CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Power of Prototypes
Developing Business Plan Elements Around Vision
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
What is a Social Venture?
A social venture is a set
of actions that seek to
bring about a better
world.
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
What is a Social Business Plan?
A Business Plan for a
social venture is a brief
explaining what actions
are being taken to get a
certain effect, justifying
resources needed
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
How do we decide what actions?
•Visioning can provide a broad outline of the world that exists
once the problem identified has been solved (deliverable 1)
•Clarifying the critical movers (heroes) provides us with the
resource base for that action (deliverable 2)
•Understanding one’s operating environment provides a clue as
to how others act under similar circumstances. (deliverable 3)
Once that’s done, the venture’s work begins
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Start Small, Make Small mistakes
•No world-changing ventures started full scale.
•Most world-changing ventures started off in a different
business entirely (Paypal, Post-Its, Etc.)
•Success is best built through Rapid Iteration.
•Rapid Iteration is best through Prototyping.
How do you prototype a service?
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
History of the Future*
*Developed by the Wagner School for Public Service of
NYU, expanded by PresenTense
•Focus of the exercise: Thought experiment outlining “what
success looks like” in a given amount of time.
•Tools: surface to write on, different color markers, post-it
notes a plus.
•Methodology: Narrative/Symbolic Vision Expression. Group
takes turns to give SMART ideas for the world after it has
been impacted by a venture for a period of time.
•Then you step back and tell the story of how you got
there.
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Workshop: Test out History
of the Future to build out
one Vision
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Translating the Vision into a Plan
Having the Vision is the easy part. Translating it to action is the
important part. Here are the steps to do that:
1. Search what has come out for what is the core Outcome
of the venture. That is your goal.
2. Recognize what program results best enable this outcome,
and try to quantify those. These are your Outputs, and
they become your objectives.
3. Clarify what programs or efforts best produce those
outputs. These are your Activities, and they become
Tools.
4. Think what materials you need to run these activities.
These become your Inputs, and they are the resources
you need to gather.
(Deliverable 4 and 5)
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Business/Social Impact Model, Sketched
Inputs
Activities
e.g: Coordinator,
SC, Volunteer
Teachers, Print
materials, etc.
e.g: Six
modules,
social media,
community
work
Outputs
e.g. 13 engaging
Ventures,
empowered SC,
connections to
CJP
Outcome
e.g. Stronger
and more
engaged
Jewish
community
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
Workshop: Build a path to
the future
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
What do you do next?
• Translating your vision thought experiment into a project
proposal provides the foundations for a workplan and a
budget.
• A workplan takes your actions, and lays them out over the
course of a given period.
• A budget takes your workplan’s actions, and assigns the
inputs necessary to make those actions happen during the
course of a given period.
• Deliverable 4, then 5 and 6 depend on this work
• Key to note: without a goal, a set of objectives, and an
understanding of what actions you need to take, there is no
project, and no reason to raise resources.
• Second key: Everything you work on needs to reflect what
competitors and comparatives are doing in the field.
CJP/PresenTense
Fellowship, Day 2
What’s the connection to a BizPlan?
• A business plan needs a strong business model at its core
• Business plans differ in their form and function. Generally they
are a Marketing Document. Rarely are they a reflection of
operations.
• No business plan is stronger than its business model. No
business model is stronger than the weakest assumption in its
logic model.
• No assumption is strong unless it is tested. Which is what
prototypes are for.
• Once you have this down for your venture, materials from this
deliverable and others will come together into the base of the
plan.
So to get this right, we’ll practice.