Our Process

Here at the Captains Innovation Lab, we utilise a customer driven model of innovation that can be split into three sections:

Opportunity, Innovation and Impact.

Each of these sections has it's own unique steps:

The first four steps in the process (Observation, Scan, Challenge and Ideation) are all completed in close collaboration with the Captains community. This will ensure that the CIL Team understands the opportunity and can distil the observation into a clear 'Job to Be Done' (JTBD). This JTBD represents a real change that will add value to Captain Starlight's work with seriously ill kids and young people.

From there, the Spark Accelerator team will lead the way to test, experiment and iterate with select Captain programs, before delivering the final result.

Click on the sections above to jump to info about each step.

It's quite wordy, so click the play button to be read each section.

Click HERE for a glossary of potentially confusing Captains Innovation Lab terms!

Opportunity

1. OBSERVATION

This is where you, a Captain Starlight team member, are invited to share an observation. We want your curly questions, ‘I wonder’ moments, and curious thoughts on how we deliver positive experiences to kids and young people every day. No one knows this job like you do Captain, so we want you to tell us what you need to support your engagement with kids. Check out the "Sharing Info” page for more info.

Once you share an observation:

You will be sent confirmation that the Captains Innovation Lab have received it.
It will be checked against "CIL Scope" to ensure feasibility.
The Spark Accelerator team will then reach out to you to understand the nitty gritty of the observation.
You will receive 5 high-fives from a designated CIL team member.

2. SCAN

This part of the process can be broken into three sections:

a. Hypothesising.

The CIL team will put each observation under the microscope to identify common themes and opportunities for change that adds value. This will uncover some hypothetical challenges that could be at the centre of the observations.

b. Captains Innovation Lab Focus Groups.

To ensure these innovations have potential for the most possible impact, it's time to take this baby national!

Findings from the above step will be presented in your next available team meeting as a mini Focus Group. A representative from the Captains Innovation Lab will lead a discussion around the mock challenges to establish the present need and priority of each within your team. Responses are gathered and run through our quantum computer which will spit out the potential challenges that have the highest need and priority on a National scale. This is represented by the equation (n+p)/N.

c. Research and internal scan.

Our CIL team will then conduct thorough internal and external market research to identify best practice and existing solutions. It’s the scientific equivalent of reading published papers to see if anyone else has done the work for you and maybe borrowing some of their research. The youth of today call it “Doing a Zuckerberg.”

3. CHALLENGE

We’ve thrown some potential challenges into the test tube and now comes the time to distil our final challenge statement. The challenge statement is the guiding light for each project, a mission to refer to along the way to keep the beaker of innovation directly over the Bunsen burner. It will clearly communicate the need expressed in the initial observation and be presented in a “How can we...” format that is underpinned by the Job to Be Done (JTBD).

For example, “How can we ensure CIL staff members stop eating other people's lunches from the fridge at work?”. JTBD = Stop Andy eating my lunch. (We’re pretty sure it’s Andy).

The Captains Innovation Lab will share the final challenge statements with the Captain team as the first update for each project. We'll continue to keep you updated over the projects journey through our Slack channel and PM weekly updates.

Innovation

1. IDEATION

Keep an eye on your inbox – we need your brains again!

Select Captains will be invited to an ideation session (lab talk for brainstorm) to explore potential solutions for the Job to Be Done. Your expert knowledge and collective experience is vital in crafting some experiments to gather research from the field (SER, Rocket Rounds etc). Captains will receive a mysterious phone call in the night...actually, it will probably just be an email from your PM.

2. SHORTLIST

We all know how shortlists work… write list, make it shorter. Ideas generated in the ideation phase will be listed in this fashion. CIL Technicians (aka Nic and Andy) will present the shortlist to Jono Brand, Kathryn Tohill and the rest of the CIL team to pinpoint which are to be experimented on… wait, sorry that sounds weird… which ideas will move forward into the experiment phase (much better).

3. EXPERIMENT

Experiments will involve testing the shortlisted ideas via quick, easy and cost-effective MVPs… no not you Nobel Prize winning physicist Niels Bohr you rascal! You might be an MVP in your field, but we mean Minimum Viable Product (MVP). An MVP allows us to test experiments in the field at low cost without committing to a solution.

MVPs will be rolled out for select teams to test in programs with real kids and families (Captains Innovation Lab does not participate in animal testing...though some kids, am I right?). This will let us know if we are on the right track and provide great direction for where to go next.

We will aim to fail fast to give us results quickly. Some great solutions are borne out of failure, often failing teaches us the most valuable lessons. Like the Gold Coast Suns or The Emu War of 1932.

The experiment process goes a little something like this:

Hypothesis – why do we think this will work?
Design & Build – Design an MVP. Set the parameters. Give it to Captains!
Analyse – the results of the experiment.
Decision - Based on our findings do we Iterate (try again), Change (“Pivot” - Ross Geller, 1999), or Abandon (torch the Lab and head for sunny Mexico) the experiment.

It is important to note that the CIL Team is open to many possible outcomes during the experimentation phase. These outcomes could range from something made to a recommendation to programs.

Impact

1. IMPLEMENT

Once a project has been completed and something truly unique and remarkable has been created through the innovation process (value has been added, ribbons cut, high- fives given) the project will be handed, ever so delicately, to the appropriate functional team to nurture, love and to be the main point of contact moving forward.

2. PROMOTE

Once the Nobel Foundation has been notified, we will release a detailed breakdown of the solution and it's applications to the National team. You will see this on slack, in PM updates, team meetings and written in the sky. Your program will also receive this solution, in whichever form it takes (keep your fingers crossed that it's Flubber!).

Be sure to keep your lab coats white and your safety glasses safe so that innovation can live in our hearts until we next have an observation.

GLOSSARY

Challenge:

The 'thing' getting in the way of program delivery that is addressed by the JTBD

JTBD:

A Job to be Done is the core statement that will be addressed to find a solution for the challenge

Scan:

A sense check of the other people that might also be experiencing the challenge. In this case, the national Captain Starlight community.

Ideation:

A sweet, Lab buzz word that just means brainstorm!

MVP:

A Minimum Viable Product. AKA – a cheap and cheerful solution to be used in a real-life experiment to gain valuable data.

Andy:

Short for ‘Andrew’ and because he has little legs, Andy is one of our Lab Technicians.