Many breakthrough discoveries fruit of research programmes often fail to realize their potential as an innovation, that is, bringing to market an idea or process.

Many tech-enterprises and startups on both German and Polish side have been working hard on developing new ground-breaking technologies and disruptive services, but when it comes to going to market they are unsure whether they meet the customers expectations.

Poznan Park of Science and Technology (PPTN) supports market-oriented researchers, SMEs and startups across Europe, to consider the full potential of their research and to shape ideas and outputs into innovations to be ready for market validation and commercialisation, by using modern needs-first, market-led methodologies.

Their MERLIN project offers a range of dynamic workshops and relevant training to guide researchers on the journey to commercialisation.

The Customer Centric Days organised in Berlin was about questioning the core business assumptions and customer discovery.

The participants of our event learned to understand how Customer Discovery guides business models, received the knowledge and tools to conduct Customer Discovery independently, understood the characteristics of Minimum Viable Product, gained knowledge about the steps to achieve Customer Validation.

Speakers from Poland and Berlin attracted over 60 attendees and provided for a great networking opportunity.