Getting started overview
What SolveNext Lab is, how the Instigator and Leader areas fit together, how to move around, and how personal and team workspaces differ.
SolveNext Lab (also called the Next Lab) helps you plan and run innovation workshops and manage the opportunities that come out of them. This overview covers the basics: what the two areas of the app do, how to get around, and how personal and team workspaces differ.
Two areas: Instigator and Leader
The app has two areas. Each has its own header and sidebar.
- Next Lab | Instigator is for facilitators. You design workshops as sessions, group sessions into sprints, build agendas from the Drill library, start from the Template library, share work, and run sessions live in Play mode.
- Next Lab | Leader is for strategists and decision makers. You track Innovation Opportunities, assign them to Portfolios, manage budgets and spending, record hypotheses and small bets, and use Next Tools and AI Assistants.
The two areas are linked. Every project you work on in the Instigator area is connected to an Innovation Opportunity in the Leader area, so workshop work and the business case stay together.
To switch areas, open the account menu (your email address, top right) and click Go to Next Lab | Leader or Go to Next Lab | Instigator. You can also use the Next Lab | Leader or Next Lab | Instigator link near the bottom of the sidebar.
Getting around
- Instigator sidebar: Home, Drill library, Template library, then under My work: Sprints, Sessions, and On the fly drills, plus Shared with me.
- Leader sidebar: Home, Next Tools, AI Assistants, then under My work: Innovation Opportunities and Portfolios.
- Header: global search, the + menu for creating items, the ? menu (Help, Community, Add an idea, See our roadmap, Announcements, Learn), the Language selector, and the account menu (My account, Sign out).
Personal and team workspaces
Key concepts:
- Personal workspace (My Work): only your own projects, sprints, sessions, opportunities, portfolios, budget and AI chats.
- Team workspace: the same features, but the content belongs to the team, so every member sees and works on it.
- Workspace switcher: the narrow strip on the far left of the screen. The first square (My Work) opens your personal workspace. Each team you belong to has its own square showing the team's initials. Hover over a square to see the team name, and click it to switch.
- Separate data: joining a team doesn't change or move your personal work. You can move individual sessions, sprints or projects to a team when you're ready.
When you're in a team workspace, the sidebar heading changes to the team's name followed by ´s Work, so you can always tell where you are.
