Before building an app,
we find the problem to solve

Technology is one of five axes

Technovation doesn't only look at whether the app is well built. It also weighs which problem you chose, whether it can become a business, whether you did it as a team, and how you presented it. Choosing a good problem and communicating it well matter as much as the technology.

All five together. No coding experience is needed to start — learning materials are provided — and while AI isn't required, projects that use it have scored higher.

That's why we start with the idea. At this scale, the teams that stand out aren't the ones with the flashiest app — they name a specific problem in their own school or neighborhood and back it with evidence. Finding that problem is the heart of ideation.

Widen, then narrow — twice

A good idea does not arrive all at once. It goes through four set steps. First the problem is opened wide and narrowed to one; then the solution is opened wide and narrowed to one. The two diamonds are that rhythm.

If the team isn't writing code early in the season, that's normal. This is the stage for finding and sharpening a problem. Skipping it produces the most common entry.

From finding a problem to pitching, as a team

Technovation treats not just the app but the business plan and pitch as one project. So after ideation come business design and presentation. The five steps below are the order the team walks together.

Teams have 2–5 members plus 1 mentor. By age, entries split into Junior (10–14) and Senior (15–18). Eligibility and dates change each year — check the competition page and the official site.

Problems come from the field, with evidence

"What app to build" is not decided from imagination. Students gather real material in four ways and write down the frustrations that recur. The voices and data collected here become the evidence behind the idea.

Rule for this stage: no app talk yet. Write only "friends struggle with recycling" — not "let's build a recycling app." The discipline of not rushing to a solution is the hardest part of ideation, and the line between a strong team and a common entry.

Same topic — the depth of the definition is what matters

From the collected problems, pick one and write clearly who can't do what, and why. With the same topic, how concretely you've dug to the root cause decides whether it becomes a buildable problem or an unworkable sentence.

Cause, not symptom — five whys

Don't stop at the visible symptom; ask "why?" repeatedly until you reach the real cause. Change the cause and the app changes too.

Verify three ways

A verified problem → an app → a business

By this point the app comes not from imagination but from a chain of evidence. And Technovation goes further, to designing that app as a sustainable business. Read left to right.

The shape of an idea that goes the distance

Score each candidate on five axes; if any one is weak, cut it or fix it. A strong idea fills all five evenly. This evidence-based filtering is the final step of ideation.

The front end is "thinking time" — by design

Prep runs about 3–4 months during the season (Jan–Apr). The red and gold bands below are the problem-finding and ideation described above; the green build band comes after.

In the first few weeks there may be little to see on screen. The user evidence and problem definition built here carry the development and pitch that follow. If behind, we cut scope to protect quality rather than add features.

What stays, apart from the result

This ideation process is not a competition-only skill. Reading a problem through evidence, observing users, designing for a business, and presenting as a team carry straight over to school activities and beyond.

There is little you need to do at home. When your child asks "what's the most inconvenient thing around us?", tell them what you've actually experienced, and support the time they spend preparing with teammates and their mentor. One problem your child observes becomes the starting point of the project.