imece 2.0
Ushering in a new era for Turkey's leading social innovation platform through bespoke innovation service offerings.
Overview
Established in 2016, imece, the social entrepreneurship platform of Turkey, has activated critical social entrepreneurs through capacity building and seed funding. To further expand its audience and ensure future business sustainability, the platform needed to productize its support program, diversify its investor base, and cater to the needs of emerging social innovators.
As a service designer, I conducted in-depth quantitative research to develop insights, craft innovator personas, and build the service blueprint for imece’s diverse future offerings, thereby actualizing this vision.
imece have implemented these programs, ensuring future sustainability by bringing a diverse set of investors for their bespoke programs.
Client
Zorlu Holding
Role
Service Designer
Year
2018
Duration
12 weeks
Team
1 design strategist, 1 project lead
Impact
X6
portfolio growth
from 2019 to 2025 with diversified offerings that attracted a diverse set of funders.
$300K
boost of funding
towards diverse social innovation startups and projects in Turkish ecosystem
+47
social enterprises
that are supported and currently being supported by imece's diverse programs
+8000
young social innovators in Türkiye that engage with imeceLAB
Research
We interviewed imece’s alumni entrepreneurs, social innovation experts, and platform stakeholders to identify opportunity areas for both the innovators and the social economy, and to explore the most inspiring possibilities for best-in-class social innovation platforms in our changing ecosystem.
I realized that social entrepreneurs' distinct identities is imece's strongest competitive advantage.
imece’s unique and standardized incubation program did not cater to all the participating entrepreneurs' needs. Some participants started their journey with a problem-solution fit, while others were already in their product-market fit or needed to scale in their current market. Furthermore, the program’s award funding mechanism does not resonate with the diverse investment needs of entrepreneurs.
Funding for social entrepreneurs is limited, while tech accelerators receive diverse and rigorous funding from corporate VC funds.
This presented an untapped opportunity for social entrepreneurs through integrated programs with tech accelerators.
Social innovator personas we have built through analyzing in-depth interviews and alumni journeys. In the previous imece programs, each distinct persona had gone through the same accelerator program even though they were in different states of product-market fit. Therefore, they had distinct needs from an accelerator program to move forward in their own terms and timelines.
For youth, the programs designed and implemented do not go beyond creating awareness and excitement.
To enable young people to discover their potential as changemakers, long-term experiential opportunities are needed in the fields of entrepreneurship, civil society, private sector, and academia within the context of social innovation.
To seize these opportunities, we needed to build tailored, thoughtful learning journeys that meet the needs of social innovators and entrepreneurs where they currently are and integrate the bespoke type of support to leverage their success.
Design Challenge
How might we build productize imece's unique offerings
to establish a sustainable future for its multi-stakeholder model?
Design
Our approach for productizing imece’s offering was about diversifying its programs with emerging opportunities that imece team members were focusing on.
We built 4 program concepts—transforming one-incubator-for-all into cascading programs for different staged innovators. For example, we merged imece's youth audience with our open innovation concept, creating imeceLAB for high-schoolers, university students and graduates to co-design solutions for local social challenges.
imece's partnership with a university tech accelerator led to the Impact Investment Ready program for entrepreneurs aiming to scale.
These programs enabled partnerships with new organizations. Each program supported different personas through capacity building and financial support, while sponsors gained value from emerging solutions and a community of changemakers.
Tailored service offerings designed for supporting diverse social innovators and entrepreneurs in their unique journeys—from early innovators to scalable social business models.
Service Blueprint that details imeceLAB's open innovation process from both innovator's end-to-end journey, as well as actions of imece team during pre-launch and challenge process.
Next Steps
After its launch of imeceLAB and Incubation Program in collaboration with a top accelerator program in Türkiye, imece team enabled future funding by collaborating with Türkiye's impact-focused enterprises.
I continued to take part in their learning programs in imeceLAB, by facilitating remote gatherings and workshops during COVID. I also volunteered to coach and mentor young social innovators across the country between 2020-2022, during different imeceLAB projects.