![four stages - From crumbled paper to paper airplane](/media/joblhsei/matt-ridley-mmghe5h0_u4-unsplash.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=570&height=260&rnd=133657638775570000)
Photo by Matt Ridley on Unsplash
The journey from a great product or service idea to market success is full of challenges that need both innovative thinking and strong business skills. Businesses often realise they lack specialised knowledge to shape and develop an idea effectively.
Nightingale Design Research has worked with a wide range of accelerators, incubators, startups and established companies such as STEAMhouse, Medilink, LEGO and the NHS to upskill teams and provide frameworks and processes through tailored learning sessions, interactive workshops and mentoring. We can support your team to fill in existing knowledge gaps and put your business on the path to success by driving innovation and improving product development outcomes.
Tailored learning packages
Understanding that each business is unique, with its own set of challenges and opportunities, our training approach is not one-size-fits-all but is customised to address the specific needs of your company.
Training can be delivered as a one-off session for a particular team, to introduce concepts and frameworks and to set them up with the right tools to take a project forward independently, or it can form an ongoing process of support to upskill individuals and teams and provide them with a solid foundation of knowledge.
We work with you to understand your current situation and what you’re trying to achieve. Based on this understanding we identify the types of training that your team needs so that they can hit the ground running and deliver a fast-moving, lean and efficient innovation project. By tailoring training packages to your unique requirements, we ensure that the training is relevant, effective, and impactful.
Design research training
Design research is a vital innovation tool. It allows teams to understand the market, potential and existing customers and the ecosystem in which a product or service will function as well as providing tools to develop strong business models and business plans. Our design research training can provide your team with the skills they need to tackle a specific project, such as understanding the needs of customers or scoping a new market, or it can provide more complex, high-level expertise and knowledge, allowing your team to take a strategic approach to research and new product development.
Corporate innovation training
Innovation training will equip your team with a framework for ideating new products and services and provide tools for assessing the strength and viability of the team's ideas. This training will draw on Nightingale’s extensive experience of supporting a wide range of organisations such as the NHS, the Department for Education, LEGO, Commify and startups to deliver successful, market-ready innovations. Through case studies and practical exercises, the training will explore the mindset, skills, process and frameworks that organisations need to set solid foundations for growth through innovation.
Each session is shaped to meet your team’s needs, but the broad subjects covered include:
- Understanding innovation, including drivers, barriers and dangers
- Setting goals for successful innovation
- How to use research to identify and assess opportunity spaces
- How to carry out and analyse research
- How to use research insights to identify and develop ideas with potential
- How to use research to build a business case for innovation
- How to scope an innovation project effectively
- How to create an effective research specification
These sessions are designed to support a culture of innovation within your company, providing your team the tools and methodologies they need to improve product and service development outcomes.
Mentoring
Mentoring is one-on-one guidance that can help your business avoid common pitfalls and find new opportunities. Whether your business models need to be refined or you want to accelerate growth by identifying new market opportunities, Nightingale will provide the expertise and support necessary to achieve these goals. Through personalised advice we can help you navigate challenges, optimise your strategies, test your assumptions and ultimately drive your business towards the set goals. This offer is especially effective for new founders who are examining opportunities and tackling the difficulties of setting up a new business.
Free learning and training resources
Our team has developed a range of free resources that you can use to support your research and innovation processes, including a business case template and guidebook, a research planning canvas, a participant recruitment guide and webinars covering a variety of different topics.