Rewa Ake - “to be elevated higher”

The Kiwi Innovation Network are pleased to bring you:

Rewa Ake – EndUser Discovery Workshop Series

Rewa Ake is a free online workshop series focusing on end user/customer engagement & Discovery for entrepreneurial researchers. Rewa Ake will help you elevate your idea and get out there to find your market.

This is an ideal workshop series for researchers who are considering or engaged with developing an idea to market-readiness and who want to get more out of their industry-engagement.

Venue: Online
Format: Three half-day sessions (9am-1pm) with homework
Date: 3rd, 4th September and 7th October 2025.
Registrations Close: 18th August 2025
Note: Places are limited.

Register for future workshops

Customer Discovery Workshops

Demystifying Commercialisation: Understanding Your End users

Commercialisation might seem complex, but it really boils down to three core areas: End User/ Customer Connection, Operational Excellence, and Financial Health. Of these, End User/ Customer Connection is crucial because it helps you understand who will want your idea and, more importantly, who will pay for it- directly supporting the sustainability of the idea..

We know this can feel overwhelming. That's why KiwiNet has partnered with Ian Storie to offer an experiential, part-time, four-week online workshop series. This series is designed to make the customer discovery process clear and straightforward.

What You'll Learn

This workshop will guide you through the essential steps of customer-centric marketing, including:

  • Framing customer conversations: Learn how to initiate discussions that get to the heart of what customers need.
  • Developing effective questions: Discover how to ask questions that uncover valuable insights.
  • Active listening: Master the art of truly hearing and understanding your potential customers.
  • Language and positioning: Figure out how to talk about your idea in a way that resonates with your audience.
  • Customer discovery: Implement strategies to identify and connect with your ideal customers.
  • Segmentation: Understand how to group customers based on shared characteristics.
  • Feedback: Learn how to gather and use customer feedback to refine your idea.

Pre-workshop questions and interim practical

We have designed this workshop series to maximise your experiential learning, and to allow researchers from around the country to participate. The more you put in, the more you take out. Over the four weeks, between workshop 2 and 3,there is an expectation for you to talk to 10, preferably more prospective end users to hear their insights.

Upon registration we will send out a summary of the program.

This KiwiNet workshop is for those wanting to get more out of their industry engagement activities.

Led by external consultant Ian Storie & Seumas McCroskery (Stakeholder Engagement Lead KiwiNet) with special guests.

Ian Storie
Ian Storie

Course Facilitator

Ian Storie is an independent consultant who has worked with both KiwiNet and SfTI for the past three years. Ian specialises in collaboration best practice and large account management having worked with hundreds of organisations and over 2,000 researchers, scientists, engineers and professional staff across ANZ, India, South Africa, USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Ian has worked as a senior business development, client alliance and strategic marketing professional at organisations including General Electric, Siemens and CSIRO developing technology, research and engineering driven market segments including Education, Mining & Manufacturing, Agtech, Power & Water, Food & Beverage, Petrochemical & Refining, Healthcare & Pharma and Primary industries. Ian also has a long history of facilitating collaborations amongst Research Institutions, Multinationals, SMEs, State & Federal Government Departments, NGOs, NFPs and VC/start-ups globally.

Draft Agenda

Rewa Ake Key Dates

This plan below is indicative of the style and subjects the workshop will cover, the facilitators reserve the right to make small changes.

Day 1 - Online

8.45am-8.55am Introduction to Rewa Ake program
8.55am-9.10am Customers, Problems, Ecosystems 
9.10am-9.30am Defining “customers”, 
9.30am-10.00am Uncovering customer “Problems” 
10.00am-10.30am Breakout session
10.30am-10.50am Break
10.50am-11.10am Emotional brain vs rational brain
11.10am-11.30pm Recognising “confirmation bias” 
11.30am-12.20pm Step by step process for customer engagement 
12.20pm-12.40pm The Maori economy as an important ecosystem 
12.40pm-12.50pm Conclusion of Workshop 1

Day 2 - Online

8.45am-8.50am Welcome back
8.50am-9.10am Translation Science to Business- knowing your audience
9.10am-9.30am Researching, identifying, prioritising and then engaging potential customers 
9.30am-9.50am Speaking the language and understanding the priorities of non-researcher “customers”
9.50am-10.10am How best to communicate 
10.10am-10.30am How to hold a customer conversation
10.30am-10.50am  Break
10.50am-11.20am Breakout workshops 
11.20am-11.40am Capturing, distilling themes
11.40am-12.00pm What's expected during the next three weeks (customer interviews, mentor meetings and dashboards) 
12.00pm-12.30pm Breakout workshops 
12.30pm-12.45pm Conclusion of workshop 2

Other Work

During the time between day 2 and day 3 attendee requirements and the time resourcing (each week) to support the delivery of customer conversations is outlined below: remember this is putting into practice what's been learnt in Workshops #1 and #2.

  • There will be three opportunities each week (30 minutes each week) to catch up with mentor meetings to support customer conversation preparation and execution
  • Expectations to have three customer conversations undertaken each week to practice, learn and adapt (can be up to 3 hours total each week). Prepare to give feedback to cohort during Workshop #3
  • Updating and posting your customer conversation dashboards for mentor review, on-going feedback, suggestions to improve conversations and to support weekly mentor calls (30 minutes each week).

At the end of week 3 prepare to give a 10 minute summary of your customer conversations (using dashboard tool (provided) as your talking slide)

Day 3 - Online

8.45am-8.50am Welcome back
8.50am-9.20am Dashboard time prior to presentations
9.20am-10.30am Breakout workshops
10.30am-10.50am Break
10.50am-12.00pm Breakout workshops into groups to discuss Key insights
12.00pm-12.30pm Program reflections and where to next?