Background: SE Forum is a non profit organisation based in Sweden that advocates responsible business solutions to address local and global challenges. They promote, inspire and empower entrepreneurs from all over the world to use business to do good. SE Outreach Accelerator is SE Forum's accelerator program for social entrepreneurs focusing on solving social and environmental issues in emerging markets. The six months program aims to support the entrepreneurs and their organisations to elevate their innovative ideas in order to change the world. The ideas in the 2017 years program concerned areas such as solar power, agriculture, sanitation, recycling, education, ethical fashion and health care driven by entrepreneurs from seven different countries across the world.

The purpose: During their two week long program event in Stockholm, Expedition Mondial trained and coached the entrepreneurs within the accelerator program in Design Thinking. The purpose was to give them tools, knowledge and understanding in how they can co-create relevant offerings and businesses together with their customers.

The result: We trained the seven entrepreneurs in the process and the mindset of design thinking, coached them in the tools and steps of the process. They were also given tools and templates to support their process and to be able to continue the explorative work together with their team. During the following four months the entrepreneurs successfully implemented their knowledge together with their teams, given them the opportunity to continuously understand and meet the challenges of their customers.

How did we perform the training?
During a half-day workshop we gave the entrepreneurs theoretical and practical training in design thinking. Moderated by Expedition Mondial they tried out interview techniques, mini analysis methods and customer journey mapping. Together we got to discuss the implications, benefits and challenges with working with design thinking, as well as the short and long term value it can provide for their business and their teams. After the workshop we were asked to offer online coaching for some of the participants, and together with the tools and templates the entrepreneurs could continue their exploration and use of design thinking with their teams and customers.
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How did the entrepreneurs experience the training?