Demola Annual Report 2016 / Innovation Guide

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19 locations worldwide 3 continents 60+ facilitators Demola OULU

Demola Tampere

Demola helsinki

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Contact us: uusitehdas.demola DemolaTampere new.factory tampere.demola.net www.newfactory.fi

Publisher: Š2017 Demola Tampere.

All rights reserved.

Demola Annual Report 2016 team: Riku Komi Emmi-Maria Kurru Mariia Pastukh

Published: 23.05.2017, NFO17, Tampere, Finland

Annual report 2016

contents Introduction

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Timeline

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Demola milestones

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Demola for companies

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Demola for students

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Demola Spring 2016

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Demola Summer 2016

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Demola Autumn 2016

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Contact us

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Demola faciliTators

Raúl Berl anga Demola, come because of the challenge, stay because it’s addictive.

Yuliya Nesterenko Demola is an innovation fusion: D for Diversity & Determination, E for Enthusiasm & Energy, M for Movement & Magic, O for Opportunity & Observation, L for Life & Legacy, A for Ambition & Adventure.

Heikki Viitanen Demola is a home for curious and ambitious minds, a place to find thoughts both conflicting and alike, all of this resulting in learning and friends most importantly...

Tatiana Anagnostaki You can't fit the benefits of Demola in one sentence; you would need a book for that, so keep reading!

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Aino Siippainen Demola is like a life of a happy puppy - the more you are having activities and triggers on your play ground the more you will learn and achieve. But only if you have a change to rest every now and then.

Ohad Shevily A melting pot of different cultures learning to work together towards a common goal while making new friends and developing important life skills.

Joonas Kemppainen Demola has been mind-blowing since I joined the family so we are talking about way of living, nothing less.

Ville Korpiluoto Head of Demola Tampere

Year 2016 has passed quickly in Demola Tampere. With the biggest ever Demola Spring, compact Demola Summer and Demola Autumn with major changes to facilitator crew, the year was full of events. For third time in sequence, we are as well publishing the Annual Report presenting in one package all the projects and activities of the year.

Demola is one of the rare examples on how to do the innovation projects on multidisciplinary, multicultural way. This mode of project work has potential for surprisingly good results. Also, nobody knows about the results in the beginning.

During the year we have seen both, excellent success stories and teams not arriving to find the value. We as facilitators try to support both – and give a safe framework letting teams and project partners focus to project substance!

The Demola framework consists of facilitation and set of Milestones. Both of these we are constantly improving.

The classic Demola Milestones as Jams, Pitching Events and Value Creation Workshops are in, proven to be important parts of the campaign. During 2016 we have as well introduced new content inside Jams, own program for project partners and tools for IPR protection and patenting.

It has been great to see your energy, new ideas and commitment to the projects – it has been pleasure to work with all of you!

Of course the project topics in Demola are inspiring – but still the best part of Demola are the people. Three times a year a new batch of teams and project partners arrive, not yet sure what to wait, and in only four months the results are done. It has been great to see your energy, new ideas and commitment to the projects – it has been pleasure to work with all of you!

This year Annual Report has two different sides. On the backside of the Annual Report you can find Demola Innovation Guide, where we have collected some of the main phases, principles and hints for carrying through any open innovation project. Hopefully you find it useful and enjoy reading both!

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10 ROAD SHOW TEAM FORMING

19.01.-29.01.

03.02.-04.02.

DEMOLA SUMMER 2016 - START

JAM

GRADUATION

30.05.

08.07.

26.08.

Summer

31.05.

22.05.-29.05.

26.05.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

07.03.-15.04.

DEMOLA SPRING 2016 - END

FINAL MEETINGS

NFO, BEST PROJECT PITCHING & GRADUATION

FINAL PITCHING EVENT

PITCHING WORKSHOP 13.05.

19.05.

MID-PITCHING EVENT 14.04.

CALL FOR PROJECTS

Spring

23.02.-15.04.

JAM #2 02.04.

PLAYBOOK MEETINGS

22.02.-04.03.

JAM #1

VALUE CREATION WORKSHOPS

16.02.-18.02.

27.02.

INITIAL MEETINGS

DEMOLA SPRING 2016 - START

UNIVERSITY KICK-OFF

10.02.-19.02.

5.02.

5.02. (9:00-11:00)

PARTNER KICK-OFF

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

18.01.-31.01.

5.02. (14:00-16:00)

CALL FOR PROJECTS

16.11.-18.12.

TIMELINE

ROAD SHOW

29.08.-02.09.

9.09. (9:00-11:00)

9.09. (14:00-16:00)

JAM #2 MID-PITCHING EVENT PROJECT PARTNER VCW TESTING AFTERNOON#2

29.10.

17.11.

23.11.

1.12.

12.01.

9.01.-20.01.

FINAL PITCHING EVENT & GRADUATION

FINAL MEETINGS

PITCHING WORKSHOP

TESTING AFTERNOON

6.10.

8.12.

JAM #1

1.10.

PLAYBOOK MEETINGS

VALUE CREATION WORKSHOPS

19.09.-23.09.

26.09.-7.10.

INITIAL MEETINGS

14.09.-23.09.

KICK-OFF, DEMOLA AUTUMN 2016 - START)

UNIVERSITY KICK-OFF

PARTNER KICK-OFF

TEAM FORMING

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

22.08.-04.09.

5.02.-6.09.

CALL FOR PROJECTS

31.05.-01.07.

13.09. (15:00-18:00)

Autumn

Project partners events Students events

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demol a milestones 1. ROAD SHOW When Demola campaign is about to start and Call for Applications is open, facilitator try to make sure that the open projects are recognized. This happens by vigorous promotion and facing the students in all the different campus areas in form of Road Show.

2. KICK-OFF This event kicks starts the Demola adventure! It is the first time the project team will meet up and get to dive first hand into Demola concept and philosophy, get to know their facilitators and talk about practicalities. The first challenge and mingle activity will be introduced at the kick-off event as well.

3. INITIAL MEETING This is maybe the most exciting moment for the team - and definitely is for the project partner! Team and project partner will meet for the first time, familiarize and discuss a bit deeper on what’s the basic idea and background of the project.

Facilitator is strongly involved, making sure that everything goes fine!

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4. VALUE CREATION WORKSHOP What is value and how to distinguish that from your work? Value creation workshop is all about learning the basics about value and the art of pitching and feedback. Workshops are meant for all of the students to help them to correct their mindsets and see the value in their work!

Participation to one of the workshops is strongly suggested.

5. PLAYBOOK MEETING In Playbook Meeting team and project partner get to take a look at the project plan, which in Demola is the initial version of Playbook. Playbook content will set the guidelines for the whole project and by good review it’s possible to make sure that both team and project partner are on the same page and avoid any misunderstandings.

6. JAM #1 Jam #1 is a full Saturday of work with all the teams diving deeper into their projects.

The day brings many tasks that thrive the teams to acknowledge new angles and opinions about their project. The basic themes of Jam #1 are brainstorming, building concepts and materializing the project in form of a sh***y prototype.

7. TESTING AF TERNOON In Testing Afternoon teams get to put their solutions to the test. User validation is one of the cornerstones of Demola so the goal of the event is to gather feedback which allows further developing of the project solutions. During the afternoon random bypassers will test the demonstrations and early prototypes presented by the teams.

As a result, teams get various feedback and valuable insights!

8. JAM #2 Jam #2 follows approximately one month after Jam #1. Once again it’s about the day full of productivity, but this time teams concern more on problem-solving and cross-team collaboration. Day starts with an introduction to user perspective and also Mom Test will be covered. Project partners are invited too to join Jam #2!

9. MID-PITCHINg event

Mid-pitching Event is a big milestone in Demola adventure. It marks the halfway of the campaign and serves as the first opportunity to really check how your pitch works with the big audience. All the different teams need to do a three minute elevator pitch about their project solution, impress the audience and get valuable feedback - to help with building the further evolutions of the demo and preparing for the Final Pitching Event.

10. PITCHING workshop When Final Pitching Event gets closer, it’s time to polish the pitches with some pro help. A couple of weeks before the actual day teams are offered the chance to discuss with professional actor and performer in order to do the final adjustment and small tweaks!

