Week 1 -- Eye of the Entrepreneur / Design Thinking

Pillars:  In our quest to understand the cycles and patterns of history relevant to the path of our QLP Entrepreneurs, we discussed the receding tide of entrepreneurism in America.  According to recent news, the U.S. now ranks an abysmal 12th among developed nations.  We explored possible root causes for this trend.  

Skills:  Our Entrepreneurs took advantage of opportunities to practice their new conflict resolution and communication skills (from the Collaborant training last week) in their group work, especially in deciding how to fairly distribute the Arvo watches (see below).  

We discussed the importance of making our visitors and guests feel welcome in our studio.  We started the practice of hand writing personalized thank-you notes to our guests.  

On this week's theme of seeing opportunities and generating ideas, we watched and discussed Steven Johnson's RSA Animate presentation, "Where Good Ideas Come From."  We also started Stanford's D School Crash Course in design thinking, focusing particularly on the empathy phase.  

Guests:  Jake Nackos and Aaron Neuenschwander of Arvo Watches visited the QLP studio on Wednesday.  

Arvo has enjoyed skyrocket growth from its simple conception in a pawn shop two years ago to selling its popular watches in more than 70 countries today.  

Jake was browsing a pawn shop, and having grown up around his father's watch collection, he was drawn to a $50 gold watch.  It was well worn, and so the band fit comfortably.  Jake liked the minimalist style and perfect fit of this classic timepiece.  The experience set him on a path exploring manufacturing of a watch line following this simple, comfortable design.  

Arvo's biggest challenge was dealing with quality-control issues in its early days of manufacturing.  Jake paid close attention to Arvo's customers concerns, replacing over 200 watches before they were able to get the bugs out.  Jake told the class, "I was surprised how forgiving the customers can be when you treat them right."  

Arvo has leveraged social media in its highly successful marketing strategy.  Jake explained his view that, in contrast to traditional media outlets, social and digital media "cut through the fog."  "People don't care so much anymore about what LeBron James is wearing," he said, "as they do about what their friend is wearing."  For the younger generation, Arvo's target audience, "influencer marketing" is key.  

Arvo's motto is "be good, do good."  The Arvo team tries to exemplify this idea by donating 10% of its profits to local charity organizations and community causes, like Underground Railroad and the Granite School District.  Arvo also regularly creates service opportunities for its loyal fan base to participate in. 

Aaron explained the concept of minimum viable product (MVP) offerings to the QLP entrepreneurs, dovetailing nicely with our study of the design-thinking principle of empathy.  Arvo is eager to get its new products out of production and into the hands of its customers because it relies so heavily on their input in the ongoing design process.  

Jake and Aaron encouraged our Entrepreneurs to begin networking by setting up LinkedIn accounts and taking advantage of the international connections at AISU.  

They left us with with Arvo socks and five Arvo watches!  Our Entrepreneurs came up with a contest related to this week's challenge for awarding the watches.  

Challenge:  The challenge for this week -- as defined and accepted by our Entrepreneurs -- is to identify x# of business ideas or opportunities to solve problems by the start of next week.  The idea here is simply to get our Entrepreneurs in the habit of seeing opportunities to improve and create that exist all around.  We had different levels of commitment to the x#, leaving that to each individual.  Figures ranged from 70 original ideas to over 100.  (Award of some of the Arvo watches is tied to this.) 

Next Week:  Next week we will study basic market research.  We will challenge our Entrepreneurs to come up with a research plan to test their initial hypothesis of their business plan.  We will also present first-run elevator pitches, complete D School, and form our running partnerships for the trimester.