Defining the opportunity playground

1. Defining the Opportunity
Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design Toolbox
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2. an observed market opportunity new technology/capability
”demand-pull idea” VS ”knowledge-push idea”
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A business idea: two sources

3. • A currently unsolved problem is spotted:
It could be personal or friends’ experiences
or observation in the news or in current trends
...Often referred to as ‘customer pain’ or an unmet demand
Example: students suffer from crooked back
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If demand-pull idea

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• Study of reasons behind the problem:
Carrying heavy books

5. • Conceivement and development of a solution (product/service)
• The solution might incorporate technology, but the technology
solution is created and tailored specifically for the problem.
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6. • A new discovery or a new technical capability
with many possible applications is made/developed
 Also known as a ‘platform technology’
• A suitable commercial application is identified
 Find the most compelling industry/market likely to need or adopt the new technology at
an early date – find a problem to solve!
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If technology-push idea

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• Development of the raw technology further to deliver the
envisioned applications
 develop for “Market readiness”
• Once the technology is sufficiently developed,
the inventor/entrepreneur start-up can either:
1. Manufacture its own products using the technology, and sell
them to customers
2. License the protected tech to other companies, which will
develop and sell their own products using the technology
3. Sell the start-up company, with its Intellectual Property and
its highly specialised managers and staff (‘human capital’), to
another (usually larger) company
If technology-push idea

8. Demand-pull ideas usually go into the market for products
 Make products/services and sell directly to customers
Knowledge-push ideas may end up in either
 The market for products or the market for technology
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9. If you have a demand-pull idea
Go to ‘Idea generation and evaluation’ exercise in the
IE&D Toolbox
• benchmark your idea against other solutions
• Improve your idea
If you have a knowledge-push idea
Go to the ‘Technology/Application Matrix’ in the IE&D Toolbox
• Compare and evaluate commercial applications
Afterwards you can further reality-test your assumptions and
conclusions using Entrepreneurial Market Research and Value
Chain/Value Network analysis.
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10. © Imperial College Business School
Two possible journeys...
Your Idea/Project
Did you start with a problem or a technology/capability?
Idea Generation and evaluation Technology/Application matrix
Entrepreneurial Market Research
Value Chain/Network analysis
Knowledge push caseDemand-pull case
Evaluate, improve Evaluate, choose
Reality -test
Reconsider? Reconsider?

11. Clarysse, B. and Kiefer, S., 2011. The Smart Entrepreneur. London: Elliot &
Thompson, Ch. 1.
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Further reading