Introduction
In less than a decade, software startups gained a lot of attention [
1
]. A startup's
goal is to solve customers' urgent problem, and doing so they work under extreme
unpredictability and encounter various challenges [
2
],[
3
],[
4
]. Startup teams, while
working on various versions of a prototype [
5
] and busy at satisfying customers'
need, often neglect to re ect on their experience[
6
]. Experience of an entrepreneur
in a startup team is a vital aspect for a startup. There are various advantages
of re ecting on experience; entrepreneurs can quickly grasp the challenges,
coordinate better with the team members, align themselves to others in terms of
xed objectives, and require less guidance at the early stages [
7
], [
8
]. An
experience that a learner 1 encounters is basically the complete response to an
event. This event could be formal (planned or deliberately done [
9
]) or informal
(unintentionally happens) [
10
].
In order to obtain the learning from experience, an entrepreneur should re ect
on the experience. A re ection is a form of a reaction that is carried out by a
1 In this article, we refer to an entrepreneur as a learner
learner on an experience. The resulting outcome which is learning [
10
] can be
de ned as concept of experience plus re ection [
11
], [
12
].
This type of intentional learning [
13
] in which adult learners [
14
] are attentive
about what they are learning [
10
], what is performed on the experience [
15
] or
in which the learner aims to preserve [
16
], is our focus of interest. It is important
to promote this experience-based learning in the working environment [
17
], [
18
],
[
19
]. Our target is not on the learning which is intended to adult learning in
classroom settings [
20
].
Various authors have mentioned the challenges that occur in software
startups. Bosch et al. have argued the challenge of whether it is worth to invest
resource to scale the product idea of software startup [
3
]. Giardino et al. have
provided challenges that startups have to face from forming the idea journey
to the initial prototype deliver to market [
2
]. But there is less mentioned about
the experiential learning and the challenges involved in the context of software
startups. Therefore the research questions this paper addresses are:
RQ 1.) How to obtain the entrepreneurial experience-based learning
inside the software startup teams?
RQ 2.) What are the challenges of entrepreneurial experience-based
learning inside the software startup teams?
To answer the research questions the article provides a conceptual framework
for entrepreneurial experience-based learning inside the software startups. The
paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents related work on
experiencebased learning. Section 3 describes the conceptual framework formalized based
on the gathered literature. Section 4 states the discussion section and nally
concludes the paper.
2
Related Work
The existing literature shows that various scholars mentioned the
experiencebased learning terminology in three ways,\learning from experience",
\experiential learning" and \experience-based learning". The degree of sameness between
these phrases is much higher than a degree of dissimilarity [
21
].Irrespective of
the terminology mentioned the essence lies in the experience that is encountered
by the learner. It is the main source of learning in order to draw the
experiencebased learning [
21
],[
22
],[
23
],[
24
]. The other similar terminology to
experiencebased learning is \entrepreneurial learning" because it is de ned as a learning
where the entrepreneur establish competence through experience [
25
],[
26
], [
27
].
Based on experiential learning, author Matsuo [
17
] describes a framework
in which ve facilitators, that assist the learning process based on experience.
Namely,\seeking challenging task", \critical re ection", \enjoyment of work",
\learning goal orientation" and \development network" are the mentioned
facilitators in his framework. The utmost two facilitators are antecedents of the rst
three that assist the progress of experiential learning. Also, \learning goal
orientation" and \development network" are set as drivers that trigger the initial
three facilitators. \seeking challenging task", \critical re ection" and
\enjoyment of work" directly impact on the D.A Kolb's experiential learning model
[
28
]. Matsuo, proposed the framework to overcome the weak points (social
factors, critical re ection, and the meta-learning process [
29
], [
30
], [
31
])of Kolb's
experiential learning cycle [
17
].
Few authors have mentioned about challenges of experience-based learning
while applied in a new environment from previous work experience. Toft-Kehler
et al. state that for an individual, one of the challenges is to generalize the
previously obtained experience and apply it to the new settings [
32
].
Gathered knowledge by an individual could vary according to previously encountered
events. Generally, the newly formed rms face challenges and if the new
environment setting is intricate or tricky, it is di cult to transfer the former experience.
The other challenge that article describes is that the earlier obtained learning
cannot be predicted as additive and self-regulating with every consecutive e ort
[
32
]. Aarstad et al. describe the challenge in regards to a novice and experienced
entrepreneur. The way experiences entrepreneur respond to challenges in the
rm di ers from a novice. This due to the experience that is accumulated in
an individual because of the daily learning activities and handling various
critical events. Experience of entrepreneur helps to well-de ned and lay strategies
in order to deal with a critical problem in the rm, while novice entrepreneur
faces di culties to do the same [
33
]. Few entrepreneurs carry out a project in
an improved manner if they have experienced a tough or bad period and some
in worsened manner if they have experienced a good period. In general, an
entrepreneur is subjected to be over-optimistic about the project. Sometimes, even
too intellectual and over-con dent behaviour towards the project in their initial
ventures [
34
]. One learning challenge states the re ection of learner own and
internal energy interaction with the experience. Experiential learning requires the
holistic [
21
], [
15
] involvement of the learner. Sometimes a learner is unwilling to
re ect upon an experience due to their understanding or assumptions on a
subject [
12
]. The essence could exist in experience but sometimes it does not lead
to learning. This is due to that fact that not all humans learn evenly from the
same kind of work nominated to them [
35
], [
36
]. The table 1 below summarizes
the gathered challenges from the literature:
No. Challenges
1 Generalizing the old experience and applying to new venture.
2 Previously obtained experience cannot be predicted as self-additive
and regulative.