11. Final Pitching Event This event is the grande finale of every Demola campaign! All the innovation projects are reaching the finish line, which means it's time to reveal the results.

Final Pitching Event gathers all students, project partners, teachers and facilitators together for the sake of reviewing the ending projects. The teams are divided into two batches and will be given 5 minutes to present their demos, solutions and concepts.

12. FINAL MEETING Final Meeting is the last common faceto-face meeting between team, project partner and facilitator. The main purposes of the meeting are reviewing and delivering results, discussion and reflection about how the project actually went. This can even get sentimental at times!

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demol a FOR COMPANIES

WHY?

Demola turns ideas and needs into a working demo, prototype or concept with talented, highly motivated and multidisciplinary student teams, only in 3-4 months.

Demola is an agile way to boost your inhouse product and service development processes. Concrete action and testing is the most important part of Demola. That is how we make sure that the solutions will bring value to you. Are you willing to put a little bit of your time and effort and try our way to explore the future?

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Case Design Provide your idea and create an inspiring project description of your challenge in cocreation with our facilitators. After that the projects will be promoted to students from different universities and disciplines by the Demola facilitators.

Selection process Demola takes care of reviewing and screening the project applications and selecting the multidisciplinary teams of 4-6 members. You get to discuss the project more in-depth with the team in the initial meeting.

Project Demola project framework consists of regular facilitation and Demola Milestones (You’ll find more info in events -section). In addition, Demola handles the practicalities including tools, supervision, close community of teams, peer support and access to New Factory premises. During the project, all we need from you is to be reachable, provide regular feedback and meet the team on bi-weekly basis.

Evaluation In the end, the project results are transferred to you to be reviewed. If results are seen valuable, you get the full access to them by paying the licensing reward to the team. To give some examples, results can be used as sales support, internal decision-making support or starting point for productization.

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demol a FOR students

what & WHY? Demola aims to turn ideas into concrete action. Get a chance to make a difference, apply your skills obtained at university, receive the ECTS credit points and possible licensing rewards, get closer to the work environment, brainstorm within a multidisciplinary and multicultural student team, create a concrete demo, collaborate with your project partner company and get a truly extraordinary experience within the time of your student life. And of course not to mentioned, getting to know cool people and expanding your network.

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Good to know

Taking part in Demola project means 5-10 hours per week of pure practice in your own respective field. If the project partner wants to utilize project results, the licensing reward is paid to the team.

Take this opportunity to develop your skills in the project, improve English and earn credits.

Skills needed Every campaign we are looking for over 150 talents from universities in Tampere.

Demola is for everyone, and you can freely apply to any project that interests you.

The most important aspect is to have the right attitude and confidence that you can contribute to the project in some way.

Demol a process In Demola, we use agile methods instead of traditional R&D. We have a great variety of challenging topics from different project partners such as Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, Oscar Software, HERE, Tieto, Koja and Konecranes, only to name a few.

How to apply All you need to do is to wait for an application period to be open, and check out the projects in Demola campaign:

tampere.demola.net/apply

1 2 3

Register on the website Select 3 top project priorities Fill the application.

Teams will be formed right after the application period ends.

The kick-off event will be held afterwards.

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spring 31 projects

160 students

800 credits

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Spring 2016 Smart Glove Controller Facilitator: Yuliya

Energy Feedback and Information System (EFIS) Facilitator: Ville

WINNING PROJECT

read more on page 24

Demola Annual Report 2015 Facilitator: Ville

The aim of the project was to gather all the Demola activities of 2015 between two covers. The Annual Report consisted of project descriptions, interviews, infographics and also augmented reality content in collaboration with Robust North's Arilyn platform.

Agile Marketing for Suunto Solutions Facilitator: Ohad

Project team build new agile marketing processes for Suunto Solutions. The conclusion was a digital platform that had tools and ideas for agile marketing, inner communications for global use and marketing in general.

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The goal of the project was to develop a user interface for a new generation intelligent mobile machines to inform the operator about the efficiency level of operating maneuvers. Team came up with a visualized interface that helps drivers to understand their driving habits.

Factory Visualization Facilitator: Ohad

In many large factories one cannot see the big picture when looking at the manufacturing operations. To solve this problem, team came up with a user interface that is easy to use and nice to look at.

Hair Cut Jungle, Step Zero Facilitator: Ville

The goal was to build a learning game that teaches haircutting, and revolutionize the learning process within this branch. The team came up with a final product, and introduction video which presents the products features.

Permission Illustrator

Scaling Up CaaS

Facilitator: Ville

Facilitator: Ville

The problem was that when you have a big company it usually means a lot of files in everyone's computer. All of these files have individual settings about their permissions so the team needed to tackle the illustration of those.

Good coaching and leading brings much good – quality, efficiency, collaboration and wellbeing. How to make it a sustainable and continuing practice? In this project, team build a concept to scale up the Coaching as a Service!

Blogger's Friend

MATOC2C

Facilitator: Aino

Facilitator: Ohad

Lookby

Fashion blogger is sharing stylist recommendations and when readers click on certain image, they transfer to the original webstore where product can be purchased.

Team came up with user friendly interface that helps bloggers and their partners to showcase products.

Have you ever needed a tutor to support your child’s math homework via your tablet device? For this project the team came up with a creative mentor platform that allows user to find right solution and mentor to get help with their problems.

Sensor Bra

Murikanranta - The Last Wilderness of Tampere

Facilitator: Aino

Facilitator: Aino

To ensure steady production of breast milk, mothers are advised to feed their babies with both breasts. That is why the goal of the project was to create a concept for a sensor, which tells the mother which breast is the most beneficial at the moment.

The core of the project was to develop new service(s) or product(s) based on location in a traditionally Finnish and picturesque forested cape. Project team came up with new ideas for the area and estimated costs of building those.

Mobile Access to Learning

Digitalization Meets Meat

Facilitator: Ohad

Facilitator: Ohad

Project partner was looking for a team to create a mobile application and a start page for students to reach the online services they offer. At the end team built a portal, with all of the useful links, for students of Tampere.

In this project the team build a digitalization plan for meat products, supply process and the way the products are offered to consumers. Team also built a demo application for the job.

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Wearable Innovation Platform

Bike Hero Facilitator: Aino

Facilitator: Ohad

Utilizing the developer APIs and technologies available, what kind of applications and solution concepts you would create? The team created an application that tracks and analyzes the movement of football players which helps them improve their ball handling skills.

Beyond Demola Facilitator: Ville

In this project the idea was to capture the core essence of Demola, and the journey that people go through in the process, in a form of video. Beyond Demola ended up having seven episodes of mini web series and a pilot episode.

The task was to make crowdsourced deliveries with a bicycle an engaging experience for the mainstream. Team developed a concept of delivery service including game elements based on the user’s wishes.

The Dream Town Center Facilitator: Aino

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT

Anna - The Kindest Game Ever Facilitator: Joonas

The best weather in the world Facilitator: Joonas

Yle wanted to figure out what is the most relevant meteorological information for users and what would be the best interface for showing it. The solution was to make an application where you could find out the weather easily, with just one glance.

read more on page 27

Anna Charity

The task was to create an online game service that will overcome the problems in charity regarding transparency and efficiency. And that is exactly what the team did and developed a new web service for charity purposes.

Is Your Laptop Healthy?

Facilitator: Yuliya

Thesis Guru Facilitator: Aino

The goal was to help students in their graduation by creating a cool app. The goal was to make thesis work faster and easier for students and also to help supervisors to work in a more efficiency way, all with the help of one app.

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Team needed to discover creative ways of how to use artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing on a daily basis. The solution was a user-friendly and interactive application called "Intact" that automatically detects and prevents issues with devices.

Trail the Trail

Path to be Professional

Facilitator: Joonas

Facilitator: Yuliya

The challenge was to find an interactive method to activate bicycle travelers and to gather data for keeping track of the number of travelers along the routes. The solution was to create a board game named Pearl of Näsi that consisted of real-world surroundings.

