This live blog was written by Adam Tinworth at Like Minds, Exeter 2012. Our “Endeavour” talks give social good enterprises and individuals who are making a difference in the world an equal platform to promote their vision.
Iris Lapsinki – Apps for Good
Problems in the real world tend to be complicated. Most new business set up to solve social challenges fail. Why is that?
We think the problem lies in the education system. In school, we’re taught how to recognise a problem and solving it. School gives you a big swiss army knife – but you can’t solve every problem with this tool.
So… you need to learn how to define a problem, and then solve it. So, the organisation gets children to define real-world problems, and create apps about it.
Steps:
- Problem definition
- Market research
- Solution design (business models)
- Product design
- Build and test
A good example: Transit that helps the Bengali-speaking community communicate with UK professionals.
They’ve seen a 10,000% growth rate in the student they train – up to 5,000 will have been trained by the end of the year. They’re open sourcing what they’ve done. But they need experts to come in and give feedback on app ideas.
Their vision is to create a new generation of problem-solvers. Her Endeavour Keynote can be found here.
