The document outlines the journey of a team called 'The Leans' as they developed a startup within one month, emphasizing their diverse backgrounds and collaborative efforts to overcome challenges. It details their use of agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, to manage tasks and align on their startup idea, eventually formulating a validated value proposition aimed at addressing the needs of both students and companies. The document further discusses the creation of a business plan, market analysis, communication strategies, and the team’s reflections on their process and outcomes.

1. Team The Leans StartUp / DMM7
INSHIFT
Aksha Sachdev, Antoine Ballif, Gabriela Triffiletti, Howard Mijares II, Marco Candi & Patrick Turchin

2. Hello we are The Leans
We as a team, knew from the beginning that working in a big team is a huge challenge. Even more when lots of different cultures
and ages are been considered in the equation. On the other hand, we also knew we had just one month to build a business from
scratch and this would require a great amount of work.
Then having six members could help us to achieve our objectives in a more effective way. That's why the name “The Leans” came
to place. To enable us to work effectively in a lean way, with the lema “dividing to conquer”. In that way transforming our challenge
of working in a big team, into our strength to achieve our goals.
Marco Candi - 23
- São Paulo, Brazil -
Sales management
- Bachelor in Social
communication -
Dog - Israel.
Patrick Turchin - 24
São Paulo, Brazil -
Business developer -
Bachelor in Social
Communication -
Lion - People are
more important than
places, I can be
wherever is possible
just being with the
right ones.
Aksha Sachdev - 29
Digital Marketer,
Group Head, Isobar,
India. Favourite
animal tiger.
Favourite place in
the world is my car
and wherever it
takes me.
Howard Mijares
II - 34 Otsaw
digital, Singapore.
Bachelor’s of Arts
in Multimedia -
Dog - The Beach
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Antoine Ballif - 34
- Paris, France, 12
years experience in
advertising. Proud
father of a lovely
son.Antigua,
Guatemala
Gabriela Triffiletti
Argentina - Spain.
I am a doer, a
strategic and
creative with a
diverse
background in
business, theatre
and education. I
love cats. Sunny
mountains.

3. Coming up next…
This presentation is a critical
reflection on our team journey
throughout the Start Up module. It
documents our learnings and
understandings on how to create a
Start Up business.
This document also underlines our
approach and ways of working
from the beginning to the end of
this project in order to overcome
the different challenges we faced.
In this deck, we have drawn out
collective conclusions as well as
personal reflections of the
process.
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• Why we Teamed up together
• Defining our team canvas was our first challenge
• Using Scrum as our managing project tool helped us to divide and conquer
• Aligning on our StartUp idea was the second challenge
• Research confirmed that we were addressing a real need
• From that point our value proposition became obvious
• Elaborating our Business Canvas led us to a clear business plan
• Evaluating the market size was not that easy
• Working on a business plan that is viable and scalable
• Defining our traction channel framed our communication plan
• Prototyping our idea made it tangible for potential clients and investors
• A critical issue occured during our last sprint
• Pitching day was the outcome of all our efforts
• Personal reflections
• Conclusion
• References: Tools

