“Design Challenge 3.0” COVID-19 Crisis Edition

What is Design Challenge?

KosLift Design Challenge is a competition that encourages student entrepreneurs to develop possible solutions to tackle challenges created by the current situation with the pandemic crises. We support innovators and entrepreneurs to design products and services with real social impact.

 

For Design Challenge 3.0 we will focus on finding and developing solutions for companies in Kosovo who were unprepared and/or were unable to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. No one fully foresaw the extent of the COVID-19 crisis. Business has been disrupted and will not necessarily go back to normal. Instead, the current disruption has changed and continues to change the business landscape as we know it.

 

How can business leaders react to the challenges, reassess what they do, reconfigure their companies and reinvent their activities to adapt to the disruption and prepare for the new normal?

 

CHALLENGE 1

-How might we innovate through products and services which will solve people’s needs in times of pandemic crises?

Short description about the challenge:

COVID-19 has played a destructive role in the business environment in Kosovo. Many businesses faced with this new reality were deeply destroyed. The unemployment rate got higher, the supply chain got disrupted and demand for products and services decreased. The business community in Kosovo has entered an unpredictable phase which can easily affect the ecosystem of Kosovar businesses. Even though we are gradually winning the fight against the pandemic, we are still uncertain of what to expect in the future. During this crisis, we cannot help but witness the changes in behaviors for both businesses and consumers. What can your team do in order to tackle this issue?

Think about:

Think about what were the main challenges that Kosovo’s economy suffered during the isolation period. What additional service and product could improve the work efficiency so the operations remain still available and accessible to the clients. How could businesses still survive in similar situations? Are there any limitations to which products and services can still be offered in the market?

 

CHALLENGE 2

-How might we enable companies in Kosovo to stay relevant and adapt within a fast-changing work environment?

Short description about the challenge:

According to the Business Support Center in Kosovo report for the impact of COVID-19 in Kosovo businesses, 12% of companies have already fired employees, while 69% of employees have been released temporarily from the businesses in Kosovo. If the pandemic situation remains the same for the next 3 months, 40% of the businesses could not afford to pay the salaries of their employees, hence they would be obliged to fire them.

On the other hand, the pandemic situation in Kosovo has also caused large shortages of employees due to illness, isolation, child care etc.

Think about:

Think about most of the businesses in Kosovo, their operations, and what are their most common challenges. Think of ways that these businesses could be functionalized even if they are not able to operate in their normal environment. What should they change? How can they be better prepared? How can their staff be more prepared? How can we link employees and owners even in pandemic situations?

 

CHALLENGE 3

How might we support companies in Kosovo to meet the needs of their customers through digital technology? 

Short description about the challenge:

Many businesses in Kosovo operate in an offline environment and don't consider the online presence of their businesses a priority. COVID-19 and the restrictions form the Government of Kosovo have limited businesses from the sectors of gastronomy, manufacturing, health care, agriculture, etc to operate fully in this new environment. Some businesses were operating in a limited capacity and some did not operate at all, which in turn decreased their sales and put them on the verge of the catastrophe.

Think about:

Think about any industry or specific business that you can help transform digitally. Be creative in your solutions. We are interested to hear about anything that can help the business community in Kosovo transform their products or services from an offline environment to an online one.

Think about measures that could be taken in advance, in order to prevent the failure of providing services and products during an unexpected situation. How can the companies prepare their employees to work remotely? What technology measures can be taken in advance? What other measures need to be ready at any time, in case something goes wrong globally or locally?

 

Who is Eligible to apply? 

Eligible to apply are students from ALL Universities in Kosovo (Public or Private), currently enrolled, pursuing a Bachelor or a Master Degree.

 

What will you have to do? 

All interested students must form a group 0f 2-4 members and fill out the application form provided below. 

Upon acceptance, your team will attend a 4 week Online Workshop, composed of 1-2 sessions per week, estimated to last 4 hours per session, which will be facilitated by one professional mentor who will guide you through the process. Your team will use a “Design Thinking Process” methodology in creating a solution for one of the challenges mentioned above. To develop and test the idea, the workshops will consist of 4 main steps: 

• Discover
• Define
• Develop
• Deliver

The teams will have to deliver a prototype of their solution (service/product) by the end of week 4. All the teams will have the opportunity to present your project idea in front of a jury, which will announce the winners based on the best created prototypes of your concept idea.

 

What will you benefit from it?

• Free mentoring and consulting by field experts.
• Interactive workshop designed by a renowned international company.
• 2,000 EUR price for best ideas.
• Pitch your idea during DOKU.TECH in front of foreign and local investors.

Teams will have the opportunity to take part in a workshop designed by KosLift in collaboration with the globally known business for redesigning strategies Lunch Labs.

Launchlabs is a business redesign studio with offices in Sofia, Berlin, Basel and Bangalore. Their mission is to work together with organisations through business as unusual by melting different design and agile disciplines. They redesign mindsets through training, experiences through sprints and spaces through space design. They are experts in design thinking, scrum, service design, future thinking and a bunch of other fancy methodologies. They work with both local and Fortune 500 companies in various industries.

APPLICATION FOR STUDENTS: LINK

APPLICATION FOR MENTORS: LINK