Fig 1.
Workflow Innovation Boot Camp.
The flowchart demonstrates an optimal workflow for conducting an Innovation Boot Camp for the Exploitation of Research Results. The arrows demonstrate the iterative or reciprocal relationships between the individual rules.
Fig 2.
Persona modelling: two user archetypes.
The use of ‘personas’ as archetypes of the users of an innovation helps to understand the problems, motivations, needs and emotions of potential users and to identify commonalities in terms of purchasing preferences, social relationships, consumption habits and age. Two personas are shown here: Maria, developed during our real-life IBC event to represent an end user in the case of the sunscreen innovation, and Benjamin, a fictional decision-maker persona for a screening platform for detecting drug residues in water. Together, these examples illustrate the importance of capturing both the user and decision-maker perspectives to support user-centred innovation design.
Fig 3.
Example of prototyping through tinkering.
In our scenario, a prototype of a sun protection mask made of paper was developed to showcase the potential product.
Table 1.
Questions to identify key aspects of your business idea.
Fig 4.
Business Model Canvas—a template.
The BMC consists of up to eleven fields, each labelled with the key components of a business model, including two additional elements relevant to early-stage innovation: team and company values. These fields should be filled in and linked together to form a coherent and effective strategy. Social or mission-oriented start-ups can also integrate the social or environmental impact of their solution into this framework [5]. As an example, the fictional screening platform shows how the BMC can be applied in a realistic innovation scenario.