4. Why we teamed up together?
This is actually a good question and reflecting on our team journey it
seems that it was not clear for everyone at the very start. But before
explaining why is that, it is worth giving the reader a bit of background
on how the teams were formed. For the first time we could choose the
people we wanted to work with. And although it sounded easy, in fact
it turned out to be difficult for many people from Crew 7. To a point
that some persons said they felt tension in the room.
Amongst everyone, few people had first ideas for a Start Up business.
Antoine was one of those who pitched their ideas, his being to create
a pop-up team which could develop innovative solutions to help
Advertising agencies address their clients briefs.
So this is basically how we teamed up together, around a common
idea. We first decided to celebrate that by drinking a beer.
Then the first thing we did when we started working was to define our
team canvas and this is where we faced our first challenge.
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5. Defining our team canvas was our first challenge
As explained in the previous slide we had teamed up around Antoine’s
initial idea. But when it came to defining and aligning everyone on our
“Purpose” we found ourselves discussing and arguing for hours. We
found out quickly that we had not the same goals as one another.
It also appeared that most of us had a different understanding of
Antoine’s thought starter. Therefore in order to move forward we all
had to make compromises to come up with a common purpose.
It took us a while to figure it out but it was definitely the building block
of our team. Once we had a solid Team Canvas it was time to decide
how we would collectively work.
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6. Using Scrum as our managing project tool
helped us to divide and conquer
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In our first week working together, we decide to use the Scrum method as our time
management tool. Almost all the team had good and different previous experiences
working in an agile way, but not all of us were familiar with a Scrum board. Then our first
step was to create a sync in regards to how we would apply the tool.
Thus, firstly Marco Candi, took the role as the week one scrum master and taught the
basics strategies to the team. Later on every week we had a new scrum master, so
everyone could learn the process. Also during the process, Agile specialist David Draper
came to Hyper Island and gave the crew great insights and agile techniques that we could
use further in the process.
Secondly, we as a team, created a fun way of evaluating the level of the each task. To
weigh efforts of each task we decided to create a correlation similar to clothing sizes (XS,
S, M, L, XL) to simplify the alignment internally. We then assigned numeric values to the
sizes starting from 5 and going up to 30. Furthermore, we created four sprints during the
process. The sprints were planned based on our industry leader Jon’s, weekly coaching
sessions. It was very apparent that the use of the scrum board, truly helped our team to
divide and conquer tasks. Also the idea of having different scrum masters, engaged the
group in multiple ways every morning and conclusion of the day, the scrum moments.
Finally One thing we could do better, is that sometimes we divided too much the group
tasks to become individual ones, so it felt that the group was not united. Based on that,
we understood that scrum can really create a distance between team members, thus one
of the ways to avoid this would be to divide tasks in pairs and to shuffle the pair often so
everyone has an opportunity to work with the others.

7. Aligning on our StartUp idea was the second
challenge
Dismissing the original idea was a process, it started with aligning our
expectations and commitments of every member of the team. To
realise on how each of us had a different interpretation of the same
idea was a critical moment. Finally planning how to make the pop-up
agency happen connected us to the realistic timeframe that we had
available. All these lead to a clear group decision to explore new
options.
We met on a Sunday afternoon to brainstorm new ideas; it was hard
to focus. We decide to create a mash up brainstorm session with all
the personal problems that we had encountered since we arrived in
Manchester. We discovered in our parking lot area on the scrum
board a question that had been haunting us: How might we solve the
IRP? And recognised that it was an obvious pain point worth
addressing. The next step was to pitch our new born idea to peers
and industry leaders and the positive feedback collected made us
vote and make a final decision.
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8. Research confirmed that we were addressing
a real need
Viktor - "Our problem is
opportunities and access."
Tim - "I’m not getting
responses until I got
someone as reference."
Dalma - "It’s not easy to
reach out to companies."
We as a team, knew from the beginning that working in a big team is a huge challenge. Even more when lots of different cultures
and ages are been considered in the equation. On the other hand, we also knew we had just one month to build a business from
scratch and this would require a great amount of work.
Then having six members could help us to achieve our objectives in a more effective way. That's why the name “The Leans” came
to place. To enable us to work effectively in a lean way, with the lema “dividing to conquer”. In that way transforming our challenge
of working in a big team, into our strength to achieve our goals.
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We validated that Hyper Island Masters Graduates struggle to find sponsorships for their IRP. It's one of their primary concerns,
and they had difficulties to find and contact companies, the situation generates stress and fear of a purposeless project.
To understand the needs of business, we conducted a Hybrid research, it was blend between interviews and survey form. Which
was targeted specifically to senior professionals. We received responses from 23 senior professionals in different organisations
across diverse industries and results were very supportive of our assumptions. Almost 85% said they had a business problem or
opportunity they wanted to tackle but didn’t have the time or resources to do it internally and also found it monetarily infeasible to
engage with research partners or consultants for in-depth studies.

