1. The WWU Design Accelerator
An Alternate Path to Success for Western Washington University Graduates
1. Executive Summary
Subject matter: The Design Accelerator (Accelerator) is a business structure conceived to
increase collaboration between the Industrial Design and Business programs at Western
Washington University (WWU). The Accelerator is intended to provide opportunities for
graduates of these two departments to realize the presumed desire of some to become
entrepreneurs. The hypothesis is that Industrial Design graduates will capitalize on Northwest
Washington’s unique business environment, including proximity to precision aviation
manufacturing and the periodic excess capacity inherent in its cyclicality, to form their own
small businesses. The availability of high-end manufacturing capacity, academic instruction and
industry support are calculated to cumulatively provide an ideal atmosphere for entrepreneurship.
Methods of analysis: Information for this paper was gathered from public documents, and from
interviews with a range of stakeholders including successful local entrepreneurs and Western
Washington University students, faculty and staff.
Findings: Analysis of interviews and written materials revealed that some assumptions upon
which the project is based were in error. Additional stakeholder groups have been identified, and
the initial concept of a “Design Accelerator” may prove too limited to describe its growing scope
and form.
Conclusions: The Design Accelerator concept remains in a nascent stage, so it may be
premature to attempt to draw conclusions. It seems clear however, that the concept remains
valid, and that additional exploration is necessary.
Recommendations: The team has identified general recommendations, described in Paragraph
Seven, items (a.) through (h.).

2. Limitations of the report: This paper is a bare frame, based upon written works of several
respected authors, and on interviews of a small circle of stakeholders. It is likely that many more
parties, yet to be identified, may have a stake in the Design Accelerator. The geographic range
of interview subjects is currently limited to the immediate vicinity of Bellingham, Washington.
Only a small sample of stakeholders at Western Washington University, who may eventually be
identified as primary stakeholders, have yet to be discovered and interviewed. This paper will
require further development, review and revision.
Western Washington University MBA candidates researched successful accelerator models from
other regions, reviewed related publications, and based upon those learnings, investigated the
feasibility of initiating a custom program at WWU. The team was asked to examine the viability
of the original WWU concept and to propose a workable model based on their discoveries. This
paper describes the process and progress, what was learned and recommendations for those who
continue the effort. Criteria paraphrased in the following italicized text was presented to the
research team by Professor Aric Mayer, in consultation with Professor Jason Morris, both of
Western Washington University.
a. Create more cross-collaboration between the Industrial Design (ID) Department and the
Business Department (CBE)
b. Optimize the relationship between ID, which produces skilled customer-focused products,
and the CBE which produces marketers and business managers etc.
c. Verify or disprove the availability of cyclically present excess local high-end
manufacturing capacity, believed to be a byproduct of cyclicality of its parent industry,
aviation manufacturing, which might be capitalized upon by members of the accelerator.
d. Research the apparent shift in high technology manufacturing from large-run processes,
to small batch production conducted in close proximity to the end user (aviation or other
industry)
e. Determine how to integrate the extant components of business expertise, industrial design
excellence, and electronics engineering present at Western Washington University, with
the manufacturing expertise and capacity in the Bellingham area at large, while taking

3. advantage of the trend toward lean, small-batch, local manufacture, in order to create
the Design Accelerator.
f. Conduct study with the end-purpose of creating businesses that producing customer-
facing products for the general market, with the eventual spillover benefits to WWU and
the community at large.
g. Assume approximately five WWU Design or Engineering students with product designs,
will be evaluated and selected for inclusion in a “first run”, with a focus on “lean, pull-
system models and locally sourced manufacturing”.
h. The opportunity statement accompanying these criteria follows:
Opportunity:
1. The I-5 corridor between BellinghamandOlympia is a high-technologymanufacturingenvironment built ondecades of aerospace and
heavy industrymanufacturing(highquality andcustomizable).
2. Lean Startup andLeanManufacturingcreate business models where design andmanufacturingare closelyinterwovencomponents of
the business andtherefore needgeographic proximity in order toeffectivelyinteract (the two needto occur together,makingoff-
shoringless of an option).
3. Cyclical fluctuations in aerospacecontracts create times of underutilizationof local manufacturingresources (potentiallylower cost
for agile companies).
4. Washington State is underutilizedfordirect-to-customer design (most local production is B2B design andmanufacturing).
5. Western Washington University has two of thebest product design programs in the Northwest in theIndustrial Design andElectronics
EngineeringTechnology departments.
6. Students in the Industrial Design program already regularlyproduce products that demonstrate both demandandtraction.
2. Assumptions/Discoveries: The discovery process began with certain established
expectation, some of which were verified and others of which were demonstrated to be in
error. These are described below:
a. The first assumption was that Industrial Design program graduates would
welcome the opportunity to become entrepreneurs. Several inquiries and
unrequited overtures indicated that the program enjoys a near 100% employment
rate, and that students are not motivated to risk disruption of the promise of steady
employment by attempting instead to establish their own businesses.
b. The second assumption was that there was considerable enthusiasm on the part of
Industrial Design instructors for an entrepreneurial option. Research revealed
however, that the entrepreneurial track was considered not to be an ideal to aspire

