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Platform for Supporting Startup Acceleration Programs
Joao Daniel Cardador Feneja
Thesis to obtain the Master of Science Degree in
Information Systems and Computer Engineering
Supervisors: Prof. Miguel Leitao Bignolas Mira da SilvaProf. Carlos Manuel Martins Mendes
Examination Committee
Chairperson: Prof. Miguel Nuno Dias Alves Pupo CorreiaSupervisor: Prof. Miguel Leitao Bignolas Mira da SilvaMember of the Committee: Prof. Miguel Torres Preto
October 2018
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Acknowledgments
I would first like to thank my dissertation supervisors, Professor Miguel Mira da Silva and Profes-
sor Carlos Mendes, for all their support and sharing of knowledge, which have made this dissertation
possible.
I would like to thank Professor Antonio Lucena de Faria and Dr. Madalena Clara from ”Fabrica de
Startups”, for all their support and patience in the development of Fabstart Academy. Without them, my
work could not have been fully accomplished.
I would also like to thank my friends Antonio Da Mesquita, Antonio Maria, Catarina Tavares de
Almeida, Guilherme Carvalho, Ines Zenkl, Joana Custodio, Joao Mendes, Joao Rosario, Joao Seromenho,
Luısa Fernandes, Margarida Lopes, Tiago Carvalho, Vasco Veloso, for all the moments that we shared
over the last seven years, you were simply the best.
I am also grateful to my cousin Luısa, who helped me in the most turbulent times, for all the time she
spent with this dissertation. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I would still like to thank my sister Celeste, my brother Lucio, and my girlfriend Luısa, for all their
motivation and love; and also my nephews Manuel and Gabriel and my nieces Patrıcia, Leonor and
Ines, for making my life special and happy.
A special word to my grandmother Maria, who is not among us anymore, but if she was, this would
certainly be one of the happiest days in her life.
Lastly, but most importantly, I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents for all
their love, encouragement, and caring over all these years, as well for having always believed in me.
This dissertation is for them.
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Abstract
In this dissertation we developed a platform for the problems of lack of centralization, poor mentor-
ing, and absence of a step-by-step approach in acceleration programs. With the help of ”Fabrica de
Startups”, we designed and developed a functional prototype for their startup acceleration program
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, which meets all the objectives defined. This prototype will also give en-
trepreneurs an online site to put all the developed artifacts, following the working methodologies in ”The
Lean Startup”, and ”Business Model Generation”.
The platform proposed, FabStart Academy, includes the course FastStart, which is where the working
methodology used in the program is given to entrepreneurs and a place where they can put the arti-
facts. In this dissertation it is also shown how the prototype was evaluated (through usability tests and
interviews) and its relevance to ”Fabrica de Startups”.
The artifact proposed as a response to the research problem meets both our expectations and the ones
of ”Fabrica de Startups”’, and will be used in future acceleration programs.
Keywords
Startups; Acceleration Program; Platform; Software Development; Business Model; Entrepreneur.
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Resumo
Nesta dissertacao e desenvolvida uma plataforma para dar resposta aos problemas de falta de centraliza-
cao, mentorado insuficiente e ausencia de uma abordagem passo a passo em programas de aceleracao.
Com a colaboracao da Fabrica de Startups, concebemos e desenvolvemos um prototipo funcional para
o seu programa de aceleracao de startups, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, que foi ao encontro de todos
os objetivos definidos. Este prototipo tambem proporciona aos empreendedores um sıtio na internet
para alojar todos os artefactos desenvolvidos, seguindo as metodologias de trabalho apresentadas nos
livros ”The Lean Startup” e ”Business Model Generation”.
A plataforma proposta, FabStart Academy, inclui o curso FastStart, que faculta aos empreendedores
a metodologia de trabalho usada no programa, bem como um local para guardar todos os artefactos.
Nesta dissertacao apresenta-se, tambem, a forma como o prototipo foi avaliado (atraves de testes de
usabilidade e de entrevistas), e a sua relevancia para a Fabrica de Startups.
O artefacto proposto como resposta ao problema de investigacao corresponde as nossas expectativas
e as da Fabrica de Startups, e sera usado em futuros programas de aceleracao.
Palavras Chave
Startups; Programa de Aceleracao; Platforma; Desenvolvimento de Software; Modelo de Negocio; Em-
preendedor.
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Theoretical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Acceleration Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.2 Business Model Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 The Lean Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Research Problem 11
3 Related Work 15
3.1 LaunchPad Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 Glidr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3 Stratpad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4 Liveplan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 Research Proposal 23
4.1 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Proposal Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3 FabStart Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.1 Users Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3.2 FastStart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.3.2.A User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5 Design and Development 31
5.1 Using WordPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1 Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1.A LifterLMS - Learning Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1.B Elementor - Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1.C UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.1.1.D WP Super Cache - Caching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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5.1.1.E Really Simple SSL - Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.1.1.F Contact Form 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.1.2 Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.1.2.A Astra - Coach Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2 Platform Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2.1 Progress bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.2.2 Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.2.3 Mark as Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2.4 Submit Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2.5 Step-by-step Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.3 Platform Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3.1 Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3.2 About Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3.3 Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3.3.A FastStart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.3.4 Member’s Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.3.5 Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.3.6 Sign in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6 Demonstration 41
6.1 Research Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.2 Activity Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.2.1 First Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.2.2 Second DSRM Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.3 Interview with Acceleration Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7 Evaluation 47
7.1 Result Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.1.1 First DSRM Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.1.2 Second DSRM Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.2 Interview with Acceleration Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8 Conclusion 57
8.1 Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.2 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.3 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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Bibliography 63
A First Bootcamp Survey 67
B Engineering Students Identification Form 73
C Usability Tests Script and Consent Form 75
D System Usability Scale 81
E Entrepreneurs Interviews 85
F Acceleration Manager Interview 91
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List of Figures
1.1 Business Model Canvas, adapted from [1]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Build-Measure-Learn loop, adapted from [2]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Mapping of research activities using DSRM, adapted from [3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1 LaunchPad Central iterative course menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Social network traits presented on Glidr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Stratpad step-by-step approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4 Liveplan interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.1 FabStart Academy home page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.2 FastStart course index page, displaying the progress bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3 FastStart methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.4 Lesson with file to edit and submit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.5 Lesson without file to edit and submit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.1 Standard Astra - Coach Theme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2 FabStart Academy’s course progress bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.3 FabStart Academy dashboard notifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.4 Course lesson mark as complete button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.5 Course lesson submit file field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.6 ”Previous lesson” and ”Next Lesson” button which gives the platform a step-by-step learn-
ing component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1 Dashboard screen where task 1 takes place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.2 Contacts screen where task 5 takes place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.1 First alteration made in platform after the usability tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.2 Second alteration made in platform after the usability tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
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8.1 LifterLMS interface limitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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List of Tables
7.1 Time (in seconds) and number errors of each task for each engineering student. . . . . . 50
7.2 Average, standard deviation, confidence, time (in seconds) and number of errors of each
task. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.3 Confidence interval for time (in seconds) and number of errors, and expected time interval
and errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.4 System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
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Acronyms
BMC Business Model Canvas
CSS Cascading Style Sheets
DSRM Design Science Research Methodology
FTP File Transfer Protocol
HTML HyperText Markup Language
HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
IT Information Technology
JS JavaScript
MVP Minimum Value Product
PDF Portable Document Format
PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
SSL Secure Sockets Layer
SUS System Usability Scale
UI User Interface
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1Introduction
Contents
1.1 Theoretical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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In a world in constant change, startups play a very important role in the technology field, especially in
the labour market [4] [5]. They are not common enterprises, as they differ from them in terms of mentality,
culture, and most importantly, in their working methods. Startups are not common consulting, auditing or
executive businesses working for a specific client; they are a small group of people willing to investigate,
who work in extreme uncertainty and with almost no funds, following a specific business model designed
by them and for them, or, as Steve Blank, the startup guru, put it, ”a startup is a temporary organization
designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model” [6].
Startups’ numbers are growing everyday; they are everywhere. Almost every college student with
an entrepreneurial spirit, especially in engineering [7], dreams of having his own successful business.
Although the most courageous ones tend to venture into business life, this is not an easy task considering
that the failure rate of a startup is nearly 80% in its first three years of activity [8].
There are really good ideas that have never come to daylight, but contrary to what most people
think, the lack of success of these startups results not only from lack of investment, but also from poor
management conditions [9], business model innovation failure [10] or inefficient acceleration programs
[11].
Today, there are several online platforms that provide business planning and acceleration programs.
Steve Blanks’ Launchpad Central1 or Glidr2 are some examples of what is available on the web. Such
platforms fulfill basic needs of what startups require in their early stages of life and are well structured.
They are acceleration programmes, but they lack in-person mentoring. These platforms will be corner-
stones of our research.
In this project we will focus not only on acceleration programs and their steps, but also on how
to improve them. We investigated entrepreneurs’ needs to develop a functional platform, whose main
objective is to facilitate, improve, and complement acceleration programs.
1.1 Theoretical Background
This research draws heavily on ”Business Model Generation” [1], which develops the concept of
Business Model Canvas (BMC) and its patterns, and on ”The Lean Startup” [2]. While these works
share a common objective, they use different methods. Although ”Business Model Generation” [1] is
based on a simpler approach, “The Lean Startup” [2] is more suitable for this study due to its empirical
character, as we shall explain below.
