I was leaving a March 2023 Nonprofit Consultants Network (NCN) meeting when I joined a small group of colleagues who were catching up. An event planner I’d long admired was describing a service she developed after COVID wiped the nonprofit gala season off everyone’s calendars.
It was such a savvy business pivot. How did she develop it? What challenges did she face?
As I walked to the T, I wondered if other NCN members would be interested in the answers to these questions.
The seed was planted for an innovation “accelerator”: The NCN Business Innovation Circle (BIC).
NCN and BIC
Originally a project of TSNE, NCN is an independent networking group with about 150 members, mostly solo consultants and small firms. Members provide a range of consulting services to nonprofits throughout New England and beyond. Many also work with for-profit and governmental entities. NCN members meet regularly throughout the year for mutual learning and support.
Five seasoned NCN-member consultants joined me in the summer of 2023 to develop a Business Innovation Circle pilot: A series of 75-minute “accelerator sessions” for NCN innovators to test new products or services with seasoned colleagues who could provide constructive feedback.
(We call BIC innovators “Presenters” and use the term “Participants” for NCN members serving as business coaches during BIC sessions. The term “accelerator” is meant in the loosest sense – as an informal network to support innovation. BIC does not raise or provide seed funding, nor does it establish an ongoing consulting relationship with BIC innovators.)
Five NCN members stepped forward to present service and product innovations during the 2023-2024 pilot year under a set of flexible guidelines designed by the BIC Team. These innovators were:
Larry Raff, Abacus Major Donor Calculator.
Miriam Rubin and team, Listen to Your Mothers.
Diane Darling, Networking in a Box.
Lisa Poller, Brain Explained.
Megan Amundson and team, The Strategic Nonprofit.
How BIC Operated During the 2023-2024 Pilot Phase
(1) The BIC Team did outreach at events and on the NCN listserv to recruit prospective Presenters whose innovations were loosely at the “beta-test” stage. Recruitment was likely aided by the fact that members regularly discuss business challenges at NCN meetings, so the practice of asking and providing support was already established.
(2) BIC pilot season presentations were scheduled approximately every two months from October 2023 through June 2024.
Prospective Presenters met with one of the BIC Team co-leads to discuss their proposed session, and most were “accepted” into the BIC queue. While only NCN members could present via BIC, there was no requirement that the product or service specifically serve nonprofits.
The Team decided that the new product or process proposed by some prospective Presenters had not reached the “beta” stage. Those members were encouraged to, and did, arrange a less formal NCN session to seek colleagues’ input.
(3) Presenters were asked to develop a set of specific questions on product features, marketing, pricing, or other aspects of their business plan to discuss with session Participants. Most but not all Presenters did this.
Members of the BIC Team offered session facilitation services to Presenters. Presenters who accepted the offer could opt for the type of facilitation — limited to active — that they desired. A “run of show” pre-meeting, offered by the BIC Team to each Presenter, permitted the Presenter and facilitator to work out logistics for the session.
(4) BIC sessions were held over Zoom. They started with a review of BIC “community agreements.” This was followed by the Presenter’s description of their innovation, supported by slides, videos, and/or other material from their websites. After the product description, Participants provided feedback both “live” and in the session chat.
Approximately a dozen to twenty Participants attended each BIC session. Most Presenters provided a session recording to the NCN membership at large after the session.
(5) Several Participants offered additional advice to a Presenter after the Presenter’s BIC session.
(6) Participants were asked after each session to provide informal reactions to the BIC Team via email but were not surveyed formally.
What We’re Learning
A BIC Team member and a second NCN colleague, both experienced evaluators, assessed the pilot year in early summer 2024. I aided the assessment team, which obtained feedback from Presenters, Participants, and members of the BIC Team. Some findings:
1) The BIC pilot provided valuable feedback to Presenters. Although most presentations had some technical and other “glitches,” Presenters received helpful feedback about their innovation, and/or the way that they pitched their innovation to an audience.
[BIC] helped me understand all of the moving parts that we’re going to be involved with launching [the product] . . . So I would say to anybody who’s thinking about doing this, it will be a clarity thing for you. [Presenter]
I found [NCN members’] comments on positioning in workforce development especially useful. So many thoughtful leads to follow up on. Having critical friends or kitchen cabinets can be extremely valuable, no matter what field you are in. [Presenter]
Some Presenters found Participants’ questions about the service to be as valuable as the critiques.
