3 Research Methods
5.5 Reflective writing
Admittedly, it has been a mentally excruciating yet positive experience writing this thesis thus far. The biggest challenges I encountered were putting collated data into segments and giving appropriate labels in thesis format. In addition, although getting an online sur-vey done was easy, getting football teams or coaches to interview them for validation was quite challenging. This was due to not being able to communicate fluently in English, which often is the case with most Finnish people or lack of interest in the project. Still, af-ter much convincing, I was able to get coaches and team representatives' validation.
Even though the entire process was heavy and time-consuming, on a positive note, I was able to speak with top coaches and team representatives whom I never had the chance to meet or talk with during my active playing days. In addition, working on this thesis gave me deeper insights into the project itself. Also, I had the chance to do more research to understand the concepts of the Lean Method and its methodological application, which helped me gain more profound knowledge about it.
34 References
Afripro,2021. URL: https://mesensei.com/afripro. Accessed: September 28th, 2021.
Blank, S. 2013. Launching a new enterprise. URL: https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything. Accessed: August 21st, 2021.
Charles Darr 2015. file:///C:/Users/footb/AppData/Local/Temp/A+hitchhikers+guide+to+va-lidity.pdf Accessed September 21st,2021
FIFA 2021. https://www.fifa.com/ . Accessed: November 16th,2021.
Gersung, C., & Resengren, W. 1973. The Service Society, Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing. URL: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/301358725.pdf . Accessed: 20 Septem-ber 2021.
Hassan & Dubinsky, 2008. Agile software engineering. URL: https://pdf.zlibcdn.com/dto- ken/7d8431f6659fa4411be0422b4cce7bb0/Agile_software_engineering_by_Orit_Haz-zan,_Yael_Du_539477_(z-lib.org).pdf . Accessed: September 20th, 2021.
Perkin, N. 2020. Agile transformation: Structures, processes, and mindsets for the digital age. Kogan Page Limited. New York, NY. Accessed: September 18th,2021.
Pugh, M. s.a. What Is a Service Blueprint? Designing a Seamless Service Process. URL:
https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-is-a-service-blueprint. Accessed: September 3rd, 2021.
Ries, E. 2011. The Lean Startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Crown Business. New York. Accessed: Septem-ber: 21st, 2021.
Ries, E. 2011. The Lean Startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Crown Business. New York. Accessed: Septem-ber 21st,2021.
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Ries, E. 2012. Innovation accounting: the secret to fast growth. URL:
https://www.inc.com/eric-ries/entrepreneur-eric-ries-innovation-accounting-secret-to-fast-growth.html. Accessed: August 21st, 2021.
Ries, E. 2017. The startup way: How modern companies use entrepreneurial
management to transform culture and drive long-term growth. Currency. New York. Ac-cessed: August 21st, 2021.
Ries, E. 2017. The startup way: How modern companies use entrepreneurial
management to transform culture and drive long-term growth. Currency. New York. Ac-cessed: September 21st, 2021.
Ries, E. 2020. 2021 Startup Predictions: Trends, Sectors, And Tech That Will Emerge:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kjartanrist/2021/12/29/2021-startup-predictions-trends-sec-tors-and-tech-that-will-emerge/?sh=3a4b4889554c. Accessed: August 21st, 2021.
Stickdorn, Hormess, Lawrence & Schneider, 2018. This is service design doing: applying service design thinking in the real world. URL :
https://pdf.zlibcdn.com/dto- ken/b8cb7a181c14f63ad3fce3c06e26ce58/This_is_service_design_doing__applying_ser-vice_de_3611374_(z-lib.org).pdf . Accessed: September 20th, 2021.