1https://www.launchpadcentral.com/2https://www.glidr.io/
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1.1.1 Acceleration Program
Now, the question that must be raised is: what is a startup acceleration program [12]? It is a program
in which startups are guided by the accelerator during a period of time, which usually varies between
three and six months, with technical coaching, financial and consulting support, and also with a series
of pitches where startups will improve their ideas using lean methodologies of work. The application
process is usually open to every startup or entrepreneur with an early implemented idea of business.
Accelerators make money charging startups for a program or, if the idea is really good, take a share of
the startup and give all the program for free.
The real benefit for an entrepreneur to participate in such programs is the networking [13] that it
brings, getting them new business opportunities. Generally, these programs have pitches every week,
but this may vary depending on the accelerator choice. In these pitches, entrepreneurs present their
work, done during the previous week, and get feedback either to iterate or to proceed with their work. By
the end of the process, some entrepreneurs quit, but the majority still finishes it. An acceleration program
does not give 100% [14] chance of success to business, but it improves most functional aspects and
provides team work, working methodologies and a large network of mentors and advisors.
1.1.2 Business Model Generation
”Business Model Generation” [1] focuses on the BMC, which is a flexible template for conceiving,
completing and assessing business models. Business modeling encourages strategic thinking and
holistic design. When constructing the BMC for a business, we are giving order and body to our line
of thought. The business model canvas delivers an important framework for focused brainstorming and
staff inspiration. Most big enterprises use it because of its simplicity and ease of learning. The canvas
is composed by 9 building blocks, ordered and explained below:
• Customer Segments (CS): defines the different groups of people or organizations an enterprise
aims to reach and serve.
• Value Proposition (VP): describes the bundle of products and services that create value for a
specific Customer Segment.
• Channels (CH): describes how a company communicates with and reaches its Customer Seg-
ments to deliver a Value Proposition.
• Customer Relationships (CR): describes the types of relationships a company establishes with
specific Customer Segments.
• Revenue Streams (RS): represents the cash a company generates from each Customer Segment
(costs must be subtracted from revenues to create earnings).
• Key Resources (KR): describes the most important assets required to make a business model
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Figure 1.1: Business Model Canvas, adapted from [1].
work.
• Key Activities (KA): describes the most important things a company must do to make its business
model work.
• Key Partners (KP): describes the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model
work.
• Cost Structure (CS): describes all costs incurred to operate a business model.
In a graphic representation, the business model canvas places the 9 building blocks as shown in
figure 1.1. The canvas is usually a large piece of paper where the business model designers will stick
post-its so they can change them whenever they want and to let thinking flow. The business model
canvas is a dynamic system, as every building block is connected somehow to another one.
Business models can also follow some different patterns: Unbundled, Long Tail, Multi-sided Platform
Model, Free and Open.
• Unbundled holds three different types of businesses: Customer relationship businesses, product
innovation business and infrastructure businesses. This business may co-exist within a single corpo-
ration, but ideally they are “unbundled” into separate entities in order to avoid conflicts or undesirable
trade-offs.
• Long Tail is about selling less of more: they focus on offering a large number of niche products,
each of which sells relatively infrequently.
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• Multi-sided Platform creates value by facilitating interactions between different groups. It grows
value if it attracts more users, a phenomenon known as the network effect.
• Free Pattern is very common these days. At least one substantial Customer Segment is able to
continuously benefit from a free-of-charge offer. Non-paying customers are financed by another part
of the business model or by another Customer Segment.
• Open can be used by companies to create and capture value by systematically collaborating with
outside partners. This can happen in two ways: Outside-in, by exploiting ideas within the firm, or
Inside-out by providing external parties with ideas or assets.
1.1.3 The Lean Startup
”The Lean Startup” [2] methodology was based on Eric Ries’s empirical knowledge at IMVU, of
which he was a Co-Founder. The whole book focuses on the following question: “How can we build a
sustainable organization around a new set of products or services?”. In most cases, entrepreneurs have
the knowledge to build their products, but their sensibility to perceive what people really want can be
very low. Ries’s approach is strongly supported by research facts. In order to develop something that
might be useful, the first step is always to learn about what is happening around us. Failure must be
accepted as an option as it is essential to learn about what works and what does not work. In fact, doing
something that no one wants implies a big waste of startups’ resources.
In this book there are also some successful examples of startups. They differ from examples of
startups that failed due to their capacity to understand where they failed and where they were successful,
thus being able to adapt their path in order to improve it.
To achieve success there are a few steps that Ries considers important to follow. The first step
has to do with startups getting validated learning as fast as they can. The means by which a team is
held accountable for their progress in validated learning is through innovation accounting. Innovation
accounting allows a team to build a model of customer behavior, use the model to change the product
or service and change customer behavior, establish facts about the validity of the vision and determine
whether it is sustainable. The major innovation of account learning milestones are: building a Minimum
Value Product (MVP) [15] and establishing a baseline and feedback loop with customers; and testing
the MVP in terms of the clients’ behavior, pivot or persevere. To keep the process of validated learning
forward, it is necessary to use the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. The faster the team can go
through the loop, the faster they can learn and, theoretically, the faster they can create a sustainable
business. Nothing is validated before going through the whole loop shown below (figure 1.2).
At the beginning, everything is only an assumption. To apply the scientific method to learn about a
startup, it is necessary to formulate hypotheses. If these hypotheses do not provide valuable informa-
tion, they should be dismissed. There are two types of hypotheses: value hypotheses, in which we can
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Figure 1.2: Build-Measure-Learn loop, adapted from [2].
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see if the product or service brings any value, and growth hypotheses, which make it possible to learn
how customers will discover the product or service. Nevertheless, according to Eric Ries, the enterprise
only starts with the “leap-of-faith” hypotheses, which will probably show what has gone wrong or par-
tially wrong through innovation accounting and build-measure-learn feedback loops. In this case, it is
necessary to pivot.
The next step is where most startups fail: pivot or preserve. Most entrepreneurs believe that if they
insist on their initial strategy, they will succeed, but in most cases this is a fatal mistake. The right choice
is to pivot. The term pivoting refers to a new hypothesis, in which the last hypothesis is either partially
or completely changed through what has been accomplished from validated learning. It is not an easy
task, since the direction of one’s business may be changed. It is important to know that, when pivoting,
one does not start from scratch; since one already knows which direction not to take, the odds of making
another mistake are reduced.
”The Lean Startup” [2] also explains the engines of growth: sticky, viral, and paid. The sticky engine
is the one needed when focusing on retaining customers in the long term. It is necessary to keep clients
coming back month after month. Before focusing on finding new customers, it is necessary to focus on
the current ones. The viral engine is the domain of word of mouth and having the product advertise
itself. To keep the engine working it is necessary to guarantee that every customer brings their friends,
so the business can grow quickly. It is very difficult to build an engine like this intentionally; the product
must be perfect so it will be possible to rely on marketing; if not, customers will look for another market.
The last engine is the paid engine, which is known by most business owners. When operating on this
engine, each customer needs to give you some profit.
To conclude, ”The Lean Startup” [2] also explains internal management techniques, advising en-
trepreneurs not to slow down and to keep up the pace, keep the batches in small sizes and avoid work
that does not lead to any learning. Keeping pace will boost motivation, thus leading to more work. By
working in small batches, it is possible to get better feedback, so errors and problems can be identified
at an early stage, minimizing the damages to business; giving up work that proves unsustainable to the
business model will make it possible to keep learning and advancing in work. Eric Ries also advocates
using the Five Whys method of determining the root cause so as to create solutions to fix core issues.
The Five Whys [16] is an iterative interrogative technique based on five “why?” questions, each of them
leading to the next one, until getting to the root cause.
1.2 Research Methodology
The research methodology chosen to be applied in this research is Design Science Research Method-
ology [17]. Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) incorporates principles, practices and pro-
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cedures required to carry out such research and meets three objectives: consistency with prior literature,
providing a nominal process model for doing design science research, and providing a mental model for
presenting and evaluating design science research in information systems.
DSRM is an iterative methodology and it has 6 stages: Problem Identification and Motivation, Defini-
tion of the Objectives for a Solution, Design and Development, Demonstration, Evaluation and Commu-
nication [3].
• Problem Identification and Motivation: defining a specific research problem and justifying the
value of a solution in order to motivate the researcher and the audience to pursue the solution and
to accept the results. This helps the researcher to show his understanding of the problem.
• Definition of the Objectives for a Solution: knowing a priori what is possible and achievable, de-
ducing the objectives of a solution for the problem.
• Design and Development: creating artifacts which can be constructs, models, methods or instan-
tiations.
• Demonstration: giving a realistic demonstration, for example an experimentation, a simulation, a
case study, a proof, or another appropriate activity, if the artifact can solve one or more instances of
the problem.
• Evaluation: checking if the artifact is sufficient for the solution of the problem. If the objectives
of the solution do not match the actual results, researchers can iterate back to step 3 (Design and
Development) or continue to step 6 (Communication) and leave further improvement to subsequent
projects.
• Communication: communicating the problem and its relevance, as well as the utility, novelty and
effectiveness of the artifact to researchers and to other relevant audiences.
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Figure 1.3: Mapping of research activities using DSRM, adapted from [3]
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2Research Problem
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Startup acceleration platforms involve a huge investment, have good programmers and engineers,
and require a large amount of know-how; they are businesses that try to make money. These programs
provide a place on the web where artifacts can be put into, as well as virtual mentorship to “show you
the way”, but in most cases such programs are not developed step-by-step; also, it is almost impossible
to bring together physical artifacts and digital ones; and finally, the lack of feedback may pose serious
risks to entrepreneurs, especially if they do not possess any experience in business.
