2020 Top 10 Finalist & People Choice Award Winner

For years I’m passionate about visual storytelling, making complex things simple and inspiring on innovation topics.

Last year as official Lean Startup Co. Ambassador I was visualizing the speeches of Eric Ries and more innovators at the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco. This was the moment I have met Iman Moazzen, the founder of Castofly Technologies Inc., a cloud-based educational technology platform to seamlessly create, share & collaborate on video content. We connected immediately on our passion for blended learning and visualizations and since the beginning of this year, I’m on board as Product Lead and we are pushing towards the goal to disrupt the Edtech market by enabling the creation of engaging content.

Castofly Technologies Inc. joined the list of top 10 startups & won the People's Choice Award in the New Ventures BC Competition 2020. 🥇 So thrilled! We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has supported Castofly and cheered for us over the last few months. 🙌

Remote teamwork at its best with the amazing Castofly family!

We keep pushing towards the goal to disrupt the Edtech market by enabling the easy creation of engaging content. Stay tuned! 🌎👨🏻‍💻💡

Remote Design Sprint: An Open Case Study Creating a Corona-Tracing App

Covid-19 came out of nowhere. 

Startup Mario joined a team of freelancers that had a few goals in mind:

1) Contribute a validated solution to the ‘Corona challenge’

2) Spread the Remote Design Sprint concept

3) Share an open-source framework for running remote design sprints

4) Empower the freelancing community by learning a new skill, connect with other experts and eventually upgrade their portfolio — while being in lockdown

We share an open-source case study for running design sprints. You will learn about the design challenge, the team, pre-sprint research, our tech setup, agenda, our results as well as lessons learned.

Prototype for User Testing created with Figma.

Here you find the whole article as summarized and published by team member Danny Holtschke on Medium.

Conclusions:

• Solving the storytelling and design challenges are great added values for users.
• We are NOT challenged by offering too little value and engagement because the app’s core feature is TRACING. Users accept it.
• One-Size-Fits all approach won’t work for 100% of the population. It might work for 50% or so but not 100%. What about the other 30% or so, we are missing (in order for the backend technology to be useful)?
• There are opportunities to offer more added values behind tracing. For instance, gamification (like a Kick-Tipp approach or we are the ‘Anti-Corona Team’) or supporting users throughout a holistic health journey (from tracing to being informed or positively tested to during and exiting quarantine).

Design Thinking and Visual Support for Climate KIC Journey 2020

Startup Mario is supporting the EIT Climate KIC, the

European knowledge and innovation community, working towards a prosperous, inclusive, climate-resilient society founded on a circular, zero-carbon economy.

10 teams are working on this transformative Journey programme which Startup Mario is also on board to create visual artefacts on the way and also to inspire on topics of human-centred design. 

4 Weeks

1. Sensemake and Frame
2. Decide and Analyse
3. Analyse, Experiment and Plan
4. Plan, Implement and Consolidate

Visual Storytelling

Thrilled that Startup Mario was a partner of the #AfricaVsVirus ideathon last weekend. It was a massive success and I was overwhelmed by all the effort and collective intelligence for the common good on the African Continent. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to support the organiser team with visual storytelling.

1️⃣ Take your time to make complex things simple (e.g. for less tech-savvy people: illustrate easy to follow step by step processes, which tool, where to find support etc)

2️⃣ A visual can say more than a thousand words. Input is easy to share & sticks in the human brain. Visuals overcome language barriers & communicate ideas across different cultures.

3️⃣ Create something which participants can share & be proud of.

Hacking Covid 19

Had a great time mentoring two teams at the Versus Virus Hackathon. Over 5000 hackers joined the call to develop innovative solutions together for hacking Covid-19. Collective intelligence at it's best!

Especially proud of the team Covhelp with Kevin Gaspar, Gaspard Chevassus & Mathilde Igier. Their project to support solidarity was one of the 42 projects highlighted by the jury and you can already download their app in the App Store!!! How great is that! „If you are immunocompromised, sick, or old please stay at home! They will find healthy neighbors who can help you with shopping, picking up prescription, dog-walking, or just chatting with you online.“ Check out their project: https://www.covhelp.org/

Moreover, the great Swiss Mask Task Ecosystem with Suzana Pezo Sommerfeld Ralph Werder Tien Rosalyn Steffen Raetzer Philippe Bujard Scott Comiso were working on providing everyone in Switzerland with a protective reusable mask. The task force "Masks Task" is a platform bringing local suppliers, designers, producers, academia and even the broader public together.

