2. 2
Table Of Contents
Cover Page…………………………………………………………….1
Table Of Contents…………………………………………...………..2
Group Z4……………………………………………………………….3
Executive Summary…………………………………………………..4
Where Is NEXT Now………………………………………………….5
Methodology:Data CollectionProcess……………………………..6
Grouping Data Process………………………………………...…….7
Data From Industry Analysis…………………………………...…....8
Analyze…………………………………………………...……..9
Assess………………………………………………………….13
Build…………………………………………………………….14
Testing New Design…………………………………………..18
Recommendation……………………………………………..19
Data From Interviews………………………………………………..20
Analyze………………………………………………………...21
Assess…………………………………………………….……22
Build…………………………………………………………….23
Testing Sample Profiles……………………………………...25
Data From Targeted Marketing...................................................26
Analyze……………………………………………….………..27
Assess………………………………………….……………...28
Build……………………………………………………………29
Test New Design……………………………………………..32
Recommendation…………………………………………….33
Conclusion…………………………………………………………...34
Works Cited………………………………………………………….35
3. 3
Group Z4
JP Kostelnik
Interdisciplinary Business Management
Major
kosteljp@miamioh.edu
Ariana Carver
Psychology Major
Entrepreneurship Minor
carveras@miamioh.edu
Nick Giannotti
American Studies Major
giannonv@miamioh.edu
Kailin Gong
International Studies Major
gongk@miamioh.edu
4. 4
Executive Summary
The Charge
When Jennifer Pope Baker spoketo our class at the beginningof the
semester, she tasked each group with the objective to find a way to
attract quality applicantsto apply for the NEXT Initiative. Our
solution was to include:
A message and vehicle to reach right entrepreneurs.
A message that gives the applicantsa real sense of what they
are hired to do.
Process
The processthat group Z4
followed duringthe courseof
the semester involved heavy
amountsof data from:
Research
Interviews
Surveys
A strict methodology to take
data collected and applyingit in
usefulwaysto find helpful
recommendationsfor the NEXT
Initiative:
Collect
Analyze
Assess
Build
Recommendations
Based on research conducted
and data collected over the
courseof the semester, our
group recommendsthe
following:
A new marketing
campaign
An updated and more
informativewebpage
5. 5
Where is NEXT Now?
In keeping with the founding missionto help bring women in poverty,
between the ages of 18-24, to a life of independenceand economic
stability, the NEXT Initiative just announced it’s first fellowship.
The NEXT Farming Initiative
With a focus on helping “non-violent, female ex-offenders who are 18-
24 years old” this initiative strives to help these women “to work on
their road to success.”
Nekoma Burcha and Alena Jones, winners of the first application
process and creators of the NEXT Farming Initiative.
For more information about NEXT Farming Initiative:
http://www.womensfund.org/blog-and-news/2015/october/women-
girls-central-indiana
6. 6
Methodology: Data Collection Process
Throughout the course of the semester, our group followed a specific
process and methodology that mapped outour data collection from
getting data to applyingit for creating recommendations.
Collect
• Collect Data
Analyze
• Analyze Data Collected
Assess
• Find out how to apply analyzed data to
the charge
Build
• Build on prior assessments
• Pivot if new data suggests
7. 7
Grouping Data Process
As our group continued to build on our data collected, we separated our
collected data into three groups:
1. Data collected from an industry analysis
a. Researchwas conducted on differentAccelerators and
incubators. All organizations researched had either a
focus on social issues,women’s empowermentissues,
and/or both.
2. Data collected from interviews
a. After collecting data and conducting research on the first
two data points, our group developed this data category in
order to bestdevelop strategies to find, market to, and
acquire quality target applicants.
Data collection from these two groups fed directly into the third data group:
3. Data collected from potentialtargetapplicants
a. After collecting data and conducting research on the first
two data points, our group developed this data category in
order to bestdevelop strategies to find, market to, and
acquire quality target applicants.
b. This data category involved more specific methodologyas
it was based off of the collectionof data from the first two
data categories.
Recommendations
Data from
Industry
Analysis
Data from
Interviews Data from
Targeted
Marketing
8. 8
Data From Industry Analysis
National
International
Unreasonable Institute
Boulder, CO
Agora Partnerships
Washington DC Echoing Green
New York, NY
GSBI Accelerator
Santa Clara, CA Panzanzee
Chicago, IL
1871
Chicago, IL
Ogunte
London, UK
CREA
Federal District, Mexico
9. 9
Analyze
While doing research on differentincubators and accelerators,we
found several commonalities across organizations:
SelectionCriteria section
o What the organizations are looking for in applicants.
o What they expectto see from applicant results.