On the other hand, there are in-person startups acceleration programs, in which it is necessary
to make pitches every week, to prepare your work, and to develop your artifacts. However, they do
not provide a central place to put them. Therefore, what most entrepreneurs do is to put their work
on Dropbox and on various Google platforms (Drive, Forms, Slides...), or to communicate via Slack,
WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. The most common way of low-cost prototyping is still pen and
paper [18].
In order to do our research, we have joined forces with ”Fabrica de Startups” to produce a fitted
solution to our research problem. A prototype of a startup acceleration platform was created, to assist
the acceleration program. The platform was developed for this dissertation and tested during this last
spring with engineering students (usability tests), and this summer with entrepreneurs (interviews) in
an acceleration program of ”Fabrica de Startups”, called Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. The platform is
named FabStart Academy, and the course in which we tested with entrepreneurs was FastStart. The
working methodologies used in this platform aim to meet the following success metrics: to increase the
availability in learning, leading to an increase in productivity among startups; to create a step-by-step
component which will foster more motivation during all the developed work; to improve the feedback
between teams and mentors; and to get a central place to put all the artifacts developed.
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3Related Work
Contents
3.1 LaunchPad Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 Glidr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3 Stratpad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4 Liveplan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
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To our knowledge, there is not a complete platform to put all artifacts, with a step-by-step accelerating
program, and providing strategic and business advising.
There are dozens of online products that provide similar services to the one we are going to develop.
Although we have not studied all of them, we are going to focus only on four, which we have tested and
consider most relevant to our work. The relevance given is based on the usability [19], work methodol-
ogy, and the process of teaching. Taken together, these platforms, LaunchPad Central, Glidr, Stratpad,
and Liveplan combine the most important features on which this study draws on.
Some of these platforms are more likely to be strategic tools, and others to be planning tools; Launch-
Pad Central and Glidr are the ones closest to the ideal platform. Although these are good tools, there is
still a lot that can be improved and changed.
As far as entrepreneurs are concerned, working with ”Fabrica de Startups” and with entrepreneurs
themselves has shown that pen and paper [18] still play an important role in exposing creative thinking;
in addition, not having a deadline [20] affects work planning and execution. Therefore, step-by-step
is the most appropriate methodology for mentoring because of dates/deadlines, feedback, and most
importantly, because it keeps motivation levels high.
3.1 LaunchPad Central
LaunchPad Central1 is a platform whose Co-founder and Investor is Steve Blank, the startup guru,
possibly the most experienced person in the startup circle. Even if it was not possible to get an ac-
count on this platform, its pros and cons were analyzed, namely through YouTube tutorials, in which all
functionalities and features available were explored.
This platform has good usability, but there are some aspects that need to be improved.
• Pros: good usability of the platform; ”Lean Startup” [2] orientation; help provided by topic; perfor-
mance metrics; being iterative.
• Cons: it does not provide a step-by-step approach, which usually leads to lack of pace; it does not
combine digital artifacts with physical artifacts; inappropriate feedback channels.
1https://www.launchpadcentral.com/
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Figure 3.1: LaunchPad Central iterative course menu.
3.2 Glidr
First of all, it is important to mention that this platform is the substitute of LaunchPad Central. Glidr2 is also owned by LaunchPad, and it was not possible to get an account because it is a new product in
the market and it still uses the Beta version (they were still testing it on a small group of entrepreneurs’
Startups). However, attending a Glidr webinar, powered by Launchpad, where the main differences
and improvements made were publicly presented, has been very helpful to get information about this
platform:
• Pros: ”Lean Startup” [2] orientation; help by topic; performance metrics; iterative; improved com-
munication between team members.
• Cons: social network traits; confusing; not providing a step-by-step approach, which usually leads
to lack of pace; not combining digital artifacts with physical artifacts; inappropriate feedback chan-
nels.
2https://www.glidr.io/
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Figure 3.2: Social network traits presented on Glidr.
3.3 Stratpad
Stratpad3 is another type of platform. This platform allows entrepreneurs to plan their business,
learn new strategies to boost it, learn through video tutorials how to run the business profitably, and,
as regards small businesses, it offers the possibility of connecting with professional business coaches,
lenders, bookkeepers and other business professionals.
• Pros: step-by-step approach, which facilitates learning; video tutorials synchronized with the dif-
ferent tasks; examples; good support.
• Cons: it is not iterative, which leads to absence of change; it does not give any pace; it does not
give any feedback; no ”Lean Startup” [2] orientation.
3https://www.stratpad.com/
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Figure 3.3: Stratpad step-by-step approach.
3.4 Liveplan
Liveplan4 is a financial planning software. Liveplan helps people to plan their own finance and to es-
tablish goals to their enterprises. Despite all the features that support good financial practices, Liveplan
doesn’t have a ”Lean Startup” [2] orientation, but it is an example of good usability and of a step-by-step
online platform.
• Pros: iterative; step-by-step approach, which facilitates learning; good usability; easy to learn how
to use.
• Cons: does not give any pace; doesn’t give any feedback; no ”Lean Startup” [2] orientation;
financial planning software which is not useful to early stages of ideation.
4https://www.liveplan.com/
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Figure 3.4: Liveplan interface.
3.5 Summary
In this section all the pros and cons of the platforms which we consider more relevant to this research
are compared. All these platforms have been considered for a specific purpose. All of them have
interesting features to take into account in our future work.
In LaunchPad Central and Glidr, which are the ones with a ”Lean Startup” orientation, it is more
important to identify the cons, in order to avoid them in the future. Stratpad and Liveplan, despite not
having a “Lean Startup” orientation, are included in this list not only because of their strategic, planning,
and step-by-step approach, but also because of being user-friendly.
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4Research Proposal
Contents
4.1 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Proposal Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3 FabStart Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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In this section we present what we consider to be the best solution to the problem described in
section 2. The objectives of this solution, as well as its description, are also presented in this section.
4.1 Objectives
There are some objectives that we would like to have accomplished by the end of this dissertation.
The objectives of the solution studied in this research are listed below:
• Objective 1: to propose a platform that assists a startup acceleration program.
• Objective 2: to have a central spot where entrepreneurs get all artifacts accessible on the web.
• Objective 3: to improve communication between mentors and all subscribed entrepreneurs in
order to get better and faster feedback.
• Objective 4: to increase the availability in the learning process.
• Objective 5: to give pace to the process, giving a step-by-step approach and a better assistance.
Basically, the general aim of this research is really simple: to get the best of both the physical and
the digital worlds and to bring them together in the same platform. In this platform there will be a site to
put all the artifacts, while professional assistance and a step-by-step approach will also be provided, so
that the users’ motivation and pace will not be lost.
4.2 Proposal Description
In order to reach the solution to the problem stated above, we worked with some entrepreneurs in a
bootcamp held in Lisbon and broadcast to other 12 cities in Portugal by ”Fabrica de Startups”. By the
end of the bootcamp, all entrepreneurs that participated had answered to our survey questions. Based
on the 56 responses obtained, it became clear that a few problems needed to be fixed:
• Different channels of communication;
• Different tools of cloud storage;
• Necessity of a support central spot;
One of the questions in our survey was: ”Do you think that a major assistance given by an online
platform to this acceleration program would bring more dynamics to your startup?”. To this question,
66.1% answered ”yes” and 33.9% answered ”maybe”; considering this sample of 56 entrepreneurs as
reliable data, we confirmed our hypothesis and therefore decided to venture into prototyping the platform.
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Also, based on our own experience and on what we observed, all entrepreneurs use pen and paper
[18] when they are planning or carrying out a task for the first time, which shows that the ”old fashion
way” is still very important in the early stages of a project. When possible, all the artifacts were outlined
using pen and paper, then delivered to the mentor to be analyzed and to obtain feedback. This poses a
problem, though: what if it gets lost or damaged? Besides, using such a process takes more time than
if it was automated.
Therefore, after this bootcamp, we analyzed the data and we came to the conclusion that a central
spot was necessary, where entrepreneurs could store their artifacts (even if displayed as a photography)
and we could also facilitate the process. Considering this, we came up with the idea of creating a
platform that can assist an acceleration program. This platform is called FabStart Academy and it is
available online on www.fabstartacademy.com.
Figure 4.1: FabStart Academy home page.
4.3 FabStart Academy
In accordance with the objectives stated above, the platform must be grounded in a set of contents
which give a useful background for entrepreneurs to develop their work in a more efficient way. The work-
ing methodology (FastStart), although it was not developed by us, was inserted in FabStart Academy
with the purpose of automation and also due to the high availability of the learning process.
In addition, there was a constant concern about User Interface (UI). During the design and de-
velopment phase, we always intended to create an artifact that would be not only functional, where
entrepreneurs could learn and work freely, but also visually appealing. Hence, design played a really
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important role, since proposing something that would not fit in with the stereotype of an innovative en-
trepreneur was not an option.
4.3.1 Users Description
At this point we already know our platform users and what they seek for their entrepreneurial work.
Despite having weekly deadlines to meet in their work, entrepreneurs like to be able to innovate [21].
Feeling motivated and useful, while being able to focus on quality and receiving individual feedback
based on their work, are also very important premises to take into account.