Remote Design Sprints

Corona caught us in action: we had to set up a remote 3-day sprint overnight while driving home by car. It was a lot of fun and went pretty well. We collected our learnings in this facilitator’s guide to rock remote design sprints: https://lnkd.in/dFvMyQv

These days remote work comes as a surprise and has to be set up in a limited time with little space for mistakes. This written piece summarizes learnings of a team who managed to set up a three-day design sprint overnight. Let's get started with the first part describing the challenges of the tech setup, followed by the agenda, facilitation and documentation best practices. 

Design Thinking Training

I had a great time doing my first project in South America, a Design Thinking Training (spanish version!) in Bogotá Colombia with TOTTO! It was a pleasure to work together with such a motivated & hands-on crowd of people. Big thanks also to the great collaboration with the local Lean Startup Co. Ambassador Cristian David Rivillas Mejia and the support of Nataly Ramirez Arteaga.

Conversations on Innovation

Dan Toma the co-author of the book The Corporate Startup and Startup Mario teamed up to create the new format Conversations on Innovation to share inspiration from innovators.

In our first episode Dan had the pleasure to sit with Hannah Keartland from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and talk about measuring hashtag#innovation in the context of non profit organizations. Her experience in the field is impressive.

In the second episode Dan sat with Karen Martin and discussed ways to fix strategy development and deployment. In a nutshell, strategy should just be viewed as a series of assumptions to be tested so an iterative approach to the strategy is recommended over the linear way most companies use today. The Hoshin Kanri method used by Toyota can be a good starting point.

Learn in the third episode about the importance of discipline when managing innovation! Susana Jurado Apruzzese Head of Innovation Portfolio-Core Innovation at Telefónica, shared valuable insights about the disciplined approach to innovation management.

Key takeaways:

- companies need to manage their innovation portfolios like VCs manage their startup investment portfolios

- innovation pipeline flow is critical for the success of any company and it should be the focus over every executive

- some important measurements for an innovation pipeline are required resources vs. opportunity, estimated risk, success probability, stage duration, cost of failure.

Lean Startup Podcast

Name The Category, Own The Market. Most entrepreneurs fall into a competition trap where they’re trying to one-up category leaders.

Christopher Lochhead advocates for leaving the competition behind by designing a new way of thinking - that way, when the world agrees with you at scale, you’ll be onto something really big.

Check out the newest Lean Startup Co. Podcast episode! https://lnkd.in/dNZkZBq

Lean Startup Conference SF

What a great experience attending with Startup Mario the Lean Startup Conference 2019 in San Francisco! I am very grateful that I had this outstanding opportunity to meet Eric Ries in person, to attend entrepreneurship workshops and speeches covering all the latest Lean Startup insights and innovations. Moreover, connecting with a lot of like-minded innovators from all over the world and so so much inspiration I have captured on various visuals. Big kudos to the organizing team around Heather McGough, Jenna Elkins, CJ Legare, Jameson Case, Maria Vargas and all the volunteers who have made this event a big success and my fellow ambassadors Jan Bigos, Nicolas M., Inji Amr Borai and Joeri (Yuri) Timmermans who are lean startup community leaders around the world.

Business Innovation Booster

The first edition of the Business Innovation Booster - Running Projects Lean was a big success! We were sold out and were able to bring together a strong community of innovators at the hubraum Berlin. And yes LeanStartup is no longer a limit, we talked about it all from DesignThinking, DesignSprint to Agile We were inspired from our expert speakers in the Startup & Corporate field how they are managing projects lean. Thanks so much to Aleksandr Zuravliov FREE NOW (formerly mytaxi), Sascha Kronberg IGNITE MY SALES - No Sales. No Business., Asisa Asseily Körber Digital & Kevin Olsen Pivotal Software, Inc. to share your experience and expertise in managing innovation teams & skills, on how to navigate through the challenges of product development, running design sprints and data driven innovation.

Medtech Startup Tour Berlin

It was a great experience to connect the Swiss Startup Ecosystem with the Berlin one! The URODEA team, winner of the Startup Weekend Biel 2019 & 2nd place in the Bernese Business Creation contest, had the pleasure to discover with Startup Mario the #HealthCare & #HealthTech Scene in Berlin.

The Urodea team got a lot of inspiration, feedback, insights and experience sharing on this tour by meeting with #medtech experts such as Lutz Haase (health care angelinvestor & startup mentor, innovation consultant FTWK), Julian Ramirez (medtech project manager Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH), Stefan Boeckle (director Vivantes – Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH & advisor re.flex - Recovery made simple) and Max Müseler (Co-founder Betterguards Technology).

