Innovation sprint
Flanders Opticians
challenge
Flanders Opticians prepares independent opticians in Flanders for the future and provides them with services that strengthen their market position.
Their challenge was as follows: How can we (in a short and powerful process) come up with new idea directions -together with a number of leaders in the sector- to remain innovative and strengthen the differentiating capacity of the independent optician?
approach
Step 1: Develop a concrete innovation assignment
It is important to start with a good, concrete innovation assignment. This forces you to be specific in advance about the market/target group for which ideas must be developed and about the criteria that the new concepts must meet. The innovation assignment (drawn up during a short workshop) thus formed the guideline for the team during the entire process.
Step 2: Inspiration tour in Amsterdam
An inspiration tour is the ideal way to spot the latest trends 'in no time' and gain inspiration beyond the boundaries of your own sector. During this 1-day inspiration tour, we visited several inspiring companies and concept stores in different sectors to gather a lot of fresh inspiration. We visited Tony's Chocolonely, Retail Lab Ace & Tate and Denim City, among others.
Step 3: Brainstorming session
Inspiration and exploring automatically lead to the generation of ideas. During a 1/2 day workshop, the inspiration gained from the Amsterdam tour was translated into rough concepts that provided an answer to the innovation assignment at hand. Various brainstorming techniques were used to generate more than 300 out-of-the-box ideas.
Step 4: Business model canvas session
Too often, great ideas end up in the drawer. They are put away and nothing further is done with them. That is why it is important to bridge the gap between the creative aspect and business reality by translating concepts into a business model. The business model canvas provides a quick and clear overview of whether an idea is viable: what is it, for whom, can we make it, what do we need, what will it cost and what will it yield? During this ½ day workshop, 5 top ideas were developed into a business model canvas.
results
+ 300 ideas during ideation workshop
5 top ideas developed into a business model canvas
