The geography of entrepreneurship is “ spiky ,” meaning that from region to region there are significant variations in rates of startups and, in particular, “ scaleups ” – new businesses that are evolving into larger enterprises.

This can be explained by the fact that successful entrepreneurship occurs in “fertile soil” – economic and social environments conducive to entrepreneurial activity. And in some places these environments – or ecosystems – are much better at generating and supporting entrepreneurial activity than others.

An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a clustering of interconnected individuals, organizations, and bodies that facilitates and supports entrepreneurial activity. This ecosystem provides startup businesses with resources – money, people, markets, and infrastructure – within an open, inclusive culture that has supportive policies and leadership.

Supporting the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems is now a prime focus of economic development policy. Cities and regions typically have dozens of entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) that are fully-funded public bodies or not-for-profit organizations whose funding comes from government. These ESOs provide information, advice, networking, training, mentoring, and financial help that is considered essential for entrepreneurial activity.

In Scotland, for example, one recent study identified 43 ESOs in Edinburgh focused just on technology entrepreneurs. Our own ongoing research has identified 87 ESOs in Glasgow covering all sectors including social enterprise.

However, this profusion of ESOs is thought to be confusing for entrepreneurs who find it difficult to navigate the support infrastructure, raising concerns that there is overlap in the services that ESOs provide. But this is to misunderstand how entrepreneurial ecosystems work.

Everything is connected

Every year the University of Glasgow runs a program to support four startup teams with a grant of £2,500 and 12 weeks of one-to-one mentorship from the student enterprise manager. This includes an introduction to ESOs in the wider ecosystem, training, and space in the university’s “incubator” to help teams develop their embryonic startup.

Businesses that have successfully completed the program have gone on to receive further support from a variety of ESOs in the local ecosystem and beyond. Typically, each participant receives a package of support from the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). This helps them to connect to the local ecosystem to access lawyers, accountants, and other specialists, provides assistance with startup competitions, and access to networking events.

For example, Dragons’ Den contestant Corien Staels, founder of WheelAir – a company that has developed a cooling backrest for wheelchair users – received support from an ESO called Enterprise Campus to cover initial operational expenses.

Staels went on to win the SIE New Ventures competition and several other awards that provided money, business support, training, and mentorship. Having turned down a funding offer from Dragons’ Den, she has gone on to raise equity funding from several individuals.

Staels’ example demonstrates the interconnectedness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, with ESOs providing a range of different forms of assistance. The learning and support needs of entrepreneurs change as their business develops. No single organization can provide all of the support and resources that new ventures need as they progress. This is precisely why many ESOs target specific types of entrepreneurs and stages in the process – idea, startup, growth , and so on – specializing in the types of support they provide. This means entrepreneurs can draw upon a variety of organizations as their business evolves.

Crucially, these relationships within the entrepreneurial ecosystem are reciprocal. Just as businesses that emerge from startup programs need a range of support to develop, ESOs need “springboard” initiatives such as the Glasgow University program, which germinate startups that in due course will become their clients.

A healthy ecosystem

Policymakers should not interpret the abundance of ESOs as an indication of duplication and waste. The real world is messy. The diversity of entrepreneurs and their changing needs on the entrepreneurial journey means that there also has to be a diversity of support available for these ecosystems to be effective.

Instead, they should ask key questions to assess the health of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Do the services provided by the ESOs involved cover the whole entrepreneurial journey, enabling individual organizations to “hand over” entrepreneurs as their needs change, ensuring ongoing support as their businesses develop?

Do the ESOs collectively provide an appropriate mix of generic and specialist resources and support? Do they have shared goals and a sense of collective mission? Or is each in competition with one another, claiming successful businesses as a result of their own efforts? And finally, are these ESOs run by people with business startup experience – by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs?

What is critical here is to recognize the need for connectivity between these various ESOs. Operating in isolation from one another does not help young startups, which will thrive best in an environment where ESOs recognize that their effectiveness is contingent on one another. To paraphrase the African proverb: “it takes a village to raise a child,” it takes an ecosystem – not a single individual or organization – to feed, nurture, and raise a successful entrepreneurial venture.

This article is republished from The Conversation by Colin Mason , Professor of Entrepreneurship, Adam Smith business school, University of Glasgow and Michaela Hruskova , PhD Researcher in Management Adam Smith School of Business, University of Glasgow under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

How to organize your horribly chaotic Slack sidebar

Do you ever wonder why your coworker’s Slack sidebar looks so much better than yours? It’s probably because they organized it. You can tweak all sorts of settings in Slack, from how the sidebar behaves to how it looks.

Let’s outline these tweaks one at a time.

Only see unread channels in the Slack sidebar

By default, Slack shows every channel you join and the person you DM in the sidebar, which means it can get cluttered quickly. That’s why you should customize your Slack sidebar to only show what matters.

I recommend that you first set the Channels section to only show unread channels. Hover over Channels , click the three dots to the right, then click Unread channels only .

You will now only see channels in the sidebar if there’s something unread. You can repeat this process for direct messages, if you like, and things will look really clean really quickly.