4. to, but rather a last option, and that the design instructors’ grail is a high
“employment” rate. The following passage offers evidence of this perspective:
An assignment given to Design students, with which the MBA’s offered
assistance, was to write a plan for a “worst case scenario” in which no jobs were
available and the student “had to form a company”. The MBA team offered
assistance in drafting the document. No response to the overture was recorded,
and a follow-up query also produced no replies.
The nature of the assignment, and students’ responses to it, illuminated the
investigation in two ways. It first indicates in its wording that Industrial Design
instructors consider entrepreneurship to be a last-resort, and secondly, the lack of
any response from students to offers of help suggests that their interests do not lie
in entrepreneurship.
c. An aviation-related publication review supported by an interview with managers
from local manufacturing company Pro CNC, verified the assumption put forward
by initial hypothesis, that precision manufacturing capacity was available in a
cyclical pattern.
3. Examples at other universities:
a. A search for templates upon which WWU’s accelerator might be based, and the
effects successful accelerators have on their communities, provided existing
models. Literature described several subtle differences, dependent on
surrounding industry and the Accelerator’s entrepreneurship aims (purely art vs.
novelty/utility vs. industry), but that the four central elements of university based
accelerators/incubators are similar. Those elements include mentorship, access to
some level of funding, networking opportunities and business training.
4. Value to students:
a. The presumption that Industrial Design graduates would be interested in
entrepreneurship was disproved, as described above in paragraph 2.b. That
realization led to reevaluation of who the primary stakeholder in WWU’s
accelerator might be. Research revealed that the design program at WWU has a

5. high attrition rate by design. The program accepts approximately 40 students in
its first year, but progressively culls its students until the class graduates a
maximum of 15 designers. The approximately 20 culled students consist not
necessarily of poor quality students, but of those not able to produce frequent and
consistently high-quality designs in the manner of high volume industrial
applications. Interviews with WWU personnel in the office of the Registrar and
Academic Counseling, revealed that dropped students are not necessarily advised
by either department regarding new paths of study. These offices expect that the
academic college/department from which students depart, will advise the student
to seek guidance from Academic Counseling. If they do not, the student is only
contacted by the Registrar to notify them that they have been dropped, and
whether they owe money to the university. It may be these students, who in many
cases are gifted designers, but who do not fit the highly selective, industry-
oriented criteria of the Industrial Design program or other similarly selective
programs, from which the Accelerator can select and develop potential
entrepreneurs. The set of conditions described here may present an ideal and
unique opportunity to identify, screen and select students who have separated
from their intended tracks, but who may be even better suited and equipped for
entrepreneurship than conventionally successful students.
5. Iterations of the Accelerator model
a. The original WWU accelerator model hypothesized that graduates would seek
entrepreneurial opportunities, and that the accelerator would provide an
environment in which they would be introduced to manufacturers with the
capacity and interest to produce their products for market, and which would
provide access to some form of market outlet in which the entrepreneur would sell
his or her products.
b. The so-called three phase (3Ф) model evolved from the original model, as it
became apparent that scalability was important, especially in the early stages of
the Accelerator. The three phases included:
i. Phase one, in which a single prototype would be produced to verify the
viability and determine the cost of small scale production. This prototype

6. could be produced at WWU or at a prospective manufacturer’s site, and
ideally sold at some profit. Confirmation of the practicality of this phase
was gained via an interview with an established and current entrepreneur,
Mr. Tim Neimier, inventor of Ocean Kayaks. He offered us a tour of his
prototyping facility, which he offered for use by the Accelerator for
occasional soft-materials prototyping. He described his own
entrepreneurial experience dating back twenty years, and explained is
intention to begin processing and using recycled plastic materials.
ii. Phase two would produce a limited run to verify or disprove demand for
the product, ideally selling all produced units. Proof of the viability of this
phase included a tour by Mr. Mark Dudzinski, of Western Washington
University’s own Technology Development Center, which possesses CNC
and other small batch production equipment, as well as meeting rooms and
space for eventual expansion of production.
iii. Phase three would consist of regular production at a rate dependent upon
the learnings from the previous two phases. This phase, which is partly
dependent upon verification of the “cyclical capacity” described above.
The presence of aviation industry cyclicality, and the resultant
manufacturing capacity was validated during at tour by Mr. Paul Van
Metre, of his company Pro CNC, which he founded in partnership with
two fellow Western Washington University alums, and which he was in
the process of selling to a national manufacturing corporation. Pro CNC is
an example of a precision manufacturer which, according Mr. Van Metre,
maintains excess capacity in order to be responsive to the cyclical demand
within the aviation industry, for which the firm is an ancillary producer.
Each phase will be conducted under the scrutiny of at least one faculty
mentor and one industry mentor.
6. Redirection of the research team’s efforts was spurred by the realization that the
accelerator concept was perceived differently by each of the following three key
stakeholder groups; faculty from WWU’s College of Business Education (CBE)