With students taking a more independent role on their learning outcomes, there is a great need for a tool to support this change in the learning paradigm. Solution was Novi, a smart-watch based coach that helps students be more active and avoid procrastination in their study lives.

Gamify My Performance

TET 2.0

Facilitator: Joonas

Facilitator: Yuliya

The project goal was to create an innovative option for giving feedback. At the end team developed a platform that consists of employees personal information and achievements with goals for the future.

TET is a program that provides all 9thgraders in Finland 1-3 weeks of working experience in a real job. To raise the program to the next level, team created an online platform that allows students to build their first working profiles and reveal their skills to companies.

Digital Application for Measurement Facilitator: Ville

Hummingbirds Initiative

Effective manual Facilitator: Joonas

Measuring is an important part of platform management; tool to measure platform activities and performance is called out for.

The tool needed to fit various innovation platforms around Finland and the final solutions was a website that collected all of the needed data.

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT

read more on page 26

Gamified enterprize 2.0 Facilitator: Yuliya

Campus Compass Facilitator: Aino

People need to get from campus to another and it would be better to do it in a sustainable way. The solution was a navigation app that encourages users not to take their own cars. It searches for routes and options based on the users own schedules.

It was a trainee case built as a continuation of "Gamified Enterprise" project of Autumn 2015 campaign. The team has developed a working demo for the location-based mobile game called Paikka.

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Smart Glove Controller

Facilitator: Yuliya Project partner:

winning project Team: Alexandra Gorbatova Matti Lahdenperä Vivek Deivasigamani Tomi Korvela Syed Noman Haider Shah

The project team had to develop a prototype that allows crane users to use smart glove as a crane controller. That smart glove, as a crane controller, could radically change the way how cranes are operated because nowadays they are still typically using only remote controllers. Fast technological development has led to new rapidly emerging wearable products, which may open new opportunities for crane controllers. The main research question for students was: Could we lose the remotecontrol of the crane and utilize wearables, like a smart glove, that would function as a controller?

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“

Smart Glove Controller project has left a special mark in Demola. I can still recall that feeling of euphoria when the team managed to move a huge industrial crane with the touch of a finger after hours of attempts to get the final glove prototype to work. It was a day to remember!

Yuliya Nesterenko facilitator

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The team was formed quite organically with all people doing things from their strongest areas. Rapid prototyping and testing of ideas is the most useful thing I learned and will use it in future projects also. Teamwork was easy with modern communication methods.

Matti Lahdenperä team member

Starting with a simple paper prototype, the team has advanced their innovation in a form of 3D designs after a lot of idea-spinning and brainstorming. In Konecranes headquarters in Hyvinkää, they tested their prototypes on the actual industrial crane. At the end the project team developed two final prototypes that controlled the movement of the overhead cranes. First, after few minor setbacks with the electronics, the controller fitted like a glove to the crane and the team had successfully built a smart glove that could actually be used within the industry.

And after all, the whole project and also the pitching of it, banged right on the head of nail and the project team ended up winning the best project award after their killer final pitch! P. S. To put up a good show, team has brought an actual mini crane for the pitching events to showcase the functionalities of their prototype.

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This project was heavily concentrated on coding, electronics and such, and all of this was quite new to me. However, I did quite a lot of research throughout the project and with a help of my team members, I got to know a lot about electronics and communications. Teamwork was certainly one of the best parts of Demola, since it is always nice to work with motivated people and get to know them outside of the regular activities.

Alexandra Gorbatova team member

P. S. To put up a good show, team has brought an actual mini crane for the pitching events to showcase the functionalities of their prototype.

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eFFECTIVE MANUAL

Facilitator: Joonas Project partner:

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT Team: Dixit KC Christina Rogg Raphaela Heuer Ananda Chakraborti Annukka Koivuranta Eetu Kreivi

One main deliverable of this UniWASH project is to collect the lessons learnt and good practices into a Human Rights Based WASH innovations Training Manual. The problem was that training manuals often are not interactive and user-friendly or even practical so they wanted a manual that inspires and provides hands-on tools for future projects.

UNICEF is looking into new innovative ways to cooperate with governments, academia and the private sector to bring sustainable development and improve the lives of children around the world. The UniWASH project is an example of their new innovation work.

So the goal of the project was to create this manual for a new kind of cooperation model.

The team was expected to use creativity to make it easy to use and to make sure it will not be buried into the bookshelfs anytime soon. Team ended up creating a framework for a website that was divided into different layer's where the information was easily accessible. The Manual should also bring the partnership tools alive and inspire users from different backgrounds. In the final pitching event, the jury praised the design and layout of the prototype website. Unicef Finland continues to work with the website and it will be launched later this year.

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The project team had the strength to battle with the problem and always took account all of the outer stakeholders. At the end the demo, that layered data sheet by sheet, was very impressive and the icing on the cake was the excellent and visually pleasing presentation.

Joonas Kemppainen Facilitator

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The Dream Town Center

Facilitator: Aino Project partner:

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT Team: Natalia Batrakova Elisa Mochizuki Yaniv Steinberg Dominika Zyśk Matias Oikari

The town centers in Finland are nowadays getting quiet. How to turn the situation around and make the town center attractive to people and businesses in order to revitalize region surrounding it?

The project focused on developing the center of Vammala, which is the focal point of Sastamala region. It is facing the problems of businesses moving closer to highways and its population getting older, which lead to less active town center.

This project partner was looking for fresh, out-of-the-box and even disruptive ideas from the project team to revitalize the very center and its surroundings.

At the end, team developed a Kids' City idea and had some prototype testing with kids living in Sastamala, in the city center and also in one of the kids afternoon hobby clubs, to really show how they will react to their playground designs. Testing was in many ways a turning point for the team, because then they had the opportunity to see that kids were really responsive and enthusiastic about storytelling gardens and new playgrounds, and that they found silhouettes interactive and interesting enough to play with. After that they really devoted their time to add silhouettes with interactive edge and playful images to finish their wooden stands. Look at the photos and see how the team wanted to make the city a little bit more playful again and how amazing they succeeded!

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summer *

3 projects

9 students

45 credits *

Demola offers also summer positions for students who want to work on challenging projects with top class project partners. In the summer program, students will get great workshops and guidance from Demola facilitators and other experts, cool events and monthly salary. Summer program also lasts for 3 months and teams create a demo, concept or a prototype.

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Enjoy Your Insurance

Facilitator: Yuliya Project partner:

sUMMER project Team: Laura Pihala Juho Poutamo Heikki Viitanen

Especially the millennials as B2B-customers are used to doing their business online.

How to make sure that handling insurance issues isn’t a burden for them, but instead something one uses to benchmark other services for effectiveness, attractiveness and amenity? What it takes to make OP the go-to insurance service in that context? The project team had to explore the preferred ways for doing business online and research what the users actually want.

The project team explored the preferred ways for doing business online and researched what the users actually want.

The aim was to make OP the go-to insurance service and find the best alternative solution for current approaches.

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“

“Enjoy Your Insurance team consisted of 3 students from various backgrounds who were diligently working on understanding the true user needs of OP insurance services.

After extensive research and tens of conducted interviews with the target group - millennials, entrepreneurs, progressive B2B customers - the team has designed and tested 6 versatile concepts that could bring OP insurance to the next level. Creative combination of modern technologies (such as chatbots), social innovations and physical spaces made it a very successful project, ideas of which may be seen someday in practice!

Yuliya Nesterenko Facilitator

Leading Air Solutions

Facilitator: Yuliya Project partner:

sUMMER project Team: Syed Noman Haider Shah Balaji Gopalakrishnan

Project offered excellent opportunities for participants to create new technology in one of the emerging markets, applications related to the sense of smell. The other part of the project involved making software to control a device.

“

A hardware guru and a software master made a great team working on “Leading Air Solutions” project. In close collaboration with Kenzen and lab resources of universities, the team has built several iterative prototypes of a new generation device aimed at both removing harmful substances from the air and producing health-promoting scents. It was truly fascinating to follow up the product development stages and test various scents that evolving state-of-the-art device could produce. At the moment, both of the students are continuing their journey in Kenzen already as full-time employees.

