Doughnut for Young Impact Entrepreneurs

Is Doughnut Design for Business relevant for entrepreneurs at the stage of the idea?

That's what I wanted to discover.

I thus facilitated the workshop for a not-for-profit organisation called Live for Good, whose aim is to "Unleash the potential of young people from all walks of life through social entrepreneurship and accelerate positive innovation at the heart of a committed community."

Six young entrepreneurs showed up to the online workshop. They came with curiosity and a yearning to increase their impact. One out of six already had clients, and the others were still playing with the idea of their business.

We only had 3 hours. A big challenge! Even more when the entrepreneurs weren't familiar with many concepts, such as regeneration, governance, ownership, and finance. It was a great opportunity to introduce it to them and have them realise how important those concepts were for them as future business leaders.

What worked well was the ideation part. They came up with new perspectives and transformative ideas they had never thought of before. Due to the lack of time, I had them paired up for 10 minutes twice (with a new partner the second time). They found it interesting to pitch in front of a fellow entrepreneur from a completely different industry and background and collected great insights and ideas. They, however, thought it was a lack of time to pitch twice. Also, I delivered the workshop in French, and some of them found it challenging to have all the material in English.

At the end of the workshop, they appreciated the methodology and the new insights. I think it triggered new opportunities and a new sense of entrepreneurship. 

Next time, I'll push more the importance of time to the partner. Three hours is definitely too short to reach the necessary deep design. Also, we didn't have time to go to the story part.

In the future, to save time in the introduction of concepts, I'll also send materials to the participants in advance.

In the end, I have learned that this workshop can educate young people to see entrepreneurship with a broader perspective: not only centred on their own successes but, more importantly, designed to serve a bold purpose, serving humanity and its precious habitat. 

Next step: a face-to-face workshop with designers student!