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www.dlabs.in

Founded by ISB to foster entrepreneurship ๏ World class business school ๏ Visionary founders ๏ Distinguished faculty ๏ Global academic alliances

DLabs has been set up by the Indian School of Business (ISB) with the objective of strengthening entrepreneurship and fostering innovation among the young in India including its student and alumni community. ISB will support our activities through its faculty and research expertise by providing guidance, knowledge and mentorship to the entrepreneurs whose ventures are selected for incubation.

The ISB evolved from the need for a world-class business school in Asia. The founders, some of the best minds from the corporate and academic worlds, anticipated the leadership needs of the emerging Asian economies.Distinguished scholars from India and the world teach at ISB. The faculty is at the forefront of research and provides thought leadership.

ISB has academic alliances with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, London Business School (LBS) and MIT Sloan School of Management and The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University. This association brings in the best of global management practices and thinking into the ISB curriculum.

We leverage the principles of Design Thinking to build the next generation of businesses

what is design thinking

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PROBLEM

Typical startup approach leading to many failures

IDEA BUILD

IDEA FIND PROBLEMBUILD

1. Quick jump from knowing a problem to a single solution, leading to the lack of : • understanding of the users, their real

problems, their behaviors, needs and aspirations

• validation of idea/solution, market and business model

• exploration of other ways of solving the same problem

• timely realization of why something is not working

2. Starting with a cool technology or business model and then looking for problem to solve and a market to sell

!!

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EMPATHY

Design Thinking approach to avoid those pitfalls

IDEATEDEFINE PROTOTYPE + TEST BUILD

Begins by deep level of empathy with stakeholders. It’s not based on survey or binary questions. It relies on deep conversations leading to observing, asking and trying Goal is to really understand the problem and explore it from various perspectives.

Truly empathising with the stakeholders often unpacks surprising insights that leads to a completely different understanding of the problem. Being able to crisply redefining and articulating the problem/opportunity, is the main goal.

Based on the new, improved understanding of the problem and the stakeholders, a very large number of ideas are generated through various ways. Goal is to generate as many ideas as possible without looking at viability or feasibility.

Ideas are explored further through prototyping with a view to elicit reactions and generate feedback. Goal is not a refined output but speed. Feedback may lead to another cycle of empathy, definition and ideating. The result is one or two refined ideas.

This is all about bringing the selected idea to refined state to be put in the hands of the stakeholders. Bring in feasibility, viability and lot of details. Making sure their experience with the solution is delightful. Gathering feedback it still essential.

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BUSINESS IDEA

COOL TECHNOLOGY

PEOPLES NEEDS AND DESIRES

STARTS HERE

It puts people first and is iterative

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It has three uniquely powerful aspects

Understanding People !

Uncovering otherwise hidden but potent opportunities through

deep and empathetic understanding of peoples needs

and desires

Diverging & Converging !

Exploring much greater breadth and depth of opportunities and

ideas through cycles of expanding and then narrowing

down possibilities

Prototyping to Learn !

Validating assumptions, learning and refining fast using repeated ideation, prototyping

and testing cycles

It has been embraced by institutions and industry

what we do

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Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. !

- Tim Brown, President and CEO, IDEO

We use this to transform early stage ventures

We do this by using the the principles of Design Thinking to help lay the right foundation from the day the company is born fundamentally transforming the DNA of the company.

We do this by taking these early stage startups through our acceleration program. We use the Design Thinking approach to solve major challenges, get them user focused and get them to feel more confident about their offering. 

Seed Workshops, Bootcamps, etc.

Nurture Incubation

Support Acceleration

This intervention comes in the form of workshops, bootcamps, etc and is designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs come up with better ideas in the first place - ideas which are more powerful that connect better with users.

We focus on early stage stage ventures only. While this approach can help an established company innovate, for startups this approach can be life-altering. We believe that this is where we can create maximum value. We do this in the following three ways

It is empowering and transforming our ventures

Gaining deep understanding of users needs and aspirations

Identifying and staying focussed on user and market

Leveraging data as well as emotion driven insights

Gauging success/failure early and taking action

Iterating and experimenting rapidly to navigate ambiguity

Exploring more opportunities through divergence

Bringing in a multidisciplinary perspective

Produce high quality, delightful products and services