Yuliya Nesterenko Facilitator

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Popup Beacon

Facilitator: Yuliya Project partner:

N/A (Tredea + VTT)

sUMMER project Team: Ohad Shevily Tatiana Anagnostaki Evgeni Pajunen Ayazhan Kuketayeva

What is the SenCity DigiDay innovation contest?

In order to generate new digital solutions for Tampere urban environment, SenCityproject, Tredea and New Factory join forces to organize SenCity DigiDay innovation contest. All students, companies and communities interested in developing innovative digital products are welcomed to participate. The aim of the contest is to discover new, inspiring ideas and technologies for user-oriented services in city centre.

A team of Demola Alumnus took part in the SenCity competition and won the grand prize of 5000 euros.

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What made it even more impressive was the fact that unlike most other teams they didn't come to the competition with an idea in mind but instead spend time finding out what problem they should solve. Team came up with quite a few problems but very quickly they all agreed that the most interesting problem was to help people avoid getting lost in crowded outdoor pop up events.

Team ended up building a demo of a navigation app designed especially for popup events. The app helps the user to find what he is looking for in crowded events and directs him where he wants to go.

The idea behind being a Demola Alumni’s team really gave them an edge over other teams since they were all experienced in building demos in a short time and pitching their ideas to the crowd. They managed to worked very effectively despite the fact that other teams came to the event with an idea in mind and some even with a prototype and still ended up winning the whole competition and the 5000₏ prize.

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Au t umn 23 projects

129 students

645 credits

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Autumn 2016 Next Wooden Furniture Products

Tennis Center Digital Services

Facilitator: Yuliya

Facilitator: Raúl

The team developed several concepts and designs of multifunctional pieces of wooden furniture which were later presented in a form of catalogue. Catalogue had virtual and paper-based versions and contained QRcodes referring to the interactive 3D models of the products.

The team had to think and design what digital services Tampereen Tenniskeskus should offer to its visitors and employees.

The goal was to create a full concept, architecture and potentially some implementation of the new network and digital services.

Smart Career Expo

Know Your Breasts

Facilitator: Raúl

Facilitator: Yuliya

It is by far too usual that recruitment events are old fashioned and real connections are made far too rarely. That`s why project team had to create an innovative and user-friendly solution to attract new job applicants in a company’s stand at career fairs.

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT

read more on page 36

Participation as a Town Service Facilitator: Heikki

Tyre Tread Visuals Facilitator: Raúl

Project partner Nokian Tyres wanted the team to create new, innovative and unseen ideas how to utilize tyre treads. Task was to conceptualize tomorrow’s tyres and the team produced prototypes with ideas that had no limitations and never seen before designs.

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Project consisted of creating a Local Initiative Strategy for Kyröskoski. Team created a guidebook that contains all the possible projects and strategies identified in order to improve the area. Book was divided to three key themes: business, events, and place-making.

Energy Management for Homes

Warehouse Glasses Facilitator: RaĂşl

Facilitator: Ville

It’s possible nowadays to collect all the essential energy consumption information of a home. But how should the information be served to homes, residents and janitors?

The conclusion was a web application where janitors can submit and edit data and message to one another.

Uber of Education Sector Authentication Facilitator: Yuliya

Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland is about to change authentication in education sector with national MPASS authentication solution. Team came up with MPASS developer portal, which makes it easier for service providers to integrate MPASS into their own platforms.

Go with The Flow Facilitator: Ohad

There was no software that separated professional, algorithmic system design from graphical, as a low-fidelity design tool that would speed up the process. For the solution the team created a prototype of a software and user interface that can automatically design pipelines.

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT

read more on page 37

Haircut Learning Platform Facilitator: Ville

Project team created a prototype for Haircut Learning Platform. The platform came to life with the implementation of several features including the 2D and 3D simulation of haircut learning, feedback corner and other features that include gamification and rewards.

Delfiini Electric Citycar Facilitator: Ville

This project was about designing a concept of a vehicle, L7e -class electric 1+1 vehicle to be exact, and group designed every aspect of it: structure, outlook and details of electric propulsion system. The concept got licensed, and the company continues developing the car from there.

Residential Yard Design Game Facilitator: Heikki

Smart Waste Flow Facilitator: Ohad

WINNING PROJECT

read more on page 34

The project team had to design a game that would help the members of condominiums to understand different kinds of planning choices for yards. For the solution, team made an online yard designing game where users can see the effects of their changes.

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You've Got The Power Facilitator: Ohad

Private Information Leak Detector (PILD) Facilitator: Ohad

The million dollar question is how to make electricity feel different and even raise emotions? The solution was a service where small actions can have big impacts. By saving electricity customers of Jyväskylän Energia can donate the saved amount to A cause they are in favor of.

Corporate Infopoint Facilitator: Raúl

In this project, the goal was to conceptualize and prototype an interactive infoscreen that delivers useful information to both company employees and visitors.

I'm HERE Facilitator: Ohad

In modern technology, people store very private data in mobile devices, personal computers or cloud services. The aim was to enhance users information security.

Digital Upward Spiral of Ylöjärvi Facilitator: Heikki

Team was required to create one mobile user interface concept which gathers the services of its municipality. Team did surveys and collected data what is required to know in order to deliver a working application for the citizens.

Smart Hard Hat Facilitator: Ville

I’m HERE was a project to design, implement and pilot an app or a service to improve the existing positioning services. The solution was an easy-to-use app on Android OS with an UI that makes it possible to visualize the quality of the positioning with different technologies.

Voice for The Young Facilitator: Ville

SHH is a tool that gathers data from its environment and user. This collected data can be used to enhance the work safety and the efficiency of work. SHH is all about internet, so the team came up with a demo version Smart Hard Hat.

Social Biowaste Reduction System Facilitator: Yuliya

Team created a demo of an app called MURKKUWOOD. The app combined the insights of media pedagogy and experimental learning with a hint of positive psychology to one uniform concept that included four parts: creative writing, photography, video production and participation.

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The idea was to further develop and build a working proto of bio waste scaling system that reduces the amount of bio waste in restaurants. Team has developed an application called "Biomi" that enables to scan waste amount in a gamified and interactive format.

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smart waste flow

Facilitator: Ohad Project partner:

winning project Team: Mikko Immonen A.N. Walinga Kaisa Ojaniittu Simone Gumpinger Henriikka Pilpola Matilda Susila Aili Kultala

Sorting your household waste is big time thing nowadays. It’s really important to sort your waste, since there is bunch of metals, plastic, and of course biowaste going around in your home. Sorting biowaste from “normal” garbage is important, because it saves our beautiful planet earth.

Project team’s mission was to ease up the work in homes that has to be dealt with in order to sort your waste. Sorting biowaste can be real struggle. It’s messy and smelly process. If you forget to empty your biowaste bag it will probably start smelling after a while. After you try to take the bag outside, it can easily break, and there you have your biowaste in your kitchen floor.

So the team had to try to find out why people do not separate their waste and how could they be motivated to do so. The team researched into the topic and made a survery with over 70 people asking about their daily life. All in all, the survey was a big success because with the results team was able to create the Oskar biowaste bin idea.

People were struggling with leaking biobags that smelled and there was also too little space to put the biowaste. Based on these answers team wanted to create a table-top bin that had a lid to prevent bad smells from spreading to the kitchen.

Oskar simplifies the process of sorting your waste in households. Biowaste sorting can be fun and easy. Oskar is airtight, so flies won’t like it that much compared to a normal biotrashbin. Oskar is also fully washable and it can be used with biobag or without it. It also serves as visual element in your kitchen.

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“

Many teams got awards of their successful projects and we were nominated of the pivot project. We were really happy about it and wanted then to hear what team was going to win the award of the best project in Demola Autumn 2016. We listened the arguments of the best project, which told that this year the best project wasn’t a very technical product but a simple solution to a simple need and that the product would be very beneficial to the Pirkanmaa region. And then they pronounced the name of the winning team and it was SMART WASTE FLOW!! We couldn’t really believe that it was our team who won.

Kaisa Ojaniittu Smart Waste Flow team

“

The smart waste flow project is a great example of how by offering simple yet effective solutions to people's daily needs, it's possible to have a segnificant impact on bigger and more complex problems such as waste segregation.

