storytelling Canvas – Use this to help explain your Point of View to others

Additional ArticlesThe above links show you exactly how to use each tool, but perhaps the articles below give more depth:

The Stepping Stone Vision canvas – An alternative to the 5 Bold Steps canvas