Test Solutions

One effective tool commonly used in innovation is the canvas approach. Canvas tools, such as the Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas, provide a simple visual map that helps individuals understand the key elements of a business. Organizations have adopted these formats for social innovations and solutions beyond traditional for-profit businesses. Their emphasis on testing different solution elements in real-world, dynamic environments makes them particularly suitable for systems change. In other words, with the people who make up the actual systems! 

During this phase, participants identify their assumptions about what will happen when implementing their innovation. Your goal is to help participants evaluate if their expected outcome is the one they actually achieve. The key is to support participants to identify their riskiest assumptions and help them devise clever, cost-effective ways to mitigate those assumptions.

While prototyping physical and digital products has long been embraced in the innovation sector, it has expanded rapidly to creatively prototype less tangible solutions, including services, spaces, relationships, and even policies or social movements.

Systems thinking can enhance the prototyping process by engaging the robust network you have recruited and using stakeholder mapping to determine who should be involved in testing various solution elements.