Startup Academy for scientists from non-university research institutes: Methods! Customer-Oriented Development and Problem Solving for Startups

An Introduction to Lean Startup, Scrum and Design Thinking

Set free your team’s full potential and steer your enterprise through the rapids of changing markets, customer demands and product development.

This workshop provides you with a new set of methods: Integrating Design Thinking, Lean Startup or Scrum into your routines will help you to promote team creativity, boost productivity and overcome obstacles with new ideas. Learn how to work out specific solutions by analyzing user needs, testing ideas and producing prototypes. Your newly gained knowledge and hands-on mentality will enable you to leave "dusty routines" and start a change process.

The workshop starts with an overview of some of the most common agile methods: The Lean Startup, Scrum and – with a special focus – Design Thinking. In the following, workshop participants experience the entire Design Thinking process based on a real challenge working in small teams. Each team will create a common understanding of the problem, explore user needs, generate ideas, create a prototype and eventually present their solution to the entire group. At the end of the workshop, we will have some time to answer open questions and discuss how to apply Design Thinking and other agile methods to specific challenges of the participants.

Dr. Axel Sommer is a Partner & Managing Director of SOMMERRUST, a strategic innovation consultancy. SOMMERRUST helps companies innovate at speed, design new business models, and works with organizations to systematically improve their innovation capabilities. Before co-founding SOMMERRUST in 2014, Axel Sommer worked for The Boston Consulting Group from 2005 to 2013. During that time, he also took a leave of absence to write his doctoral thesis on “Managing Green Business Model Transformations” at the Centre for Sustainability Management of the Leuphana University Lüneburg.