Mentoring Conversations Visualized: More Data, New Discoveries

Two more mentoring sessions recorded, analyzed, and visualized! The first infographic is a conversation between an idea stage entrepreneur and a mentor. It's also a first time meeting between this particular mentor and entrepreneur. The second infographic is a conversation between an entrepreneur that's built a prototype and a mentor. The entrepreneur and mentor depicted conversing in the second infographic have been meeting for several months now and have an established relationship.

Idea Stage Entrepreneur

Prototype Stage Entrepreneur

When comparing these two conversations with the first mentoring conversation I visualized, which was a first time meeting between an idea stage entrepreneur and mentor, the similarities are mostly in how the conversations begin. The entrepreneur has to bring the mentor up to speed about what he or she has been doing for the past month or so before the mentor can provide any strategic advice. This part of the conversation is highlighted in burgundy. Furthermore, another similarity is the total amount of time taken up by current/past strategy. It takes a significant portion of the mentoring session to bring the mentor up to speed on what the entrepreneur has been doing and is currently doing. I do not yet know if it's good or bad that it takes somewhere between 10 - 15 minutes to discuss current/past strategies.

One noticeable difference between these two mentoring sessions and the first mentoring session is the amount of questions asked by the mentor from the first mentoring conversation. I think the difference in the amount of questions asked has to do with the mentoring/advising style of the mentor.

The part I'm still struggling to figure out is how to measure an effective mentoring/advising conversation. Looking at the infographics, I'm not yet sure I can see or point to markers that comprise an effective mentoring conversation.

Even if I can't figure out how to measure an effective mentoring/advising conversation, implementing a prototype will show one of three things: positive deviation from the norm, no deviation from the norm, or negative deviation from the norm. A positive deviation will be when a prototype aids in facilitating knowledge transfer. No deviation will be when the prototype did just as well as there being no prototype implemented into the conversation. Negative deviation is when the prototype hinders knowledge transfer from mentor to entrepreneur. In other words, designing a prototype for these conversations will either lead to something good, something bad, or absolutely nothing...

You can see one possible prototype here, or another prototype here.

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Design Research: The IDEO Way

The design firm IDEO has been leading the market for the past decade or so. They've perfected their design research methodology and gained a unique position in their market (http://www.businesslistening.com/ideo-product-innovation.php). Design research picks up the ball where conventional research methods fail. Traditional methods compare new ideas to those of the past, and accordingly, it filters out the truly revolutionary and disruptive ideas. These are the ideas that cannot have their economic values directly measured because nothing else like it appears in the market place. I'm assuming most people have heard of conventional research methods like focus groups, data mining, trend analysis, etc. So I'll jump right into the nitty gritty of design research.

Design research insists that the entire group, from engineer to marketer to manufacturer, become intuitively understanding of the product or service being provided. This research process involves the entire group in the brainstorming session. This inclusive methodology paves the way for a holistic perspective and approach to the development process of the product or service (http://www.businesslistening.com/ideo-brainstorming.php). I think the common vocabulary built up by the group during these brainstorming sessions actualizes a lens for the research to be filtered through. The design research that's undertaken will then fall into three categories: generative, evaluative or formative, and predictive (Informing Our Intuition: Design Research For Radical Innovation by Jane Fulton Suri).

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Generative design research involves looking to the world around oneself in order to find experiences, patterns, and opportunities that are conducive to innovation. For example, Jane Fulton Suri observes the thoughtless acts people perform in their day-to-day life. She observes the group conformity of placing empty paper cups on a counter only because a few others have conveniently left their cup. Walking along a line on a sidewalk and wrapping our tea bag strings around a cup handle are thoughtless acts that spark innovative opportunities (Thoughtless Acts by Jane Fulton Suri, see also: http://www.thoughtlessacts.com/). Evaluative or formative design research is the continual learning that goes on throughout the entire scope of the project. As new information pours in while the group brainstorms, prototypes, and observes, remaining open to this new information furthers the holistic understanding. Evaluative research can be done in tandem with or sequentially between generative and predictive research. It creates a constant flow between different research methods. Predictive design research considers the business viability of the product or service. If the product or service is truly disruptive, it probably doesn't have a predefined market. This means that “there is tremendous pressure to provide estimates of business potential to guide decision making” regarding the innovation (Informing … Innovation by Suri). The innovation's potential will become clearer as the development team undergoes several iterations of prototypes. The information learned about the deliverable should then be used to further refine the groups intuition. This sets the group on its next iteration of the design process (Figure 1).

IDEO and similar design firms have been destigmatizing intuition as a reliable innovative tool. As undirected as intuition would seem to be appear, it is supported by design research and funneled by the common vocabulary of the group.

Figure 1: Courtesy of MiD (http://mid.uarts.edu/program/process).


You may also enjoy reading:

• Reflections on Design Research: Framing the Problem, Part 2
• Reflections on Design Research: Framing the Problem
• Simulating the Future of Political and Cultural Forces
• Creativity: Combining and Recombining
• Persuasive Technologies and the Spectrum of Responsibility: A Metaphysical Exploration of the Ethical Capacity of Computers
• From Neuroscience and Philosophy to Design: Some Thoughts on Thinking and Solving
• The Shopping Mall and The Design Process
• Explaining Design to Non-Designers
• Revisiting Design's Value to Business
• Design vs Business: What Value Does Design Add to Business?
• Design Research: The IDEO Way
• Fourth Order Design: The Underlying Structure of Communities and Moral Obligations of Designers