We were paying very close attention to the questions that they [Participants] were asking. And the questions that were asking were very indicative of whether . . . what we were getting across was clear . . . So we learned a lot. In some ways we hit the mark. In some ways we missed the mark, and in some ways we really needed to clarify. [Presenter]
I had not done many presentations on [service] up to that point. BIC helped me understand, based on questions, whether [a presentation slide] was dead or not, whether it made sense to use it. [Presenter]
BIC provided several Presenters with a beta-testing forum that they otherwise would not have had access to.
Some Presenters participated in subsequent BIC pilot sessions as Participants. They reported gaining ideas for their own innovations at those sessions.
2) NCN members obtained valuable information from both BIC Presenters and Participants. Participants appreciated learning about NCN colleagues’ innovations and innovation processes. They also found other Participants’ insights valuable.
I thought this was a fascinating [BIC] session, both because of the product but also because of the depth of knowledge and engagement from attendees. Smart observations all around and impressive how so many people had insights from similar projects, industries, etc. [Participant]
It is very interesting and helpful to see how other consultants are conceptualizing and productizing their work. I also appreciate hearing consulting colleagues’ various perspectives on positioning, pricing, marketing, etc. [Participant]
3) BIC performed the intended “circle” function. The “BIC” name (suggested by a BIC Team colleague) underscored that BIC was not “Shark Tank.” Presenters appreciated having a supportive environment in which to present their innovations. Some Participants also said they appreciated the opportunity to assist an NCN colleague in this way.
[Participants’] feedback showed that they were very invested in our success. And they were there for giving real feedback in order to push us forward. [Presenter]
If You Plan to Design Accelerator Sessions
Tip # 1: Be clear in your objectives and design / modify your structure to support them.
The BIC pilot had three objectives: (i) to help NCN innovators; (ii) to inform NCN members; and (iii) to build rapport among the NCN member community.
When designing the pilot, the BIC Team opted for a session format with few hard-and-fast mandates. In post-BIC-session feedback, however, Participants recommended modifying BIC so that Participants’ learning and Presenters’ information goals were better balanced.
As one example, several suggested requiring that Presenters provide key features of their innovation before the session to maximize the time for feedback during the session itself. (In interviews, Presenters recommended offering, but not mandating, session templates for this and other purposes.)
If you are looking to build community through innovation sessions, you may wish to survey both Presenters and Participants as the sessions unfold to gauge whether the Presenter-Participant balance is working for everyone — instead of “evaluating” a pilot once it’s completed. You also may wish to begin sessions as BIC does, with “community agreements” that reaffirm goals of mutual support.
Tip # 2: A range of Participants makes for better insights.
Each of the five BIC pilot sessions attracted some “newer” NCN consultants and a handful or more “veterans.” These included members of the BIC Team, which has hundreds of hours of collective consulting experience.
Both types of Participants were valuable. To broadly generalize: Longstanding consultants provided a sharp focus on target market and pricing. When newer consultants asked Presenters to clarify product features, they often seemed to channel questions that prospective customers would raise.
Tip # 3: Be prepared to adjust to (or maybe build) the innovator “supply.”
NCN’s membership may not provide enough “beta-stage” innovators to maintain BIC as a regularly scheduled 75-minute “solo” presentation session. The BIC Team is consulting with NCN members about alternate or additional ways to support innovators.
Among the possibilities is holding shorter semi-structured sessions where two or more Presenters could discuss earlier-stage innovations. In some situations, an early-stage presentation may pave the way for a later “solo” BIC session for the innovator to do a beta-test.
Tip # 4: Practice makes . . . better.
No one on the BIC Team had prior experience in launching an “accelerator” (although each of us had adjacent innovation experience). We made up BIC pilot project procedures as we went along. Over time we learned about problems that could arise during presentations. We became better able to inform Presenters, during pre-BIC planning sessions, about what to expect.
Our “look-back” data gathering has informed us even more. For example, we learned from Presenters that the value of some feedback became more evident over time. We also anticipate that everyone might benefit form a follow-up session: For Participants to learn how their advice was put to use, and for Presenters to seek more input.
Please Be in Touch
Have you run an “accelerator”-type program within an affinity group or otherwise? I would love to hear your experiences at kathleeen@finegaugestrategy.com