Getting the entrepreneurs in the platform was a quite easy task; since we are working together with
”Fabrica de Startups”, they provided us the entrepreneurs to the whole research. However, making them
stay was a more difficult task. Since gamification produces quite accurate results [22], one thing that was
initially planned was to develop two gamification features: ”progress bar”, to let them know how much
of the course they have completed; ”notifications”, which is used alongside ”progress bar” and ”mark as
complete” features, to show which lessons have already been completed.
Figure 4.2: FastStart course index page, displaying the progress bar.
To conclude, this platform was created with the major purpose of assisting entrepreneurs’ accelera-
tion program. As shown in section 7.1.2, most of the entrepreneurs were employed, and to attend all the
bootcamps organised by ”Fabrica de Startup” was not a simple task due to their schedule. Considering
that the entrepreneurs are very busy people, this platform also offers an advantageous component in
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their learning process, since it is always available.
4.3.2 FastStart
The course FastStart is the most important part of the platform, not only for entrepreneurs, because
it allows them to learn the concepts that they will use, but also for mentors, because it provides them the
first contact with the artifacts produced, and they can also save their time when it comes to explaining
concepts.
FastStart course is an adaptation from a ”Fabrica de Startups”’ FastStart acceleration methodology,
presented in figure 4.3. The course follows all steps presented but, in order to cluster all the bootcamps
videos in a more practical way, it was divided into 13 sections instead of 9, as shown in figure 4.3.
Figure 4.3: FastStart methodology
All the videos presented in the course were also taken from ”Fabrica’s” previous Tourism Explorers
bootcamps, which also follow FastStart methodology, and all the contents were equally provided by
them.
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4.3.2.A User Interface
Since the beginning of the design and development phase of the platform UI was a constant worry.
Everything was planned to be functional and eye-catching, but due to our limitations as designers, some
aspects had to be changed after the usability tests (as is explained in section 7.1.1). All the design and
development were done together using WordPress specific plugins for the task. The plugins had their
limitations, but with the help of customizable themes we completed the platform interface.
Figure 4.4 shows a FastStart course lesson; not all the lessons have the feature ”Submit Files”, only
the ones predefined by ”Fabrica de Startups” where entrepreneurs have assignments to do. In this
specific lesson it is shown how we design the lesson: a video; the content, in this case an editable
Portable Document Format (PDF); ”Submit File” feature; ”Mark as Complete” feature; and the buttons to
advance or reverse the course lesson (step-by-step).
Figure 4.4: Lesson with file to edit and submit.
The majority of the lessons did not have an editable PDF or a ”Submit File” feature, mainly because
they were introductory lessons to the ones with such features. These simpler lessons, as shown in figure
4.5, only got a video to explain the concepts, the ”Mark as Complete” feature to show in the progress bar
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that one more lesson has been completed, and the buttons to advance or reverse the course lesson.
Figure 4.5: Lesson without file to edit and submit.
A really important part of UI in FabStart Academy is undoubtedly the FastStart course section. If the
lessons are not intuitive for the user to learn, then our platform will not have utility. So, in the design and
development phase, we tried to put a simple and intuitive design in both types of lessons (lessons with
PDF and lessons without it) in order to keep the platform users learning.
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5Design and Development
Contents
5.1 Using WordPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 Platform Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.3 Platform Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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In this chapter we will describe our choices to design and develop this platform. All the process of
design and development was done simultaneously using specific tools as explained below.
5.1 Using WordPress
At the beginning of the research several options were considered; we thought that developing this
platform using JavaScript (JS), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) would be a good option. However, due to lack of time, considering all the implementation and
tests that needed to be done before the usability tests and interviews, WordPress [23] was considered
the best choice to develop this artifact in a more agile way.
When using WordPress, all the design and development tasks were done simultaneously. WordPress
is a free and open-source content management system based on Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and
MySQL; features include a plugin architecture and a theme system, which makes both design and
development quicker and easier. In other words, WordPress is a really powerful tool.
5.1.1 Plugins
WordPress plugin architecture allows users to extend the features and functionality of a website.
Each plugin offers custom functions and features enabling WordPress users to tailor their sites to their
specific needs. These customizations range from search engine optimization to client portals used to
display private information to logged in users, content management systems, content displaying features,
and learning management system, which is the main plugin of our proposal. All the plugins used are
described and explained below.
5.1.1.A LifterLMS - Learning Management System
LifterLMS is a learning management system plugin for WordPress. With the aid of this system,
we can turn our site into an online learning platform. What we created with LifterLMS covers a full
acceleration program. We can manage not only our courses but also users with subscription/member-
ship feature. Certain eCommerce add-ons such as PayPal or WooCommerce are also integrated with
LifterLMS, which could help us sell courses.
5.1.1.B Elementor - Design
Elementor is a free WordPress page builder, which allows us to create and edit quality websites in
the easiest and quickest way possible. With this plugin we could reach a high level of design on the
frontend of our site, while designing live.
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UI is extremely friendly, which means that it only takes a short time to learn how to use it. This page
builder is optimized and fast responsive. For example, when we drag and drop widgets, it acts instantly,
without any lag time at all.
5.1.1.C UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore
UpdraftPlus simplifies backups and restoration. It is a popular scheduled backup plugin. Backing up
our files, database backups into the cloud, and restoring with a single click are some of the features in
this plugin. Backup into the cloud is done directly to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, UpdraftVault,
Rackspace Cloud, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), DreamObjects, Openstack Swift, and email.
5.1.1.D WP Super Cache - Caching
WP Super Cache generates static HTML files from my dynamic WordPress website. After a HTML
file is generated, your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and
more expensive WordPress PHP scripts. One cached file can be served thousands of times. Other
visitors will be served custom cached files tailored to their visit. If they are logged in, or have left
comments, these details will be displayed and cached for them.
5.1.1.E Really Simple SSL - Security
Really Simple SSL automatically detects the website settings and configures them to run over
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). To keep it lightweight, our options are kept to a minimum.
The plugin handles most issues that WordPress has with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), for example when
you are behind a reverse proxy/loadbalancer, or when no headers are passed to enable WordPress to
detect SSL, the entire site will move to SSL.
5.1.1.F Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is a plugin for building WordPress contact forms. It supports the building of forms
without any code. Forms can also include file uploads (which we used the most), and quiz fields.
5.1.2 Themes
Themes allow us to change the look and functionality of a WordPress website without altering the
core or site content. Every WordPress website requires at least one theme to be present and every
theme should be designed using WordPress standards with structured PHP, HTML, and CSS. Themes
may be directly installed using the WordPress ”appearance” administration tool in the dashboard, or
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theme folders may be copied directly into the themes directory, for example via FTP. The PHP, HTML,
and CSS found in themes can be directly modified to alter theme behavior.
5.1.2.A Astra - Coach Theme
Astra themes are fast and fully customizable, ideal to personal portfolio, business and storefront web-
sites. These themes are very lightweight and offer quite good speed. Special features are also offered,
so it works perfectly with page builders such as Elementor. Some other features we can encounter in
these themes are: responsiveness, translation readiness, and being regularly updated.
Figure 5.1: Standard Astra - Coach Theme.
5.2 Platform Features
In order to get the best productivity of FabStart Academy users and mentors, the following features
were implemented:
• Progress bar.
• Notifications.
• Mark as complete.
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• Submit files.
• Step-by-step lessons.
Each feature has a specific purpose, which leads either to a specific task or to a set of relevant ones
that entrepreneurs need to complete. The main objective of these features is to motivate entrepreneurs
and to facilitate their work.
5.2.1 Progress bar
Progress bar is a feature that shows users the state of progress in the course in which they are
enrolled. This feature shows entrepreneurs, in percentage, how much of the course has been done.
This feature does not have any practical utility, because it does not have any particular function besides
displaying users’ progress, but since it is a gamification feature, it usually boosts motivation to complete
the course [24].
Figure 5.2: FabStart Academy’s course progress bar.
5.2.2 Notifications
This feature is present in members’ dashboard and shows every course an entrepreneur enrolled in
and every lesson marked as complete. Notifications is thus the feature where the user may check all his
achievements.
Figure 5.3: FabStart Academy dashboard notifications.
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5.2.3 Mark as Complete
Mark as Complete is a feature that is connected to progress bar and notifications features. When
a user marks a lesson as complete, the progress bar adds a linear percentage corresponding to the
percentage achieved in that lesson. In notifications, the user also gets a badge, which means that a
specific lesson or course (the latter when every lesson in the course is completed) is finished.
Figure 5.4: Course lesson mark as complete button.
5.2.4 Submit Files
Submit Files is a practical feature that automates the process of correcting entrepreneurs’ artifacts.
This feature leads to a centralization of data, in which entrepreneurs send their week work to the platform
that uses the Contact Form 7 plugin configured to send the artifacts to mentors via e-mail. Only specific
lessons have this feature.
Figure 5.5: Course lesson submit file field.
5.2.5 Step-by-step Lessons
Step-by-step Lessons bring a whole new perspective to how contents can be learned. Without
moving to the course menu to change lesson, users can simply move to the next or to the previous
lesson (in case some concepts are not clear yet) by using the buttons. This practical facet plays a
relevant role in the platform, since it can maintain users in it without straying from the point.
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Figure 5.6: ”Previous lesson” and ”Next Lesson” button which gives the platform a step-by-step learning compo-nent.
