Reflection – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 As an IT and management consultant , I worked for a client in water and waste for an initially product   and services innovation mission . But while interviewing the Executive committee members and top   managers from the steering committee of the project , the consultants team understood that we had   a broader scope to address . The challenge was to imagine their future business model , to open top   managers mindsets to innovation and prototyping , and then to convey our results and ideas to the   Executive Committee . Consultants and internal top managers from different departments of the   company ( innovation , engineering , waste , water , IT … ) were working together in order to imagine the   water and waste business model of the future . 

 Selection 

 We chose to use a tool that would help us visualize the possible new business models for their activity .   We chose the Business Model Generation Canvas from Alex Osterwalder ’s book ( see below ) because   it had the following advantages : 

 -   being easy to use and explain – especially if you are in the right innovative mindset ; 

 -   being a part of a whole method that involves a value proposition focus which helps people to   decipher the most important assumptions of their ideas ( whether it is a key partner , a   customer segment for example ) ; 

 -   allowing prototyping ; 

 -   forcing people to synthesize their ideas – it has to be expressed in a few words or a simple   drawing on a post - it that you stick onto the right boxes ( e.g. Key resources , channels , etc . ) ; 

 -   allowing storytelling when presenting the fulfilled version – you stick the post - its on the canvas   as you speak in order to share your story in an understanble way with people who would have   not participate in the building of the canvas . 

 The goal is to fulfill the whole canvas the best and the most you can and to obtain a coherent business   model that can be pitched . 

 BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS ( BY ALEX OSTERWALDER ) 

 https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/2010/04/22/3-tools-to-visualize-your-start-ups-business-model/ ( consulted on 05/15/2017 ) 

 Application 

 After a first phase where we interviewed employees , made a benchmark of innovative initiatives in   water and waste companies , organized exploratory meetings with various actors of the innovation and   sector ecosystem in Europe and in San Fransisco , we had the inputs for the idea generation and   prototyping phase of the mission . Their encounters with startuppers , business angels , CTO , etc . in   Europe and during the learning expedition prepared their mindset during 2.5 months . 

 So , we then set up a two - days business model innovation seminar with actors from the whole   ecosystem – sometimes involved earlier in the meetings . The engagement during the seminar was   astonishing and people shared freely their ideas during alternate workshops ( brainstorming and   prototyping ) and plenary session ( ideas pitching ) . Together , with the inputs of the previous phases and   with a team composed of different backgrounds , we successfully prototyped 40 business models , we   refined 11 of them and then presented 5 to the Executive Committee . 

 Insights 

 After our work on the « What is ? » with the benchmark , the interviews and various intercations and   observation of the innovation and water and waste ecosystem , the whole team reached the next step   with a more innovative mindset : more open - minded , eager to listen , less judgy , with a sharing and   engaged behaviour , ready to prototype , knowing that failures would happen but that the important   was to do it fast and to learn from it . We were all ready to evolve in an uncertain environment and we   were aware of the limitless possibilities to imagine their future business models . The steering   committee members acted as champions of innovation and motivating factors in the workshops   groups during the seminar , by animating an innovation community on their intranet during and after   the mission , and then by presenting their refined business models during the dedicated Executive   Committee session . 

 The business model canvas allowed us to work both on the « What if ? » and « What wows ? » because   we brainstormed during workshops and developped concepts that we had to pitch systematically ( it   could be assimilated with the napkin pitches ) . The value proposition focus helped surfacing the key   assumptions of the projects and the canvas itself to prototype . 

 Approach 

 Actually , I did not realize how close the use of this tool was to design thinking methods as I barely knew   the concept at this time . But I know now that it is a visualisation tool helping you through different   stages of the process . Plus , it includes not only visualization , but also prototyping and storytelling which   makes it really complete . The « What if ? » and « What Wows ? » phases were quite a success with this   tool and we reached our mission objectives . 

 Though , I now realize that presenting the results only to an Executive Committee was not enough to   get value out of our project because other stakeholders such as cutomers should have been involved   in our research phase and then in the feedback search and learning launches phases . We only based   our reflections on our experience as users and probably lacked observation ( for waste value chain ) and   interviewing ( for water users ) . So the quality of the inputs might have been debatable and lots of work   still needed to be done in the « What works ? » phase . We indeed suggested to use the innovation labs   they had to test some solutions , and a few big strategic decisions came out of our initiative , but the   test and learn mindset was still to be spread in the company as we finished our mission . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
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 – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 As an IT and management consultant , I worked for a client in water and waste for an initially product   and services innovation mission . But while interviewing the Executive committee members and top   managers from the steering committee of the project , the consultants team understood that we had   a broader scope to address . The challenge was to imagine their future business model , to open top   managers mindsets to innovation and prototyping , and then to convey our results and ideas to the   Executive Committee . Consultants and internal top managers from different departments of the   company ( innovation , engineering , waste , water , IT … ) were working together in order to imagine the   water and waste business model of the future . 

