Product Design training at Hubspace: Teaching BOP entrepreneurs product development

Heart capital is helping the township inhabitants around Cape Town developing their economic status in a sustainable way. They do this through a network of social enterprises. One of their social enterprises is Hubspace, a shared officespace for entrepreneurs from the townships. The enterprises supported here, do not meet the quality standards Heart Capital expects. The company sees the development of design competences of the participants as a powerful tool to enhance the success rates of the incubated entrepreneurs. Therefore they want to broaden the content of the Pinnacle Program with a training on product design. The design of this training was started with an analysis of the present situation and of competences needed by entrepreneurs. This was succeeded by a literature research on knowledge which entrepreneurs need, after which the training was designed. Finally the first steps to implement the training were taken. Analysis The analysis showed that a variety of things in Hubspace are different from what Heart Capital initially intended. Firstly the training program, called Pinnacle Program, is offered very irregularly to the entrepreneurs. By throwing up the Pinnacle program during the research, it became clear that the Hubspace entrepreneurs are characterized by a short term vision and a lack of focus in product design. The second difference involves Heart Capitals wish to incubate social enterprises, as the entrepreneurs do not have this as their primary goal. The analyses of the designers’ characteristics shows that they lack knowledge and ideation capabilities, but are not aware of the necessity of this. Knowledge According to the analysis he entrepreneurs have to become aware of the knowledge they lack, for instance of their ideation capabilities. The knowledge will be transferred to the entrepreneurs by cases, projects or problems based learning. This knowledge has to cover the subjects of business development. According to literature, a company has to have knowledge on four different disciplines, namely strategic capital, cultural capital, economic capital and social capital. Next to this, a company should be started via the lean start-up method. Along this, knowledge on product design, based on four design methods, is also necessary. Firstly the innovation engine shows that the entrepreneurs need knowledge, a good attitude and imagination in order to innovate. Secondly, using design thinking can stimulate the entrepreneurs’ imagination and thirdly co-creation methods can help them to create a product which fits the target group. Finaly a variety of brainstorming methods are available which are helpful for the entrepreneurs. Training design The training, which can be added to the Pinnacle Program, consists of three parts, a workshop, a project management tool and an event. The workshop “Different perspectives” will enhance the entrepreneurs’ knowledge by researching a topic individually, after which they will share their knowledge and apply it to their business. The project management tool “Blackboard” is a blackboard, containing a roadmap for a successful business start-up. This can also be used as a communication channel between Hubspace and the entrepreneurs. The event “Co-create! ” brings stakeholders together with the entrepreneurs in order to identify problems, brainstorm and select solutions. Implementation Given the time remaining, only the “Co-create! ” event was implemented. This showed that the entrepreneurs who participated found it difficult to take ownership of the process. As time was short, Heart Capital has to continue the implementation. To measure the efficiency of the training, the effect can be measured in Hubspace, for the workshop and blackboard, and on a university, in case of the event. Heart Capital is recommended to give extra attention to the placement of and the achievements on the blackboard. Also the length of the time boxing during the event has to be reconsidered.