Create personalized sections in the Slack sidebar

Of course, there probably are some channels you want to keep track of, so I recommend that you create sections for them. Click the three dots next to Channels again, then click Create new section .

You can now create a section for your sidebar, complete with an (optional) emoji.

You can add as many sections as you like, then drag DMs and channels to the relevant sections. I opted for the clean look, free of emojis, that allows me to see different things in the sidebar depending on which team I’m working with right now.

My coworkers have customized this in all sorts of creative ways.

Tweak this until it looks just right for your usage.

Change the order that channels are listed in

You can also tweak what order your Slack channels show up in. Click the name of your organization, at top-left, then click Preferences .

Now head to the Sidebar section.

The default option, alphabetically, is probably best for most people. If you’re feeling brave, though, Slack can sort things “By priority,” which means the channels you use most often end up on top. You can also decide here whether private and shared channels show up in their own lists.

Once you’ve grouped your channels into sections, you can also drag and drop each channel into a new order, or even a new section.

Change the Slack sidebar color scheme

Now that you’ve organized your sidebar, it’s time to get to the fun stuff: customizing how Slack’s sidebar looks. Go to Preferences > Themes , scroll down, and you’ll see a few default themes to choose from:

These are fine , but I’m sure you were hoping for more options. Good news! You can design literally whatever theme you want using the Custom Theme option.

This is, of course, way too much work, which is why I’m thrilled to share even better news : you can quickly grab themes from SlackThemeet . There’s a bunch of good ones here.

Just find a theme you like, copy the values, then paste them in back in Slack. You’ll have a great-looking Slack in no time.

This article by Justin Pot was originally published on the Zapier blog and is republished here with permission. You can read the original article here .

How to perfect remote UX workshops for your team

Update: This article was originally published on the Toptal Design Blog and includes some outdated examples (RealtimeBoard has rebranded to Miro and with a new UI, Murally now being called Mural).

Today’s best designers are more than creators; they’re facilitators . In an increasingly multidisciplinary, collaborative, and creative process that includes many participants, they act as conductors who align and inspire the team to give their best.

UX workshops are probably one of the best ways to put this into practice. The rise of ideologies like Design Thinking , Lean UX , and Design Sprints have turned UX workshops into a necessity, and for designers, the ability to facilitate a design workshop is a highly desirable skill.

A UX workshop consists of inviting your team (other designers, developers, product managers, etc.) into a conference room, putting together an agenda around a goal (e.g., prototype a new product functionality), and coming up with some collaborative techniques, like brainstorming and sketching. You will achieve better results by doing this than by trying to manage everything yourself—and as an added bonus, cultivate a more engaged, motivated team.

Imagine doing this with remote team members across a wide geographic area with no face-to-face communication in a situation where technical issues are very likely to occur. If conducting a design workshop with a co-located team (everyone in the same physical place) is already challenging, its remote version can be a real frustration and a waste of time if you ignore critical, tried-and-true facilitation techniques.

Let’s look at some time-tested practices that will help make a remote UX workshop run smoothly. We’ll also look into what happens before, during, and after, and some of the pitfalls you should look out for.

So, what do you do before the workshop?

Define participant roles and get help

Planning and facilitating a remote design workshop requires preparation and collaboration. It’s a good idea to delegate some tasks to others. This will help avoid bottlenecks and any unpleasant surprises during the workshop—like having to collect notes and explain the next steps simultaneously.

There are two roles that work together in the running of a remote UX workshop: the workshop leader and the local assistant :

The workshop leader and facilitator

This is the person (most likely you) who, among other things, will “run the show,” manage workshop collaboration and timing, set the pace for the activities, and keep participants engaged. Your primary mission is to help the team be productive and keep the workshop flowing. Be a servant leader . Depending on the remote workshop technique, you can also participate (for instance, you could lead a prototyping session and sketch at the same time).

The local assistant

Given that the facilitator can only be in one place at a time, each of the remote locations should have a local assistant who can contribute along with the rest of the team. It’s important to have someone on the other side to:

Take care of logistics (book a conference room, schedule the workshop with the participants, etc.)

Arrange the room and set up the remote tech (see below)

Get materials and supplies (Sharpies, Post-its, notepads, etc.)

Help to run the workshop

Set up the room and test the tech in advance

Nothing is more frustrating than having a great discussion or idea generation interrupted by a lost connection, a screen sharing glitch, an excessive echo in the room, or the realization that you can’t see the details of the sketch your colleague did on paper and is fruitlessly positioning in front of the camera for you to view and give feedback on. This list can be a long one.

Despite the fact that a remote UX workshop’s ultimate performance greatly depends on the tech and the room, many of us still take for granted that it will all work out. This assumption can be dangerous. While it’s probably not possible to run a perfect UX workshop, with a bit of planning and enough testing, you can avoid most of the negative surprises. Make sure that you have:

Finally, once you’ve checked the above items on your list, be sure to test everything well before the workshop. Then, test again if you can.

Be realistic when facilitating a UX workshop

Plan ahead with your local assistant and decide which workshop techniques and tools you will use for the results you want to achieve.

