From the creation phase, exploring the field proves to be a useful strategy to better identify the territory in which you wish to implement your project. This will also allow you to collect key data to properly build your project and define your solution, to experiment with your first activities to refine your action strategy and to start making your project known to future beneficiaries or potential partners.
Know the local ecosystem well
Physically going to one or more locations, meeting and talking with people in the field (professionals or residents) during scheduled meetings or spontaneously (via street surveys or door-to-door surveys, for example), participating in local events, using display spaces in reception or passage locations, launching an online consultation, etc. The methods of action for “exploring the field” are as diverse as they are complementary.
Before launching your new activity, it is essential to take into consideration the existing situation to ensure that your project will integrate well into the local fabric or find a positive reception among the targeted beneficiaries or partners.
You will thus be able to better qualify and validate the social need that you have identified through surveys, discussions or interviews conducted with your future beneficiaries or with other structures that know or address the same target audience .
In this context, using a beneficiary map or empathy maps can be useful to qualify their needs. Design thinking methods or personae (i.e. typical people) can also be used to start from uses and draw up robot portraits. The objective is to confront your social problem with your beneficiaries to avoid starting from a misinterpretation of a social need, and therefore from a “false problem”.
demand and supply . Although it generally requires documentary research (recent and reliable key data and figures, inventory of projects similar to yours, analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the sector or line of business concerned, etc.), the market study is also carried out in the field.
If some data is missing from your market research, that’s okay: if all the information is available, it may mean that the market is saturated or that there is no need.
What are the differences between an opportunity study, market study or feasibility study?
The feasibility study refers to preparatory diagnostic work. It allows to verify the existence of a social need in a territory and to validate a sufficient level of demand. Objective: to confirm the opportunity to launch the project.
The market study allows the project to be positioned in relation to existing players in the territory and in its sector of activity. It includes carrying out qualitative or quantitative surveys with beneficiaries or potential customers, analyzing the competition (especially if the project has a commercial dimension), etc.
The feasibility study consists of verifying the technical, economic and legal feasibility of your project. It allows you to assess the conditions necessary for the success of the project (equipment, skills, financing, etc.) and to develop different development scenarios.
Specify your strategy and value proposition
Is your recycling center intended to raise awareness about reducing waste or just to recycle and resell items? Does your washable diaper sales and rental business include collection and washing? As you think about it, meet with others, and analyze, your business strategy will become clearer and more solid.
Concretely, having a strategic vision consists of setting clear objectives and a long-term goal . By staying on course, you will be able to define the priority activities to develop and refine your action plan for the coming months.
With all the information collected on your beneficiaries and potential customers, you can also refine the added value of your project, or what is called the value proposition . This is not a simple description of your product or service: it corresponds to what it will really bring to the beneficiaries. If you stay focused on your value proposition, you will be less tempted to satisfy all the partners or to complicate your offer. Your project will also gain in readability. Defining what constitutes the unique character of your project is also very useful for building your argument and convincing your future partners .
It is better to be the king of your niche than to want to do everything. I deprive myself of customers because I have strict principles. For example, our shop does not offer roses at Christmas but in return, our customers often come exclusively to us because they know our way of working and they adhere to our values!
Finally, exploring the field allows you to make your project known to your future beneficiaries, to meet prescribers of your future solution, or even to create links with people and organizations who wish to get involved. An approach that facilitates word-of-mouth, whatever the size of the project (national, regional or more local).