Featured image: Team Misfits (Georg, Oriane, Muhammad Atif, Joyce, Rafa, Mohamed Jerad and I)

Innovation week was one of the unique elements that had attracted me to IMD last year. Building a prototype and bringing small innovations to healthcare is a very exciting idea on paper. What actually transpired was something so much more impactful. I will count this as one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in the program so far. Of course, the way the week was structured, the gravity of the challenge and the competitiveness in the MBA group were all essential elements for meaningful impact. But what actually made this week so special was the team that I was working with. Theoretically, diverse teams lie on either extremes of the bell curve in terms of outcome. Luckily for us, we were on the right side of the curve and by the end of week had converted a viable solution into one of the best prototypes in the challenge.

We started the week on a high note by winning the Innovation video challenge. Our prize was to be filmed by dedicated camera crew for the entire week. This easy win brought the team together well and we also welcomed two new team mates- Georg from ecal and Mohamed Jerad from EPFL. We spent the early part of the week gathering information from the field and tapping into as many sources of ideas as possible. And then we began a rather efficient process of elimination and aggregation ending up with one narrow problem in the healthcare universe to concentrate upon.

Design_innovation

Stage 2 was all about prototypes. We again did some efficient brainstorming on various mechanisms to build a device that can help the elderly stand up. Some of the ideas were out of the ordinary and some were straight up DIY level. Considering the time constraints involved in building such a product, we chose the simplest mechanism of all, a combination of a spring mechanism and inflation by air to build a cushion that could support the elderly to sit and standup.

Stage 3 was the pitch. We went for an emotional pitch to state the problem that we had intended to solve. Not surprisingly, almost all of the teams went for the same structure in their pitches. There were some brilliant ideas and brilliant prototypes all around and it was impressive to see what the class of 90 could bring to the table in one week of madness. In the end my team was satisfied with our clarity of storytelling and the strength of our product.

pitching

There have been some major learnings from the week. Especially as to how teams need to function to deliver innovation. The obvious ingredient for success is the diversity in a team. We were able to throw up different ideas and solutions only because of the diversity of thinking that we had in the room. The other ingredient that we were fortunate to have in the team was a sense of shared leadership. Everyone led in various dimensions either pushing ad campaigns or finishing the prototype or pitching the product or building the deck or creating defining videos. We had an extremely enjoyable experience and thanks to IMD, Cyril Bouquet and Peter Vogel for creating this fantastic one week experience. This taught us more than we could ever have gained from classroom lectures.

Until next time….

lego_parthMy very own personalized lego: souvenirs from the innovation week

Parth

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