Ohad Shevily Facilitator

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Know your breasts

Facilitator: Yuliya Project partner:

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT Team: Pouya Eghbali Katariina Taleva Raúl Berganza Bruno Mendoza

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Check the website

By the year 2030 5,5 million women will die of cancer. It does not have to be this way.

By performing simple task doing breast self examination people can increase their chances of survival. So team’s mission was to spread the word, create awareness about the breast cancer.

There were lot of video challenges that engaged people to join the movement. Cool thing about this project is that the project team involved people from demola, from different countries to use their mothertongue to take part in video challenges.

Team’s solution was to create video series to spread the word around the globe. They invented the hashtag #checkmyboobschallenge. They launched the campaign via different social media channels for example instagram and facebook. They also wrote a great blog about their project and about spreading the word with different methods.

Know Your Breasts project felt personal the team has relived every moment with such significance. They have fought for a serious cause with positive vibe, confidence, determination and courage. And it paid off well raising high visibility already within the project scope

“

Yulija Nesterenko Facilitator

Warehouse glasses

Facilitator: Raúl Project partner:

HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT Team: Ville Niittunen Jesse Uitto Samu Ampio Jaakko Alanen Sonia Mathews

Employees have to multitask all the time in the warehouse environment. It is important to be effective, and make no mistakes. When the stakes are high, mistakes happen often because employees are constantly fighting against clock. Newer employees don’t know where to go in big and complex warehouses, and even older employees pick up wrong packages from time to time.

Time is money, and when mistakes happen, someone always pay for them. Teams mission was to figure something out that will ease up the workload of warehouse employee.

Team interviewed warehouse employees about how their work could be more efficient and productive. Team came up with WareVision -prototype. It is a personal assistant to employee that guides worker during the day giving daily tasks. It gives the employees the knowledge he/ she needs at different times with their work assignments. The cornerstones of WareVision are navigation, validation and automation. WareVision leads employee to a right product step by step, tells the quantity of the product needed and shows all the necessary information about everything during the day. Team believes that with WareVision it is possible to work with 90% less errors, work 30% faster and increase total productivity 5%!

Speed, accuracy, and hands free! Double the coffee breaks, here comes WareVision!

“

On my first campaign as a facilitator, the warehouse glasses team established a very high standard for any future projects. The guys worked excellently and always outdid themselves. The team members had great chemistry and they always challenged one another, they overcame plenty of obstacles and delivered results that far exceeded any of my expectations.

Raúl Berlanga Facilitator

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57

51

projects

project partners

821

298

applicants

team members

1490

48%

credits

licensed

148 707â‚Ź paid to teams

44

53 tamk

93 131 uta

tut

21

others

188

international students

2016

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For us, this has been a great journey!

A lot of hard work has been done and also many challenges have been conquered and the learning path has been, according to that, purely amazing!

For us, the teamwork has been the hidden gem of the project. And the most value has been offered by the fact that all of us have the most different skillsets that can be highlighted the most when working together for the same common goal. Everyone of us took their skills and built something together that can be now evaluated by you, dear reader.

This was the second project under the Demola roof for everyone of us, so we are called Demola Alumni. For us, it means that we have been apart of projects that are simulating our future in the workforce and has offered us many new angles over customer services and project management.

Also good memories cannot be left out. New friends and corporate connections have been made for life.

And we totally think that Demola is so beneficial for the students that can`t get a real sense of the work that comes after their school years from anywhere else. Too many students just learn by reading and listening to lectures but the implementing all of that knowledge isn't happening in their daily routines. So we have a message to all of you students out there; come and join the Demola family now!

Annual report 2016 team:

Riku Komi Copywriter

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Emmi-Maria Kurru Copywriter

Mariia Pastukh Graphic designer

Contact us tampere.demola.net www.newfactory.fi Finlaysoninkuja 8, 4th floor 33210 Tampere, Finland uusitehdas.demola DemolaTampere new.factory

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2016 Annual report Š2017 Demola Tampere.

All rights reserved 48

Rotate the book for Innovation Guide

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Demola Innovation Guide Since the beginning, in late 2008, Demola Tampere has already facilitated 500 innovation projects. The themes of the projects may vary, but the Demola framework supports them all the same - no matter if it is about building an electric car, smart glasses for traffic wardens or new wooden furniture designs.

The Demola Innovation Guide is published as part of Demola Tampere Annual Report 2016. The Demola Tampere Annual Report has been published since 2014 to give an overview of the projects and activities of Demola Tampere during the respective year.

When entering an innovation project, best practices, good framework and right attitude are needed. This Demola Innovation Guide offers the reader acid-tested guidelines based on the collective experience and insights gathered from 500 innovation projects done in Demola Tampere during the past 9 years.

Guide is targeted to: • Companies (or other legal entities) pondering to start doing open innovation projects • Innovators or innovation team members, which can be e.g. employees, students or other individuals • Generally anybody willing to take part in carrying through an innovation project

In the guide, we talk about innovation projects. More specifically the term could be “open innovation project”. In simple words, open innovation means that valuables ideas can come from inside or outside the company and can go to the market from inside or outside the company as well.

In an open innovation project, three different stakeholders can be distinguished:

• Project partner: the stakeholder who assigns the topic, such as a problem, a specific to be addressed or a new area to be explored.

• Project team: a multidisciplinary, international group formed to accomplish the given assignment.

• Facilitator: the person who ensures that the project follows the model, stays active and overcomes obstacles, but who at the same time remains impartial.

Carrying through an innovation project is not easy for any of the aforementioned stakeholders. Nevertheless, it pays off – sometimes result-wise and sometimes learning-wise. It takes guts to hand over your project to an external group of people and allow them to take the lead – and from the point of view of the team, it is equally challenging to take on an unknown topic and start working on it with a group of unfamiliar people. In Demola we see that this is the direction in which the world is moving to – ad hoc groups being formed for specific tasks to then split up and reorganize once again. There definitely is the need to collaborate and open up on new and more intensive ways!

Background And Planning

When to start an innovation project?

What is the suitable background?

D

o you hear that noise? It’s the endless trails of phone calls, thousands of document pages jammed in the printer, long discussions at the coffee table and that very pressurizing tick-tack from the wall clock. These days, in big or small offices of 5 or 500 employees – time seems to go by too quickly. Matti knows that, he also knows that being a Product Development Manager is a job on which the company heavily relies. It’s all about taking risks, putting out a new product to test or sell, creating innovations that stand out and building something that lasts.

Matti: I think of all these project

ideas and unimplemented cases that are thrown in the bottom drawer are forgotten for good. We can do so much more – Sometimes I wish days could be stretched longer! *grinning smile*

Jere: Yeah… We gotta arrange some brainstorming workshop with all the innovation gurus in our company! Let me check my calendar. Hmmm, maybe in 7 months?!

Matti: Nah... We need a fresh perspective from people who are not drowned in the routine of our emails and projects.

Somebody with a different angle, with limitless creativity, curiosity and… passion? Someone who can revive those “starting-soon” ideas. Maybe even somebody who can challenge us and inspire us?!

Jere: Easier said than done! Let’s think about it later.

“Let’s think about it later” came sooner than expected when Matti stumbled upon the Demola platform. Right there and then he knew that those ideas, which had been sitting around gathering dust, could be finally brought to life by those crazy creative folks (students) from around the corner! There it was, the ultimate time machine “Demola” actually does stretch days and expand time beyond its borders.

Out-of-the-box concepts, prototypes and stories were waiting to bring new life to both the company and Matti himself.

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When starting an innovation project, the project partner needs to make sure that the assignment or the topic is suitable. The assignment needs to be:

• Narrow enough:

in order to inspire the project team, it needs to describe a tangible need or problem.

• Wide enough:

it should not define the solution, otherwise it wouldn’t be an innovation project, but more like an execution project, ready to be subcontracted.

It shouldn’t be too narrow either as a technical/theoretical problem – as otherwise instead of multidisciplinary innovation there would be a need for deep research and scientific knowledge.