Get In Touch section
o Gives the organization a sense of openness and
willingness to assist and answer applicant’s questions to
help them produce their best application and figure out
whether or not this organization’s mission and objectives
are for them.
o “Make ourselves overly available […] During the
application process you can come as many times as you
want to get feedbackand thoughts on how you're
approaching your application.”
Megan from People’s Liberty
o “The webinars were helpful, because I could log on in the
middle of the day and listen to Jennifer talking about the
application process and exactly what they were looking
for and what they weren’t looking for. I thought that was a
great idea, and would recommend that they do this
again.”
FormerNEXT applicant
13. 13
Assess
Following the research conducted forthe industry analysis, our group
assessedthe current page for the NEXT Initiative. The assessment
consisted of:
A survey asking that asked for comments regarding the current
NEXT website.
o Surveyed 30 people
Responses includedcomments about:
The colors feel a little old […] prefer
something more modern. […] A lot of white
space at the bottom.I'm not really sure what
I'm supposed to be looking at, like I don't
really know what it is still.”
“Still not 100% sure what the main job is
addressing for me as an applicant. The Bios
are also not very appealing.”
A comparisonof what we saw in other organization’s pages vs.
the current NEXT page.
18. 18
Testing the new design
Surveyed70 people
Asked to compare current NEXT web page vs. Group Z4 new NEXT
web page
Survey was based on choosing which web page was more
informative and visually appealing
TestimonialsaboutZ4’s new web page from the survey
Cleaner design.Had informationclearlylaid out."
"The color,the picture, and the bold subtitles;seemedeasierto read and less
crowded."
"The web design wasmore aesthetically pleasing and included a lotmore detail
abouthow the program worked."
19. 19
Recommendation
Group Z4 recommendsthat an updated web page for the NEXT
Initiative that will include:
Updated design
More informative and accessible layout
SelectionCriteria
Get In Touch section
This recommendationis based on:
The research conducted in the Industry analysis
The initial assessmentsurvey on the current NEXT web page
The building and survey testing results of the group Z4 updated
NEXT web page
20. 20
Data From Interviews
Project Home Indy
Indianapolis, IN
Praxis, Inc.
New York, NY
Duke SEAD
Durham, NC
1871
Chicago, IL
GSBI Accelerator
Santa Clara, CA
People’s Liberty
Cincinnati, OH
The Mind Trust
Indianapolis, IN
21. 21
Analyze
During the interview process,group Z4 contacted and interviewed
differentincubators and accelerators. During the interviews, we
focused onspecific topics:
When you started this, how did you reach out to potential
applicants?
Did you have a target market in mind?
What vehicles/marketing strategy did you use?
“Created Personas… askedourselves ‘whois the ideal
candidate?’And we put together sample profiles and personas
of the types of people we thoughtwe wanted to sponsor”-Megan
from People’sLiberty
22. 22
Assess
Following the interview process, Group Z4, feltthat the best piece of
information from the interviews to apply to the NEXT Initiative and help
them find the right applicants was the information fromPeople’s Liberty
about creating sample profile personas to fit what their organization felt to
be their ideal applicant.
The sample personaprofile’s created for what we thought would be
an ideal applicant for the NEXT Initiative were based off of:
Characteristics that Jennifer had directly told us she is looking
for in an applicant.
Information abuot desired applicants on the NEXT web page
Resilient
Educated
Teachable
Not Impurious
Innovative
Collaborative
Strong Writing
Skills
Experienced
Entrepreneurial
Z4
Applicant
Profile
23. 23
Build
Evelyn
Age: 31
Bachelor's degree in social work
Masters in entrepreneurship
Job experience:
o Volunteer for Habitat For
Humanity
o Worked with pregnant
teens and new moms
o Started own company that
receives clothes donations
and gives them to families
of fallen active duty service
members.
Evelyn was created as a sample profile target applicant for the NEXT
Initiative because she has an educational background in social work
and entrepreneurship. She also has the work experience and work
knowledge that will allow her to better navigate and understand how
to operate building an initiative during the incubation process.
