Show your students there are plenty of entrepreneurship opportunities in their everyday lives!

In the video above, Jennifer explains her exercise for helping students identify opportunities!

This exercise will help your students:

• Find entrepreneurial opportunities through the eyes of current startups
• Learn to pay close attention to the world around them
• See their daily experiences through an entrepreneurial lens

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This article is a collaboration with Jennifer Capps, the Director of Student Learning and Faculty Development for NC State Entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University.

Jennifer developed this exercise for interdisciplinary entrepreneurial thinkers at any level. It can be easily adjusted in terms of difficulty and lessons learned to meet the needs of undergraduate or graduate students, business or humanities students, scientists or artists, etc. Jennifer has used this exercise successfully with groups ranging from 20-100 participants.

Jennifer’s complete lesson plan is available to download below, but here’s an overview.

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Round 1: Identify

Randomly assign your students into groups of 3-4, provide them a photo of an everyday scene, like these:

You want to give the same photos to multiple groups – ideally each picture has at least 3 groups working with it. With photos in hand, give the groups the following assignment:

Based on the image that has been provided to your team, conduct a brief 3-4 minute search to identify at least 3 interesting entrepreneurial ventures that have a product or service that is impacting your given scene.

You want students looking for things that exist that relate to the scene in the photograph. For instance, in a wedding scene, you want them talking about Zola, Vow to Be Chic, etc.

Students will feel a bit lost. Encourage them to just get started – express a sense of urgency!

Round 1: Present and Discuss

Have each group show their picture and quickly present the companies they found and the pain/problem those companies are solving. Write the companies on a board or a slide, categorized by the image.

Groups looking at the same image will inevitably overlap the companies they found. They’ve done a quick Google search (“startups in the wedding industry”) and selected the top results that seemed to match.

The aha moment happens when the 2nd or 3rd team waiting to present on an image keeps hearing the same companies that they found. They realize they didn’t dig deep enough – encourage them to share this.

Possible discussion points:

• What differentiates a non-entrepreneurial company from an entrepreneurial company
• Are students presenting a solution or a pain/problem?
• How deep did you actually go in terms of seeking out entrepreneurial opportunities in your scene?
• How much time did you spend critically thinking about this concept versus just trying to get the assignment done?
• How could you push yourself to go further?
• How to put a fresh twist on ideas that already exist in the marketplace

Check out Jennifer’s lesson plan below for full details!

Round 2: Identify

Give students a second chance. Tell them they will do the exact same thing, but that every company and pain/problem that was brought up in Round 1 is off limits. Encourage your students to not restrict themselves to just the image they are seeing. Encourage them to think about what went into creating that image – what had to happen to make whatever is happening in that image happen, etc. Encourage them to focus on what’s going on in the background, to think about what will happen next after that photo.

The goal is for students to learn to expand the way they think about opportunities in the world around them. And also to learn that opportunities grow when they move beyond the easy answers that are right in front of their nose.

Round 2 Present and Debrief

Have each group show their picture and quickly present the companies they found and the pain/problem those companies are solving. Write the companies on a board or a slide, categorized by the image.

Contrast how much more creative and impactful these ideas are than those from Round 1. 

Also point out how much stronger the students were in their critical thinking when they’re encouraged to go beyond their comfort zone and not take the easy path.

Specific questions to consider asking:

• During round 1, how easy/difficult did you find the opportunity identification process? Why?
• When you heard all of the round 1 pain points/entrepreneurial ventures, how do you feel that your ideas compared to others? Why?
• Did you originally navigate to the more obvious options in your image or did you naturally apply a deeper level of critical thinking?
• When you were told to perform the activity again with the stated restrictions, how did you feel? Why? (some common reactions tend to be scared, intimidated, excited, challenged, and overwhelmed)
• How easy/difficult did you find round 2? Why?
• Once you were told to look beyond the exact image that you were given, what did you learn? How can this lesson translate to your everyday life as an entrepreneurial thinker?

Key Takeaways

Through this exercise, students will learn to see opportunities all around them! They will also see that thinking deeper and more critically is not as difficult as they thought. Some student reflections from Jennifer’s class:

“Even if a company currently exists similar to your idea, rather than abandoning it you should dig deeper and find what they’re missing.”

 

“The Image Insights Activity that was conducted during one of our class periods, completely changed my perspective. During this activity, each group was asked to look at an image of something ordinary in everyday life and think of three startup businesses that have thrived due to this scene. My group was told to look at an image of people walking through an airport. Within this one image we were able to research companies that dealt with issues along the lines of traveling, packing, a place to stay, better service on planes and within the airport itself, etc. Because of this activity, I was made aware that if you look deeper, you can find a startup in almost anything that shapes our everyday lives.”

Get the “Image Insights” Opportunity Identification Lesson Plan

We’ve created a detailed lesson plan for the “Image Insights” Opportunity Identification exercise to walk you, and your students through the process, step-by-step.

Click here for the lesson plan  

It’s free for any/all entrepreneurship teachers, so you’re welcome to share it.

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