• Short and clear:

in order to inspire, make team members imagine and create visions about the results, it cannot be too long or detailed – there will be plenty of time to explain the background and details after starting the project.

The most important questions with the innovation project initial setup and planning would be then:

Similarly, the project partner needs to have a right mindset to start an innovation project. The team doesn’t work for the project partner but co-creates with him.

More precisely, right attitude should be this:

• Enough interest towards the assignment: the team should not be ’left alone’ with the project – in open innovation, one of the big motivators for the project team is the real interest and need of the project partner towards the project.

• Not too much interest towards the project: the project must not be the favourite child of the project partner – if it’s a must-be-done, the partner is probably controlling the project team too strictly, and the setup is unbalanced – as the team members probably feel ’inferior’ to project partner.

• A suitable amount of resources: an innovation project should be carried through from the project partner’s point of view with relatively small amount of working hours (mostly these are done on top of other daily duties). It’s still necessary to be reachable and ready to meet the team frequently, as in Demola on bi-weekly basis.

• Is the project partner ready to hand over the case / need / problem to an external team?

• Does the project partner believe that an external, multidisciplinary team could achieve surprising and complementary results with this project topic?

Remember as project partner

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then initiating an innovation project would be a good way to proceed!

• Interest towards the project is

• Inspiring topic, support but not too strict control essential

• Commitment but not big investment of working hours

Where to Go Legal, Where Casual

What should be done by contracts?

What should be done by common, good atmospere?

T

he search for Demola possibilities began. Every click of a mouse opened a new world to Matti, a new side was revealed. Every new window that popped open lifted the veil of the unknown and showed him hundreds of fascinating cases which had passed through Demola. Matti was convinced. Rushing through office corridors and mumbling newly discovered words and expressions “innovation, demo, pivoting, lean approach…”, later on that same day, he reached out to the Demola crew, the first contact had been initiated.

Demola turned out to be like a Rubik’s Cube with its twists and turns. Then Matti knew – “solving one face, you need to make an effort”. Every new face Matti turned revealed a clearer, more comprehensive and more interesting picture. The more Matti dug, the more pieces he moved together, the clearer the picture became. He vastly grasped the main principles of the Demola framework. But oh wait… Matti wasn’t a sole decision-maker when it came to projects. Judging by the nature of the organization where Matti, as well as other 550 employees worked, some of them tend to be rather skeptical when things require change.

Matti then made a firm decision to pitch the idea of a Demola project to his colleagues. As the Product Development Manager he stepped out onto the podium, his voice felt taut, and sweat beads began forming on his forehead. He knew it was crunch time.

Matti: Some companies, being the giants in the corporate world, are like unwavering rocks; they have a hard time trying to inject change or move from their set steady course. Some companies, being the hungry wolves in the startup world, are like perpetually-adapting gravel; surviving among the rivals and moving against the clock to scale up faster. No matter which one we are, the rock or the gravel, change always unlocks new opportunities, and Demola could be that change.

After all, fortune favors the bold! Matti’s workmates agreed on trying this “new thing” and collectively built the legal framework and internal policies for a project of such innovative nature. The first face of the Rubik’s Cube was solved.

It was about the time to discover other faces too.

Matti had launched the project.

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The nature of Innovation requires a legal model which is on one hand flexible and not too restrictive yet gives a common ground for both the project partner and the team to work with and build trust. Being unsure of policies and restrictions means the project may be either hindered down or not started at all. This is a bit paradoxical – as starting an innovation project is always a jump to unknown, and is more about opening up, less about protectionism.

Whatever the way to handle the results and create Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is, it should be defined as simply and clearly as possible at the very beginning of the project.

There is no universal contract method which would be the best possible to all the stakeholders – so it’s better to aim for fair balance than to maximize your own profit and protection. Sometimes this requires compromise! A good principle in innovation projects and many other activities is to focus more on how to bake the cake than on how to share it.

The openness and balance aren’t naturally extended to business confidentialities of the project partner – so it’s well possible to open some interesting and essential background material to the team under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

When the legal contract framework is fixed at the beginning, it’s easy to focus not only on the content, but as well on getting inspired and building team spirit between the stakeholders!

Remember • Clear, simple and well-balanced legal framework

• Created right, at the beginning,

allowing to focus on substance after on

Getting started How to build the consortium?

How to get into action?

Matti: But where do we find relevant skillsets for the project? How do we reach talented students? Are we allowed to use an open advertisement or how does it work? Do we even have time to review applicants? What if somebody doesn’t fit? And how about…

5 students from various professional and cultural backgrounds. The Initial Meeting will take place at the New Factory premises on October 15th at 10 a.m. I’m here for you if you have any questions or concerns!

Best Regards, your Demola Facilitator.”

Matti lost his train of thought as the haunting questions kept on arising. In the world of innovation projects, there is an endless amount of “what if ’s”, “would have’s” and “could have been’s”. What a relief it was when Matti discovered that he was not left alone with these questions – he has the support of the Demola team. These mythical beings called “The Facilitators” took project partners under their wing and acted as a shield against doubt and confusion. In fact, all he needed to do was to provide a vision for the project. Essentials were taken care of by facilitators who published the case online, promoted it to talents, and reviewed every applicant to form the best possible team. Could it actually be true? The El Dorado of incubation? The Shangri-La of innovation?

There seemed to be no doubt whatsoever that Matti was in good hands. He prepared a small introductory presentation for the initial meeting and stepped into the unknown with a strange sense of both anxiety and excitement. He showed up in a pinstripe blue suit and a matching tie. His slides were built in a standard Powerpoint template and his NDA papers were slightly intimidating.

After about 10 minutes of corporate talk, Matti’s instant observations interrupted his coherent speech. He saw young bright minds, he saw sneakers and long green hair, he saw confusion and distraction.

Matti realized that he was doing too much, and he was doing it wrong.

Two weeks after the student application period was closed, Matti got an email to his inbox.

“Dear Matti, Welcome to Demola Tampere! The team composition for your project consists of 58

He put his slides away, threw his jacket aside, sat back in his chair and switched his focus, he started listening to the stories, experiences and ideas that these creative folks were bringing to the table.

There it was – Demola had already started positively transforming Matti’s project vision, his working style and Matti himself.

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Remember • Initial vision built together by team and partner

• Fixed timeframe -> reverse engineering

In order to get started, a suitable project partner and team need to find each other.

When the project topic is clearly described and inspiring, the applicants can find it and relate to the topic – and apply. In Demola, this is done through an open Call for Projects & Call for Applications, and multidisciplinarity is ensured by accepting only individual applications. For example, in different types of hackathons, the teams can either be formed on the venue or then grouped beforehand – as groups of friends or colleagues.

When the project partner and team are set, it’s time to get familiar with each other and the project content – and start building the common vision for the project. Building a common vision leads to inspiration, good commitment and better results. Without active discussion misunderstandings are probable – and with different images and expectation levels, team and project partner might be set off to different tracks.

For team members, it’s interesting to see what is the full skillset of the composed team and initial ideas. In an innovation project the good results can be achieved with great variety of different skillsets in team. Based on our experience in Demola, teams of 4-6 members offer flexibility for not only the essential roles but for some wild cards as well.

Having a fixed time frame is useful for an innovation project, as otherwise, it would be easy to continuously postpone deadlines, which could affect the overall commitment of the team. With the fixed time frame it’s a good idea to do some reverse engineering starting right from the beginning. As you know when the results need to be ready, you need to set the priorities straight and start with the essential ones, continuously validating the need and building the value proposition. Four months might sound like a long timeframe for an innovation project, but in reality time flies really fast!

Diverging Phase

Where to get the ideas and material?

How to find different paths to select between?

M

atti left the Initial Meeting with a sense of euphoria. He was so inspired about the upcoming project work that this new Demola hype followed him to the office where it started spreading like an epidemic to his colleagues. As time went by, Matti slowly adapted to the working style of the students and bonded with a team on semi-friendly, semi-professional manner.

It felt so refreshing to get out of the office once in awhile and dip himself in a totally different environment where people are freely challenging each other, walking around the office with no shoes on, speaking tens of different languages, covering walls with post-it-notes and putting every idea through a range of different emotions. Doesn’t it seem like a safe haven where ideas are nurtured and given to their creators to grow? It surely does. Talking about nurturing, Matti had faced his biggest challenge as a project partner on one of the first meetings with a team.

