Blogs

My Second Blog

Hi everyone,

This blog is regarding my initial day @cookaborough .

We had a Design Thinking Workshop. Now as the name suggests design thinking was all about thinking a design for our startup. Here, Isaac gave some examples regarding an architect who used to design buildings by firstly creating a raw and random design on paper. From this I learnt that there is should not always be a fixed design for something why should buildings always have a similar structure. We also did an activity where we were given a task to design a wallet on a paper which was fun as we also got to know different thinking of different people.

There were some thoughts which one needs to keep in mind while starting a startup such as–

  1. Good ideas survive competition – One should always have many ideas in his/her mind.
  2. Evidence beats guesses
  3. Tools make you stronger

Then there was a guest Speaker Dan Steen who talked with us about Design Thinking and its 5 key phases which were- Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.

The process was like-

  1. At first we have to try to understand the user’s behavior, which can be done with the help of interviews or surveys.
  2. The next step was to define our ideas as to what we have learnt from the user’s point of view.
  3. In the third step, we need to get an idea of all the defined things and thereby try to solve them freely with our own ideas.
  4. Here we just need to test the prototype of the proposed solution and thereby validate it.
  5. The final step is testing where we test our solution so that it meets the user’s needs.

Next, we had certain activities by Dan Steen where we tried to execute all the above steps by taking random examples. I liked this workshop completely as I learned much about different things.

My Third Blog

Hi, everyone.

This is my third blog about my Cookaborough workshop. In this workshop we initially had our guest speaker Sangeeta Mulchandani who talked about her techniques which she followed in the beginning with Foodtropia which offers unique cultural dining experiences in private homes. This session was quite informative and moreover I could also relate myself with her as she was also an international student when she came to Australia. She also talked about the Fear of failure and also said that failures are the pathway to success.

Then we were taught about the methods to design a problem statement which we were taught with the help of a Problem tree, where we list down all the necessary details about a problem such that the tree’s branches refer to the effects and its roots refer to the causes of the problem just so that we become well aware about the problem. We were given an example about children not finishing their schools. Now, it was the time for us to think about a problem and thereby make a problem tree, I took the problem relating to wildlife conservation and jotted down all the effects and the causes. We were taught about Feasibility (creating value for the customers), Desirability (what is desired by our customer) and viability (making profits).

I really liked the thought in the workshop which was that we need to learn what the customer wants not what he/she says or what we think they want.

My Fourth Blog

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to my fourth blog. This blog is regarding validation week where we validate our startup. We had the guest speaker Cameron Ensor who explained us the steps to validate our business idea. At first, one always needs to determine the assumptions, think about the people whom we want to ask followed by writing some questions for guidance and then finding the right people for the questions to be asked. One should always try to get a result which is unbiased and thereby record it and then again move to a next critical assumption. To test an assumption we first need to understand the assumption completely and then define it followed by ideating it. If we have a good idea then we can test it from which we will get to know more about the users and can thereby update our model. There was also a bit of information provided for the questions that is what to ask and how to ask.

Next, Isaac showed us various examples (to learn from various customer conversations) where I learnt to think with a different perspective to every problem.

My Fifth Blog

Hi, everyone I hope you all are doing great.

This blog is regarding the prototyping workshop, at first Isaac asked everyone what prototyping meant to them. He tried to tell us that we need to show something practically than just telling someone. Earlier, I had made a group with Fuzail and Pranav. Through our idea, I got to know that it would need a lot of investment and prototyping so this was also a key week for us. We were not sure how to go on with our idea as we were confused on executing it. But Isaac came as a savior as he told us various examples where out of 100; 99 had failed just because they were not able to prototype correctly or they had a bad design. For example – Dyson which initially had a very bad design but improved it periodically and is one of the best company in their field at the moment, it made 5127 prototypes out of which 5126 had failed.

From all this I learnt that failures are a part of our long journey. We had Hugh (guest speaker) who shared his experiences with us. We were told about different ways to prototype including paper prototype which is the simplest one. We were shown the prototype video for the dropbox.

To implement our learnings we were given the examples about Sylvia who wanted to start a TV station and Rebekah who wanted to publish a book. They further had conditions to be completed under 1 month and budget was $500. There were various different ideas for their respective prototyping but mine were that for a TV station Sylvia could broadcast a live channel on YouTube and Rebekah could publish book online or could also write online blogs.

My Sixth Blog

Hey Everyone, This is my sixth blog in relation to my Ideation Program, which is regarding business Model where we were taught how to think and make a business model canvas for our startup idea and if I talk about myself, I would have never thought that we had to even consider these much things for our startup but yeah so far so good, I am still learning a lot from all the workshops by Isaac, and also becoming more and more confident as I am proceeding further. Now the image of the loop by Isaac is making some sense to me where a rope was tangled and slowly it was getting straightened out which he always showed in each workshop as the first slide of presentation.

