boOst Innovation Sprint

In many study programs, the fundamentals of entrepreneurship are taught – however, what is often missing is practical experience in turning real-world challenges into viable and sustainable business ideas.

The new module “boOst Innovation Sprint: From Problem to Prototype and Pitch in 5 Days” addresses exactly this gap. In cooperation with the Start-up Factory boOst, students work on concrete challenges provided by practice partners and directly apply innovative methods to real-world cases.

Over five consecutive days, participants develop solutions to real entrepreneurial challenges in interdisciplinary teams. The aim is to create customer- and user-centered business ideas using entrepreneurial thinking and innovative methods – always taking into account the triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental dimensions).

The innovation process is based on modern entrepreneurship and design thinking approaches. Students learn, among other things:

•  how to consider economic, social, and ecological interrelationships in an integrated way,
• how to use an ecosystem map to identify relevant stakeholders, potential customers, and key relationships and value flows,
• how to conduct qualitative empathy research (e.g., interviews, observation, and immersion) to understand real user perspectives,
• how to systematically synthesize insights and translate them into opportunities for sustainable innovation,
• how ideas emerge from a clearly formulated “How might we…?” question, are prioritized, and prototyped,
• how prototypes are tested, iterated, and further developed with potential customers and users,
• and how initial assumptions about a possible business model can be derived.

At the end of the sprint, the teams prepare a pitch of their developed business idea using storytelling elements and present it to the group, the practice partner, and, if applicable, external guests.