For me, we have finally entered the real exhilarating part of the project…prepping and finding a solution to validate!
As mentioned multiple times within some of these blog posts, most of my experience in entrepreneurship thinking has come from the idea of find a problem, finding a solution to the problem, and then validate, validate, validate. The good portion of the validating for this project has come before the solution brainstorming, which is valuable considering the scale of the our project.
The guided day of ideation in class was definitely helpful for our group when we did it on our own for a different problem statement. It helped us stay within the boundaries of the process while getting to explore a slightly different area of our scope. It included different dimensions that ultimately helped us narrow our solution down to a three part idea. The three parts were:
- Intimate community center for rent by those within community
- Smart home features that allow rooms to be merged and changed to fit the mood and event
- A Hostmaker app to connect people with others in their community by either hosting or sharing events
We brainstormed for a couple minutes after class and I suggested that we include the app, but not as the lone solution since it relates more to the area of enhancing community for our scope over the actual housing itself. So we decided it had to be a two part solution if we were to use the app idea (which we were all on board with). After taking a break away from the project for a couple days, we reconvened and discussed, realizing that each part covers a different area of our scope and that they do not conflict with one another. Our final solution became, “Intimate community center with smart features which allow the spaces to be changed and merged to fit the mood. Members will pay a fee through an app and are able to reserve spaces, join events, and meet people through it.”
Each part has a different area of the scope that it focuses on solving. We also estimate that each could include numerous factors that make it up. I look forward to breaking down the solution even further and seeing where it takes us.