It was a really full on week so I will do the reflection for Week 3 in two parts.
I’m going to do this in two parts because I didn’t have the time to do a daily one on the week when it was happening. A lot happened that week and I think after three weeks of being in the programme, I started to realise what I was really in for. It has been really intense so far and it’s only about to get more full on!
In Week 3, I had one goal in mind: getting my empathy interviews done before the Christmas holidays.
I was pretty drained by the end of the week then went into Christmas holidays which, as we all know, is a very busy season, so I haven’t been able to write a post until today. But tomorrow, we are back at it for Week 4 of the programme. So it is about time I write my reflection journal for Week 3.
I’m going to write this in a different format and only write about the day’s highlights to summarise our activities rather than the way I usually do my day-to-day post. I have decided to do this because in the weeks to come we are going to get busier so I am less likely to be able to keep up with my daily reflection journal entries.
What we were in for in Week 3
Day 9–10 | 14–15 Dec
Preparing Christmas treats for the team!
I kicked off the final week of 2015 with our secret family recipe Christmas Krinkles for everyone in the chapter. Just a little treat for the holidays!
Day 9 BUSINESS MODELS WORKSHOP with Wayne
We kicked the day off with the usual overview + stand up to continue with the habit of reporting on our Scrum Boards. Then we headed off to our first workshop for the week with Wayne.
He’d sent us some reading to prepare for the workshop and only April, Kate, and Patience actually read them. The rest of us were naughty and didn’t read the material. So Wayne put them in a team and made them have the option of choosing an additional team mate. I am schooled up on business models having gone to Business School so they chose me to be their fourth team member.
The workshop was designed to be a competition where we were split into three teams and we had to write about business models. The three teams were assigned either Countdown (a supermarket), CPIT (a tertiary education provider), or Black Betty (a cafe). We chose Black Betty.
We then had to present our findings and the winner was going to be shouted lunch at Winnie Bagoes. Since I was in the team that is actually schooled up about business models, we had an upper hand and won.
Wayne has yet to shout us lunch at Winnie Bagoes. (AHEM!)
EMPATHY INTERVIEWS
The rest of the day and Day 10 was spent doing empathy interviews with freelancers and entrepreneurs. These two days were jam packed with meetings as I have quite a large network of freelancers and entrepreneurs that I can access to do my research, so filling my days were easy.
On Day 10 I met with an freelance photographer named Dennis to kick off my morning, he is based near my home so we met at a local cafe. After that I also met with April and Robbie over lunch, we discussed where our projects overlap and how we can help each other in our research as well as how it would be useful for us to continue meeting on a regular basis as we progress through the programme.
Straight after that I met with creative entrepreneurs based in XCHC on Wilsons Road then whizzed across town to meet with a couple more to wrap up my afternoon before I presented my Validation Board back at HQ.
In my research, some key themes started emerging about what freelancers and entrepreneurs struggle with. Funnily enough, the key one is something that Wayne had discussed in one of his workshops:
- Freelancers and entrepreneurs tend to do everything for themselves so what many struggle with are areas they are not fond of doing but have to do. Some struggle with administrative management, some struggle with marketing themselves or their products, and some struggle with networking.
Additional themes include:
- Freelancers and entrepreneurs struggle with making ends meet, especially during the start.
- Freelancers and entrepreneurs wish they knew how to place a monetary value on what they do when they were first starting out.
Validation Boards
I headed back to the HQ where we had to report on our validation boards.
A Validation Board is a table that shows the Customer Hypothesis, Problem Hypothesis, and Solution Hypothesis then where your research leads you to Pivot based on validating invalidated Core Assumptions. It’s a really great tool to use to validate whether or not your idea is worth pursuing based on whether it actually is solving a problem that people actually have.
Below are photos of Louis doing his report and behind him to the left hand side is Serafin’s Swarm Session.
A Swarm Session is when the team works together to help with doing the elements of a Validation Board. It’s pretty much a session where the team gives their two cents about anything that anyone needs feedback on, really.
Sorry, Louis! You are the chosen model for my photos!
I didn’t present my Validation Board, I didn’t feel I was ready. But I did get the team to brainstorm with me about a finding I had from my research:
Financial Literacy.
I wondered…if we were taught financial literacy before we’d left school, maybe we would make different choices? If we actually knew then how much is taken off our pay in taxes and compulsory government levies, maybe we would make different (possibly wiser) choices on how we would like to be employed or how we would generate an in come?
If, before we left home, we understood and were taught about how rent, and bills, and insurance, and all our on-going expenses actually work, expenses that we need to or should have paid for before we even get to enjoy the money we earn, maybe we’d make different choices?
I just started a discussion around this because it was a huge part of what many entrepreneurs and freelancers wish they’d had a better grip of earlier.
Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for — in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. -Ellen Goodman
Day 11 | 16 Dec
FIELD TRIP to Eagle Consumables
Another round of stand up then we headed to our field trip to the first ever B-Corp in New Zealand — Eagle Consumables.
We were tasked to do a report on Eagle Consumables’ business model so I paid real good attention on what was discussed. The Founder, Steve Ardagh, welcomed us and took us through their building.
After the tour, he took us into his office and kicked off his session with some really good lessons to teach us.
What really resonated was the advice that he gave around solving a real problem and really understanding the problem we are trying to solve. In the programme, this is what where we currently are so his advice around it was quite relevant to the work we were doing at the time.
He then went on to discuss Eagle Consumables Vision and Purpose. They use business for good, which is why they opted to become a B-Corp.
Eagle Consumables was the first B-Corp in New Zealand but there are now a few across the country, mostly in the South Island, that have this status.
But what is a B-Corp?
It was really fascinating to know that B-Corps are becoming a thing in this day and age. It is inspiring and I would want this status when I build my Social Enterprise. Eagle Consumables and their founders are really admirable and it was an amazing field trip. They even put on a lunch for us!
FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE with Jaya Gibson and Mike Field
I won’t go into too much detail about these two founders but if there was one thing that we took away from the session with them was lessons about failure and how it is ok to fail.
Jaya Gibson
Funnily enough, I actually applied to be the CEO of White Elephant Trust, Mike Field’s job, and when he arrived, it got me thinking “Man, I could’ve been the one speaking to this group” since I got as far as the final 3 or 4 candidates for his job. Admittedly, if I was Nathan (the CEO of White Elephant at the time who hired Mike), I would’ve totally hired him over me too because this guy is pretty amazing!
White Elephant Trust CEO Mike Field
to be continued…