MKT 309 Fall innovation project: the Forge

There are 18 sections of this required class for Bryan School majors this semester, so there's a good chance we might get some ref desk traffic from some of the students. The students often get overwhelmed given the excessive SLOs and markers for this class now. But students are always welcome to contact me (Steve) directly too. I will be visiting all the on-campus sections and will work with the online classes too.

http://uncg.libguides.com/mkt309 (still customizing for this semester)

Below are the main specs for the assignment. Some of the instructors will handle the project differently (a bit of a minefield I have to navigate), but likely research needs include:

• Benchmarking similar makerspaces via article searching, Google searching, and looking at IRS 990 forms for nonprofits. 
• Brainstorming (could be primary or secondary research) unique product categories that could be made at the Forge but don't require mass production or inventory.
• Measuring market demand (best bet is the ample psychographic data in SimplyAnalytics, but proxy data will often need to be used there). Might require creating a survey on their own too, example "how much would you be willing to spend on this product".

Students are supposed to have toured the Forge, and have access to several long video interviews with Joe Rotondi, the manager (I know Joe, he took my ENT 530 class a few years ago).

--Steve

FORGE GREENSBORO https://www.forgegreensboro.org/ 

INNOVATION PROJECT SCOPE - DRAFT

Background

Forge Greensboro, or The Forge, is a nonprofit organization that provides ideas, equipment, tools, training, knowledge, and community through a collaborative workspace known as a makerspace.  Artisans, entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, and tinkerers pay a monthly fee to access The Forge’s space and resources, so they can learn about and make items out of wood, metal, resin, fabric, ceramics and almost any material.

The Innovation Need

As part of its mission, The Forge seeks to improve economic opportunities for the unemployed or underemployed in Greensboro. The organization would like to train these individuals on using its tools and equipment to develop valuable hands-on skills for work in local industries. Because these individuals have little to no income, the training program would pay them a modest wage of about $15/hour while they learn to make a particular item. For the program to be financially self-sustaining, the item would be sold to generate their wages.

The innovation need specifically is to identify the 1) single product that the trainees can be taught to make, and 2) the specific high interest market or buyers for that product. In other words, the innovation would be a matching product-market solution for The Forge. Neither a product without a viable market nor a market without a viable product would be an innovation. Both product and market must be a strong match to one another.

Project Considerations

Some considerations in designing an innovation solution are below:

·         About six trainees at a time would go through the program

·         The program would last up to three months

·         Trainees are without transportation and would walk to The Forge

·         The product must be makeable with The Forge’s available tools, equipment, space, and resources

·         The product may be sold to consumers (B2C) or for businesses (B2B)

·         Training would be provided by The Forge’s staff and volunteers

·         The market can be local (e.g. sold in Greensboro outlets or to businesses) and/or non-local (e.g. sold over the Internet and shipped to other states or even countries)

·         Identifying the product means specifying what it is, what it does, what it is made of, and how it is designed, manufactured, and assembled

·         Identifying the market means specifying who the market is (demographics), where it is (geographics), what level and nature of demand it has, and why this market wants this product (value selling proposition)

·         The fact that the product is made by the homeless or unemployed may appeal to socially conscious buyers, and can be considered in identifying the target market

·         Distribution, financing, and other operational matters are excluded from consideration

·         The product must match the market and vice versa. A terrific product but no market is not a solution. A wonderful market but not a compelling saleable product for a specified market is also not a solution.

Other:

·         Students have only one semester to do the project

·         Students are not engineers but business students in a variety of majors such as accounting

·         Students are learning business communications concurrently with innovation

·         Students are asked to create a rough or low fidelity, not a full working, prototype of the product-market solution by the end of the semester

·         Students work in virtual or f2f teams to deliver a project report, video presentation, and prototype

·         The organization is responsible for determining which innovation is appropriate and implementable after receiving the student deliverables