Venture Centre
Prototyping Workshop
Find out how lean prototyping can help you turn your ideas into tangible innovations quickly and efficiently!
Lean prototyping is a crucial part of any innovation journey. It allows you to quickly and efficiently visualise your ideas in three dimensions, allowing you to validate assumptions, clearly communicate your concepts to stakeholders and gain valuable insights. This process is especially important for college students, where hands-on skills are not always highly developed, depending on the programme. Nevertheless, the Hogeschool van Amsterdam offers numerous facilities, such as the Makerslab in the Theo Thijssenhuis (TTH), where students can work on their prototypes. The prototyping workshop will not only discuss the value of (lean) prototyping and (lean) pilots, but also how students can map and validate their assumptions about innovations. Moreover, they get an introduction to the various maker spaces offered by the HvA so that they can make the best use of these valuable resources. All this makes lean prototyping not only an essential part of innovation processes, but also a powerful tool for students to bring their ideas to life and refine them.
The workshop can be delivered either in lecture or workshop format to students focusing on innovation, for example within the minor Entrepreneurship for Society. Ideally, the current ideas of the students should be discussed in advance so that the workshop content can be tailored accordingly.
Topics that can be covered include lean prototyping, setting up pilots and conducting user surveys. With a group of up to 40 students, interactive elements, such as Assumption Mapping, can be added. Depending on the group size, it is possible to integrate a piece of one-to-one consultation into the workshop. If desired, the workshop can also include a visit to the Makerslab in the Theo Thijssen House (TTH).
How does it work?
The workshop can be delivered either in lecture or workshop format to students focusing on innovation, for example within the minor Entrepreneurship for Society. Ideally, the current ideas of the students should be discussed in advance so that the workshop content can be tailored accordingly.
Topics that can be covered include lean prototyping, setting up pilots and conducting user surveys. With a group of up to 40 students, interactive elements, such as Assumption Mapping, can be added. Depending on the group size, it is possible to integrate a piece of one-to-one consultation into the workshop. If desired, the workshop can also include a visit to the Makerslab in the Theo Thijssen House (TTH).
What entrepreneurial competences does the opportunity knocks workshop focus on?
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Valuing ideas
- Learning by doing
After the workshop
By participating in the workshop, students not only get a better understanding of the added value and potential of prototyping, but also of how it can strengthen their innovation process. In the past, this has resulted in students coming up with significantly better and more thoughtful prototypes of their concepts by the end of the course.
The workshop also provides an opportunity to introduce students to the various workshops within the HvA, such as the Makerslab. This introduction removes a barrier, resulting in students being more willing to use these facilities. Not only does this make their ideas tangible faster, but it also allows them to start testing and refining their concepts immediately, which improves the quality of their final products.
Participate or organize
The Venture Centre HvA offers prototyping help in various ways:
- Programmes and minors can use the prototyping knowledge within the Venture Centre to have their students work on these skills within the curriculum. This is often deployed later in the subject/minor, at the moment when students already have a concrete idea so that the content of the workshop can be adapted accordingly.
- Individual students (teams) can use the Student Startup Helpdesk for one-to-one consulting on how best to develop a prototype/pilot of their idea.
Curious about the possibilities for the prototyping workshop for your programme?
Are you curious about how we can integrate the Prototyping Workshop within your course or do you have further questions? If so, please send an e-mail to r.slikker@hva.nl.