There is a feature of entrepreneurial thinking, of design thinking that makes working as an academic very powerful.\u00a0 Solve a problem or making a product that people need.\u00a0 How do you train yourself in noticing what people need? \u00a0Sometimes we will be told that people need things or we need them and presume that other people do too. \u00a0\u00a0Sometimes we have to simply be present and notice things.<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> charts the Biodesign process at Stanford University.<\/p>\n The<\/strong> immediately useful part of the article is the section under Finding Needs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Unmet needs, not better solutions.\u00a0 In software development I used to say that a user should tell me what it is that they want to do, not how they want to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelop me some software that fetches the sales totals and litres pumped from the petrol pump and displays it in a sales window\u201c would be the request and is possibly the solution… but, if the need is that \u201cthe system should reduce fraud or drive-offs\u201d then I want to know the latter.\u00a0 I could develop a solution more powerfully if I was told what that unmet need is.<\/p>\n What flows from Finding Needs in the University context?\u00a0 It leads to better research and more useful research which, besides having the obvious benefits of looking good on the Impact section of a grant application, could lead to the kind of product that is more easily commercialised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a feature of entrepreneurial thinking, of design thinking that makes working as an academic very powerful.\u00a0 Solve a problem or making a product that people need.\u00a0 How do you train yourself in noticing what people need? \u00a0Sometimes we will be told that people need things or we need them and presume that other … Continue reading Unmet needs, not better solutions<\/span>