EcosystemOS Applications: Problems Worth Solving, Developing Applications And Design Thinking Guide

Would you like to make your mark in the startup universe? All it takes is an app.

Along with Startup Commons EcosystemOS, we are establishing a global ecosystem applications marketplace to connect leading application developers with three ecosystem customer segments: business creators,  startup support providers and ecosystem developers. If you have an awesome existing app for one of these three segments, we encourage you to submit your application today to join our very first developer cohort.

​Problems Worth Solving

Are you a Business Creator, Support Provider or Ecosystem Developer? Are you frustrated by the lack of good applications or models to solve your big pain point and cant find a proper solutions?

Share your pain with us, and we will share it with motivated app developers, looking to build applications to problems worth solving and look into ways of co-creating and contributing along the way.

Looking to develop an application?

To get creative juices flowing, we are sharing one such concept "open ipr" openly here with the world that have been iteratively developed as part of Startup Commons work with European Commission and several ecosystems, to help solve the problem of unused resources and other IPR not connecting with innovative business creators - leaving more than 90% valuable research findings being under utilized in business creation. ​

​Download PDF below or open via Google Drive for comments and questions.

open_ipr_concept_.pdf
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Design Thinking

You have until May 2018 to submit an application. We have created this short design thinking guide to get you started on your application development journey:

Step 1: Choose a startup development phase.

Do you want to focus on the formation, validation, or growth phase?

​Step 2: Identify a customer segment.
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Do you want to build an app for business creators, support providers, or ecosystem developers?

Step 3: Develop empathy for your target customer segment.

Engage in perspective taking to understand target segment needs by asking questions and gaining ground-level experience. We suggest conducting informational interviews and shadowing people in your target customer segment. The goal of this step is to gain an understanding of what matters most to the people in your target customer segment and figure out what challenges they face.

Step 4: Define the problem that you want to solve.

Based on the needs of your target customer segment, create a clear definition of the problem that you want to solve for them.

Step 5: Ideate solutions to the problem.

Sketch and model ideas for how you can solve the problem. There are no bad ideas at this stage. Put every possibility on the table, and defer judgement until the end of the process. Ideating solutions is most effective with a team or group of collaborators. Once you have entertained all possibilities, vote and choose the idea that you would like to pursue.

Step 6: Prototype your solution.

Build a minimum viable product (MVP). This version of the product should allow you to collect the maximum amount of information about customer preferences with the least effort. Hackernoon.com provides an excellent guide to minimum viable products. 

Step 7: Test your application.

Engage in validated learning. Use focus groups and customer feedback to figure out what works and where improvements are needed.  

Step 8: Repeat steps 3-7.

Follow the lean methodology of build-measure-learn-repeat. However, don’t be afraid to submit your application once you reach this step! You can always keep improving it.

To continue diving deeper into topic, have a look at the video below...