Training capstones
Anonymised, scoped briefs give learners real texture — with the owner’s permission and no sensitive data.
Accepting problem submissions
Thrive Innovation Lab · Problem Bank
Real problems, with permission — the fuel for everything else.
Students learn faster on real briefs. Businesses get fresh eyes on stubborn problems. The Problem Bank collects permissioned problem statements and routes each one where it can honestly do good.
How a brief is structured
Every accepted problem records seven things.
- The problem owner — a named business or organisation, with consent
- Affected users — who feels this problem, how often
- The current process — what happens today, however manual
- Constraints — budget, timing, systems that cannot change
- Allowed data — what can be shared, anonymised or must stay private
- The desired outcome — what better looks like, measurably
- Suitability — training exercise, FYP, hackathon or commercial build
Where briefs go
Routed by suitability, protected by consent.
FYP projects
A validated brief with a real owner beats an invented one in every viva. Supervisor alignment included.
Build challenges
The quarterly challenge draws its problem from the bank — one genuine local or diaspora problem per round.
Commercial discovery
Problems with budget and urgency route to a Thrive Systems discovery sprint — with the owner deciding pace.
For problem owners: what you risk (almost nothing) and what you get
You choose the suitability route, what data is shared and how you are named. Student work on your brief costs you nothing and obliges you to nothing — and occasionally hands you a genuinely useful prototype. Problems suitable for commercial builds get a structured discovery conversation, not a sales ambush.
Questions
Worth knowing.
Who can submit a problem?
Any Mirpur or UK–Mirpur business, community organisation or institution with a real process problem and the authority to share it. Individuals with well-evidenced community problems are welcome too.
Will students see our private data?
No. Briefs record what data is allowed, and training or challenge use gets anonymised or synthetic data unless you explicitly approve more. Sensitive workflows stay in commercial discovery under agreement.
Submit an idea or problem
Bring the problem. We will help you test it.
Students, founders, businesses and community organisations welcome. The first response is a short diagnostic — problem clarity, likely user, existing alternatives and a recommended next step: stop, research, prototype or sprint.
Thank you — your enquiry is in.
It has reached our team and we will reply within one business day. Want a faster answer, or to add anything? Continue the conversation on WhatsApp:
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Thrive Innovation Lab
Start with the problem. Everything else follows.
Submit it in whatever shape it exists — the diagnostic gives it structure and an honest next step.