Lesson – Ideating your own product/service

Now that you know what a social enterprise is and have gained the knowledge to identify potential social entrepreneurship opportunities in your rural area, it is time to develop your own service or product or improve existing ones in a way that aligns with a social purpose. As seen above, the ideation process consists of several phases, and can be extended over time as long as necessary – as long as there are no external time constraints – thus ensuring that the idea to be developed is viable, feasible and brings value to the target group and/or your local community, taking into account what resources and capacities the social enterprise will need to carry it out.

Use the graph below to guide your journey, bearing in mind how to integrate the culinary heritage, food production and gastronomy in your local area into the new product/services and how it will create a powerful impact in your community. Deeply reflect on the needs and challenges you may face within your rural area and define the problem you aim to tackle with your potential entrepreneurial adventure. Then, start the ideation process, whether on your own or within a collaborative setting with others. However, the innovation process is not over when you define the final idea, you will need to prototype, set guidelines, evaluate its potential performance and apply as many improvements as necessary.

This is an ongoing process, so you will need to be aware of the fact that innovation in business requires continuous efforts to do better.

If you already have an idea, consider which technique would be most beneficial in improving or fine-tuning it, and why. Then, using your chosen method, generate suggestions for improving your company or business idea. You can use another technique to generate more suggestions if you want. Consider each suggestion. Which of these excites and motivates you the most, and why? Make a list of all the suggestions you want to put into action.

• Is your suggestion a painkiller or a vitamin? It is possible to define “vitamin” ideas as those that provide instant relief, pleasure or benefits or that are pleasurable. However, “painkiller” ideas are those that effectively solve a problem in an innovative way or offer a product/service that perfectly meets the needs of its target group.

• Is your idea easy to monetize?
• Is your idea simple?
• Is your idea personally relevant?
• Do you have a follow through plan?
• Do you have a big market?