WRKSHP.tools – Erik van der Pluijm best tools for your next innovation workshop

WRKSHP.tools is the latest online project of Erik van der Pluijm, who is one of the designers of the book Design a Better Business.

I’ve reviewed the book on this blog back in 2017, when I wanted to learn more about Design Thinking (check out this Standford University webpage).

WRKSHP.tools – An improved DBB Toolbox ?

“💡 All the best, proven tools, skills, and knowledge you need to run excellent innovation workshops and come up with great new products and startup ideas.”

“Design a Better Business is not just the title of book. Patrick van der Pijl and his team have created an online library with the various tools discussed in the book. The  book team calls it the Design a Better Business toolbox. Best of all … the tools are free to use. 🙂”

When you look at the DBB Toolbox website you can see supporting (canvas) tools for each of the phases from the double loop model. The WRKSHP.tools tool-structure is identical to the Design a Better Business tool structure.

It feels like Erik van der Pluijm is taking “the tool approach” from Design a Better Business a few steps further, by expanding the number of (canvas) tools. So you will get the same look and feel of the DBB Toolbox however, now focusing on other area’s of business design.

For example the Experiment Cheat Sheet that helps you define the right lean startup experiment, or a file with 100+ Business Model Patterns.

WRKSHP.tools – Not just Canvas Tools

The WRKSHP.tools website consists of four sections, from which two are focused on … tools. 🙂

1. Canvas Tools;
2. Interactive Tools;
3. Blog;
4. Shop;

In the Canvas Tools section you will find 13 proven Canvas Tools, while the interactive tools section just consists of the Experiment Cost Calculator. In the blog section you will find a lot of additional information around the canvas tools or free available information on the WRKSHP.tools website.

Please note that Erik van der Pluijm is an active contributor on Medium, where he shares highly interesting content on Business Design and Business Model Innovation. 🙂

WRSHP.tools – Tool Structure

Let’s get back to the canvas tools. Each tool has a similar structure, that contains of the sections below:

• Use this tool when
• Overview
• What is it and when should I use it?
• Tool Overview
• Step-by-step guide
• Additional Resources
• Related products

It starts with a brief bullet-wise goal for when to use the specific canvas tool. The overview gives you a picture of the canvas tool, some facts like time, difficulty, people and most important the download links. The next 3 sections give you more extensive context when the tool should be used, as well as a step-by-step guidance.

The additional resources section consists of references for additional recommended reading (blog-posts, books, etc.) so you can expand you knowledge even more. So overall Erik van der Pluijm provides a very complete overview of each to tool (with opportunities to learn).

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

If you are interested in Business Model Innovation, Lean Startup and Design Thinking than you should certainly follow WRKSHP.tools website and subscribe to the newsletter (just as 1500+ other subscribers).

Erik van der Pluijm will drop you interesting pieces of knowledge into your mailbox on a regular basis. Personally I’ve used the canvas tools and spent time going through business model patterns and the experimentation cheat sheet.

Knowing that Erik van der Pluijm was on the Design a Better Business book team with close links to the Business Models Inc. team you can’t go wrong with the valuable content available on WRKSHP.tools.

Don’t forget to check out the book review of Design a Better Business or the Business Model Generation Handbook.