IZMIR NIC Coaching Platform (Coach)

The coaching platform is a tool mainly for the Coach and provides a working environment for documenting the process. This article explains the process of using the IZMIR NIC HUB Platform during the coaching sessions.

The coaches are the ones responsible for record keeping. 

The participating companies can at any time view their progress and download the relevant reports but at this point they cannot create any records.

Please note that this platform is designed specifically for the IZMIR NIC Accelerator and TEKNOPARK IZMIR and this is only the first version. Our team will continue to work on new features and functionality and we welcome all your comments and contributions.

Once coaches login, they will see a dashboard with all their notifications, tasks and calls available. 

My Coaching option will be available at the left side vertical menu.

Once you click My Coaching you will be redirected in the page with all the companies that are assigned to you.

In this page you will see all the companies that are assigned to you as a Coach.

You will also notice the 3 options you have under the Actions menu.

Let's start with the Initial Barrier Analysis.

From this page you can see the Call Application Report (the Evaluation Summary) and the Initial Barrier Analysis chart (which will be created only after you fill in the form). The form has 8 topics/areas which you as a coach will assess during your first meeting with the company.

For each topic you can assign a value from 1-10 according to the guidelines provided.

You can save the report for as many times you want using the button at the bottom of the form. You can even leave the system and come back later to complete the task. 

However, once you click Send the report is submitted and saved in the system and you will not be able to change it anymore.

The Send button will become available only when all topics are graded and you have added comments for all.

Notice that once the report is submitted you will see a green tick next to its name (✓).

In the example screen above the report has already been submitted.

By clicking Preview, you can see the Initial Barrier Analysis Chart.

CoMap Roadmap

This tool will be the main environment that coaches will use during the acceleration programme to document the process of the companies. You can see 3 tabs: Issue | Meeting | Progress Dashboard

Once coaches have completed the Initial Barrier Analysis and have assessed the areas of support for the SME then they can create specific issues, detailed actions that the companies need to act upon.

To add an Issue you just click on +Add New.

Issues will be created in the beginning but of course a coach can create an issue at any given time during the coaching programme.

Issues are always connected (organised under) Innobar Topics, so this is a dropdown menu with the 8 topics that were also used in the BA.

Title, Deadline and Start position (%) of the issue are mandatory.

• Title: give a meaningful title that will help you identify the problem. This is up to you, but you can use numbers to better organise the issues. For example: for all issues under 1 - Team/Leadership Capabilities you can start with 1. 
• Deadline: Give an indicative date for when you believe the company needs to remedy this issue. By the deadline the company will need to have implemented the action.
• Start Position (%): This is the metric you will use for monitoring the progress of the action. You usually start with 0.

Once you have added all your issues that you want to deal with during your coaching programme, then you can followup with them through the meetings tab.

Remember: you can add an issue at any given time during the coaching programme.

Meetings are used to follow up the issues and record any other progress or development related to the coaching programme. Imagine them as the Meeting Minutes of every coaching session you hold with the company but in a more specific structure.

The process here involves a few more steps. So let's see them one by one.

Add the meeting date and time and a meeting description. 

Although this field is optional don't leave it empty.  You can use a number for your own reference or you can use it to give a general description of your meeting.

Once you create a meeting you will then see it in the Meeting page.

When you are meeting a company you do not have to discuss all the issues that you have created. You can discuss just a few or those where there was actually some development. This is why we created this functionality to allow coaches to select the specific issues they want to focus on in that meeting.

Click Meeting Issue under the Actions Menu and the Meeting Issue List will appear.

Click Add New and choose the issue you want to add. 

Click Save and Add New to add as many issues as you want.

3. Meeting Results

Now that you have added all the issues you can enter any comments and change their progress.

You will notice that there is a new option in Actions: Enter Meeting Results.

By clicking Meeting Issue you can also see all the issues linked with a meeting.

4. Edit/Update a Meeting

5. Enter Meeting Results

To start discussing the specific issues of your meeting and write comments about them click Enter Meeting Results.

In this form you can note any progress of the meeting (% of progress), add any comments you have as a coach and if a mentor is used you can note down any comments of the mentor and ask the company their satisfaction with the mentor.

You can also upload any relevant file.

Once you are happy with the comments you can submit the Meeting Report.

This procedure is followed in every meeting in order to have everything well documented.

The progress dashboard provides a quick way to monitor the progress of the issues and get an overview of where the coaching programme is at any given point.

From this page you can also download the meeting reports with the comments of each particular meeting.

At the end of the coaching programme the coach runs a final Barrier Analysis, identical to the Initial one, in order to create a comparison and measure the progress of the coaching programme.