Four steps towards your Spring idea

• Focus on your interests: What kind of things are you interested in and what do you want to make an impact on?
• Utilize your skills: What kind of skills and strengths do you have in your team? Are you able to utilize them in finding your idea and method of implementation?
• Look for opportunities: Where do you see potential for improvement, new initiatives, or new ways of doing things? Could something already existing be done in a better or different way?
• Recognize problems: Which problems in your own lives, family, community, school, or close environment need solving?
• Approach ideation from different points of view: What kind of things do you want to change? Whose life do you want to impact? What kind of needs, wishes, and challenges do different groups of people have? These persons are called representatives of your target group.
• Look into the future: What kind of things might be relevant 5 or 10 years from now? What kind of things do you want to be changing?

You can utilize the comprehensive Spring inspirational library, where we have compiled different contemporary topics and themes, to support your ideation. Remember to discuss as a team, as each team member carries unique views. By discussing within the team, you’ll find a purposeful and insightful idea.

We’ve compiled a few different tools you can utilize in order to find an idea.

• Brainstorming: Gather with the team and bring forward all the ideas you have in mind without any filters. The ideas and views of each team members are valuable.
• Mindmap: Start the ideation with one word or theme and expand it in different directions, combining thoughts and sub-themes.
• Research your environment: Explore the environment close to you, like school, leisure surroundings and hobbies, the city, or nature. Think about how you could improve these environments.
• Inspiration from innovations: Explore together what kind of other ideas, innovations, initiatives, or inventions you could apply to your own idea.
• Analyze people: Create profiles of people, whose life your idea will impact. Think about what these persons appreciate, what they dream of, and what challenges they face.
• Envision a better world: Imagine and describe a better world, according to you. What kind of things are needed to realize this better world? How would your idea further the shaping of such a better world?

• Summarize the idea in one sentence: Start by defining your idea with one sentence. This will help you focus on the core of the idea.
• Explain the background: Why did you choose this idea? Is it a solution to a problem, an answer to a need, or have you recognized an unidentified opportunity? You can also tell a short story about how you came up with the idea or how it could affect the life of someone.
• Explain the operating principle: How does your idea work in practice?
• Name your target group: Who is your idea meant for? Whom does it benefit the most? Motivate your choices.
• Ask for feedback: When you’ve clarified your idea, explain it to others and ask for feedback. You can also look for response from your target group representatives, if possible.
• Idea impact: What kind of impact does your idea have on your community, school, or environment? What kind of positive change can it result in? Where do you see your idea in five years from now?

Motivating is a central part of clarifying the idea. It will help you understand why you’ve come to a certain decision or direction. After each answer you can reflect over the question “why”, and thus gain a deeper understanding of the core of the idea.

We’ve compiled various tools which you may use to clarify your idea

• Elevator pitch: Create a short, one minute, presentation of your idea. The pitch should answer the questions what you do, why you do, who you do to, and how you do it. You’ll find good examples from Youtube with search words such as “Elevator pitch” or “Sales pitch”.
• Utilizing artificial intelligence: Discuss your idea with for example ChatGPT or other AI tools. Present your idea in writing and request response and questions.
• Using a design tool: If you would like to form a broader perspective of your idea, you can utilize visual tools used in planning business strategies. Examples of these are the “Business Model Canvas” and “Lean Canvas”. Make sure to reserve enough time for using these tools, as they advance your idea comprehensively.

• • Focus: The idea doesn’t have to be everything for everyone. Confining the idea and its’ scope helps you focus on the essentials and making it feasible. It will also help you understand the possibilities of the idea and the challenges included.

• • Identifying the problem: At an early stage it’s more important to identify the problem or need than to create something concrete. If the idea doesn’t solve a problem or answer a need, there might not be a target group for it.

• • Small and large ideas: Ideas can be small or large. Even a small idea can lead to large-scale change or impact. “Start small and dream big” is a good starting point.
  • Different scales: The idea doesn’t have to solve the largest issues in the world in order to be purposeful. Sometimes smaller and local problems can be as important and impactful.

We’ve compiled different tools that you can use for developing and confining the idea.

• Exchange roles: Each team member takes on a different role for a while and thinks about the new perspectives it brings to the idea.
• SWOT-analysis: Analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of your idea.
• Prototype: Create the simplest design of your idea and test it. This will help you comprehend the idea and its’ core even better. The prototype can be for example a drawing, website, design of a website, or poster.
• Market research: Find out if there’s a true need for your idea. This can be done by researching existing ideas (google your idea and look at the existing results), target group interviews, or surveys.
• User testing: Test your idea with representatives of your target group. Doing this will provide you with feedback and understanding of how the idea meets their needs. You can and should test throughout the different stages of the design process. Testing an unfinished idea at an early stage is useful and will help you in development.
• Expert interviews: Discuss your idea with experts suitable for your theme. Their opinions and experiences can offer valuable insights.

Below you can examine the questions asked in the Spring application form. Besides these the form will ask you for the format of your application and contact information. Keep in mind that an excellent application includes motivations to your answers, as well as answers to the asked questions.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR IDEA

Name of the idea

At this stage a working title is enough. You can change the name later on.

Your idea in one sentence

Summarize your idea in one sentence, that explains what you do and who’s your target audience. An example: “A mobile application, which connects lonely elderly people and volunteers.”

Describe your idea more thoroughly

Describe your idea and tell us more thoroughly what you do, why you do it, who you do it for, and how your idea works in practice.

THE PROBLEM

Which problem does your idea solve?

Ideas are usually solutions to problems. Explain which problem your idea strives to solve. If you’ve found an unidentified opportunity, describe it here.

Who has got this problem?

Tell us whose life would your idea improve. What is the target group for your idea?

THE TEAM

Why do you want to advance this idea in particular?

Tell us why this idea is important to you.

What makes your team the best one to develop this idea?

Describe the competences of your team members. What are your strengths you can use in implementing the idea? What kind of help do you need?

Concise arguments are an essential part of the application. Motivating your choices helps you understand why you’ve taken a certain decision or direction. The arguments can be based on experiences, observations, or research. When using research and data or concrete examples, you showcase that you’ve studied your theme in depth. Keep in mind that a well-motivated idea can stand out in the crowd and convince the jury of the purposefulness and implementation of your idea.

• Examine the application form and its’ questions: After familiarizing with the questions you will know how to reflect over and describe your idea from the perspective that the application seeks.
• Be clear and concise: Avoid unnecessary jargon and complicated sentences.
• Ask for feedback: Before you submit your application, ask your team members or other trustworthy persons to read through it and give you feedback.