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RefinementToolkitBringing your solution to the next level

The Early Childhood Innovation Prize

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Why this toolkit?First of all: CONGRATULATIONS, you’re now a part of the Early Childhood Innovation Prize community – we’re excited to support you through the refinement of your concept!

We’ve been running Challenges like this for over six years, and we want to share some helpful tips and examples from past OpenIDEO Challenges to help you further develop your solution. We understand that every solution is in different stages of development, so we encourage you to take from this toolkit what’s most relevant to you. In the upcoming weeks, we’re looking forward to seeing how you might use the resources offered to narrow your focus, improve your solution with feedback and iterate beyond what you’ve been working on. In this toolkit you’ll find insights on how to:

• Set Yourself Up for Success

• Format with Clarity

• Develop Experience Maps

• Prototype a Small Piece

• Gather Feedback

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Set Yourself Up for SuccessInsights from the informational Prize webinar

We really enjoyed getting to know some of you in our informational webinar! Here are some tips based on questions you asked us during the webinar:

• Submit early: The earlier the better! You can always update your submission if you don’t feel good about it.

• Refine your idea and incorporate feedback: What have you learned from your users and fellow community members? Use these insights to optimize your solution. We’ve seen the most successful innovations come from deeply and uniquely understanding the needs of end users.

• Prototype or test with an end user: We’ll talk more about why and how on page X of this toolkit.

• Review and align with Evaluation Criteria: Make sure your solution is fully aligned with the criteria in order to increase your chances to win!

• Leverage design resources shared in the Prize: We’ve created a couple of toolkits to support you in your design process. Check out the Localization Toolkit, the Storytelling Toolkit, The User Experience Maps + Gathering Feedback Toolkit and the Prototyping Toolkit for more insights.

• Ask questions: Our Community Management team is here to help. Seriously. Don’t even worry about whether your question is silly.

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Format with Clarity

Long Term Ed Insurance View here! UnBroke View here!

Think about how your solution will communicate if someone only had a few minutes to read through it. Use the tips below to clearly format and present your solution before the Final Feedback Phase.

1. Highlight key areas of your solution by using bold subtitles and headings.

2. Keep descriptions concise by adding supplemental material as attachments or with links to external docs.

3. Use visuals to support your descriptions. Insert key images to help tell your story.

4. Be concrete with your language, and use numbers and site research when applicable. Avoid jargon and quickly get to the heart of what you’re doing. Remember: most readers will have little context for your idea.

Examples From Past Challenges:

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Develop Experience MapsIf you haven’t already done so, get visual and make sure you explain your solution in a way that puts your users at the center of your design process by creating an Experience Map.

The Experience Map will help us understand who you’re designing for and how your target audience will experience what you’re proposing during key moments of your solution.

1. Use the User the Experience Map & Feedback Toolkit as a starting point.

2. Bring your creative air. Experience Maps come in different shapes. Think storyboards, photo narratives, animations, and more-whatever communicates your solution best.

Vykarious View here!

Examples From Past Challenges: (Both have notable user journeys)

Biogas-Powered Milk Chiller View here!

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Prototype a Small PieceThe Refinement Phase is an opportunity to test assumptions and answer questions about how well your solution will meet the needs of real users in the United States. We encourage you to narrow the scope and focus on testing a small piece of what’s being proposed.

Prototyping is a method of testing new ideas that decreases development time and cost by prioritizing early user feedback.

1. Identify questions you want to answer about your solution. The Localization Toolkit can help you identify questions if you’re not based in the United States.

2. Determine what’s the best way to create a simple prototype by using the Prototyping Toolkit.

3. Document your prototype and share it with us!

Fighting Ebola View here! Women’s Safety View here!

Examples From Past Challenges: (Both are prototyping examples)

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Markit Opportunity View here! Women’s Safety View here!

Examples From Past Challenges:

Gather FeedbackNow that you’ve built and tested your prototypes, let’s talk about how to integrate feedback in a way that optimizes your solution and how to share your insights with the broader community.

The Refinement Phase is a valuable time to learn what works and what doesn’t. We’re looking forward to how you might integrate feedback to improve your solution.

1. Use the tips and methods in the User Experience and Feedback Toolkit to gather feedback.

2. Share key learnings from the feedback you’ve collected with the community. Identify next steps and opportunities for improvement.

Consider reaching out to other challenge participants with relevant expertise. They might have insights that can help you, or maybe you can even team up with them!

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Submit to the Prize

Good Luck!