Team: We had a brainstorming session with the whole team last week, and we came up with 10 different ideas on the project challenge. We thought of ways on how different technologies can increase productivity among the workers in your organization. For example, chatbots may set personal challenges to each employee daily and…

Matti lost his breath with the rising storm of words turning a perfectly balanced dialogue into a monologue.

Matti: Yes, yes! Revolutionary! And you can also use robots for that purpose, and connect them through Bluetooth to all of the employee’s gadgets. And by the way, I have some modelling skills so I can draw the robot design for you. Truly, we can also do…

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Matti unexpectedly caught himself in the midst of his own comments. Over excitement made him suggest ideas instead of providing feedback to the team. He later realized that the reason he had launched the Demola project was to hear what young innovators had to say. Matti encouraged the team to keep brainstorming as many ideas as possible and put aside, for the time being, his robotic nonsense. With the help of few setbacks, the support of facilitators and a personal learning curve, Matti realized the deepest secret of Demola’s work as a project partner: just like in Rubik’s Cube – sometimes you gotta mess it up

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In the early stages of an innovation project, it’s important to focus on teamwork over individual work to explore and brainstorm instead of rushing into one specific implementation.

Generally, good roles and division of work are useful in innovation projects.

Nevertheless, in early phases the team should work much together in order to reach common goals and learn about the ideas and opinions of each other. This leads to active communication, which is crucial throughout the project. Furthermore, exploring and brainstorming is much more fun and productive when done together!

There is also a risk of rushing into the first occurring idea regarding the implementation when some of the team members have formed an idea that is too quickly based mostly, or solely on the project description, without enough validation of need. It’s good to have tangible ideas already in the

early phase. Nevertheless, the team should not focus too much on one particular idea, but leave some space and come up with different approaches with which to continue. It’s well possible to proceed to validation with several solutions, without putting in too much effort.

When this basic attitude of ideation and brainstorming phases is ensured, it’s necessary to get your hands dirty with the actual brainstorming. Sometimes it comes naturally without specific methods, but other times it might need some facilitation and tools involved. To support the brainstorming, a good insight to project should already be formed by discussions with the project partner and background research.

After the diverging phase the team should have plenty of material to work with – and a need to do some tricky selections between several good tracks to follow!

Tools for Brainstorming And Need Validation

• Plex cards, personas and scenarios • Storification and sh***y prototyping (Jam #1)

• Problem Tree • Iterative project plan (Playbook) • Parallelly evolving the pitch all the time

Remember

• Teamwork over individual tasks • Exploring and brainstorming instead of rushing into one solution

• Constant validation of the need

Converging Phase

How to cut off stuff and narrow down the focus?

I

t was a beautiful day in Tampere. The sun lay golden-soft over the walls of the New Factory. The loud and urgent pageantry of the day was amplified with a steady babble of talk and laughter, discussions around a cup of coffee, phone calls, pitching practice… Matti and the team were having their 4th project partner meeting. It was about a time the team solved the first face of the Demola Rubik’s Cube in order to get a firm grip and move forward with the chosen solution.

Team: We have drafted concepts for these 4 ideas. Each idea has the specific technology behind it. We didn’t have time to dig deeper... more like scratched the surface. But we think these ideas are pretty cool… it’s like nothing you’ve had before, and we are sure the personnel at your company would love using them.

Matti: And why is that?

Team: Because those are interesting tools which could spice up the routine of each working day. Couldn’t they?!

Matti: Could they really?! Is the routine boring?

Team: Hmmm… well.. we assumed that doing what they do must be exhausting.

And maybe boring which means employees probably lose motivation to be creative and also… well, they need it.

Matti: Why?

Matti seemed to exhale a silent and calm authority. He turned quiet with fascination witnessing the team’s revelation moment.

Team: Why? We don’t know why. Wait!

We don’t know WHY! We have not asked them! Maybe those things aren’t true!

They can choose the ideas they like the most, not us!

Just like that, Matti had helped the team narrow down the ideas without interfering with the process too much.

It seemed that Matti started having tremendous fun with his project partner role in Demola once he learned the importance of being reachable and picking up the phone. He also learned the importance of directing the team’s thinking when needed. He then understood the secret formula: 70% of Demola project success is showing up while 30% of it is asking the right questions.

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When the project gets further, it’s time to start going towards combining different tracks from the diverging phase together.

Sometimes the team might have a decisionmaking problem – avoiding or postponing the point to move on to converging and narrowing down the project scope toward one, strong solution. Once again the communication is important, especially since the team members' opinion about where to focus may vary.

In the converging phase the division of work is more important than earlier. As the final results are roughly defined, it is easier than before to cut the work to different duty areas to continue with and gain efficiency.

This is also one of the parts where collaboration between the project partner and the team needs to be active; project partner’s opinions on what brings value and what sounds the best are great advantage for the team when choosing where to go.

Remind

to actively sense, when it’s about the time to start converging!

Pivots And Flexibility How to recognize when to do a radical change?

M

atti assisted the team in arranging a quick meet-up with his colleagues to validate those 4 ideas. The students stepped into the corporate office building well-prepared yet extremely nervous. The lady at the reception, the guest badges and people in suits added up to discomfort of the team members. The expectation darkened into anxiety, and the tension could no longer be diffused with humor or coffee. There were about 8 clerks in the room waiting to meet these Demola students. For a moment, it seemed like the company employees were more excited as this was a chance to get out of their cubicles for a brief moment of newness!

Matti: Thanks for joining us today!

Here is the Demola team very eager to present their initial ideas to you. Cool as a cucumber, aren’t you?! *wink* Jere: Great to finally hear more about

this so called Demola project, I've been dying to check it out ever since Matti pitched the idea to all of the employees!

After Matti made the first round of introductions, things went back to normal and the team managed to confidently present their solutions.

At first, it was hard to get any valuable feedback from the testers. The reason for that was perhaps, the fact that the students were not sure what were they looking for. Were they seeking to be approved and appreciated, were they honest and open when accepting harsh feedback, were they courageous enough to be proud of their work? By no means it was an easy job. But the Demola team held a steady position until the end like

brave innovation soldiers, and gathered all the needed feedback from the company’s employees.

Enriched by new glimpses of truth, the team discontentedly realized that all their ideas were great as standalone applications, but none of them brought any interest or value to the employees.

As it turned out, the boredom of the routine in the working place was not a problem at all. On the contrary, all the 8 employees tremendously loved their job, their lack of motivation came from the surrounding and the vibe within the company, not an individual task.

There they were – a bunch of students with a broken Rubik’s Cube. Tempered by this experience, the team put their current ideas aside and started from scratch, based on the new insights. It was an important day for both Matti and the team as they synchronously concluded that “loving the problem” is often more important than “loving the solution”.

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Previous chapters paint a quite straightforward picture about an innovation project. Generally, it’s true - first leave some space for diverging and later take the decisions to converge. All the way during the project’s time span there should still be as well some flexibility for pivots.

When pivot is done, it’s once again best to communicate about the reasons and pivot itself between the team and the project partner. This ensures that there are no problems with timing and the new direction of the project.

The need for pivoting might come from several different triggers, as:

When the opportunity or need for pivoting arrives, it’ useful for the team to see it as a starting point for something new, rather than just discarding previous good work.

Normally the team can still use insight and knowledge gained from the previous ideas.

It’s also good to have a ”Well – why not!” attitude, to be ready to kill your darlings and to – even if it will take some extra effort – have some fun with the project!

• Team comes suddenly up with a better solution than before

• The main solution that the team is working with turns out to be not feasible for some reason

• Project partner has new information or

strategic change that affects the project

Remind

Be ready to pivot and take it as an opportunity, not a drawback!

Making Your Solution Real

How to illustrate your solution and make it real?

