Innovation at the speed of *PUNCH*

I am a sucker for innovation! So some weeks ago, when a friend of mine Alexander Schiller gave me a heads up, I signed up for PunchOut.Tech - or POT for short. POT is a lean innovation program by Founders Fight Club who make a bold claim: In 7 weeks we would go from nothing to “Product/Market Fit” (for the uninitiated: product market fit is the stage within a product design cycle, at which a product satisfies a strong market demand - it is the holy grail of any innovation process. Maybe not as elusive, but just as valuable.).

I had been helping to build the innovation team at my current employer for more than a year now and was doubtful of that claim - especially, since it was to be done in our free time. Boy, was I wrong… but first things first…

PunchOut-whatnow?

What is POT? POT is a multi-week - let's call it - workshop, where random people use lean innovation to develop a product idea inspired by a given topic. The stage for it was a multitude of different tools, that we were offered to use at our own behest: A discord server which will soon be open to the public (frolicking in the world of innovation is the mojo there), an online meeting platform called on Remo for our weekly impulse, as well as social and “office” meetings to name a few.

The cast (a.k.a. Players) were an assembly of 15-odd people from different locations, with diverse backgrounds and one thing in common: loads of personal interest in innovation.

The topics (a.k.a. Challenges) that we were to work on were posted by sponsors (a.k.a. Challengers ) of the event. The idea is to give the players a rough idea and see what they come up with. Rather than just setting guidelines according to Challenger's corporate requirements. Examples for these Challenges this time were: “Find a way to make hybrid-work-life easier”, “What could improve urban living conditions” or “Find a way to create a more immersive language learning experience”. All of this is then also funded by an organisation that sponsors the entire event - in this case my old hometown Stadt Mainz. So how was this supposed to work?

Enter: The big guy with the beard

I’m not referring to the son of a deity here, at least not that I know of... Our chief mentor for these past weeks was Jan Küster, Founder and Director at Founders Fight Club. Each Monday he inspired us with an impulse presentation on that week's topic. Ideation, persona design, prototyping and so forth.?

After this impulse we were given an on topic assignment for the week: “Complete a persona design”, “Develop a prototype” or “Create a pitch video”. Organisation within the teams was left to ourselves. Jan and the Challengers were ready and helpful to assist with any questions and market insights they might be having. And more importantly, they offered their networks for validation purposes.

So how did it go?

As stated in the intro, I was quite skeptical with the ambitious goal, especially “as a hobby” in this timeline. I am not going to tell you it was easy to juggle a full-time job, a private life and PunchOut.Tech at any time. One will have to invest 2 to 3 evenings and/or the odd day on the weekend, if one wants to really make a dent here. It was in week 4 (Prototyping) when I realised “Hey, this might be going somewhere!”.?

I was working on a challenge regarding financial education with a friend of mine Michael Giese and Bastian Bursch. I had just met Basti two weeks into the program, but we three just gelled really well. We had finished building a prototype on Figma and wanted to record a pitch video to give it a little more depth. After looking at the result (you can watch the German video here, if you’re interested: https://youtu.be/DXdgagIar9I), I was astonished at how far one can come within four weeks in just one's free time. Moving into validation with this video flabbergasted me even more. We were getting real engagement and very valuable feedback - not only from our inner circle. We can now use this feedback to push forward…?

What was it all good for?

We were able to participate in the Founders Fight Night, which was to happen shortly after POT ended. Three POT teams and three startups from Mainz would enter the ring. The Fight Night is a pitch competition where two startups pitch against one another and take each other's business models apart. While this sounds rough, it is very useful: gloves off feedback coming from someone who isn’t afraid to tell you your baby is ugly - and then some. While we didn’t win this competition, another POT Challenge did: Dare2Share! They have an amazing proposition and I am looking forward to seeing where they are going.?And all of this after just 7 weeks!

My key take-aways are:

1. Less talking more action! What drove us to where we now are wasn’t an ultra refined strategy, but an impulse and a week-end goal that had to be completed or we were out. So get going!
2. Get out there as soon as possible! While we didn’t approach the “market” until after we built the prototype(I would suggest problem validation as well), I felt incredibly awed by the helpfulness of just random people. If they feel you want to create value for them, they’ll tel you how.
3. If you’re looking for dedicated people, don’t make it easy. I think the cohort of players (and even challengers) was pared down 50% after the first two weeks. What was left were the ones, who were intrinsically motivated to push forward - even if it meant pulling another couple of hours per week.?

It is refreshing to see theory in action - and be rewarded! I was humbled by the results the other teams and us have been able to generate and I am really happy to have been able to hustle alongside so many interesting and dedicated people!?

Did we reach product market fit? Probably not. Did we push the envelope on what I thought was possible in the time given? Hell YES!

Leaves me to say: I had a blast and highly recommend this event to anyone who wants to workout the lean innovation muscle! Thank you, Jan! Thanks you, Stadt Mainz! Thank you for the heads up, Alex! And a heartfelt thank you to all the participants, who made these past weeks so great!

Now Basti and Micha, back to the whiteboard and see where we can take “Lerne Freiheit”...

PS: Organisations can book this format including the big guy and his beard to conduct PunchOut.Tech for them. If you are looking for some outside sweat equity to build your ventures, this might be for you!?