How to write a really good Social Innovation Camp idea
Explaining an idea for the first time is hard: getting down to the nitty gritty of what it is you want to build and why it matters takes practice and time.
We’ve read hundreds of early-stage ideas over the last few years and we’ve learnt a thing or two about what makes the good ones special.
So besides checking out our previous winners and ideas criteria, here are a few tips for writing a really good Social Innovation Camp idea:
1.) You should be able to explain your idea in under 30 words
To kick things off, you need a simple, clear explanation of your idea.
To do this really well, it’s a good discipline to write as little as you can.
In 30 words or so, it’s possible to fit in what the tools is (mobile app, SMS service, website etc), who your users are (older people, younger people, anyone who wants to do X, etc) and the problem you’re solving for them or the benefit they’ll get from using your service.
One tip for getting across your idea quickly is to use an analogy: It’s eBay for learning; it’s Street Car for shipping containers, it’s Air BnB for caravans…!
Depending on how well developed your idea is (and remember, we’re equally keen on very, very early hunches) you might find drawing a diagram of how a user might interact with your service helpful.
2.) Make sure the problem you’re solving is actually the problem, not the symptom of something else
This is one to watch if you’re thinking about entering an idea related to our social isolation challenge.
Sometimes it’s easy to mistake what’s actually the symptom of a problem as the problem itself, and in doing so, end up developing an idea to create a sticking plaster for the symptom, rather than a way to address a root cause.
For example, an older person might suffer from being isolated and lonely and you could design a service that gives that person greater human contact with others. However, you might not have addressed the root cause of this group’s isolation – family breakdown, lack of transport in a rural area or physical illness might be to blame. In which case, isolation isn’t the problem – it’s a symptom of something else. And it’s the something else you need to be addressing.
So when you’re coming up with your idea, make sure you’ve identified the right problem to solve.
3.) Competition is good – make sure you tell us about it
We ask ‘what’s really new about your idea’ and we’re really keen to hear about similar services that exist (whether those are technology-based or not) and how you’re different.
Even if there’s nothing addressing exactly the same need as your idea, we like hearing about related products and services because it really helps us understand what your idea is and where you’re coming from.
Also, if you leave a competitor out, we’re likely to assume you’ve not done your homework and that you might just replicate something that’s already out there because you don’t know about it.
4.) We really do want to know about you
A good idea is nothing without the people developing and driving it forward.
Part of what we at Social Innovation Camp do is to help people who come up with ideas to find the right team with the complementary skills and experience to take an idea forward.
But we can’t do that without knowing a bit about you in the first place, so give us a glimpse of what makes you tick.
So, think you fancy giving it a go?
You’ve got until Friday 20th May to send us your back-of-the-envelope idea to use technology to change stuff that matters.
You don’t need to have ever started something before to enter and we’re looking for very early-stage ideas, not lengthy proposals or business plans.
You can enter as many ideas as you like and if we think your idea has legs, we’ll invite you along to the Social Innovation Camp weekend, 17th-19th June to help you turn it into a real solution.
Photo credit: Josh DiMauro
