Reflection – Learning Launch 

 Linda Mthethwa                19 November 2018 

 1 . Challenge 

 I was contemplating starting my own business . I own some quality optic instruments like binoculars , 

 rangefinders and spotting scopes . My friends were always borrowing my equipment and it got me 

 thinking that maybe there is a market for renting out this kind of equipment . I live in Windhoek , the 

 capital city of Namibia . Namibia is a very popular tourist destination because of the beautiful and 

 unspoilt nature and wildlife . I made the assumption that tourists that visit Namibia do not necessarily 

 want to buy and travel with equipment like binoculars , spotting scopes , satellite navigation devices , 

 e.g. the kind of equipment and gear a tourist will require for a trip to Namibia , and that there would 

 be a business opportunity for providing a service for renting out this kind of gear . 

 2 . Selection 

 My “ what is ” was a desk study on the number and type of tourists that generally visited Namibia . My 

 “ what if ” was the idea that there will be a market for renting out certain gear to tourists to Namibia . 

 Thus , for my “ what wows and what works ” I needed to test my assumption that tourists will be willing 

 to rent gear when travelling to Namibia , as opposed to buying and travelling with their own gear . 

 I did not want to invest too much capital into buying a lot of equipment that I could rent out to tourists 

 before I knew that my assumptions were actually valid . Thus , I had to do an experiment that was fast 

 and cheap and I therefore opted for the learning launch – which is in essence the prescribed design 

 thinking method to test the key underlying value - generating assumptions of a potential new - growth 

 initiative quickly and inexpensively before going into a detailed investigation with the commitment of 

 further time , people and resources . 

 3 . Application 

 My hypotheses was that tourists could make good use of binoculars to get the most value on a trip to 

 Namibia ( i.e. a view of the beautiful fauna and flora ) and that tourists would rather rent binoculars 

 than buy and travel with their own binoculars . The learning launch involves the series of small moves 

 that will allow you to gather data to test whether or not your assumption / s turn out to be true as you 

 launch the product or service . Critical here is getting a prototype in the market with prospective 

 customers as quickly as possible . 

 Hence , I bought a number of binoculars and I hired a website developer to build a simple website 

 ( http://www.chapman-robinson.com/explorelogin.htm ) where tourists could rent and pay for binoculars for a specific time period . 

 The process was simple , the prospective client could specify the number of binoculars required , the 

 start and end dates the equipment was required and locations for receiving and dropping of the 

 binoculars after use . The website also made provision for secure online payment for renting the 

 equipment . 

 To promote the business I designed and printed a small brochure to advertise the service and explain 

 how it works , and I distributed these brochures to a number of travel agents in Windhoek . The 

 assumption was that travel agents were usually the first and a key points of contact for tourists , and 

 would therefore be the perfect channel for promoting the business . I also recruited a few temporary 

 resources to hand out brochures to tourists at key tourist attractions in Windhoek . 

 4 . Insight 

 Based on the tourist data in the “ what is ” stage and the feedback from travel agents ( most of them 

 thought it was a great idea ) my expectation was that the binoculars would be rented out continuously 

 and that the business would be highly successful . My actual results were very different from what was 

 anticipated : very few binoculars were in fact rented by tourists . In my view , the learning launch 

 provided exactly what was expected , i.e. a fast and cheap way to test my assumptions for this business 

 idea . I got my answers without investing a lot of capital , I did not buy a lot of binoculars and the 

 website and brochures also did not cost a lot of money . 