Coming back to the workshop this time our guest speaker was Isaac himself, he shared with us his experience and also divided the business model canvas into three parts which were feasibility, desirability and viability. I was amazed that the business canvas model was just one page still it included everything and actually far more than my expectations. At last, Isaac divided us into groups and then to our respective breakout rooms where we were given an activity to design a business model canvas where my team designed it on Qantas; so that we have an idea of how it works. It was great to learn about Business model Canvas which is again an important concept in my journey to success.

My Seventh Blog

Hey everyone, hope you all are doing fine.

This blog relates to my branding week in the program for which I was so much excited as I had talked about this in my last blog. This session made me confident about the idea as at the start we were given a task to present a 2 minutes pitch where we explain our idea. I was never good at public speaking therefore, I was a bit worried but it went excellent; I was able to convey my thoughts to others. Next, Isaac gave some examples in relation to branding.

My buddy for this week was Kristine, from her I learnt that one needs to think even about the smallest things for his/her business idea and then go further with the final version, if one gets stuck anywhere he/she should clear his/her doubts immediately rather than waiting as it creates more confusion in the mind. I am also motivated by her as she is a complete multi-tasker and is managing everything including her job, university and the business idea.

My Eighth Blog

This was one of the most interesting week as in this week Isaac told us about the significance of branding, logos and symbols in a startup and through this I realized that getting a logo in relation to one’s startup idea is so important. Isaac also explained that it is always difficult initially to find a perfect logo but not impossible. Then there were guest speakers who shared with us their personal experiences which was again very important and helpful.

Now we have to present a sample presentation to Isaac next week for which I am a bit nervous but as Isaac said that he will be there to correct our mistakes and that they are obvious although it is not a final one but it will still help me to gain my confidence.

My Ninth Blog

Hey everyone, this is my ninth blog for my startup ideation program.

The days are going to end soon with the final pitch and as it is coming by I am getting more and more nervous. This week Isaac told us how to face the guests and the way by which we need to give our final pitch.

He also explained us with the help of certain YouTube videos. There was a series Shark Tank which he showed to us where different people with their different startups pitch to the business people about their respective startup for the sake of investment and their own interests. After watching this I was more confused as the way they gave their pitch and their confidence was appreciable. Then Isaac asked us that what are our thoughts on their pitches and whether they will be able to achieve their goals. He shared with us what he thinks and from this workshop we were able to get an Idea how our pitch should look like so it was again an important workshop.

I am more excited about next week as it is the week where we present our pitch just for practice in front of Isaac so that he explains to us our lacking points.

My Tenth blog

Hi everyone, welcome to the blog related to the practice pitch where we presented our pitch in front of Isaac and to my surprise there were two more guest Sehar and Asja whose video I saw on creating the first pitch.

Coming to the pitch, from my group of three I had to go for the pitch due to some circumstances due to which I was a bit scared as I have never done any public speaking and therefore I was less confident in that. So the pitch started with people giving their pitch and we also had to give feedback to them followed by Isaac, Sehar and Asja. Some of the problems which people faced included large presentations due to which the time was exceeding the given timeline and in some presentations there was no pictorial representation such that everything was written in large paragraphs which was not required according to Isaac. It was a practice pitch for everyone to correct their mistakes so that they do not happen in the final pitch. There is one more session on Friday for the same. Coming to my pitch as soon I started, I went in a flow as if I was super confident which was not what I expected, actually it went smooth and the best part was that the time taken for the pitch was approximately the time which was defined. But there were again certain mistakes in our presentation which Isaac explained in detail and we will correct them for the future. We were also appreciated by Sehar and Asja for our presentation although there were some shortcomings which will be corrected by me and my group.

Final Blog

Hey everyone, this is my last blog where my beautiful journey at Cookaborough came to an end. This blog is for my final pitch.

We were given a schedule with different times to present our pitch. As I had been always afraid for public speaking therefore I was also so much nervous for my pitch presentation. Although I and my group had already practiced. I just had a meeting with Isaac before the start of the final workshop in order to correct my mistakes so that they do not occur once we are in the workshop presenting. One of my major mistake in the presentation was that I had added too much content in the ppt such that it had a negative effect on the presentation according to Isaac so I had to make it count.

Everyone presented very nicely and I was feeling confident as they all received very constructive feedback.After the break it was the turn for my group, our presentation started with me and the proceeded. We had good co-ordination due to which we didn’t lack anywhere. Everyone gave a good feedback followed by the QNA round. Everyone liked the video part in our presentation which we had made through various software including Vyond and Videoscribe.

Now, it was the time where we had to say goodbye, although it was difficult but it was also a part. I enjoyed my journey at Cookaborough and also got to learn many things which will help me to upskill myself in the coming future. I would like to thank Isaac, Sehar and the Spark Deakin team for giving me a chance to join this program and also cheers to all my peers.