7. perceived it as a viable path for Design and Business students to take from academia into
business ownership, while Industrial Design faculty seemed to view it as a last-ditch way
to prevent their employment numbers from falling below 98%, and graduates designers
who have been groomed for entry into an established industry, viewed it as little more
than a distraction from universal goal of “getting a job”. Review of Bellingham’s
demographics, and the comparison to those of cities of similar size reveals that though
our population consists of persons of a typically entrepreneurially active age group (22-
30), that a large segment of our population is transient in nature due to their enrollment in
Western Washington University, rather than being long-term residents of the city. The
transient aspect of this population reduces the social capital necessary to provide access
to resources, individuals and organizations, whose influence is essential in gaining
societal acceptance of success among entrepreneurs.
Evidence discovered during the same review, revealed that another demographic crucial
to entrepreneurial development, persons aged 65 and greater, is subject to a similar
transiency due to Bellingham’s recent evolution from an industrial community to a
retirement and recreation-based community, populated heavily by persons who are not
vested in the community in a manner typical of long-term residents. Many in this
demographic are seasonal residents, ”snowbirds”, who do not possess the sort of social
capital that a long-time resident may have accumulated, and are simply no longer
engaged in, or concerned about commercial activity.
7. Recommendations/conclusion. The Design Accelerator presents the following
recommendations as a result of evaluating the research conducted on behalf of WWU.
a. Seek and foster alignment of purpose and method between all departments and
stakeholders in the accelerator (product or process), including Industrial Design
staff and students (ID), College of Business Education staff and students (CBE),
Registrar, Academic Counseling, Technology Development Center and any others
who remain to be identified by continued exploration.
b. Identify businesses, including enduring successes and those which have failed,
and survey them to determine what caused the failures, to what the successes are
attributable, and for what reasons successful businesses first established in

8. Bellingham, but no longer in the city, moved elsewhere. This information may
inform many aspects of the Accelerator’s research and evolution.
c. Focus on students who have departed or been dropped (from design or other
potentially entrepreneurial programs) before graduation. As discovered,
graduates from the design program have a 100% employment rate, and therefore
have little interest in an accelerator.
d. Establish formal communication channels with the Registrar to identify
prospective students for this program. According to interviews with staff from
that office, currently, students dropped from a major are contacted by the
registrar, but the subject is clerical/financial rather than academic. The student is
merely advised as to whether they need to reapply to the school or not in order to
continue, and whether or not they have a hold on their account. These students
may be ideal for inclusion in the Accelerator’s research, and eventual
implementation.
e. Establish regular communications with Academic Counseling (AC), to assure that
the Accelerator program is presented to the student as a viable alternative to
beginning an entirely new track. A potential remedy lies in an alternate academic
track, outlined below. According to AC personnel, the department is not notified
by the Registrar when a student is dropped. The presumption is that either the
student will have the initiative to seek out their assistance, or that the department
from which the student has been dropped will direct the student’s attention to the
availability and location of counseling. The remedy for this apparent deficit is for
the Accelerator to gain commitment from administrative departments to bridge
the communication gap in such a manner that the Accelerator is notified when
prospective Accelerator candidates are dropped from their chosen programs.
f. Design and implement a summer University Business Entrepreneurship Track (U-
BET) as a means by which to offer a formal alternate track to students dropped
from other programs. This will require the development of curriculum, and
likely, coordination with the Continuing or Extended education services offered
through the Woodring College of Education, or development of new and unique
program in the College of Business Education. This program will benefit from

9. the coordination efforts between the CBE, Registrar and Academic Counseling
offices referred to above.
g. Consult with a wide range of stakeholders including students, in designing
curriculum.
h. Consider the range of academic and experiential backgrounds of potential
students and the possibility of multiple/parallel tracks, which might be inclusive
of course materials already learned by candidates in their original tracks, in order
to minimize academic redundancy commonly known as “super-senior” status.
The Design Accelerator concept continues to evolve at Western Washington University. It is an
excellent concept, and worthy of further review. This author encourages the development and
testing of new models, the inclusion of the broadest possible sample of stakeholders and the
consideration of greater scope. All of the elements necessary to develop a healthy and
sustainable student-centered business do exist in Northwest Washington, and Western
Washington University is uniquely positioned to align them into a coherent Accelerator. Certain
aspects of Bellingham’s history and current demographics complicate efforts to incubate
entrepreneurship, but recognition and evaluation of those factors can inform mitigation efforts,
and help to nurture new and innovative businesses. These businesses can bring with them a new
prosperity for the community and increased prestige to their sponsors, including Western
Washington University.
WWU Design Accelerator Team
Bo Prince, MBA
Alex Jia, MBA
Robert Hampton, MBA
Kenneth Holzemer, MBA(Team Lead)