9. Research confirmed that we were addressing
a real need
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As a part of our Primary research we also interviewed Industry leaders and coaches who work in companies to receive feedback
on the idea.
“Finding talent is always hard! As a rule of thumb, we’re always interested in knowing/hearing from
talented people - maybe their skills will inspire us to think of skills that would add to our team? I’m
interested in well-rounded applicants that could influence many roles - strategic, UX, culture etc…”
Matt Kendall - Retrofuzz.
To go a step further we also pitched our idea to directors of Hyper Island to understand their point of views as clients or future
owners of our product.
The positive feedback allowed us to understand the perspective of the University and the way to deliver our value proposition to
engage them, and acknowledge that they are an essential part to create a bridge between students and companies.
The clear need for both targets was validated.

10. From that point on our value proposition
became obvious
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After validating our assumptions that supported the idea we went over to the next step of
formulating a value proposition.
We went through four different iterations of the proposition and the elevator pitch before we
reached the final one. Each iteration was tested with our coach Jon and with other industry
leaders we met during the week.
Some of the tools that helped us craft the proposition were as follows:
WHY, HOW, WHAT method that helped us focus on the sensitive details of the product first,
starting with our purpose and the core need that we were addressing for both our audience.
Which in our case were the businesses (senior staff in companies, department heads, business
owners and other decision makers) and the students (masters graduates looking at conducting
an in-depth research in a specific area of their choice). Going further to explain the technology
and the experience that would help us create the magic. And ending with the actual service and
mission of the product.
Tom Bradley from Code Design, introduced us to another format, that was a guideline for filling
empty blanks that helped us work out a pitch that focused on the Target Group, then the
functional use, later the differentiation from competitors and ending with the purpose. The
product differentiation angle in this format was unique which we adopted and used it in our
future iterations.

11. From that point on our value proposition
became obvious
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In a coaching session with Gareth Lymer, Former MD of Sense Worldwide, we looked deeper
into our positioning, that helped us narrow our value down to three keywords that would direct a
searching prospect to our product. It helped us rethink our offering for the businesses as we took
time to understand what they were looking for and customising our product tonality.
Our final edit:
InShift, a digital platform that connects companies with talented digital Masters graduates from
Hyper Island, to explore future opportunities and find innovative solutions for business needs. An
engagement that is short, focused and customised to the needs of the both the parties involved.

12. Elaborating our Business Canvas led us to a clear
business plan
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Where should we start: Business Canvas or
Business Plan? This was one of the big issues
when our startup idea began to take form. After
some lectures, coaching sessions and
research, we agreed that the best alternative
was to initiate by the Business Canvas
(OSTERWALDER, 2010). Starting with this
framework, helped us to work together, sync
and develop a summary of the business that led
us to a clear Business Plan and a further
marketing strategy.
To highlight the the main points around this
task, we have: negotiation about current market
and expansion phases, benchmark
from competitors (Fresh Minds and Match-my-
thesis), definition of the revenue stream and the
role of the platform for companies and students.
Therefore, to our learning process, we strongly
believe that the Business Canvas is a great tool
to set business expectations and definitions and
contributes a lot to the team’s transparency,
understanding and alignment.

