UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO

Technopreneurship
ES 223
Module 1
 Module 1: Entrepreneurial
Mindset
• Introduction to Technopreneurship and
Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial Mindset
- The Great Litmus Test
- Problem Statement

Entrepreneurial Mindset 2
 Lecture 2: Entrepreneurial
mindset

ILO 2: By the end of the learning experience,

students must be able to:

✓Analyze different aspects of problems

Entrepreneurial Mindset 3
“If I were give none hour to save the planet, I
would spend 59 minutes defining the problem
and one minute resolving it.“ – AlbertEinstein

- Entrepreneurs tend to be solutions-driven people

and will focus all of their energy on the product
they are building

The Problem Statement 4

How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?

The Problem Statement 5

 How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?
1. The 40-20-10-5 rule
• State your problem in 40 words.
• Cut it down to 20, then to 10, and end up with a 5-word
problem statement.
• If you can not keep it simple, probably you have not
reached the roots of it yet.
2. Research and collect information
- Take time to research the nature of the problem, its
importance, and urgency of it, its tendency or frequency to
occur, and every single one of the stakeholders involved in
it.
The Problem Statement 6
 How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?
3. Rephrase and Focus
- "Are you sure we are solving the right problem? How do
we know this is the right issue?
- First, rephrase. Then, Focus. Imagine that your problem
has a timeline and project yourself in the time before the
problem appeared.

4. Challenge Assumptions
- When framing a problem, we need to ask ourselves what
do we know to be true and what and how much have we
assumed to be true.
The Problem Statement 7
 How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?
5. Broaden and narrow the view
- By questioning the more significant reasons for doing
something we may discover that the roots of a problem are
far beyond the level we were digging in.

6. Change the perspective

- Give your problem to others. Analyze it from the
perspectives of all stakeholders involved. Gain always some
fresh insides to it before getting into finding the solution.

The Problem Statement 8

 How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?
7. Frame questions, not statements
- Questions open up the framework to new streams of thought.
e.g. 'Our marriage is suffering' is a demoralizing statement.
'How can we make our marriage be great again’ is a question
that opens the door to successful problem-solving.

8. Use always positive language

- Using positive language to frame a problem has the power to
influence the expression of genes that regulate emotional and
physical stress and thus, ease the process of finding the right
answer and predispose successful decision-making.

The Problem Statement 9

 How To Frame A Problem To
Find The Right Solution?
9. Become a problem-maker
- Turn it on its head and instead try to focus on how to create the
problem.

10. Use the SCAMPER rule

- Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (magnify or minify)
- Put to other uses, Eliminate and Rearrange (reverse).

The Problem Statement 10

 How do you identify
problems worth solving?
1. Identify problems worth solving during conversations
- The exploration or discovery phase, serves to better understand
the customer's problem and to gain empathy for their situation.

2. Identify problems worth solving by observation

- Stopgap solutions offer great opportunities to discover where
existing products are used for purposes different from what they
were made for.

The Problem Statement 11

 How do you identify
problems worth solving?
3. Identify problems worth solving by detecting deficient
solutions
- how new solutions can be successful when addressing the
shortcomings of existing solutions

4. Create problems worth solving intentionally

- This approach creates an artificial problem and offers the
perfect solution right away.
- These artificially created problems mainly create needs on an
emotional or social level, which can be much stronger than needs
on a purely functional level.

The Problem Statement 12

 How Entrepreneurs Can Find
the Right Problem to Solve
1. Interest vs. problem testing
- If you plan to do interest tests, here are several approaches
(among many) to consider:
Social media, Website landing pages, Surveys

2. Problem validation

- Interviews, Emotional journaling or mapping, focus groups.

3. Prototype testing

The Problem Statement 13

End of Topic

Thank you
Entrepreneurial Mindset 14