5.3 Platform Sections
All the platform design and development rely on a small number of sections for users to access
information and to perform their tasks. The sections are:
• Home Page;
• About Us;
• Courses;
• Members Dashboard;
• Contacts;
• Sign In.
The FabStart Academy sections implemented are described below.
5.3.1 Home Page
When users access www.fabstartacademy.com, the first page that they see is the home page. The
home page presents a brief explanation of what a user can learn in the platform. Besides that, the home
page also has an enrollment button that redirects the user to the FastStart course or to sign in (in case
he has not signed in or registered yet).
5.3.2 About Us
This section contains a short presentation of who the people who constructed the acceleration pro-
grams are, a brief explanation of the programs, and three testimonials of the first entrepreneurs enrolled
in the course.
5.3.3 Courses
The courses section has 2 courses but users can enroll only in one of them: FastStart, which is
the main course and the relevant one for our research, and FastIdea, the private one. FastIdea has a
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different working methodology from FastStart, and initially was not meant to be included. However, since
the dates of the programs were not yet defined at the beginning of the semester and the platform had to
be developed before that, we included both courses. As only the FastStart course was used and tested
by entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program, our explanation will focus on it.
5.3.3.A FastStart
FastStart is a course that follows a lean methodology in order to validate diverse hypothesis. The
cornerstone of this program is the business model canvas and it comprises 13 different sections:
• Introduction;
• Business Model;
• Customer Development;
• Customer Segments;
• Value Proposition;
• Channels;
• Customer Relationships;
• Revenue Streams;
• Key Activities;
• Key Resources;
• Key Partners;
• Cost Structure;
• Traction;
Each section of FastStart represents a bootcamp in which users can learn specific contents to vali-
date their ideas. All the program has a step-by-step approach and is always available. Some key lessons
of the course involve work to submit; this work, after having been submitted, is automatically sent to a
mentor, who will provide feedback as soon as possible.
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5.3.4 Member’s Dashboard
At member’s dashboard section users can check which courses they are enrolled in (for this research,
this is only possible with FastStart), check their notifications or edit their user data. This section is
provided automatically by LifterLMS, and it is not possible to edit the design since this WordPress plugin
does not offer its service with a free custom design option.
5.3.5 Contacts
The Contacts section is a common part of a website for many businesses, and FabStart Academy
is no exception. In this section, users can contact ”Fabrica de Startups” simply by inputing their name,
e-mail, subject of contact and a message. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages are also
shown on this page.
5.3.6 Sign in
The Sign in page is similar to the member’s dashboard page. The Sign in page is automatically
generated by WordPress plugin, LifterLMS, and it manages the process of user’s registration in a more
visual way than by using a simple database. In the Sign in page users can also change their password
if they want it; all this is automatic and done by LifterLMS.
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6Demonstration
Contents
6.1 Research Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.2 Activity Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.3 Interview with Acceleration Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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This chapter focuses on the demonstration phase of the DSRM. The process of demonstration
explains if the artifact can solve one or more instances of the research problem.
6.1 Research Context
To demonstrate the efficiency of FabStart Academy, we collaborated with a Portuguese startup in-
cubator and accelerator, ”Fabrica de Startups”, to support all the development process. ”Fabrica de
Startups” has a great number of qualified professionals and startups, which provides our research with
a lot of material to study and test. Despite not developing a new acceleration program, our work con-
sisted of automating FastStart (a ”Fabrica de Startups”’ acceleration program methodology) in a new
way so as to make the acceleration program happen. This new way aims to bring together the know
how presented in FastStart, in an ordered, central and always available internet platform with presential
mentoring, in order to correct all mistakes made by entrepreneurs while developing their ideas.
6.2 Activity Plan
This first DSRM iteration includes analysis and observation activities. All the demonstration activities
are meant to test and evaluate the platform, with the main purpose of improving and correcting it.
The first iteration of DSRM is usability testing with engineering students. This activity, as explained
below, aids us to analyze errors that, although evident, were often overlooked or unnoticed due to too
many hours of work.
After correcting all the errors unveiled by this first iteration, the second iteration of DSRM, interviews
with entrepreneurs, allowed us to determine whether the prototype met their expectations. This was an
important part of this dissertation, since this is where we actually see the importance of the platform.
In addition, an interview with the lead acceleration manager of ”Fabrica de Startups” was carried out
in order to check if all the expectations were met. The aim of this interview was to get a more informal
opinion from which we could understand what went well and what did not during the development and
usage of the platform.
6.2.1 First DSRM Iteration
On the first iteration, a prototype was put in the context of usability tests with the purpose of measur-
ing the artifact’s efficacy for entrepreneurs’ basic tasks. These tasks, as shown below, were simple to
perform in order to check if the whole platform was intuitive.
The usability testing phase had 5 simple main tasks. The full list of tasks is the following:
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1. Register in the platform, with the name “Andre”, surname “Silva”, email “[email protected] ”,
password “12345678”.
2. Enroll in FastStart course.
3. Go to “Business model Design Kit” lesson, download the “Business Model Canvas” pdf and submit
it.
4. Try to do “Fontes de Receita” lesson. Can you do it?
5. Go to “Contacts” page and with the name “Andre”, email “[email protected] ”, subject “test”,
message “testing platform”, and submit.
Figure 6.1: Dashboard screen where task 1 takes place.
For this demonstration iteration of DSRM, a set of 12 engineering students were asked to perform all
the tasks using the prototype. The 12 students had never been in an acceleration or incubation program
before. The main objective was to test the platform with students that use the internet on a daily basis,
in order to check if all the platform was intuitive. None of the students failed to complete the tasks.
The prototype interaction was developed using our personal computer, accessing FabStart Academy.
All the input required from the user was already pre-defined and fully described in the tasks. This
demonstration allowed us to gather information about the errors made by students, testing the usability
of the platform and improving our proposal. All the errors we observed were noted and corrected.
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Figure 6.2: Contacts screen where task 5 takes place.
At the end of this iteration, students answered a system usability scale questionnaire, in order to
quantify the satisfaction of the interface.
6.2.2 Second DSRM Iteration
On the second iteration, the prototype had already discovered usability errors corrected, but it was
not the final prototype yet. To be the final prototype, it needed to be used and tested by the acceleration
program participants, individuals who really use the platform freely to fill their needs and to meet their
expectations as entrepreneurs.
To complete the second iteration of DSRM, an interview was conducted with 10 entrepreneurs. All
the 10 entrepreneurs were in the program Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, which uses the FastStart accel-
eration methodology, and were using the platform since they started the program.
All the interviews were made in person and had open answer, multiple choice and Likert scales ques-
tions. In these interviews the script was rigorously followed in order to get specific questions answered.
All entrepreneurs’ answers were summarized and a final report was written.
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6.3 Interview with Acceleration Manager
After all the tests with engineering students and entrepreneurs were done, an interview with ”Fabrica
de Startups’” acceleration manager was conducted. The interview questions had been planned before,
but if the interviewee wished to add further points, not previously mentioned, there was no problem with
that. The interview was conducted in person by us during fifteen minutes and while the interviewee was
talking, we took notes on computer. The interviewee did not get off the point significantly and at the end
a summary was made with the core topics of her answers.
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7Evaluation
Contents
7.1 Result Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.2 Interview with Acceleration Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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In this section we will evaluate how well the artifact meets the solution and if it solves the research
problem. This activity consists of comparing the proposal objectives and the results obtained in the
demonstration phase of DSRM, to confirm if they are the same.
7.1 Result Analysis
In the context of our research, there are two strategies we considered relevant to evaluate the artifact
[25]:
• Goal-free evaluation: Interviews.
• Criteria-based evaluation: Usability tests.
Since we are evaluating an IT system with engineering students and entrepreneurs, we chose, as for
”what to evaluate”, ”Information Technology (IT)-System in use” for both strategies. IT-systems in use
means to study a use situation where a user interacts with an IT-system.
On first iteration of DSRM, with engineering students we used the Criteria-based evaluation of IT-
System in use. This combination means that the evaluation is performed according to some predefined
general criteria and that the object of evaluation is the IT-System in use. Usability tests fit perfectly since
the main objective of this strategy is to gain a deeper and broader understanding of the IT-system and
the users’ perception of the IT-system.
On the other hand, on second iteration of DSRM, with entrepreneurs we used the Goal-free evalua-
tion of IT-System in use. This combination means that evaluation is performed open minded and that the
object of evaluation is the IT-System in use. Interviews seemed the most appropriate form of evaluation
in this case, since entrepreneurs had already used the platform and we intended to check if the role of
artifacts in the business met the objectives.
7.1.1 First DSRM Iteration
On the first DSRM iteration, the UI was evaluated through usability tests applied to 12 engineering
students, all aged between 18 and 25 years old, 58.3% of them doing their bachelor degree and 41.7%
their masters; all of them were knowledgeable of internet use. The tests followed the tasks described in
section 6.2.1. The tasks results, as for students, can be seen in table 7.1, table 7.2, and table 7.3.
In table 7.1 we can see how much time (in seconds) was taken by each Student and how many
errors were made by each one to complete a specific task. In table 7.2 we can see the average value for
time (in seconds) and errors, its standard deviation, and its confidence with an interval of 95%, for each
Student, in a specific task.