13. Evaluating the market size was not that easy
Secondary research of industry data provided these insights:
- The market size of Masters students in the UK is a total of 530.000 in 2015 according to HESA Higher Education Statistics
Agency.
- The digital consultancy market in the UK is growing every year reaching a total of 1,4 bn pounds in 2015 according to MAC.
We identified a business opportunity to scale up in the UK by involving others Universities and to become global by reaching in the
future years other countries.
Furthermore, we studied about the current practices of the companies to understand our market competitors. We found that
companies employ various methods to find answers to their business needs, ranging from business consultancies to research
specialists to hiring experts, that all of which prove to be very expensive. They also access research portals such as WARC & HBR
but these studies are not customised to their unique company needs.
We looked deeper into the behaviour of students to understand their existing methods and we found that Masters Graduate
Students use referral and social portals like LinkedIn and Twitter which are not effective since it doesn’t precede same intent of both
parties.
There were a few market successful players in the market from whom we drew learnings - MatchMyThesis and Freshminds.
MatchMyThesis connects companies with medical and engineering masters and PhD students in Denmark while Freshminds
which is a strategic consultancy agency taps into Oxford university students for short term projects for their clients.
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14. Working on a Business Plan that is viable
and scalable
After setting the Business Canvas, we started to develop our Business Plan, a more in depth and detailed content about our startup,
which could be sent to investors as a summary material of our product. The importance of developing the Canvas before was
proved and led us to a simpler way to work on the plan since the key points had already been discussed and aligned. We had many
options for the business plan format but we decided to use the one by Gareth Burton.
Below are the steps and our usage guidelines to each step:
Executive summary: Definition of a brief summary of the plan with value proposition of InShift.
Founders and team: Presentation of our team and skills.
Product: Explanation about the InShift platform, details of quality assurance and promise by us to companies, defining tracking
levels for repeat engagement and company satisfaction, payment terms, legal contract between both audiences to protect student
effort, issue of Intellectual Property and Unique Selling Proposition.
Commercial model: Defining how we will make money, during the development of this part we researched different revenue
streams but we agreed the commission was the best alternative.
Market analysis: Fixing of market size, growth rates, how we will enter new markets and different service levels for each audience
basis who brought more monetary value to the business.
Sales and marketing plan: Setting the business strategy to contact and promote the solution to our audiences and how will we
make it scalable.
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15. Working on a Business Plan that is viable
and scalable
Operational plan: Definition of what needs to happen internally to be able to deliver the product to the market.
Financial forecast: One of the main points of our plan, this part consisted of numbers that will make our business viable and
profitable. This part took us most time, because a depth analysis and search about each cost and revenue forecast was needed.
Due to some changes in our provisions, the numbers were changed a lot until we reached an agreement between our team.
Risks: Drawing out for the SWOT framework we summarised all the potential risks and also highlighted some potential
opportunities for our business.
Funding requirement: Grounded by our financial forecast, we set the amount we will need to start and sustain until we reach break
even, we created both optimistic and pessimistic numbers to support our funding requirement.
Exit strategy: We included an exit strategy and also discussed with Hyper Island stakeholders to understand interest levels of
ownership amongst them.
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16. Defining our traction channel framed our
communication plan
Jon kept referring to the book called traction in order to define our
distribution channel. We used the bullseye framework to identify what
was the best traction channel for our business. Due to the absence of
budget we decided to go for viral marketing, then we elaborated the
communication strategy 1990 and the message to deliver to both
targets.
Reaching the 9.
InShift will use Hyper Island official social media channels (Slack,
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) to reach Hyper Island Masters
Graduates and promote our solution to address their needs.
Their will be a call to action inviting Hyper Island Masters Students to
spread the word toward the 90 which are the companies.
Reaching the 90
Indeed the whole approach is to turn Hyper Island Masters Graduates
into our brand ambassadors. As they have a clear interest in doing the
promotion of InShift. Knowing that the more companies are using our
platform, the more chances Masters Graduates get to find sponsorships
for their IRP. So the idea is to leverage their personal professional
networks (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) to reach the 90.
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17. Prototyping our idea made it tangible for potential
clients and investors
Preparing a prototype was the most disputed and yet a very productive topic for all of us in the
group. The reason why it was disputed was because we all had different intentions and
purposes for the MVP which led us to understanding different views and uses of a prototype in
this scenario. We needed to brainstorm the product features and user interface and test it,
especially for the student audience.
On the other hand, we also needed to test the traction for our product with the companies who
wouldn’t interact with the platform the same way as the student audience. Hence we decided
to separate the two requirements at hand and agreed to create 2 prototypes that would be
tested with 2 audience differently.
Prototyping our idea made it tangible for users to identify the user experience of the product
which led to unique insights and direct user feedback. We had gone through 3 prototyping
methods, for testing and developing the initial platform which lead to the team’s MVP and pitch
presentation.
Firstly we created pen and paper user interfaces simulating the core user interaction and
functionality of our product. Secondly we created and used a low fidelity prototype of platform
on balsamic creating a interactive balsamic screens to begin understanding usability and user
experience flow. Thirdly for the company users we created a product concept landing page
that emphasised on offering the value and asked user to feedback if they would be interested.
http://in-shift.weebly.com/
Lastly in preparation of the pitch presentation for the investors the grouped agreed that we had
to take it to the next level in terms of story telling the user experience and thus we created a
tutorial video of 1 minute to ensure better comprehension through visual communication.
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18. A critical issue occurred during our last sprint
On June 12th Antoine took an unexpected decision to go back home for personal issues. It took him a long time to make that call
but we all believe he made the right move. Antoine felt bad for the team and proposed us two options:
1. Continue working all together with him remotely
2. Develop his start up project on his own. Although the rest of The Leans were surprised to hear such news we decided to give
him support in this tough moment and be united rather than splitting up. So we then continued to divide tasks and made regular
Google Hangout calls to check in with him. After all, one of the lessons we learnt at Hyper Island during our Masters Programme
is that team is everything. Remote working was something we had all experienced during our first brief with Mural but we took
further inspiration from a form alumni who did her IRP on this topic.
3. We managed to work quite efficiently and asked Antoine to record the video of our prototype since he could not present on the
pitch day. That was the best way to engage him in the presentation process. Antoine skyped in on the D Day to give us inputs on
our rehearsal. He gave us the team back all the support we had offered him. And finally it all turned out well.
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On June 12th Antoine took an unexpected decision to go back home for personal issues. It took him a long time to make that call
We managed to work quite efficiently and asked Antoine to record the video of our prototype since he could not present on the pitch
day. That was the best way to engage him in the presentation process. Antoine skyped in on the D Day to give us inputs on our
rehearsal. He gave us the team back all the support we had offered him. And finally it all turned out well.

