Week 4 Disc 2
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, review Chapters 7 and 8 in the text, read the article Pretotype It (Links to an external site.), and watch Ridiculously Crazy Japanese Inventions You Have to See to Believe (Links to an external site.). This interactivity introduces two very novel concepts from the world of entrepreneurial thinking—pretotyping and chindōgu. Innovative experimentation leads to new knowledge. Pretotyping, when exercised in tandem with chindōgu, provides a very rich learning environment that can significantly enhance the odds for entrepreneurial success. Based on the premise that most new ideas fail, pretotyping is simply the idea that the most expeditious path to success as an entrepreneur is to “Make sure—as quickly and as cheaply as you can—that you are building the right it before you build it right” (Savoia, 2012, p. 20).
Pretotyping is similar to prototyping in that both are methods of experimentation and testing. The difference is that prototyping refers to operational “product” testing, whereas pretotyping refers to “concept” (idea) testing. Pretotyping can be thought of as “fake it before you make it” experimentation.
Chindōgu is a form of the Japanese art of creating “un-useless” inventions” from connecting and combining objects and concepts that are generally considered to be unrelated; for example, windshield wipers for eyeglasses or solar-powered leg warmers. Although chindōgu creations may not be immediately practical, they might inspire ideas that are.
Note: This is the second of two interactive discussions for the course. The group assignments made at the beginning of the course remain in effect unless you are notified otherwise by your instructor.
In this exercise, you and your group will practice the art of chindōgu to develop ideas for pretotyping to discover the “right it.” You will then pretotype the most promising of these ideas, and document your discoveries and findings in a Canva presentation for posting to the discussion forum.
Complete the following steps:
Chindōgu
Conduct a group brainstorming session to identify possible combinations of objects that currently exist, which, if combined, would create new and unusual inventions. Let your imagination completely loose!
For example,
Combining an automobile sun visor with a pull-down screen.
Attaching a transparent ruler to eyeglasses to instantly measure the length of a freshly-caught fish.
Select three of the most popular ideas from the group’s chindōgu creations for pretotyping.
Take photographs of the creations and save the images for uploading to a Canva (Links to an external site.) presentation.
Pretotyping
For each of the chindōgu creations, select one of the following pretotyping techniques to test the concept represented by the creation (Savoia, 2012, pp. 39-40):
The Mechanical Turk—Replace complex and expensive computers or machines with human beings.
The Pinocchio—Build a non-functional, “lifeless,” version of the product.
The Minimum Viable Product (or Stripped Tease)—Create a functional version of it, but stripped down to its most basic functionality.
The Provincial—Before launching world-wide, run a test on a very small sample.
The Fake Door—Create a fake “entry” for a product that doesn’t yet exist in any form.
The Pretend-to-Own—Before investing in buying whatever you need for your it, rent or borrow it first.
The Re-label—Put a different label on an existing product that looks like the product you want to create.
Prepare and conduct a pretotype experiment for each creation. Use a different pretotype technique for each of the three tests.
Document the results of each pretotype experiment along with videos or images as needed to describe the test, and save for uploading to a Canva (Links to an external site.) presentation.
Canva Presentation
Create a group Canva presentation as follows:
To begin, one member of your Group needs to set up a “Team” in Canva.
Log into your Canva (Links to an external site.) account that was created in Week 3.
From your Canva home page, click on Need Help? > Team Settings, and follow the instructions on how to create and Join a Canva Team (Links to an external site.).
Send invitations to join the team to the email addresses each of the group’s members used to set up their Canva accounts.
Accept the invitation to join the team to begin working on your Canva presentation.
Complete the Group’s Canva presentation as follows:
Click on “Create a Design” and select the “Presentation (16:9)—Untitled Design” option.
Upload the images for the group’s three selected chindōgu creations.
Upload the documents and images for the three pretotyping tests.
Format the presentation as desired, and then save a link for posting to the group discussion.
Select one member of the group to post a synopsis of the contents of the Canva presentation along with a link to the Interactivity 2: Pretotyping With Chindōgu discussion forum.
FAQs
Do we have to use Canva for this discussion?
Yes, Canva is required for this exercise.
Solution Preview
Chindogu
Chindogu is a Japanese art creation that follows the principles of Kanje Kawakami. He described his invention as an invention that is not so useless but also not so useful. He argued that the innovations are similar to those scientific innovations. The basis of Chindogu was to see the use of materials in another form (Partridge&Faily, 2016).
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