All companies, regardless of their size, sector or vital moment, share something: the need to move forward. Eleven Lab guides them on this path by providing methodology, experience and a 100% business design mentality. As a strategic design and innovation consultancy, they accompany startups and companies to validate, build or develop their project.

How was Eleven Lab created and what needs does it seek to address?

In 2020 the project was born to support entrepreneurs from a model of validation and incubation of ideas by applying strategic and product design methodologies. We saw that startups already had many support models at their disposal, but the entrepreneur who only had an idea, no one taught him to validate, test and analyze whether it had a market. We wanted to bring innovation closer to people, to citizens who are at home, and let them experience first-hand the processes that are normally reserved for corporations.

It was from 2022 when we left a little aside the entrepreneurial world to focus on working on digital product design, both for startups and SMEs and corporations.

What kind of projects or companies do you focus on?

We are an innovation lab and a design consultancy, which means that we work on very diverse projects in all sectors and activities. We do product strategy and design, UX-UI design, service design and even brand design, which greatly helps any company to grow and bill more because it will have a product better focused on the target audience.

How is the work methodology?

Methodologies such as Agile, Design Thinking or Design Sprint have been heard and talked about for a long time, but they are rarely put into practice as they should be. And even less in startups and medium-sized companies, although sometimes they say otherwise. We try to be faithful to them so that projects are agile and with practical, useful and actionable deliverables from the first days. Gone are the days when a client receives "just pretty" deliverables and must wait months to see the result of something that has not been tested along the way.

They say that strategic design is the backbone to make any business grow. On what pillars should this bet be based?

Companies must consider that this is not just about what they want. It is about what they want, how far they can go, the needs and possibilities of the market and that a team of experts is an active part of the strategy. That there are multidisciplinary teams that are part of data-driven decision making. For example, in a startup where the core is a digital product, the basic work team to make the product and the business grow would be design+business+technology.

There is still a long way to go in Spain to understand that design is not just giving shape and color to something. Design is product strategy, it is market research, it is understanding the needs and problems of users to create the best possible useful and usable experience and, of course, design is also that visual element that is already understood, but the combination of all this is strategic design, the basis of innovation as we understand it.

How does the culture of innovation influence the success of small and medium-sized companies? What are the most effective strategies or approaches for adopting it?

There is a lot of talk about innovation. And that is a good thing. That it is talked about, that people believe in the processes and are eager to activate it. But it has to be done, and it is not that easy.

Let's not imagine innovation only in having to reach the moon or create something never seen before. Innovation is optimizing an internal process, adding a complex functionality useful for your users or shortening a navigation flow that allows us to do more with what we already have. Innovation is being able to simplify to achieve. And, for me, that's where success lies.

The focus of a small and medium-sized company should be to take small steps. Measurable objectives that are within its capabilities, where innovation is not promoted by one person or by a single department. Innovation starts from the sum of heads, always, always including the user to whom the innovation is directed.

Galicia is one of the Communities that has made most progress in recent years in the field of innovation in Spain. What are the strengths of our business fabric?

Although I am Galician, I have been developing my professional career in Madrid for 20 years. A few months ago I came back to stay and what I see in principle is a desire to do and to honor what we are, from both traditional and rupturist points of view. An incredible capacity to be better and improve ourselves.

Galicia has entrepreneurship and action in its DNA. We do not like to see things coming and we like to lead. The fact that we have enormous and admirable entrepreneurial examples in our region serves as a model and a guideline. There is a sense of entrepreneurial pride that pushes us to become active.

The Xunta de Galicia has launched Agenda Startups Galicia. What strategic role do you think startups play in the economic fabric of the region?

Being a startup is complicated. Today you are there, tomorrow you probably won't be. Not everyone is good and not everyone will be prepared. Maybe this needs to be said more.But all those who launch a startup have a common goal: to want to improve what is already there. And, whether or not they survive as a business, on their way, they stir, activate, innovate... and all of this remains. The learnings that remain latent and help the next ones and our fabric, making them sector activators without any doubt.