19. The pitching day was the outcome of all
our efforts
The Pitch day was the outcome of all our efforts. But it all started four days before. When we started planned and brainstorming on
engaging ways of pitching our product. Also during the whole module, we had gone through many elevator and final pitch coachings
with different industry leaders, and we decided, as a team, to pitch our idea as many times and as many people as possible, to
familiarise with it. That’s why we say, the pitching day was the outcome of a whole process, it was definitely not just one day.
Thus, when we were approached the great day, our team thought about dividing the pitch process in four, the deck, the script, the
magic and the empathy.
Firstly, for the deck structure, we made a deep research about what investors really want to hear in the real world. After researching
we found the Kawasaki pitch structure was very good for presenting our idea and also highly recommended by Jon.
(http://guykawasaki.com/the-only-10-slides-you-need-in-your-pitch/). According Guy Kawasaki, “I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule
of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a pitch should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than
thirty points”, and this was the pitch structure that we used.
Secondly, we divided the script according to what each person was going to present, so we could write with our own words what we
would say. After that it came the magic. Our team wanted to have a memorable but simple thing during the pitch that would engage
the crowd, at with that making the investors to remember us later one. Then as we had, Patrick Turchin, one of our team members
with talented skill on drawing, we decided to do a video sketch during the elevator pitch that visually explained our idea. As the last
thing, we wanted to create empathy with the crowd. And as our idea involved companies and master students and they were both
going to be present in the room that day, we decided to do a live prototype, and created a match between a masters student and
one company in the crowd with common interests.
Finally, in the actual pitch day, all the team presented our idea to the investors and hyper students, and we believe because of the
intense preparation and rehearsing our team did a great job, presenting in a clear, engaging and fun way.
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20. Personal reflections
Aksha - This module helped me find some of my leadership energies back, it may have occurred from imbalanced efforts and distribution of
work but it was a great learning experience to have taken the lead on important parts of the process. One of my regrets during the process was
always knowing that my team was not going to consider bringing this start-up to life in the real world. Hence though the process was very close
to real it felt like a short simulation and not the real deal.
Antoine - Looking back I think I have learnt how to « kill my darlings » which was one of my weaknesses that my former teams gave me as a
feedback. It has not been easy, but I feel proud that I opened up to everyone’s else idea. I believe it was my mistake anyway if we did not
pursue my initial idea because I did not pitch it clearly enough. I also feel guilty for having let my team down during the last sprint but lucky of
all support they gave me. It definitely shows how great people and professional are my team members. Even though we did not win I believe
it’s been the most enriching journey I have been through at Hyper Island.
Gabriela - Team is everything, the challenge of designing a startup is only possible with teamwork, each member aligned and committed to the
idea. And the ultimate test is to co-create an environment where everybody is 100% engage.
Howard - For start up module I had realised that developing a start up business is not like producing any other business models for brands
because it had a unique structure and strategy to it. Simply it was to be developed to a point to be sold in an exit acquisition. Such as working
to develop a start up business is also very weighted on the numbers inputted into the start up and the potential numbers that it is forecasted to
