Makati City, Philippines - Carlos Espedido, received his Certification as a Service Innovator (CSI) last June, on the last day of Design Sprint's 2-day Certification Workshop (Wave 6). 

Carlos is a Business Development Officer in a prime real estate developer in the Philippines, but his project was conducted at Ace Galleries. After receiving his certification, Carlos left a short testimonial to the graduating class to inspire them to finish their own projects and earn their certification; We were also able to ask him a few questions so that we can share more with our readers:

Q. What prompted you to take the Innovation Workshop? 
A. To learn new management techniques that can help micro businesses.

Q. What prompted you to do this project? 
A. Design Sprint spoke to me about how innovative, fun, and creative it can be. It pushed me to test on other projects to see if there was any merit in the engagement process.

Q. What was your project about?
A. It was about how a small art showroom transitions to a mid-tier art gallery in two years’ time.

Q. What were the results of your project?
A. We found out that Digital Marketing needed to be injected into the process of growth. At first, our decider was hesitant as it might cheapen the product, but the green light was lit eventually.

Q. What was it like for you, starting up and executing your own project?
A. It was nerve-racking as I have never executed a sprint prior to this, but after running three more sprints, it gets really fun and exciting learning new things in different businesses.

Q. Among/Aside from the Action Items that were done, what were the key elements that led to the success of your project?
A. The decider and the Customer Expert are present, which is why our customer testing was done properly.

Q. What was the impact of your project on your company?
A. No radical impact as of the moment, but hopefully in a year or after two years, its digital presence will help communicate our message to both our buyers and sellers local and international.

Q. What was the impact of attending the Innovation workshop on you as an individual / professional?
A. Learning new things is always fun, whether it might or might not be applicable to you. So all in all, always a positive thing to learn something new.

Q. What would be your message to those who are currently taking/planning to take the Innovation Program or those who are currently conducting their own projects?
A. Just go for it, at worst you just spent time realizing that these techniques are not feasible in your field, However, it's always worth a try to expose yourself to innovation.
 
That’s it! Want to be the next CSI?
 
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