MODULE 6. Communication and implementation of innovations

The following sections contain short educational cards that will allow you to quickly and easily grasp the topic. Skills covered in this module: preparing a business model, engaging your target, public speaking and pitching efficiently.

6.1.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

A good business model for a good communication

Relevant reading material

Dojo Canvas | Benoît Méras | Dojo
The Dojo Canvas tool can be very deep if the situation requires it. Our introduction to the tool is what we call “Zoom 1”. There are 2 more subdivisions we can go into – zoom 2 & 3.

EXERCISES

• Use the first table “Zoom 1” of the Dojo Canvas. Download template.
• Write down your main point for each of the 4 dimensions. In less than 35 words each.
• You now have summed up your business model, and that will help you be efficient with your communication.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

How to Choose the most profitable business model for your startup | Shaqir Hussyin | GetGist.com
The second part of this blog post is well made. The infographics of a few business models help grasp the general concept of the business model.

6.2.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

The Value Proposition

RELEVANT READING MATERIAL

32 Value Propositions That Are Impossible To Resist | Mary Fernadez | OptinMonster.com
A lot of Value Proposition examples go beyond theory.

EXERCISES

• Write down the pain point of your user/client. Remember that the pain point should be big enough that it needs to be solved.
• Write down your product, service, or idea…
• Write down the solution your product/service/idea brings to the pain point. Ideally, this should be one short sentence.
• You now have the Value Proposition written down. That is the core of your project communication.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

• How to Write a Great Value Proposition | Lindsay Kolowich Cox| HubSpot
  3 min read, to the point.
• Startup Secrets: Value Proposition| Michael Skok| Harvard i-Lab
  The beginning of this video goes deep into the needs of your customers/users. Well worth a watch.

6.3.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

How to identify and engage your key targets – the persona check

RELEVANT READING MATERIAL

Persona Check | Benoît Méras | Dojo
The Persona Check tool, to sum up, all your findings of your targets.

EXERCISES

Construct the persona check

In this exercise, you will use the Persona Check to identify the stakeholders’ roles.

Exercise guidelines

For your project, define the 4 major stakeholders (only external) you want to test. Define their role in the project. Position them in the 4 dimensions: Short Term action / Long Term support / Means / Community. For each of them, define their very selfish benefit and their major cost. Fill the tool Persona Check with the elements (download template). You now have one-pager support to have a visualisation of the stakeholders.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

• Persona Check Ramp Up | Benoît Méras | Dojo
  The Persona Check Ramp-Up Tool, helps you organize your work with the Persona Check.
  
• A book about testing, testing, and testing more: Lean Startup | Eric Ries

6.4.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

Communication – Generalities and tips

RELEVANT READING MATERIAL

How to Persuade People – the 3 keys| Conor Neill | TEDxUniversidaddeNavarra
Conor Neill is a master of communication and presentation. He is very inspiring.
His Youtube channel has lots of content that might catch your eye.

EXERCISES

In this exercise, you will redact 3 different marketing texts for your product/service/idea. The texts are intended for oral presentation or talk, not for reading.

• The first text is classic marketing.
• The second text will make subtle use of familiar language. The aim is to appear sincere.
• The third text will act as anti-marketing.

You now have 3 different communication angles for the same idea, and you can choose what you will use depending on the situation.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

• Founder Superpower #13: Good Communication Skills | Matt Knee |
• 18 tips to improve your communication skills
  Very practical, and worth a read.
• Influence: Science and Practice | Robert Cialdini (Book)
  Wonder why sometimes you say “yes” to a request, even against your will? This book will explain. Decades of psychology research summed up in a book; tons of examples.
• The Communication Process | Denis Geoghegan | (Blog article)
  If you want to push your understanding of the communication process.

6.5.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

Selling your project – what is convincing

RELEVANT READING MATERIAL

7 best keys to convincing investors | Dave Devloper | www.ThriveGlobal.com
Short article. If you look past the “startup & investor” frame, you will recognize the “concrete” aspect of convincing communication.

EXERCISES

You will design a real-life test of your idea, and put it into action. At this stage, you probably only have a concept, about which you will need to be convincing.

• Define the assumption about your idea that you want to test.
• Define the actions you will take to test your assumptions, and how you will measure results.
• Put your test into action (1-hour maximum).
• Write down the measurement results.
• Identify one main information you learned, that you didn’t know about before your testing.

You have overcome the discomfort of bringing your idea from theory to real life, and you now know more than before about your concept.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

• How to convince the client to buy | Ross Knap | www.callpage.io (Blog post)
  Despite its commercial target audience, this article gives a lot of hints about the mindset to “sell” any project.
• The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs | Carmine Gallo
• Everybody sells! Selling skills for project managers | Auteur | Project Management Institute (Blog post) Selling skills are not just for the salesman.

6.6.

RELEVANT VIDEO MATERIAL

Keys to a great pitch mindset

RELEVANT READING MATERIAL

Pitch, Please: 14 Must-Read Pitch Lessons Every Startup Founder Should Know | Andrea Barrica
The spirit of this blog post applies to all kinds of projects.

EXERCISES

With this exercise, you will sum up the main points of your project pitch. The aim is not to create a perfect pitch, with perfect wording and transitions, but to identify the most important arguments you will emphasize.

Note: any support can be used (Word, PowerPoint, a picture of Post-it notes…) Follow the guidelines of this exercise. For your introduction, use the below presentation of the Story Pitch.

Presentation of the Story Pitch is an easy way to create a great pitch introduction. The Story Pitch method uses the 4-steps storytelling structure of fairy tales.

• Princess – Who is suffering? Make me feel her pain. (-> emotional).
• Dragon – Why is she suffering? Why is hard to solve her problem? (-> rational)
• Ideal White Knight – What would be the perfect solution to the problem?
• “Me” – “That is exactly what we do with XXX project”.

Example:

• The energy transition to 100% renewable is catastrophically slow, the Earth is burning.
• You need to store electricity from renewable production for when you need it. And batteries are still not doing that well enough.
• We need batteries 10 times cheaper, charging 10 times faster, with no increase in the costs.
• That’s what we do at Miracle Bats.

Exercise guidelines  

Write down a total of 9 bullet points:

• 4 bullet points for your Story Pitch introduction
• 1 bullet point for each of the dimensions explained in the video (4 total): mission, human capital, market, product.

Note: Remember to be concrete. Your points should almost always be measurable (X years of experience, Y customers, 2 months of development, diminish this bad effect from Z%, etc.)

• 1 call to action (what do you want to get from your audience)

When you are finished, you will have a coherent and effective pitch structure.

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

• The Seven Deadly Sins of Startup Storytelling | Andy Smith (Blog post)
  The spirit of this blog post applies to all kinds of projects.
• Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need | Blake Snyder (Book)
  This book is a powerhouse in storytelling. It goes deeper into storytelling than any other book, even a specialized one on the pitch.
• The magical science of storytelling | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholm
• The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience | Carmine Gallo – It is very dense, even for advanced pitchers.