W

ith the support of Matti and the project facilitator, the Demola team overpowered the stumbling block and got right back on track, thrilled with a strange sense of adventure. Ups and downs are a normal phenomenon in an innovation project – a monotonous process with no pivots, excitement nor disappointment is indeed not a description Demola could have. United by a common set-back, empowered by new ideas and rather encouraged by approaching deadlines, the team began to feed their scholarly curiosity with prototyping. They worked harder than ever before.

The team used their resources wisely as they knew that it was easier to redraw a paper game than to rewrite the complex code of its digital counterpart.

From innovation talk to innovation work: the team spent less time on talking and more time on prototyping. Basing their new ideas and assumptions on a new problem statement, the team built an interactive in-office game for the employees to enhance their internal communications and to ease up the tense vibe present at the office. They drew the main functions and the journey of the game on a large piece of paper. They later played the game with each other and recorded the process on a mobile phone.

It was exquisitely simple, yet brilliantly effective.

Matti and the team saw the magic and the power of mock-ups, modelling and paper prototyping rather quickly. Enlightened and energized, they felt that prototyping was like having a conversation with the ideas.

Matti and his colleagues eagerly provided feedback on the game by reviewing a video. It seemed that the only constructive comment given by them was the fact they could not take this game into actual use right away! The game interpretation proved incredibly successful which had driven the team to tackle new challenges, climb new mountains and refine their game concept to perfection.

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It’s easier to talk about it if it’s real. In all innovation projects it’s much easier to make progress if the ideas and thoughts are made tangible and real. This can be done in all the projects by building pitches and value propositions in a right way (as if it already existed), but it is even better to build a physical prototype.

Making your solution it real helps with ideation in the early phase, and later on it serves as a basis for getting feedback and validating the feasibility and relevance of the solution. In last parts of the project, the real prototype or demonstration of the product or service illustrates and shows to all stakeholders, if the results are valuable or not.

Making it real enforces the team to not only describe some features of the final solution, but also to really tell in a solid way, WHAT it is. In most of the cases, building something physical is feasible, by using imagination and common sense, the right materials, tools, and readily available software.

Generally, it's more important for the team to figure out the best possible ways to do it, rather than to focus on why it cannot be done!

The Smart Glove Controller team

made their solution real bit by bit: • Buying normal gloves in store • Positioning the controls by using stickers, markers, etc.

• Validating with crane operators (continuously)

• Building the electronics • Integrating to the crane’s interface

Like in Photoshop, there are an indefinite amount of tools at your disposal in an innovation project, but they are of no use if you don’t have the vision of what to do. When you have the vision, the right tools can always be found.

Finish

When does the project end?

Why the fixed timeframe?

T

he Demola Journey was heading to an end. A nameless sadness hanged in the air as the final project meeting began. The sweet and spacious sense of accomplishment and the sense of the amplitude of life's possibilities felt present throughout the entire meeting. The team delivered the digital and paper versions of their game, their pitching videos, all the documentation and research, graphical materials and, of course, those 4 concepts born at the dawn of their project. They opened the set project challenge like a nutcracker revealing the core, the truth, the idea and the execution. Seeing the amount of work and the significance of that work, the team gloated over sense of importance.

The project partner and facilitator felt nothing but proud.

Matti, the facilitator and the team had a good laugh about all the funny, crucial and, at times, uncomfortable incidents.

A fortuitous series of happy thoughts left a very positive mark in their Demola experiences. It was about the time to part when Matti felt this urgent need to fill the void in his life after Demola.

He looked at the Rubik’s Cube – almost all the squares on each face were matching in color. Something wasn’t quite right. New ambitions pressed upon his fancy as he realized that this is not the end, it’s just the beginning. He held his breath in admiring silence.

Matti recalled the day when he stumbled upon the Demola platform and his face lit with a fire of decision to launch the project. It was scary, unknown, it required change, an open-mindedness and readiness to guide and be guided. It was important to launch the project with reserved expectations, but rather look at it as if it was a blank page with endless possibilities.

What’s beyond Demola? The current state of Matti’s ideas flowed full and strong leaving the endless vista of possibilities to the imagination . He knew that there are hundreds of broken Rubik’s cubes which need to be fixed and twisted. He chose a few and embarked on a new Demola journey.

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When the project ends, the team has a clear and explicit result package done, ready to be presented and handed over. The resulting package consists of a demo or prototype, pitch, documents and reports and other material, depending on the case. In Demola, delivering these results marks the end of collaboration between the project partner and the team – at least within the context of Demola.

As mentioned at the beginning, the fixed time frame has been found useful for innovation projects. As the clear path to do successful innovation cannot be paved, the best support for abstract and difficult innovation work is to give the team a good framework through which the job can be done. In Demola, this framework includes the essential trainings and events in form of Milestones and the fixed time frame.

When the time frame is fixed, team members and project partners are aware of the mutual commitment being made.

It helps them maintain the activity and intensity level high, and schedule the different parts of the project.

Knowing that the project ends, gives a good goal for the team and the project partner, and it also makes possible to plan the review, decisions and follow-up concerning the projects. Whereas the the project as such ends, in successful cases the innovation work continues – the end of a Demola project only signals the end of the incubation period from idea/need to solution and prototype – but finishing the actual product and bringing it to market is yet to be done. It’s a little bit of a chickenegg problem though – as seeing what’s beyond often already is a very important part of valuable project results!

Follow-up

How to continue? What to do with the results?

Agreeing on what to do with the results is one of the trickiest aspects of open innovation work. This cannot be totally avoided, as the results may be unclear in the beginning. Nevertheless, if the project background, attitude, and contracts are properly done, it shouldn’t be a problem.

In Demola the project partner decides whether they would like to license the project results or not. A positive licensing decision entitles the company to make full use of the results in the way that they best see fit.

The team has the equal right to use the outcomes of their own work, even when the company has licensed the results. It is because of this setup that the strongest focus in Demola projects is delivering good, solid, valuable demonstration and prototype to the project partner. As innovation is not easy, the best way to keep the direction clear is best to stick with this approach!

From Demola’s point of view, it’s important to identify the follow-up potential in form of international opportunities and Trainee + Summer projects!

If the project results are licensed, the most normal use cases for the results are:

1

Support for internal decision-making and R&D: It’s far easier to take the decision of developing further and productizing something based on prototype than on mere thought, especially when it has been validated by the end user.

2

Support for sales: It’s much easier to convince the customer to buy the real product or service from project partner based on prototype than on mere thought.

Other possible follow-ups in addition to licensing decision are hiring some of the team members to continue the work on the project partner’s own payroll or establish a startup as combination of the project partner and team, or within some of the team members. In both of these cases the fixed time frame serves as good status checkpoint – as the project comes to an end and the team splits, the combination of people willing to continue can be thought from scratch, based on commitment and interest towards the project.

One of the very good signs at the end of a Demola innovation project is, when the team doesn’t feel like being done and out of the project, but feeling proud of what they have done. This sort of team is ready to stand behind their solution and see it as valuable reference, no matter what the follow-up might be.

Done – What About Demola?

Project is now done – what was Demola’s role in it?

The most crucial stakeholders of an innovation project are the project partner and the team. Demola facilitators are there for the team and the project partner in order to walk them through the project, specifically by:

• Creating the Milestones and framework • Serving and helping both, team and

project partner to adopt the Demola model of innovation work

• Being the human aspect, bringing the

needed balance of empathy and strictness

• Caring about the project – bringing significance

• Challenging the team to bring the best out of them

These are the values which Demola tries to develop continuously – and give the results for the use of next starting Demola projects.

The content of this Demola Innovation Guide should have given you a general picture about innovation project work, and how we see it in Demola. Hopefully you caught some ideas from here. Let us know if you would like to discuss some parts of it more!

Demola innovation Guide Publisher: Demola Tampere (Innovation Ltd. New Factory) Editors: Ville Korpiluoto, Yuliya Nesterenko, Ohad Shevily, RaĂşl Berlanga, Tatiana Anagnostaki L ay-out: Mariia Pastukh Production: Demola Tampere Annual Report 2016 team (Maria Pastukh, Emmi Kurru, Riku Komi) Published: NFO17, 23.5.2017, www.newfactoryopen.fi tampere.demola.net uusitehdas.demola DemolaTampere new.factory

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