 5 . Approach 

 Looking back I realized what I could have done differently was to first spend time actually talking to 

 tourists and getting their opinions on if they would make use of such a service in the first place and 

 what kind of equipment they would rather rent than buy . Although my experiment ( learning launch ) 

 was fast and cheap , by thinking through it and by specifically focusing on how it could be done even 

 faster and cheaper , I could have validated my assumptions much more efficiently .   Thus , for the 

 learning launch , I learned that always consider getting prospective customer ’s feedback first by talking 

 to them . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Linda Mthethwa
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: http://www.chapman-robinson.com/explorelogin.htm
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Learning Launch 

 Linda Mthethwa                19 November 2018 

 1 . Challenge 

 I was contemplating starting my own business . I own some quality optic instruments like binoculars , 

 rangefinders and spotting scopes . My friends were always borrowing my equipment and it got me 

 thinking that maybe there is a market for renting out this kind of equipment . I live in Windhoek , the 

 capital city of Namibia . Namibia is a very popular tourist destination because of the beautiful and 

 unspoilt nature and wildlife . I made the assumption that tourists that visit Namibia do not necessarily 

 want to buy and travel with equipment like binoculars , spotting scopes , satellite navigation devices , 

 e.g. the kind of equipment and gear a tourist will require for a trip to Namibia , and that there would 

 be a business opportunity for providing a service for renting out this kind of gear . 

 2 . Selection 

 My “ what is ” was a desk study on the number and type of tourists that generally visited Namibia . My 

 “ what if ” was the idea that there will be a market for renting out certain gear to tourists to Namibia . 

 Thus , for my “ what wows and what works ” I needed to test my assumption that tourists will be willing 

 to rent gear when travelling to Namibia , as opposed to buying and travelling with their own gear . 

 I did not want to invest too much capital into buying a lot of equipment that I could rent out to tourists 

 before I knew that my assumptions were actually valid . Thus , I had to do an experiment that was fast 

 and cheap and I therefore opted for the learning launch – which is in essence the prescribed design 

 thinking method to test the key underlying value - generating assumptions of a potential new - growth 

 initiative quickly and inexpensively before going into a detailed investigation with the commitment of 

 further time , people and resources . 

 3 . Application 

 My hypotheses was that tourists could make good use of binoculars to get the most value on a trip to 

 Namibia ( i.e. a view of the beautiful fauna and flora ) and that tourists would rather rent binoculars 

 than buy and travel with their own binoculars . The learning launch involves the series of small moves 

 that will allow you to gather data to test whether or not your assumption / s turn out to be true as you 

 launch the product or service . Critical here is getting a prototype in the market with prospective 

 customers as quickly as possible . 

 Hence , I bought a number of binoculars and I hired a website developer to build a simple website 

 ( http://www.chapman-robinson.com/explorelogin.htm ) where tourists could rent and pay for binoculars for a specific time period . 

 The process was simple , the prospective client could specify the number of binoculars required , the 

 start and end dates the equipment was required and locations for receiving and dropping of the 

 binoculars after use . The website also made provision for secure online payment for renting the 

 equipment . 

 To promote the business I designed and printed a small brochure to advertise the service and explain 

 how it works , and I distributed these brochures to a number of travel agents in Windhoek . The 

 assumption was that travel agents were usually the first and a key points of contact for tourists , and 

 would therefore be the perfect channel for promoting the business . I also recruited a few temporary 

 resources to hand out brochures to tourists at key tourist attractions in Windhoek . 

 4 . Insight 

 Based on the tourist data in the “ what is ” stage and the feedback from travel agents ( most of them 

 thought it was a great idea ) my expectation was that the binoculars would be rented out continuously 

 and that the business would be highly successful . My actual results were very different from what was 

 anticipated : very few binoculars were in fact rented by tourists . In my view , the learning launch 

 provided exactly what was expected , i.e. a fast and cheap way to test my assumptions for this business 

 idea . I got my answers without investing a lot of capital , I did not buy a lot of binoculars and the 

 website and brochures also did not cost a lot of money . 

 5 . Approach 

 Looking back I realized what I could have done differently was to first spend time actually talking to 

 tourists and getting their opinions on if they would make use of such a service in the first place and 

 what kind of equipment they would rather rent than buy . Although my experiment ( learning launch ) 

 was fast and cheap , by thinking through it and by specifically focusing on how it could be done even 

 faster and cheaper , I could have validated my assumptions much more efficiently .   Thus , for the 

 learning launch , I learned that always consider getting prospective customer ’s feedback first by talking 

 to them .
### Output: 