36
1.5 Commissioning company ... 8
2 Lean Start-up theory ... 10
2.1 The Lean method and how it works ... 10
2.2 Application of Lean Method ... 11
2.3 Build - Measure – Learn ... 12
2.3.1 Build (Hypothesis): ... 12
2.3.2 Measure (Testing Hypothesis): ... 13
2.3.3 Learn ... 14
2.4 Digital Platform... 14
2.5 Competitors and repositories ... 15
3 Research Methods ... 17
3.1 Research design ... 17
3.2 Research design phases and processes ... 18
3.3 Reliability and Validity ... 22
3.4 Risk ... 23
4 Results ... 24
4.1 Identifying players and coaches/team representative matchmaking digital platform 24 5 Conclusion ... 29
5.1 Key outcomes ... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5.2 Recommendation ... 32
5.3 Evaluation of Project Management and Outcomes ... 32
5.4 Further Research Suggestions ... 32
5.5 Reflective writing ... 33
Sources ... Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendices ... 36
37
6 Appendix 1 ... 36
Appendix 2
Thesis Activities Gantt Chart
Period Highlight:1
PERIODS123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960
Research Plan Draft02 August 20211514100%
Define Topic and Key Concepts16 August 202114616100%
Research Introduction and Timeline21 August 20215425100%
Kick off meeting23 August 20213846100%
Research pan final version27 August 20214248100%
Draft of theoretical framework01 September 20215453100%
Draft of Research Methods06 September 20216255100%
Planning the research practices13 September 20217256100%
Finalizing the theoretical framework20 September 20216567100%
Finalizign the resaerch methods27 September 20216158100% % Complete (beyond plan)Thesis Topic : Applying lean method to launch a venture
ACTIVITYPLANSTART PLANDURATION ACTUALSTART ACTUALDURATION PERCENTCOMPLETE Plan DurationActual Start% CompleteActual (beyond plan)
38 Appendix 3
Pepo Football club
Speaking with Antti Sinkkonen, a representative of Pepo, a second division team in Fin-land. The following themes were used to validate the team.
Theme 1: Team’s player acquisition model
Antti said they scout players within the Finnish leagues, more like local players across Fin-land, and sometimes they have foreigners who have played for them. They get proposals a few times from agents outside Finland proposing players to them, but they have not had much intention to bring them to their team.
Theme 2: Repository in acquiring football players
If there were any need to find players, it would be players in the European region. Still, with the AfriPro concept, this would be an exciting opportunity to scout for players in rica. We further asked if they would be willing to pay for the services of a player from Af-rica, and the response was, if the player meets their playing level, then it is possible to in-vest in such a player.
Theme 3: Experiences with signing African players
We have not had any experience signing players outside Finland from Africa, but we have had African players in Finland playing in our tea. They have been very vital and valuable to our team.
Seinäjoki Football Club (SJK)
We spoke with Richard Dorman, the Team director for SJK, a premier division team play-ing in the Finnish veikkausliiga. Again, the same questions were used to validate the coaches and team representatives.
Theme 1: Team’s player acquisition model
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We often scout players across Finland, said Richard. These players are primarily players playing in the same division league as us. We also have football agents who work with us, providing players to us when needed. We promote our best reserve team players to the first team as well.
Theme 2: Repository in acquiring football players
Majorly from European countries or players playing in Europe because it is easier for them to travel down to Finland without any travel restrictions or visa process problems.
Theme 3: Experiences with signing African players
Yes, we have had a couple of players from Africa but not directly from Africa. For exam-ple, one of our best players is from Cameroon and has played with us for over four sea-sons. So, we have not needed to focus majorly on acquiring players from Africa, but at the start of AfriPro, we will give it a look at the qualities of players you have on your platform.
Key insight
Teams need quality matchmaking, and there is the willingness to pay. However, there is a profound lack of trust in football academies and fake agents. Cultural fit is more important than player statistics,
Full text
At First, Fredrik (FF Jaro) was unwilling to interview as he failed to see the service as rele-vant. He said they have a good process in place for player recruitment and no need for assistance. I was able to turn the start around by asking which online services they were using, and he could not name any.
He was only able to say something general, but then I asked if any of them is focused on helping Nordic teams to make successful recruits from undiscovered African players. This got him interested, and he admitted that services are created for the top teams and top players. The idea of servicing division teams outside of Central Europe got his attention.
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Then he said there was a huge problem to be solved, and he doubted if anyone could solve them.