Design Sprint

How my hands-on workshops look like!? Well, they are all customized based on the needs (Corporate, Startup or Student teams) and project stage (Exploration, Validation, Business Model Design) of the teams I’m working with. Nevertheless, I wanna give you a glimpse into a Design Sprint I was running recently as part of the Odyssey Program initiated by START Global with two Swiss teams working on a collaboration platform idea and a corporate challenge by Beiersdorf. In this hands-on bootcamp I have introduced 12 innovators to a systematic process to put structure into the chaotic nature of innovation using user-centred design, hypothesis-driven testing methods and the Sprint framework developed by Google Ventures and Jake Knapp. No Bla Bla, all action! We interviewed people on the street, analysed the needs and problems, ideated & sketched possible solutions, prototyped click-dummies, went out testing, were iterating based on the users' feedback and so much more! It was a lot of fun. Be the change you want to see in the world!

https://startincubator.org/odyssey/

LEAN STARTUP SUMMIT Berlin

Lean Startup Summit brings the big ideas from Eric Ries’s books off the page to show how organizations are making them real around the world. Alongside keynotes and case studies, we offer workshops and mentoring sessions where you can have more immersive experiences, breaking off a chunk of the practice and working through it with our seasoned experts. The learnings you come away with happen on all levels, from the inspirational to the personal. Lean Startup Summit attracts a diverse audience from countries across Europe and beyond.Become a part of our wider European innovation community by joining us in Berlin this February.

Organizing Official Lean Startup Nights, Workshops and the official Lean Startup Berlin Meetups.

Hosting the roundtable at the Summit about Identifying and Engaging with Customers & Discovering and Fulfilling their Needs

Description:

Creating new innovative products and services with real customer value will shape the world of tomorrow. The rules for success have changed. In a global and rapidly changing world, characterized by an uncertain and risky environment, new strategies need to be defined. The traditional planner mindset gives way to the targeted validation of critical assumptions, systematic testing with prototypes and iteration based on customer feedback. Whoever learns faster what really creates added value for the customer will win the race and operate sustainably.

STARTUP CLASS

Startup Class is an intensive hands-on, project-based summer school in which you will design and test prototypes and develop new business models that address real-world needs.

We believe entrepreneurial thinking can change the world. Startup Class is a 4-week event to boost your creativity and teamwork skills. The Startup Class 2018 involved the project partners Siemens, Cisco, Deutsche Bahn and Google for Entrepreneurs. http://startupclass.de/

Role: Lead Instructor and Coach

Feedback from participants: 

My experience at Startup Class proved to me my ability to become an entrepreneur.

Rick

Startup Class opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me.

Madini

Startup Class was an immersion into the skin of an entrepreneur. Mind blowing!

Elena

8.Global Forum Wallis

„Future of Work - Die Arbeitswelt der Zukunft und ihre Ansprüche an unser Bildungswesen"

Am Samstag war das Schloss Leuk der Schauplatz für die achte Ausgabe des Forums. "Die Zukunft der Arbeit" war das Thema. An einem Podium unter der Leitung von Nationalrat Thomas Egger nahmen unter anderen der Standortleiter Visp der Lonza, Jörg Solér, der Hotelier Markus Schmid, das Vorstandsmitglied von Yeno, Philomene Schmidt, aber auch der Rektor der Fernfachhochschule Schweiz, Michael Zurwerra, teil. Dabei gingen die Teilnehmenden unter anderem Fragen im Bereich der Bildung oder der Digitalisierung nach.

Ich wurde am Global Forum Wallis von radio rottu oberwallis auch kurz zu meiner Tätigkeit interviewt.

http://bit.ly/rro_startupmario

Wer Interesse an der (Ober)Walliser Innovations-, Unternehmer- & Startup-Szene hat, ist herzlich willkommen:
https://lnkd.in/dTGXZt2

Lean Startup Berlin Meetup & Workshops together with Yulia Smotrova

Co-Organizer Official Lean Startup Berlin Meetup

Lean Startup Workout

Blockchain meets Lean Startup Workshop for Capgemini's Tech Startup Friday

Curator at Startup Camp Berlin

Bringing together founders, entrepreneurs, investors, and selected students, the Startup Camp serves as the largest early stage startup event in Berlin.

Curator Young Entrepreneurs Track 2016

Curator Young Entrepreneurs Track 2017

Curator Lean Startup Track 2018

Media coverage:

- Interview by Venture TV on Lean Startup (in German)
- Interview by StartupValley (in German)

Entrepreneurial Challenge

Creating a new extracurricular course "Entrepreneurial Challenge" for students of Universiteit Twente aiming for a MOOC.