Kafeero Foundation – Mfano Business Design Week

In partnership with Kafeero Foundation and Mfano Design Lab, we designed and led a five day Business Strategy and Design Bootcamp in Kampala, Uganda to prepare participants with strong business models ahead of their pitches for partnerships, funding, or mentoring.

About Kafeero Foundation

Kafeero Foundation is an African social enterprise inspiring and empowering youth, communities and economies to grow through innovation. Kafeero provides the skills and tools needed to establish a sustainable enterprise and employment opportunities. They are working to establish a sustainable business ecosystem for startups and innovations through teaching digital literacy, building platforms and providing the necessary tools to individuals in the pursuit of business success and changing lives.

What was the Aim of this Project?

Many entrepreneurial ideas get lost by the wayside due to inability to focus on multiple aspects of the product; 90 percent of Ugandan startups don’t make it past their first birthday due to lack of current processes and frameworks, and not being open to external mentors and expertise. The aim of the bootcamp is to help participating startups and students find their way back to the big picture by redefining their business approach in search for investors or funders, and designing or redesigning their products and services to enable customer appreciation and impact communities.

Who were the participants?

There was a total of 15 participants comprising of teams from local startups and faculty members from Makerere University Business School. Though the participants came from different stages and backgrounds of business, each team committed to the five day bootcamp and contributed representatives from different team functions such as marketing, R&D, finance, design and management.

What did we do?

In partnership with Kafeero Foundation and Mfano Design Lab, we designed and led a five day Business Strategy and Design Bootcamp (aptly named Business Design Week) to prepare participants with strong business models ahead of their pitches for partnerships, funding, or mentoring. Throughout the 5 days we were joined by a team of mentors comprising of individuals from Kafeero Foundation and local consultancies, designers and business owners. 

This is what our 5 days in Kampala, Uganda looked like.

Kafeero Foundation Business Design Week

Day One

The main focus of day one was getting to know the individual participants and teams and understanding their key issues. The workshops and modules revolved around defining the problem that they aiming to address and learning about the benefits of user research.

Day Two

During day two we took the teams through the importance of a good user experience. The teams jumped into user interviews with potential customers to help define their motivations and frustrations, kicked off initial prototype designs, and had a personal branding session with a designer from the Kafeero Foundation.

Day Three

Nearing the halfway mark of the bootcamp, teams were given an opportunity to test their prototypes with potential users in order to get feedback on their product direction and plans so far. Having seen positive results so far, the teams then spent some time working on cost structures and evaluating further revenue stream opportunities.

Day Four

With the pitch event only a day teams spent a few hours finalising and practising their pitches while also confirming what their “big ask” was. Each team had specific needs – whether it be funding, partnerships or mentorship requests. They also spent time developing a product roadmap in order to help prioritise what they needed to build and when.

Day Five

During day five, participants delivered their final pitches (3 minutes each) in front of a full room of VIP guests including ministers, mentors, heads of local businesses and potential investors.

Kafeero Foundation Business Design Week

It was a rigorous but productive week for us and the participants. We look forward to continuing mentorships with all of the participants in order to provide ongoing support. We also look to strengthen the partnership between Experience Haus and Kafeero Foundation to design and deliver upcoming bootcamps and other potential projects in Uganda in 2020 and beyond.

 

For more information about our workshops and courses, please visit https://experiencehaus.com/ .  For Press and Media enquiries, please contact Emma Blackmore, Group Marketing Director: emma@matterofform.com. 

Posted on : Tuesday October 29, 2019