Now, what should you do during the workshop?

Balance digital and physical tools

One of the most difficult challenges when running a remote UX workshop is to find an ideal mix of digital and physical tools. It’s a delicate balance, as both have their advantages and disadvantages; one needs to choose wisely.

The goal is to keep the workshop flowing while efficiently processing the data stream (content) it generates. You want the team to generate ideas quickly, but you also want to get the most out of those ideas by processing them in a way that achieves maximum productivity (grouping, merging, splitting, prioritizing, etc.). Here are two different strategies for this combination:

Workshop approach 1: Mostly non-digital artifacts

This approach applies when creating most artifacts “analogically” by using pen+paper and digitizing it later by scanning or taking photos. This approach is most appropriate when:

For example, in a workshop concept called “ design studio ,” session participants can quickly sketch by hand, capture images with their mobile and share via Dropbox or Slack . Another example is a short ideation session where you have just a few Post-its to prioritize (less than 20), and someone can quickly type the Post-it notes into a spreadsheet for easier sorting and prioritization.

Naturally, there are some drawbacks to this approach:

Workshop approach 2: Mostly digital artifacts

Use this approach when using digital tools to create and manage workshop generated content (like virtual boards and online spreadsheets). This approach is most appropriate when:

A good example for using this workshop approach is when the team is creating affinity diagrams, empathy maps, or user journeys using virtual boards.

Another scenario that works with this approach is when you need to collect ideas in ideation sessions. Instead of Post-its on the board (physical or virtual), you can use a shared online spreadsheet where each participant types their ideas into the spreadsheet’s cells (see below).

You can also speed up the process of selecting and prioritizing ideas during brainstorming sessions with the use of automatic calculation and sort features. In the example below, the team needed to choose the best ideas from more than 40 they had brainstormed previously. The spreadsheet allowed voting for the best ideas and automatically sorted the list by the number of votes. The whole process took less than 8 minutes.

Workshop participants voted for ideas (column B) by entering points on a scale of 5 to 1 in their assigned columns (columns C to L). The spreadsheet then calculated the total points (votes) for each idea allowing the facilitator to sort the results quickly (column M).

Typical disadvantages of this strategy are:

A practical example

We discussed two UX workshop approaches (1: mostly physical, and 2: mostly digital); in the “real” world, you can use a hybrid approach and mix aspects of both. Let’s imagine a one-day design workshop for which we could apply the following method (considering everything is done via video conference):

Be sure to have everything ready-to-use when the workshop starts: templates, pre-filled documents, virtual boards, etc. Prepare diligently and don’t waste everyone’s time by setting up in front of them. Speed up the work with templates

Here’s what to do after the workshop:

Get feedback, evaluate, and improve

It’s a good idea to get feedback from your team after the workshop and identify areas that could be improved. The best time to do this is right after it is over because everything will still be fresh. For instance, as a result of the extensive use of technology in the case of a mostly digital approach, many pitfalls and potential glitches invariably surface—discussing why they occurred and how to circumvent it happening again is of great benefit to any team.

Before the workshop, prepare a short anonymous online survey and send the link to participants right after the workshop. Be sure to track each aspect as a separate section (equipment and techniques used, communications, remote tech, software, workshop duration, etc.) and let the team leave comments, not just rate or check boxes.

There are many other ways to get post-workshop feedback—like asking the team to put post-its on a wall with comments (physical or virtual), or doing one-on-one interviews. Choose the one that suits you best but don’t lose the opportunity.

Take care of your digital artifacts

The assets generated during the workshop are useful not only while it is in progress but can be used for further discussion or as a starting point for other workshops.

In a traditional (or mostly non-digital) approach, it is very likely you will end up with piles of post-its, handwritten notes, and sketches. If this is the case, a good practice is to keep at least the most important artifacts until you are sure you can let them go. You also have the option to digitize them (take pictures, tabulation to spreadsheets, etc).

In a mostly digital approach, you won’t have as much paper to deal with, but the digital artifacts generated will still need to be organized, sorted, and filed away in some kind of a system. It’s best not to leave a messy list of incomplete, abandoned files that will cause headaches in the future—invest some time right after the workshop to organize them. You can do this in two ways:

Wrap-up

Using different techniques and tools, remote UX workshops can deliver the same results as co-located workshops. If done right, the productivity benefits boosted by digital collaboration tools offsets the lack of face-to-face discussion.

Planning and running a remote UX design workshop isn’t rocket science, but the many complex details and potential pitfalls demand attention. Despite meticulous preparation, it is unlikely you’ll get everything right on the first try. The best thing to do is to chill out, have fun with your team, and remember—every workshop represents an opportunity for learning, and the next time is always an improvement!

The Toptal Design Blog is a hub for advanced design studies by professional designers in the Toptal network on all facets of digital design, ranging from detailed design tutorials to in-depth coverage of new design trends, tools, and techniques. You can read the original piece written by Carlos Rosemberg here . Follow the Toptal Design Blog on Twitter , Dribbble , Behance , LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram .