user acceptance of iot solutions
Tips & Tricks
To learn how business support activities for use cases can be improved in future projects, the WP4 team made an inventory of lessons learned. Interviews with use case leaders were organized to provide valuable insights, also helpful for Digital Innovation Hubs that want to offer business support to smart farming initiatives in agriculture. These are our 9 tips & tricks!
Tip 1
Provide a support structure in the project that is ‘fit for purpose’ and transparent
The project structure should accommodate different needs and requirements in each use case or experiment and should be transparent to everyone involved.
- Carefully assess if project tasks and services offered are fit for purpose and if the right people are on board.
- Design an onboarding program for business support team members with periodical updates for new team additions and existing team. This creates continuity in the support activities and builds the team.
- Create a clear structure of multiple lead roles and streams not only represented as Work Package tasks but as mission driven themes. For example, a dedicated lead for Methods & Learnings with references for business modeling tools and process design.
- Invest in a good way to channel communications from the project (business support as well as coordination between work packages) to avoid use cases to become overwhelmed with the amount of information.
- Facilitate the possibility to bring in additional experts when needed for specific business support topics (bootcamps & workshops).
Tip 2
Balance between the project duration and rapid innovation
Especially in the field of IoT, technological developments are taking place rapidly. Development processes in a 4-year project can be too slow for true innovation and business development. This can be taken into account, even in the proposal stage.
- Allow the project format to organize proposals for the use cases in series of sprints.
- Organize annual review meetings and support use cases to keep formal objectives in line with the status of innovation on a quarterly basis.
- Fully align ultimate development goals with use case objectives. For example, is the goal actually economic value creation, being in business or developing new technology tested and ready for market?
Tip 3
Uncover use case needs with flexibility and interaction
What use cases want to achieve and their knowledge and experience in the field of IoT can be different. This means there could be gaps in terms of business support supply and the use case needs. While not all use cases may be able to express needs, the project aims for specific business support goals.
- Create a flexible business support team to attend to specific use case needs.
- Set clear business support goals, because they influence the structure and organisation of the activities. For example, is the goal to get to a specific point (‘Outcome Driven Business Support’), is it about the journey itself (‘Process Driven Business Support’) or is it use case specific?
- Design an onboarding program for your ‘customers’ (use cases), including workshops to identify needs and co-creation of the roadmap. This helps newcomers to feel integrated in the project.
- Ensure use cases have access to information of missed activities.
- Reach out to individual first and then confirm with surveys.
- Provide a team profile, including videos/vlogs of team members in which they tell what they do and with some personal detail.
- Make sure use cases get everything out of a service offered, create recurring activities and personalized guidance by a Business Model expert, preferably in a series of workshops.
Tip 4
It's about the people!
Personal contact is highly valued, especially in a big project. People are remembered, not the specific function or work package that providing support. Team changes can hamper discussions.
- The previously mentioned onboarding program for use cases is also suitable because it introduces newbies to the business support structure.
- Provide an overview of which people to contact for which services.
- Create a responsive team that is easy to get in contact with.
- Preferably, have a steady team with members that stay in the project for a longer time to increase service quality.
- Create opportunities for personal contact including physical meetings.
Tip 6
Combine top-down business support activities and bottom-up flexibility
To stimulate use cases to make use of business support, a top-down approach is sometimes needed. Offering use cases the option to request specific customized services is also necessary.
- Be clear from the start on what use cases need to deliver and on which services are provided. It helps to include ideas and practical examples about business support services or how to use specific tools.
- Personal use case specific interaction is key to discuss requirements and assess use case needs.
- Have business development experts on board in the project for personal use case specific support.
- Include in-depth practical interactive sessions with experts for a practical approach.
Tip 7
Measure business benefits before and after
Better decision making is achieved for the end user by measuring the business benefits before and after introducing the IoT solution.
- Besides Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that help operation management and identify improvements, project KPIs as objectives and key results that are based on the value proposition should also be measured in use cases.
Tip 8
Exchanging experiences beyond the project
Allocate budget to facilitate cooperation and common development, exchanging experiences and problems in use case, also beyond the official structure in the project.
- Actively facilitate sessions for practical problems arising for use cases to support mutual learning across trials.
- Invite speakers who can share knowledge based on practical experience, for example to learn from mistakes made by others, or to understand how to do business in different countries.
- Organize networking events during physical project meetings and stimulate informal networking.
- Allocate budget for inter use case development sprints to promote common development.
Tip 9 (for digital innovation hubs)
Provide in-depth support beyond business models theory
- Provide practical assistance for each method offered in the Business Model toolbox by providing experts for practical guidance.
Tip 5
Balance disciplines in a use case team to match the objectives
- Develop guidelines at the proposal stage about the roles required in the use case team to achieve the final use case objectives.
- Dedicate time and allocate budget in the proposal stage for teamwork in the development of use cases and for partners to work on different work packages. This makes it easier for individual partners to commit.
- Organize activities in the use case proposal as sprints and provide a clear outline with milestones and responsibilities during the project.