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Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors
Student 1 53 0 12,47 0 43,63 2 16,96 0 33 0Student 2 29 0 13,14 0 46,23 2 21,72 0 22,24 0Student 3 42,09 0 50,31 1 31,83 1 21,13 0 27,7 0Student 4 25,83 0 12,38 0 17,46 0 25,98 0 23,03 0Student 5 38,69 0 81 3 32,09 1 66 3 29,34 0Student 6 47,46 0 35,3 1 23,62 0 14,99 0 22,86 0Student 7 38,03 0 17,57 0 19,82 0 13,71 0 22,93 0Student 8 43,54 0 15,17 2 36 1 10,67 0 38,33 1Student 9 38,46 2 10,54 0 26,46 1 7,31 0 21,81 0Student 10 37,42 0 11,89 1 36,35 1 42,31 2 21,72 0Student 11 32,76 0 18,55 1 36,49 1 6,35 0 25,76 0Student 12 33,47 0 15,16 1 39,04 1 15,02 0 24,47 0
Table 7.1: Time (in seconds) and number errors of each task for each engineering student.
Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors Time Errors
Average 38,31 0,17 24,46 0,83 32,42 0,92 21,85 0,42 26,10 0,08Standard Deviation 7,62 0,58 21,34 0,94 9,05 0,67 16,91 1,00 5,18 0,29Confidence 4,31 0,33 12,07 0,53 5,12 0,38 9,57 0,56 2,93 0,16XMin 34,00 -0,16 12,39 0,30 27,30 0,54 12,28 -0,15 23,17 -0,08XMax 42,62 0,49 36,53 1,36 37,54 1,29 31,41 0,98 29,03 0,25
Table 7.2: Average, standard deviation, confidence, time (in seconds) and number of errors of each task.
During the usability tests, through observation and data analysis, it became clear that some changes
needed to be made. To help us to understand what was wrong, we checked if the expected time in
seconds and the number of errors for each task fitted in the interval with confidence of 95%. The results
are in table 7.3.
Interval ExpectedTime Errors Time Errors
Task 1 [34,00 - 42,62] [-0,16 - 0,49] 45 0Task 2 [12,39 - 36,53] [0,30 - 1,36] 7 0Task 3 [27,30 - 37,54] [0,54 - 1,29] 25 0Task 4 [12,28 - 31,41] [-0,15 - 0,98] 5 1Task 5 [23,17- 29,03] [-0,08 - 0,25] 30 0
Table 7.3: Confidence interval for time (in seconds) and number of errors, and expected time interval and errors.
Before starting to interpret the results shown in table 7.3, there are two concepts which we need to
explain, efficiency and effectiveness. In usability testing, efficiency is related to the time that it takes to
complete the task, and effectiveness is related to the number of errors made through the task.
In task 1, in terms of efficiency we can see that the platform had good results; the expected time is
above the interval of confidence. In terms of effectiveness, we cannot come to any conclusion, since the
expected number of errors is within the confidence interval and the sample of students is small.
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In task 2, the platform failed in both efficiency and effectiveness metrics. Both the expected time and
the number of errors are below the confidence interval; it was clear some changes needed to be made.
So, in order to make the platform more intuitive for future users, we put an enroll button in the home
page, as shown in figure 7.1, to make the process of subscription more intuitive.
Figure 7.1: First alteration made in platform after the usability tests.
In task 3, which has also failed in both efficiency and effectiveness metrics, we realized that students
had difficulty in understanding that the link to PDF was present in the lesson, confusing it with the title of
the video. So, in order to improve the artifact, we changed it to an icon, to expose it in a more obvious
way.
Figure 7.2: Second alteration made in platform after the usability tests.
In task 4, effectiveness presented a surprisingly good result, since it was the only task in which we
expected 1 error and the confidence interval was below the expected number of errors. In terms of
efficiency, the result was not so good, but despite the outcome no changes were made since this task
was only intended to check if locking a lesson of a course was functioning well.
In task 5, the time expected was above the confidence interval, so in terms of efficiency the platform
showed good results. In terms of effectiveness we could not draw any conclusion because the expected
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error number is within the confidence interval and the sample of students is small.
To conclude the usability tests and to measure the satisfaction of usability of FabStart Academy, we
used System Usability Scale (SUS) [26]. SUS is a Likert scale including 10 statements. The respondent
indicates the degree of agreement or disagreement with each of these statements on a 5 point scale.
The statements are the following:
• Statement 1 - I think that I would like to use this system frequently.
• Statement 2 - I found the system unnecessarily complex.
• Statement 3 - I thought the system was easy to use.
• Statement 4 - I think that I would need the support of a technical person
• Statement 5 - I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.
• Statement 6 - I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.
• Statement 7 - I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.
• Statement 8 - I found the system very cumbersome to use.
• Statement 9 - I felt very confident using the system.
• Statement 10 - I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.
Then, after classifying each statement on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), we
then proceeded to score SUS. To calculate the SUS score, for items 1,3,5,7 and 9, the score contribution
is the scale position minus 1. For items 2,4,6,8 and 10, the contribution is 5 minus the scale position.
Then, we multiply the sum of all scores by 2.5 to obtain the overall value of system usability. SUS scores
have a range of 0 to 100 and the scores for our artifact are described below in table 7.4.
After calculating all the scores, we calculated the average and obtained a final SUS score of 83.125.
7.1.2 Second DSRM Iteration
In order to complete the evaluation of the developed artifact, a sample of 10 entrepreneurs doing the
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program was interviewed by us. Before the interview, all the platform had
already been corrected from first DSRM iteration, and the 10 entrepreneurs were already using it in the
program. The results are described below:
• 50% of the entrepreneurs are women, 50% of the entrepreneurs are men;
• 80% of the entrepreneurs are aged between 18 and 24 years old, and 20% between 25 and 34
years old.
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S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10 SUS ScoreStudent 1 4 3 4 1 4 2 4 1 4 2 77,5Student 2 2 3 4 2 4 3 4 2 4 1 67,5Student 3 3 1 4 1 4 1 4 2 3 2 77,5Student 4 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 97,5Student 5 4 1 4 2 5 1 5 4 4 1 82,5Student 6 3 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 4 2 70Student 7 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 100Student 8 4 2 4 1 3 2 5 1 4 1 82,5Student 9 5 2 5 1 5 1 5 1 4 1 95Student 10 4 1 5 1 5 4 5 1 5 1 90Student 11 3 2 4 2 4 2 4 2 4 2 72,5Student 12 4 1 5 1 4 2 3 1 4 1 85
Table 7.4: SUS scores.
• 10% of the entrepreneurs are high school graduates, 60% of the entrepreneurs have a bachelor
degree and 30% of the entrepreneurs a masters.
• 80% of the entrepreneurs’ study field is ”Economy, Management and Accounting”, 10% of the
entrepreneurs’ study field is ”Technology” and 10% of the entrepreneurs’ study field is ”Humanities,
Secretariat and Translation”.
• 50% of the entrepreneurs had a full-time job, 30% of the entrepreneurs were students, 10% of the
entrepreneurs had a part-time job, and 10% of the entrepreneurs were self-employed.
• 90% of the entrepreneurs think that the contents displayed in FastStart course are useful and
relevant.
• 100% of the entrepreneurs think the most negative aspect in course is video edition, specifying the
sound and size of videos.
• 40% strongly agree, 50% agree and 10% neither agree nor disagree that FastStart would help
them in their business ideia.
• 100% of the entrepreneurs think that joining the FabStart Academy courses with presential men-
toring is really good and very helpful.
• 30% strongly agree, 40% agree and 30% neither agree nor disagree that FabStart Academy would
meet their needs as entrepreneurs.
• As regards the strong points of FabStart Academy, 40% of the entrepreneurs consider the us-
ability of the artifact, 30% of the entrepreneurs consider the way the content is organized, 10%
of entrepreneurs consider the step-by-step approach, 10% of entrepreneurs consider the feature
”mark as complete”, and 10% of entrepreneurs consider the feature ”submit files”.
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• In terms of the weak points of FabStart Academy, 40% of the entrepreneurs point out the usabil-
ity of the artifact, 10% of the entrepreneurs point out how the contents are edited, 10% of the
entrepreneurs consider it has too much text, 20% of the entrepreneurs point out the lack of an
introductory text in each lesson, while 20% think that FabStart Academy has no weak points.
7.2 Interview with Acceleration Manager
To complement the previous analysis and to clarify some of the retrieved results, we conducted an
interview with the ”Fabrica de Startups” Acceleration Manager, Madalena Clara. We prepared a semi-
structured interview, so the interviewee could share with us the perspective of ”Fabrica de Startups” in
this project.
Madalena Clara has a bachelor degree in management from NOVA School of Business and Eco-
nomics and a masters degree in management with major in marketing from Catolica Lisbon School
of Business and Economics. For the past 3 years she has been working as Acceleration Manager at
”Fabrica de Startups”, being responsible for managing the acceleration programs, from the relationship
with partners to the communication and operation of the programs, and for developing and implementing
new methodologies.
This year, Madalena became in charge of implementing the FabStart Academy with us at ”Fabrica de
Startups”. In her opinion, FabStart Academy, which brings a blended learning approach to ”Fabrica”’s
programs (the online and offline support to help people develop their business) achieved its main goal.
The manager says that to create a platform that supports all the programs, either as the main tool
to promote and teach entrepreneurship all around the world, or as a supporting tool to the existing
programs, giving all the content in a format participants can view and review at their own pace, was a
success.