I asked what those problems are and the first was culture.
Unlike the top teams and top players where only money and player statistics matter, hiring players for division teams is much like hiring an employee to a company. It is about
money, effort to recruit vs. expected performance. Out of the performance, cultural fit to the team and the place of living matters.
They have discovered that cultural adaptation to Finland and primarily regional towns are tough to achieve. They have learned that cultural distance makes a significant difference and have successfully recruited from the UK, Argentina, and Uruguay. Brazilian and Afri-can recruits have not been a good cultural match so far. Especially AfriAfri-can players tend to have severe limitations in education and adaptation to the Finnish region where education and culture are valued. The cultural distance can quickly get into the way of performance as a long-term team member.
According to Fredric, solving the cultural match is the biggest challenge for recruits from Africa. Many contacts from African football academies have claimed they coach the play-ers to be a cultural fit, but most are fakes. However, he has learned about one sound, which started co-operation with a Danish football team, where the players are even mak-ing visits to see the team, they intend to play for an spend a few weeks in their upcommak-ing home village to see what life is like there.
This is the key to success: the player recruit is knowledgeable about the team, its style, and the lifestyle a regional in Finland can offer. One of the best recruits they made was a Portuguese player who was a fan of Jari and desired to live in the Finnish rural area. He memorized all the team players and their positions and pitched himself to the team man-ager as a ready package.
If this could be replicated by reaching out to a pool of millions of African players, the chances are there are ones who have both the player skills and cultural skills to adapt.
That would be a super valuable service not just for FF Jaro but any regional team. Kari Hakala - Musan Salama
41 Key Insights
Most of the value propositions were validated. There is a need for a service to discover Af-rican talent. The market is focused on Strategic acquisitions, as there are restrictions on the number of players outside of the EU (3) and because the paperwork takes quite a long time to complete.
- Teams are currently paying a success fee for the agents — this is an opportunity for pre-mium pricing toward the teams. The size of the cost is unknown but likely to be in the range of thousands.
- The Team leader is interested in browsing the highlighted players, making the player highlight valuable for visibility (premium fee for the players).
- The venture could start from personal relationship building and high-quality/high effort work to make successful player recruitments for the Finnish teams.
- Successful player acquisitions could be used as marketing stories and be made highly visible.
- Successful case could make a news item in both Africa and Finland.
- In the first phase, the emphasis should be on proving the recruitment works.
- The second phase, the emphasis should be on proving the recruitment can scale as an automated self-service.
- Value propositions were validated: Data model needs to include at least the country of the player and the status of the player
The coach was not interested in players contacting them directly, but they would like to contact the teams to avoid sidestepping.
However, this could be the critical value of the platform if the rules, fees, and practices can be communicated through the platform service terms. There could be high long-term value in a precise marketplace that has rules that are fair for all the participants (commu-nity design)
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- Statistics are essential for the recruiters. It is a crucial question how statistics can be in-troduced: e.g., link to transfermarket, other sources
- Videos are essential for the player profiles to be interesting.
Appendix 4
✓ Are you a professional footballer or playing at the amateur level? *
✓ What team do you play for? If none specify
✓ Do you have an agent, or are you a free player?
✓ Have you ever had to pay an agent to travel abroad for trials?
✓ How important is it for you to play football in Europe? (Here, a linear scale of 1-10 was implemented)
✓ If you have the chance to use a platform that allows football teams to watch your videos and CVS, would you use it?
✓ If top football teams in Europe view the platform and do not need an agent, would you use the platform?
✓ This platform provides you the opportunity to be seen by top football coaches and football teams in Europe. Would you use it?
✓ You do not need to pay ANY money to any agent; you just have direct con-tact to top European football coaches and teams. Would you use it?
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✓ This platform costs ONLY 15€, a one-time fee for one year. To get access to top football coaches and football teams in Europe, would you use it?
✓ Would you like to be among the first 15 people to access the accessible ver-sion of this platform? If yes, after filling up this form, copy the link and send it to as many footballer friends as you know.
✓ Age
✓ Country
Appendix 5
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45 Appendix 6
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