 Selection 

 We chose to use a tool that would help us visualize the possible new business models for their activity .   We chose the Business Model Generation Canvas from Alex Osterwalder ’s book ( see below ) because   it had the following advantages : 

 -   being easy to use and explain – especially if you are in the right innovative mindset ; 

 -   being a part of a whole method that involves a value proposition focus which helps people to   decipher the most important assumptions of their ideas ( whether it is a key partner , a   customer segment for example ) ; 

 -   allowing prototyping ; 

 -   forcing people to synthesize their ideas – it has to be expressed in a few words or a simple   drawing on a post - it that you stick onto the right boxes ( e.g. Key resources , channels , etc . ) ; 

 -   allowing storytelling when presenting the fulfilled version – you stick the post - its on the canvas   as you speak in order to share your story in an understanble way with people who would have   not participate in the building of the canvas . 

 The goal is to fulfill the whole canvas the best and the most you can and to obtain a coherent business   model that can be pitched . 

 BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS ( BY ALEX OSTERWALDER ) 

 https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/2010/04/22/3-tools-to-visualize-your-start-ups-business-model/ ( consulted on 05/15/2017 ) 

 Application 

 After a first phase where we interviewed employees , made a benchmark of innovative initiatives in   water and waste companies , organized exploratory meetings with various actors of the innovation and   sector ecosystem in Europe and in San Fransisco , we had the inputs for the idea generation and   prototyping phase of the mission . Their encounters with startuppers , business angels , CTO , etc . in   Europe and during the learning expedition prepared their mindset during 2.5 months . 

 So , we then set up a two - days business model innovation seminar with actors from the whole   ecosystem – sometimes involved earlier in the meetings . The engagement during the seminar was   astonishing and people shared freely their ideas during alternate workshops ( brainstorming and   prototyping ) and plenary session ( ideas pitching ) . Together , with the inputs of the previous phases and   with a team composed of different backgrounds , we successfully prototyped 40 business models , we   refined 11 of them and then presented 5 to the Executive Committee . 

 Insights 

 After our work on the « What is ? » with the benchmark , the interviews and various intercations and   observation of the innovation and water and waste ecosystem , the whole team reached the next step   with a more innovative mindset : more open - minded , eager to listen , less judgy , with a sharing and   engaged behaviour , ready to prototype , knowing that failures would happen but that the important   was to do it fast and to learn from it . We were all ready to evolve in an uncertain environment and we   were aware of the limitless possibilities to imagine their future business models . The steering   committee members acted as champions of innovation and motivating factors in the workshops   groups during the seminar , by animating an innovation community on their intranet during and after   the mission , and then by presenting their refined business models during the dedicated Executive   Committee session . 

 The business model canvas allowed us to work both on the « What if ? » and « What wows ? » because   we brainstormed during workshops and developped concepts that we had to pitch systematically ( it   could be assimilated with the napkin pitches ) . The value proposition focus helped surfacing the key   assumptions of the projects and the canvas itself to prototype . 

 Approach 

 Actually , I did not realize how close the use of this tool was to design thinking methods as I barely knew   the concept at this time . But I know now that it is a visualisation tool helping you through different   stages of the process . Plus , it includes not only visualization , but also prototyping and storytelling which   makes it really complete . The « What if ? » and « What Wows ? » phases were quite a success with this   tool and we reached our mission objectives . 

 Though , I now realize that presenting the results only to an Executive Committee was not enough to   get value out of our project because other stakeholders such as cutomers should have been involved   in our research phase and then in the feedback search and learning launches phases . We only based   our reflections on our experience as users and probably lacked observation ( for waste value chain ) and   interviewing ( for water users ) . So the quality of the inputs might have been debatable and lots of work   still needed to be done in the « What works ? » phase . We indeed suggested to use the innovation labs   they had to test some solutions , and a few big strategic decisions came out of our initiative , but the   test and learn mindset was still to be spread in the company as we finished our mission .
### Output: 