Page 39 - Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

18 ◾ Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

like a nail.” Although entrepreneurship is inherently about risk taking,
successful entrepreneurs are pragmatic risk managers. Throughout the
journey, you and your team must have honest recognition of the uncer-
tainty inherent in your venture. You must evaluate whether your idea is
viable from a business perspective and feasible to implement.

Instead of continuing to beat a dead horse, this framework will also help
you have that honest insight to fail early and fail fast.

You only fail when you try your ideas with relevant stakeholders and test
your assumptions. So regardless of which stage you are focusing on, you
must be testing your assumptions with key stakeholders. You’ll learn about
how to prototype and test your ideas in the second stage of this framework.
However, you may use the same tools and mind-set to prototype and test
not just your solution ideas but also your understanding of the user problem
or any aspect of the business model as well.

2.3 The Problem Statement

Before you start working on the first stage, write down a problem statement
that describes the problem you are trying to solve or the question you are
trying to find an answer for.

The problem statement clearly describes two aspects:
What problem are you solving, and for whom?
The problem statement acts a guiding light for you and your team.
“Template 1 The Challenge or Problem Statement” below shows you how to
write a problem statement.

2.3.1 Template

Describe your problem statement on the following template (Figure 2.2):

2.3.2 Example

Some of the examples of a problem statement are as follows (Figure 2.3):

Figure 2.2 The challenge or problem statement.