Also, Madalena mentions that the best aspects about FabStart Academy are having good quality
content organized in a course that follows the main steps to develop and validate the business model
and the feedback system implemented, where participants can upload their work and quickly receive
direct feedback, which helps them to keep pace with the program, to keep their motivation high and to
help them with specific questions about their business. In addition, since the program is online based,
FabStart Academy helps people who want to develop their own project but want to do it in parallel with
their job, and it can also help people wherever they are located, eliminating any geographical restriction.
For ”Fabrica de Startups”, FabStart Academy is strategic to its mission of helping people become
successful entrepreneurs. Through this online tool, ”Fabrica” can spread its courses all around the
world, helping more and more people in their dream to have their own business. In addition, ”Fabrica”
can reduce its teaching time, since participants have the opportunity to learn online, which makes the
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bootcamps much more directed at each group’s project and questions.
7.3 Conclusion
To conclude, results were quite good considering the initial objectives. Despite having a small group
of entrepreneurs, most of the opinions converge with what we think the platform was constructed for.
On first DSRM iteration, usability tests showed us that only minor changes had to be made and
SUS questionnaires had really good results; considering that for a web interface the mean SUS score is
68.2 [27] and that we got an average SUS score of 83.125 (which is classified as ”Good” or as school
grade of ”B”), we can conclude that we are in the right way to the ”perfect” platform, in terms of usability.
On second DSRM iteration, through the interview process, we can clearly see that entrepreneurs
like the idea of joining the online course, which represents the old bootcamp, with presential mentoring.
Availability and easy accessibility to the content are aspects that we considered as very valuable from
the beginning, and entrepreneurs, specially those who have a full time job, confirm it.
To conclude, although we had an interview with ”Fabrica de Startups” acceleration manager, this was
not considered as a third iteration. To consider it as an iteration, we would have to make any alteration
in case something went wrong; however, due to lack of time to make further improvements, the purpose
of this interview was only to show ”Fabrica’s” point of view in our work together.
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8Conclusion
Contents
8.1 Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.2 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.3 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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The output of this research consists of a platform that allows practitioners to keep boosting their
entrepreneurship, easily accessing the contents of the acceleration program through a computer, and
improving communication between them and their mentors. The structure of this platform was designed
and developed to be easy to use and, in case of failure, the data is always saved.
Two DSRM iterations were done in the demonstration phase, as well as in the evaluation phase. In
the first demonstration of DSRM, a set of simple tasks was proposed to 12 engineering students, in
order to check all usability errors and to evaluate the quality of the interface through a satisfaction test
(System Usability Scale). In the second demonstration of DSRM, an interview was conducted with 12
entrepreneurs, which allowed all our questions concerning FabStart Academy to be answered.
8.1 Lessons Learned
During all the design and development process, the website would always crash due to cache prob-
lems. The problem was solved using a WordPress cache plugin. This had a huge impact on the platform
availability, which had been offline for several days without solution. More WordPress practice would be
needed before the beginning of the project.
While usability tests are efficient to identify new problems in a software artifact, they may also be
a source of wasted time. Only 7 out of 12 engineering students knew what an acceleration program
was. This kind of tests aim to check if the interface is correctly built, but if tests had been done with
entrepreneurs instead of students, a lot of explanation time would have been saved.
Although all the interaction between ”Fabrica de Startups”’ manager and us was constant, some
appointment dates had to be postponed due to her professional commitments. This situation had a
serious impact on our schedule, delaying all the tests, which led to new dates. A better planning would
have saved us a lot of time.
8.2 Limitations
During development, WordPress can save a lot of time since it is really intuitive and easy to work
with, but it presents restrictions as some aspects cannot be changed or customized. Some WordPress
plugins documentation is not always clear, which increases the difficulty in the development process.
Also, when using LifterLMS as the plugin to make the courses, loading videos from a localhost
to the platform becomes really slow, due to the excessive size and number of videos. Hence, the
solution encountered was to put them in a YouTube channel as a non-listed video (only visible with link
access) so as to use the platform without any problems. Another limitation of LifterLMS was the lack
of customization options, specifically in development. We could not alter the dashboard screen. Even
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using Elementor plugin to edit, LifterLMS does not allow us to change anything, so we could not align all
the members’ dashboard options vertically and take a second button that is not needed.
Figure 8.1: LifterLMS interface limitation.
Another problem we faced was having only 10 entrepreneurs participating in the program; to get bet-
ter results, a higher number of entrepreneurs would be needed. At the beginning, one FastStart program
was planned, but due to lack of enrollments it had to be postponed. To get results to complete this re-
search, interviews were done with Entrepreneur-in-residence program, following the same methodology
(FastStart) but with fewer entrepreneurs. They work with ”Fabrica de Startups” in an idea designed and
developed by them for a big Portuguese entreprise.
Lastly, mentors received entrepreneurs’ artifacts through a default e-mail, a ”Fabrica de Startups” e-
mail, which, with a bigger sample of entrepreneurs, may lead all mentoring to a state of disorganization.
As the platform was tested in an acceleration program with only 10 entrepreneurs, this problem was
mitigated naturally, but it still requires a solution in the future.
8.3 Future Work
Every section and feature of the FabStart Academy works perfectly, but in order to improve the
platform to its full potential, some features need to be added. During the design and development
process, we considered some further features to complement the initial plan, but due to the need to
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meet deadlines and also because of their complexity, these features have not been implemented yet.
They are the following:
• Chat for team members to communicate among themselves;
• Mentors’ area to better organize all the content produced by the entrepreneurs;
• Summary of the lessons in course index.
• Implement peer review system.
• Quizzes.
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AFirst Bootcamp Survey
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07/10/2018 Inquérito sobre aceleração de Startups
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjB0RfkxnlTIPI7ov4kVSSL8rCkWjVFHQ8tit-CIB50/edit 1/5
Inquérito sobre aceleração de StartupsOlá, eu sou o João Feneja aluno finalista do curso de Engenharia Informática e Computadores do Instituto Superior Técnico – Universidade de Lisboa, Campus Alameda. No âmbito da minha Tese de Mestrado, "Platform for Supporting Startup Acceleration Programs", realizo este inquérito de forma recolher o máximo de informação sobre o processo de aceleração de uma Startup.
Ao responder a este questionário está a permitir a utilização de todos os dados que nele estejam presentes, a mim, João Feneja, assim como ao meu orientador e coorientador de tese, o Professor Miguel Mira da Silva e Professor Carlos Mendes.
Todas as perguntas são de escolha múltipla e todas têm instruções específicas. Peço que as leia atentamente antes de responder e que responda da forma mais honesta possível. O questionário demora em média 5 a 10 minutos a completar. Desde já agradeço a sua colaboração.
*Obrigatório
Descrição do Empreendedor
1. Sexo? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Feminino
Masculino
2. Idade? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
<18
1830
3140
4150
>50
3. Área de Formação? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Engenharia/Informática
Gestão/Economia
Biologia/Agrononomia
Turismo
Design
Ciências Sociais
Outra:
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07/10/2018 Inquérito sobre aceleração de Startups
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjB0RfkxnlTIPI7ov4kVSSL8rCkWjVFHQ8tit-CIB50/edit 2/5
4. Grau de formação? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Ensino Secundário
Licenciatura
Mestrado
Doutoramento
Outra:
5. É o primeiro programa de aceleração que faz? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não
Conceitos
6. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é máximo, quão confortável se sentecom os conceitos: "Lean Startup" e "Customer Development"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco confortável Muito confortável
7. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o máximo, quão confortável sesente com os conceitos: "Business Model Canvas", "Value Curve" e "Empathy Map"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco confortável Muito confortável
Bibliografia
8. Já leu o livro "Lean Startup"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não Passe para a pergunta 10.
Bibliografia
9. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o máximo, quão útil achou osensinamentos dados pelo livro "Lean Startup"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco útil Muito útil
Bibliografia
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07/10/2018 Inquérito sobre aceleração de Startups
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjB0RfkxnlTIPI7ov4kVSSL8rCkWjVFHQ8tit-CIB50/edit 3/5
10. Já leu o livro "Business Model Canvas"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não Passe para a pergunta 12.
Bibliografia
11. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o máximo, quão útil achou osensinamentos dados pelo livro "Business Model Canvas"? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco Útil Muito Útil
FerramentasCaso não tenha ficado encarregue de fazer alguma das partes aqui descritas, diga qual a ferramenta que o colega responsável por tal usou.