output in value. working to produce it did not only require knowing design thinking, innovation strategy but also business strategy.
Marco - I feel ready to the world now. The experiences of building a business from the scratch was fundamental for my life. It was a mixture of
many intense feelings that made it real. And with this realistic approach our group gone through a lot, and because of that now I know that
creating a startup is far from easy, but is an experience that I will definitely have again in my life. I feel ready to the world now.
Patrick - This project enabled me to reach a new level as a business developer professional. Leading the business plan, I understand what
investors looks for, their main points and how to present to them, as well, it prepared me for potential and real entrepreneur initiatives in the
future. During the development of this project I improved some critical thinking capabilities and this empowered me to ask more questions
about the process and lead innovative solutions and decisions to the most efficient business results. Finally, based in the team development
and reflections, the exercise clarified some new behaviours that I needed to start practicing, like being strong when defending an idea and
express my uncomfortable moments. Feedback received, I adopted a new posture that was felt through the project’s next steps.
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21. Conclusion
Overall we all agree that it has been the most exciting project we have been working on throughout the program. Like in every
journey there has been ups and downs but in the end we succeeded to overcome all the challenges that crossed our path which
represents our biggest success. Once again we learnt by doing and this the reason why we all came to Hyper Island.
Everyone played an active role in our team and gave his best to deliver best in class work. Sadly it was our last group work but we
would have definitely teamed up again all together if we have had the chance to. If there was one key take away to summarise our
experience it would be to always be supportive and united no matter what. As we said previously team is everything and this what
made us stronger.
One very last thing, failure is part of the learning process, we all made mistakes but this is what enriched us all.
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22. References
Tools
• Team Canvas - Team Canvas. (2016). Team Canvas - Bring Your Team on the Same Page. [online] Available at: http://theteamcanvas.com
• SCRUM - Scrummethodology.com. (2016). An Empirical Framework For Learning (Not a Methodology). [online] Available at: http://scrummethodology.com/
• Value Proposition - Startwithwhy.com. (2016). Start With Why. [online] Available at: https://www.startwithwhy.com/
• Business Canvas - Alexosterwalder.com. (2016). Alex Osterwalder. [online] Available at: http://alexosterwalder.com/
• Business Plan - Gareth Burton (2016). Hyper Island Class June 2nd [talk]
• Marketing Model - GRAHAM D BROWN. (2014). The 1-9-90 Rule (The Most Disruptive Ideas in Marketing Today) - GRAHAM D BROWN. [online] Available at:
http://www.grahamdbrown.com/1-9-90-rule-disruptive-ideas-marketing-today/
• Pitch Format - Guy Kawasaki. (2016). Guy Kawasaki. [online] Available at: http://guykawasaki.com/
Other references
• Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.freshminds.co.uk/
• Mca.org.uk. (2016). Consulting sector outpaces economy – with MCA members passing £5bn | Management Consultancies Association | MCA. [online]
Available at: https://www.mca.org.uk/news/press-releases/consulting-sector-outpaces-economy-with-mca-members-passing-5bn/
• Match My Thesis. (2016). Students page - Match My Thesis. [online] Available at: http://matchmythesis.com/
• qualifiers, F. (2016). HESA - Higher Education Statistics Agency - HESA - Higher Education Statistics Agency. [online] Hesa.ac.uk. Available at: https://
www.hesa.ac.uk/stats
• Survey results: http://bit.ly/28Iwc41
• Prototype video: https://youtu.be/9SUWKMVtojI
• Elevator Pitch sketch: https://youtu.be/YBo5COVffrU
• Landing page: http://in-shift.weebly.com/
• Icon references: https://thenounproject.com/
• Artworkbean, Kelcey Hurst, Xela Ub, Marta Ambrosetti, Meaghan Hendricks, Hugo Alberto
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