Students create the future of car washing

What do a red pony, car washes, and students have in common? The answer was provided by Ideation Week 2021. 25 students from the University of Bayreuth, the University of Augsburg, and the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences spent a week developing innovative ideas and business models for the digital future of car washing, together with their real-world partner WashTec.

The cross-location teaching format was made possible by close cooperation between the University of Bayreuth and the Augsburg universities in the field of information systems management. Ideation Week nurtures academic exchange by strengthening cooperation between students and researchers from both locations. Supported by method experts from the Digital Innovation Workshop of the Fraunhofer Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering FIT, students enlarged their personal design toolboxes, and explored approaches to agile business model development. Students were able to apply these directly and present their concepts for digital business models in car-washing to the WashTec board of directors.

In addition to teaching relevant methods, the format also enables the development of social skills, such as working in a team, orchestrating different competencies, and cross-location cooperation between the study locations of Bayreuth and Augsburg in the digital world. Of course, the event was not short on collegiality or fun. A virtual brewery tour of the Augsburg craft beer brewery "Rotes Pony", a virtual meeting with the CEO, and joint virtual dinners introduced participants to each other at a social distance, but still in person.

Ideation Week enables students to apply scientific methods to practical problems in a business context

Digital innovations are penetrating even business models of companies that are already well-established and successful in the market. For this reason, WashTec, the world market leader in the field of vehicle washing, has decided to work on innovative digital solutions. The company hoped for completely new and even unorthodox ideas from the student input of Ideation Week.

As part of Ideation Week, WashTec was able to expand its cooperation with the FIM Core Competence Centre and the Digital Innovation Workshop, and involve committed students enthusiastic about innovation in the process of idea generation. Conversely, 25 motivated students were given the chance to gain substantial practical insights into a global company.

The interactive teaching concept of Ideation Week is based on the so-called Design Sprint, and alternately combines input, work, and pitch sessions. To begin with, WashTec introduced students to its business model and the technical aspects of car washing. Equipped with this knowledge, potential problems could already be identified and evaluated by means of interviews. With the help of intensive mentoring by experts from the Digital Innovation Workshop and WashTec, participants developed a prototype from the initial problem. External experts such as the innovation & design thinking consultant Pranjal Henning, who has already supported many successful companies with her design thinking expertise, as well as Timm Tränkler from the start-up credium, and Jannik Lockl, the founder of the Bayreuth-based start inContAlert, also supported students in this process.

At the same time, a new product idea must be implemented profitably. To this end, students also received an intensive introduction to the topic of business model development and finally also learned to assess the market potential of their idea. For students, this meant talking to car wash operators, testing the car washes themselves, and trying to understand the customer's perspective by means of interviews. Armed with this information, each of the five student teams had defined a problem by the end of the week, prototyped a solution for it, and analysed its market potential - so they were ready for their final presentation.

A jury made up of several WashTec representatives - including members of the board - judged the ideas. Each team had ten minutes to present their idea and convince the jury. Afterwards, each team had to answer the jury's critical questions, explaining their concept and the underlying business model in more detail. The final decision as to which idea was the most convincing was visibly difficult for the jury, which was evident from the long deliberations leading up to their final decision. In the end, each team received a certificate for their participation as well as an individually redeemable voucher. Finally, the participants could looked back proudly on what they had learned and the idea they had developed.