Sketchin
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Design Thinking for the entrepreneurs of the future

Together with Eni, we co-created an innovative training program dedicated to fostering the Italian entrepreneurial landscape.

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Together with Eni, we co-created an innovative training program dedicated to fostering the Italian entrepreneurial landscape.

Industry

Energy & Utilities

Year

2019

Client

Eni

Services

An new journey at the service of the next italian entrepreneurship

Eni asked us to co-create together a new training program dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs, bringing its know-how as a multinational company.

Through a Design Thinking approach, the structure of an innovative training program aimed at startuppers, young entrepreneurs and aspiring ones has been defined. In fact, in order to design an unprecedented course, Eni decided to adopt a new approach to the project and a new methodology based on user research, allowing the identification of a specific target and a clear value proposition.

 

Two parallel training courses have been defined: one with a hybrid training approach consisting of both online and offline components; the other with a full distance approach. Both had the aim of offering new and highly engaging training experiences.

Moreover, the collaboration between Eni and Sketchin allowed the adoption of a new design methodology and new co-creation practices to guide the innovation processes within the teams.

parallel training courses
Two
Eni units involved
14

New ways of working for collaboration and co-creation

Large companies are often structured in silos, where the different entities don't communicate with each other or they speak a different language. The collaboration and open dialogue among the teams involved have been a fundamental factor for the definition and success of the project. 

Fostering collaboration among teams with different skills and roles through the adoption and practice of a new methodology has allowed to find new ways for constructive exchanges, thanks to a peer-to-peer dialogue. 

Co-creation through a new method of working was the foundation that supported the generation of ideas and allowed the success of a new and innovative training program.

Collaboration and confrontation between teams

Mastery and adoption of the design methodology

The new approach to the project has allowed Eni to get in touch and tune in with an ecosystem that was distant from them: the one of young entrepreneurs, startups and lean approach. The strong mastery of the Design Thinking methodology has allowed the teams not to start from the mediated problem solutions, but to investigate and analyze what exactly the problems were.

Through a consolidated but versatile meta-design, it has been possible to define the project challenge, to identify the focus target on which to work, and to bring out the relevant research insights that helped define a transparent value proposition for the project, which served as the foundation for the structure of the whole training program, both content-wise and methodology-wise.

Three archetypes defining the target audience identified

Investigating the real needs of the users

Qualitative research focused on the specific targets allowed an understanding of the real needs of the end user within the work teams. It has helped define with transparency the needs, motivations and problems related to the design of the end-to-end experience.

Wireframe on paper, for understanding the needs of the end user
Dialogue with potential users in the qualitative research phase

Joule Networking Lab at Castel Gandolfo

In order to further validate the project ideas, the Joule Networking Lab was organized at the historic Eni headquarters in Castel Gandolfo: a workshop with testing purposes that saw the involvement of about twenty young aspiring entrepreneurs. The initiative, which also saw the contribution of other Eni partners to the project, made it possible to discuss the main challenges of the company, to share opinions and points of view, to reflect on the awareness, motivation and meaning of being an entrepreneur, as well as directly experimenting the techniques of the Design Thinking methodology.

Participants were asked to leave other indications regarding skills and the importance of certain knowledge for their future. All feedback was analyzed and therefore validated the future Joule Program.

The historic Eni headquarters in Castel Gandolfo

The know-how of a multinational company such as Eni, together with the design methodology of Sketchin guided by Design Thinking, has allowed the creation of an original and valuable training program, focused on the real needs of the entrepreneurs of the future.

Project numbers

designers in the Sketchin team
Four
weekly iterations
7
Eni teammates involved
20+
Eni units involved
14
respondents to the survey
200+
young entrepreneurs interviewed
15

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