Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE

“Tangible Ecosystem Design (TED)” Method

Individualizable workshop concept

Would you like to build a Digital Ecosystem with your company? Then we at Fraunhofer IESE, with our many years of experience in the design and development of ecosystems, are the right partner at your side. Together with you, we will develop a concrete and viable concept for a platform for brokering assets (i.e., products or services “of value”) between providers and consumers – with your company in a central role.

Collaboration in a Digital Ecosystem is facilitated by a platform that provides the basis for creating networks between participants and generating a lucrative business model for the initiator. This has been successfully demonstrated in recent years not only by Airbnb and Uber, but also by German companies such as MyHammer and Schüttflix.

Workshop Seminar Schulung Kreativität Tangible Ecosystem Design
© Fraunhofer IESE
Workshop participants use toys to find suitable visualizations for their project and arrange them on a blueprint

Tangible Digital Ecosystems

Digital Ecosystems can radically change markets and domains. They open up opportunities for new business models, but their design is challenging. With “Tangible Ecosystem Design”, we help you to master the challenging task of designing a successful ecosystem. You will identify your stakeholders and balance their motivations against each other. You will reduce the often great insecurity regarding the interaction of a wide variety of different actors. And finally, you will create a holistic concept for the ecosystem.

Our workshop format “Tangible Ecosystem Design” leads to a tangible design, in the literal sense of the word. For this purpose, Fraunhofer IESE offers you modern, technically very well equipped workshop facilities. In the two-day workshop, you will be guided by Fraunhofer IESE experts in a playful and structured manner through the most important questions regarding successful establishment of a Digital Ecosystem. With the elaborated concept, you will be ready to start developing your Digital Ecosystem as a product for the market.

Workshop Seminar Schulung Kreativität Tangible Ecosystem Design
© Fraunhofer IESE
Workshop Seminar Schulung Kreativität Tangible Ecosystem Design
© Fraunhofer IESE
Workshop Seminar Schulung Kreativität Tangible Ecosystem Design
© Fraunhofer IESE

“Tangible Ecosystem Design” Workshop - Overview

 

Goals

  • Creating a vision of your Digital Ecosystem
  • Structuring ideas into a consolidated overall picture
  • Sound validation of the viability of the concept
     

Method

  • The prerequisite for getting started in “Tangible Ecosystem Design” is that a basic idea for the ecosystem exists. Our experts will help you find this with Creativity Workshops.
  • Developing the Service Blueprint: Using this scenario-based technique, the digital brokering service is modeled and defined as the core of the ecosystem.
  • Developing the Service Map: The Service Map expresses the relationships between all the actors involved, especially the assets and data they exchange along with their contractual relationships – usually for money.
  • Developing the Motivation Matrix: Since balancing interests is a central aspect in an ecosystem, the Motivation Matrix summarizes the reasons why each actor should participate in your ecosystem.
  • The last step also serves to validate the idea of the ecosystem and helps to identify how the concept for your ecosystem can be optimized.
     

Results

  • Documentation and presentation of the concept of your Digital Ecosystem for the management level and the operative level
  • Outlook on concrete next steps for implementation put together by us for your ecosystem, for example:
    • Elaboration of a business model using the Fraunhofer IESE Business Model Construction Kit incl. the establishment of network effects using the Fraunhofer IESE NfX method
    • Design of the onboarding processes for all participants
    • Realization of an MVP

Your benefits

  1. Benefit from our expertise in designing successful Digital Ecosystems, which will help you avoid pitfalls and learn from the best.
  2. Neutral evaluation of your Digital Ecosystem by Fraunhofer IESE experts using tried-and-tested, scientifically sound methods.
  3. Concrete next steps as a basis for your Digital Ecosystem of tomorrow! We take technological, organizational, legal, social, and ecological issues into account and help you to consider the various interests during and after the implementation of your ecosystem.

Download: Summary of the workshop as PDF [in German]