{"id":10183,"date":"2025-05-13T14:43:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.improven.nl\/?p=10183"},"modified":"2025-05-13T14:43:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:43:42","slug":"meer-jongeren-aan-boord-met-design-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.improven.nl\/en\/nieuws\/meer-jongeren-aan-boord-met-design-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"GETTING MORE YOUNG PEOPLE ON BOARD WITH DESIGN THINKING"},"content":{"rendered":"

GETTING MORE YOUNG PEOPLE ON BOARD WITH DESIGN THINKING<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last summer, IMPROVEN got in touch with the Royal Dutch Rowing Association (KNRB). Because despite the ambitions and all the promising initiatives in recent years to attract more young people (10-18 years old), the number continues to decline. This at a time when the KNRB wants to encourage growth and vitality of young people, continue to achieve top-level sporting performance and an ageing rowing population is occurring. How can we recalibrate our approach to reverse this declining trend?<\/p>\n

The KNRB asked IMPROVEN to support it in this. Making social impact is something we strongly believe in as an organisation. And the opportunity to contribute to the sports participation of young people is unique and valuable. We therefore entered into this collaboration with conviction.<\/p>\n

Strategy formation and execution<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For the KNRB, realising a joint strategy with its associations is a major challenge. This is because of the unique context in which the KNRB operates, a sports organisation that runs largely on its many volunteers. The sport of rowing in the Netherlands is organised in a network of independent associations. Within these associations, there is logically a variety of ambitions, management power and local contexts. In such an environment, it is challenging to effectively translate national ambitions into concrete local actions. This requires an approach that gives direction and also leaves room, that is supported and supports associations in their ambition and possibilities.<\/p>\n

Our observations is that this was lacking, which meant that strategy and approach did not sufficiently match the wishes and needs of the associations and young people.<\/p>\n

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Design Thinking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To be able to develop such an approach as well as create effective solutions, in-depth knowledge of juniors and associations is essential. To gain valuable insights into the playing field, we used the Design Thinking methodology. In doing so, we focused on the first phases: Discover<\/em> and Define<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To do this, we gathered information and tested assumptions to best understand the context. We looked at the challenge for the associations from a target group approach with personas. A persona represented a group of associations with similar characteristics, which helps enormously in exploring specific needs and wants.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\t

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