24. 24
Jane
Age: 22
Just graduated college with a focus
in entrepreneurship
Highly motivated by helping others
o Involved in service fraternities
and other philanthropic
opportunities on campus
Strong ambassador for equality
amongst gender
o Advocate for women’s rights
and women’s empowerment
Jane was created as a sample profile target applicant for the NEXT
Initiative because she has an educational background in
entrepreneurship and was heavily involved service oriented groups,
other philanthropic groups on campus, as well as being an
ambassadorfor women’s empowerment. While she lacks the work
experience that Evelyn, our first profile applicant, has, our group felt
that having someone who just graduated from college would be more
willing to apply because that personwould be less likely to be tied
down to a career.
25. 25
Sample Profile Testing
Following the creation of the sample profile,group Z4 took the
profiles and ran used them to run the following process of “target
marketing.” In doing so, our group was able to properly test the
process ofthe sample profile to confirm whether or not the sample
profile recommendationcould pass as a legitimate best practice for
the NEXT Initiative.
27. 27
Analyze
In order to analyze we conducted surveys
Surveyed 30 people
42%
37%
21%
Marketing that Leaves a
Memorable Impact
Word of Mouth
Social Media
Events
68%
21%
11%
Age Range
18-24
25-34
35-44
53%
17%
30%
Types of social media
Pictures
Videos
Content
28. 28
Assess
Based on the data from the surveys we conducted, our group used this
information to develop a more streamlined advertising approach in order
to best reach the targeted marketthat was create based on group Z4’s
sample persona profiles.
To move forward with the Build stage of the process, our group created
sample advertisements that were streamlined for the targeted market.
33. 33
Recommendations
Based on the data collected from initial surveys on what vehicles and
messagesbest reach our ideal target applicants and testing our new
ads, group Z4 can confidentlyrecommend that a targeted marketing
approach is a best practice for drawing in quality applicants.
Furthermore, from working the entire process of:
Creating sample profiles of ideal applicants for the NEXT
Initiative
Researched groups these ideal applicants would most likely be
involved in
Contacted these groups and surveyed them based on what
vehicles and messageswould be best to market to them with
Created a targeted marketing approach based on survey
results
Testing the targeted marketing approach with a survey
Group Z4 can also confidentlyrecommend the creation of sample
profiles forideal applicants is a bestpractices for drawing in quality
applicants because it reminds The NEXT Initiative what they are
looking for in an applicant and gives them a better idea of where to
look.
34. 34
Conclusion
Took the charge of finding quality applicants for NEXT
Conducted
o research in an industry analysis
total companies researched-8
o Interviewed other incubators and accelerators
total companies interviewed-7
o Took samples to test our recommendations
total number surveyed-100
Came up with the three best practices:
o New web page
o Creating sample personas and profiles
o New marketing approach
These best practices,proven through our research and data,
will drive more quality applicants to apply to the NEXT Initiative
Sample
Profile
Targeted
Marketing
Web Page
35. 35
Works Cited
Research
o Agora Partnerships http://agorapartnerships.org/
o CREA http://www.crea.org.mx/
o Echoing Green http://www.echoinggreen.org//
o Global Social Benefit Institute http://www.scu-social-
entrepreneurship.org/gsbi
o Ogunte’s Make A Wave Incubator
http://www.ogunte.com/innovation/
o Pannzanzee http://panzanzee.com/
o SproutBox http://sproutbox.com/what
o Unreasonable Institute http://unreasonableinstitute.org/
o Velocity http://www.velocityindiana.org/accelerator/
o Women’s Fund of Central Indiana http://www.womensfund.org/next
o 1871 http://www.1871.com/
Interviews
o Julie Koegel
Grant Officer for Women’s Fund of Central Indiana
o Wanda Spann Roddy
Former NEXT applicant
o Brooke Daunhauer
Former NEXT applicant
o Nicole Nagy
Former Miami University Lean In chapter President
o Amber Audrain
Manager of Education Innovation for The Mind Trust
o Megan Trischler
Program Director for People’s Liberty
o Lakshmi Hasanadka
Executive Director for Project Home Indy
o Cyndy Ainsworth
Director of Finance and Administration for GSBI Miller
Center for Entrepreneurship
Special Thanks To:
Tina Zenola (zenzoltm@miamioh.edu)
Graphic Design Major/Interactive Media Studies Minor
Designer of web page and advertisement templates for group Z4
