We’re excited to announce that we are lecturing at TMCx, the Texas Medical Center’s accelerator for health and medical technology companies. Located in the world’s largest medical center, TMCx provides startup companies with “a shared workspace, a curriculum tailored to the needs of healthcare entrepreneurs and the guidance of over 120 advisors from the front lines of the industry.”
Sidebench is teaching a startup boot camp with TMCx in Houston on February 26th, where CEO Kevin Yamazaki, Director of Sidebench Health Benjamin Nguyen, and User Experience Designer Cassandra Gibson will introduce the 2018 TMCx class to the principles of design thinking, user research, agile product development, and more.
As a preview into our upcoming workshop, we decided to give a sneak peek into one of the activities we’ll be conducting during the boot camp. This exercise gets participants in the design thinking mindset by illuminating the importance of problem-driven design.
So now, please arm yourself with a marker and a post-it notepad (Sidebench’s favorite tools). You will also need a partner. You both have one minute to draw a coat rack. After you’ve drawn your object, reveal and share with your neighbors. On a new note, you have 3 minutes to draw a way for people to store their coats. Once you’ve finished, again share your drawing with your neighbors. Observe the differences between your first drawing and the second. Did you draw the same object? If not, why?
The best questions to use for brainstorming and collaborating are those that ask about the problem to be tackled, not about the specifics of some seemingly obvious solution. Design thinking spurs innovation when we strip away assumptions, think outside the box, and ask the right questions.
At TMCx, Sidebench will lead entrepreneurial teams through this and a number of exercises and activities that showcase what it takes to build not just a great product, but an impactful product. We’re excited to help drive the changes coming to the healthcare space, and we look forward to meeting TMCx’s innovative startup community.
For anyone within the TMCx Start-Up cohort, who has yet to sign up for this class, the Eventbrite link is available here