12. Que ferramenta(s) usam/usaram para levantamento de dados? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
Google Forms
TypeForm
LimeSurvey
Formstack
Outra:
13. Que ferramenta(s) usam/usaram para comunicar? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
Skype
Slack
Email
Google Hangouts
Outra:
14. Que ferramenta(s) usam/usaram para "Cloud Storage"? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
Dropbox
Google Drive
ICloud
Tresorit
Outra:
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07/10/2018 Inquérito sobre aceleração de Startups
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjB0RfkxnlTIPI7ov4kVSSL8rCkWjVFHQ8tit-CIB50/edit 4/5
15. Que ferramenta(s) usam/usaram para fazer um "Business Model Canvas"? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
Business Model Canvas
Business Model ToolBox
LaunchPad Central
Canvanizer
Outra:
16. Que ferramenta(s) usam/usaram para fazer uma "Landing Page"? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
WordPress
Wix
LaunchGator
InstaPage
Outra:
17. Assinale em baixo quais os sites sobre empreendedorismo que visitou no decorrer desteprograma? *Marcar tudo o que for aplicável.
steveblank.com
youtube.com
strategyzer.com
leanstartupcircle.com
Outra:
Aceleração
18. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o máximo, quão útil acha umprograma de aceleração? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco útil Muito útil
19. Acha que uma plataforma online com todas as ferramentas de apoio a um programa deaceleração traria algum benefício à sua Startup? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não
Talvez
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07/10/2018 Inquérito sobre aceleração de Startups
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjB0RfkxnlTIPI7ov4kVSSL8rCkWjVFHQ8tit-CIB50/edit 5/5
Com tecnologia
20. Até quanto por mês estaria disposto a pagar pela plataforma online? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
<5€
610€
1120€
>20€
21. Acha que uma maior acessibilidade ao processo de aceleração disponível através de umaplataforma online ajudaria a trazer mais dinâmica à sua Startup? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não
Talvez
22. Qual é a probabilidade de recomendar este programa de aceleração a um amigo ou colegainteressado em criar um negócio? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0% 100%
23. Que sugestão daria para melhorar esteprograma de aceleração? *
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BEngineering Students Identification
Form
73
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07/10/2018 Identificação Demográfica
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1WjNEreMSDUvXdCz2rwY7g710rz4cOSG3gYoEVoTQBLg/edit 1/1
Com tecnologia
Identificação Demográfica*Obrigatório
Identificação
1. Sexo? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Feminino
Masculino
2. Idade? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
< 18 anos
18 30 anos
31 40 anos
41 50 anos
> 50 anos
3. Ocupação *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Desempregado
Estudante
TrabalhadorEstudante
Trabalhador
4. Grau de escolaridade? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Ensino Básico
Ensino Secundário
Licenciatura
Pósgraduação
Mestrado
Doutoramento
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CUsability Tests Script and Consent
Form
75
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Script Usability Tests
1. Prep the room Necessary equipment:
● Laptop (with Excel or Google Sheets) ● Chronometer
2. User Introduction
Good afternoon. First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to participate in our research.
We are going to present to you a platform that allows you, the user, to do an acceleration program. This session will take approximately 15 minutes but you can leave when you want.
Before beginning the session we will ask you to sign a consent form so you feel safer about being our test user and we will ask some question just to characterize the sample of our test users.
The session is straightforward. We are simply going to ask you to complete a list of tasks while exploring the app and reviewing your experience aloud as you work through the tasks. We would like you to give as much feedback as you can while you are exploring the app.
It’s really important to know that we are only testing the app, not you. You can’t do or say anything wrong here. Please let us know if there is something you like, dislike, or confuses you. There isn't any problem in sharing this information.
Do you have any questions? If not let’s get started!
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3. Pre-questionaire *Private link*
4. Test Tasks ● Regist in the platform, with the name “André”, surname “Silva”, email
“[email protected] ”, password “12345678”.
● Enroll in FastStart course.
● Go to “Business model Design Kit” lesson, download the “Business Model Canvas”
pdf and the submit it.
● Try to do “Fontes de Receita” lesson. Can you do it?
● Go to “Contacts” page and with the name “André”, email “[email protected] ”,
subject “test”, message “testing platform”, submit.
5. Data Collection Sheet (Excel sheet) *private link*
6. Observer Briefing Observer must see how many mistakes the user does while trying to complete the task
and report the mistake in the data collection sheet. Observer must control the time it takes to complete the task
7. Debrief Debrief questions:
○ What do you think of the interface?
○ What were the main difficulties you found while navigating the platform?
○ Do you have any suggestion to help improve the platform?
Thanks User.
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Informed Consent
CONSENT FORM TO
COLLECT DATA Title: FabStart Academy
You are being asked to take part in a research study of my project named FabStart
Academy. I am asking you to take part because we feel that your profile matches the user profile we are looking. Please read this form carefully and ask any questions you may have before agreeing to take part in the study.
What the study is about: The purpose of this study is to understand if our platform is
user friendly by watching you, the user, interact with her. Also, it will help us validate some of the critical tasks we had to implement.
What we will ask you to do: If you agree to be in this study, we will simply going to ask you to complete a list of tasks while exploring the app and reviewing your experience aloud as you work through the tasks. We would like you to give as much feedback as you can while you are exploring the app.
Risks and benefits: I do not anticipate any risks to you participating in this study other than those encountered in day-to-day life. There are no benefits to you.
Compensation : None
Your data will be confidential: The records of this study will be kept private. In any sort of report we make public we will not include any information that will make it possible to identify you. Research records will be kept in a locked file; only the researcher (me) will have access to the records.
Taking part is voluntary: Taking part in this study is completely voluntary. You may skip any tasks/questions that you do not want to do/answer. If you decide not to take part or to skip some of the tasks, it will not affect your life in any way. If you decide to take part, you are free to withdraw at any time.
If you have questions: The researcher conducting this study its me, João Feneja. Please ask any questions you have now. If you have questions later, you should contact João Feneja at [email protected] or at 91 *** ** **.
You will be given a copy of this form to keep for your records
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Statement of Consent: I have read the above information, and have received answers to any questions I asked. I consent to take part in the study.
Your Name (printed) __________________________________________________________
Your Signature ______________________________________ Date __________________
Name of person obtained consent (printed) _______________________________________
Signature of person obtained consent __________________________ Date ____________
This consent form will be kept by the researcher for at least three years beyond the end of the study.
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DSystem Usability Scale
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07/10/2018 System Usability Scale
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q51w6E4pTsV6wtsX65NvS4UDhQpTdhM0uPyEQmooMy4/edit 1/2
System Usability Scale*Obrigatório
1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
2. I found the system unnecessarily complex. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
3. I thought the system was easy to use. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
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07/10/2018 System Usability Scale
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q51w6E4pTsV6wtsX65NvS4UDhQpTdhM0uPyEQmooMy4/edit 2/2
Com tecnologia
7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
8. I found the system very cumbersome to use. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
9. I felt very confident using the system. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system. *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree
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EEntrepreneurs Interviews
85
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07/10/2018 Entrevista - FabStart Academy
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BNy4oIVp4ZbDU3xlhA3wJr9fM9_U1nUmSiUtLCrihp0/edit 1/4
Entrevista FabStart Academy*Obrigatório
Identificação
1. Sexo? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Feminino
Masculino
2. Idade? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
< 18 anos
18 24 anos
25 34 anos
35 44 anos
> 45 anos
3. Grau de escolaridade? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Ensino Básico
Ensino Secundário
Licenciatura
Pósgraduação
Mestrado
Doutoramento
4. Área de Estudos? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Ciências
Saúde
Tecnologias
Agricultura e Recursos Naturais
Arquitectura, Artes Plásticas e Design
Ciências da Educação e Formação de Professores
Direito, Ciências Sociais e Serviços
Economia, Gestão e Contabilidade
Humanidades, Secretariado e Tradução
Educação Física, Desporto e Artes do Espetáculo
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07/10/2018 Entrevista - FabStart Academy
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BNy4oIVp4ZbDU3xlhA3wJr9fM9_U1nUmSiUtLCrihp0/edit 2/4
5. Situação Profissional? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Estudante
Desempregado
Emprego a Tempo Parcial
Emprego Permanente
Trabalhador por Conta Própria
Aposentado
FastStart
6. Como ouviu falar do curso FastStart? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Internet
Amigos/Colegas
Fábrica de Startups
Outra:
7. O que acha dos conteúdos disponibilizados no curso? *
8. O que é que está a gostar mais no curso FastStart? *
9. O que é que está a gostar menos no curso FastStart? *
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07/10/2018 Entrevista - FabStart Academy
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BNy4oIVp4ZbDU3xlhA3wJr9fM9_U1nUmSiUtLCrihp0/edit 3/4
10. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o valor máximo, quão úteis achaque os conteúdos apresentados no curso FastStart o ajudarão no desenvolvimento da suaideia de negócio? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Pouco Úteis Muito Úteis
11. Recomendaria aos seus colegas e amigos o curso FastStart? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
Sim
Não
Talvez
FabStart Academy
12. O que acha de se juntar a formação online do curso FastStart com o mentoradopresencial? *
13. Numa escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é o valor mínimo e 5 é o valor máximo, sente que aplataforma online FabStart Academy facilita as suas necessidades de aprendizagemenquanto empreendedor? *Marcar apenas uma oval.
1 2 3 4 5
Facilita Pouco Facilita Bastante
14. Relativamente à questão anterior, porquê? *
15. O que é que está a gostar mais na plataforma FabStart Academy? *
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07/10/2018 Entrevista - FabStart Academy
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BNy4oIVp4ZbDU3xlhA3wJr9fM9_U1nUmSiUtLCrihp0/edit 4/4
Com tecnologia
16. O que é que está a gostar menos na plataforma FabStart Academy? *
17. Que sugestões dá para melhorar o funcionamento da plataforma? *
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FAcceleration Manager Interview
1- Describe briefly your academic background.
2- For how many years have you been in Fabrica de Startups?
3- Describe your main responsibilities on FabStart Academy Project.
4- In general, what you think that is the best thing about the FabStart Academy? Why?
5- In general, what you think that is the worst thing about the FabStart Academy? Why?
6- Do you think the platform (FabStart Academy) is useful to entrepreneurship? Why?
7- Do you consider the platform has a positive impact on the team’s motivation to follow the program?
Why?
8- In general, do you consider that the platform’s usage experience was positive? Why?
9- Do you think that this platform will be used in the future as a tool in Fabrica de Startups programs?
Why?
91