3 Di erence between the experience of novice or experience entrepreneur. [
33
],[
7
]
4 Over optimistic and intellectual behavior in there initial ventures. [
34
]
5 Learner unwilling to re ect upon an experience. [
12
]
6 Same kind of work does not lead to equal experiential learning. [
35
],[
36
]
Reference
[
32
]
[
32
]
Conceptual Framework
An entrepreneur do learn from experience [
26
] and in daily routine horde of
experience takes place [
37
]. It is important that learner should be mentally aware
when the events take place. Figure 1 provides the conceptual framework to cast
the experience into learning. The framework comprises four elements of learner
or entrepreneur, re ection, learning and experience. This framework is the
evolution of the previous work done [
6
]. Based on the gathered literature, various
changes were done in order to evolve the framework more concrete. One of the
most important reasons to modify the framework was to perform re ection on
experience but free from time intervals. Previously, the work was based on agile
retrospectives where the obtained learning was at various intervals that is
whenever the retrospective was carried out by the team. As experience takes place
irrespective of the time [
37
] boundaries, therefore, re ection should be performed
too regardless of speci c interval.
Earlier the work showed the process to obtain learning from experience in a
team by applying agile retrospectives. According to agile manifesto twelfth
principle \At regular intervals, the team re ects on how to become more e ective,
then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly" [
38
] a team should re ect on
various intervals (sprints/iterations). A retrospective is one of the agile
practices in order to perform re ection. Various authors have mentioned the ways to
perform retrospectives. Commonly adopted by the team is the ve-step process
[
39
] by Derby et al.[
40
]. These steps are \1. Set the stage, 2. Gather Data, 3.
Generate Insights, 4. Decide What to Do, and 5. Close the Retrospective" [
39
].
Three questions are discussed during the retrospective sessions: What went well?
What did not go well? and What could be done? [
41
], [
42
] to make the enriched
future sprints.
As re ection is the process that can be carried out anytime, hence we
matured the work by modifying and removing some elements based on the gathered
literature. Source and type of experience encountered by the learner are
speci ed in details in the framework. Learning block is added and various kind of
entrepreneurs are speci ed. Re ection done through retrospectives were removed
from the framework. In addition, debrie ng and reconstruction on experience are
combined in the re ection block.
The experience could happen in either through an external agent or through
internal emotion or sense [
10
]. Various authors have mentioned the types of
experience present. Few to mention, the past or current experience [
43
],[
26
],[
44
] or
the past business experience, experience from other entrepreneur [
45
], negative
or positive experience [
43
]. Lamont describes the experience that an entrepreneur
gather after investing time in earlier business. An entrepreneur can considerably
learn from spending time after initiating or developing a company[
45
]. One of the
essential factors which in uence the performance of an entrepreneur is
dependent on the earlier experience obtained by involvement in the previous business
[
32
],[
46
]. The experience obtained can also scale in terms of negative or positive
experience. An entrepreneur inclines to apply the positive practice again and
abandon the negative ones [
43
].
Experiential learning could also variate in terms of the type of entrepreneurs.
For example, depending on the di culty of the task, an entrepreneur could
experience di erently[
35
]. Ucbasaran et al. classify four type of entrepreneurs
habitual, portfolio, serial and novice entrepreneur [
47
]. These entrepreneurs can
obtain the experience by practising [
25
] the events. This is due to the fact that
when there is diversity in the environment or ow of an event, an entrepreneur
can identify them. This raises the forthcoming concern and hence entrepreneur
should notice it and increase there experience about the environment [
25
].
They occur in a learner's life by the earlier or current events or activities[
21
].
It is vital to recognizing those events, type of events and their meaning [
48
], [
35
].
The experience could also be obtained by the experience from others, observing
other entrepreneur and their gathered information. In this way, entrepreneur
lowers the own competence to learn directly. But this is useful in the case when
the experience to be learned from others is available in su cient amount in the
entrepreneurial learning environment [
49
]. Some entrepreneur having experience
with previous failures or negative experience in the business are less likely to
encounter negative events in future business [
50
],[
44
],[
51
] and positive experience
help to start a new business faster [
51
].
Learners re ection on the experience is a crucial component of this
framework. In order to learn from experience, experience is not just enough, debrie ng
and re ecting on the experience is crucial too [
21
], [
52
], [
54
], [
55
], [
14
]. Debrie ng
in terms to experience is specifying the events in every detail or keeping the note
for actions. It assists the re ection in formatted or structure manner, through
which experience is used for learning. Debrie ng is a stage which could occur
either shortly after the experience was encountered or sometimes later [
37
]. If
the learner encounters the immediate experience, commonly it is associated with
deliberate or planned event [
9
]. In order to have a planned experience, there are
three stages: preparation, engagement in the event and transforming into what
has been experienced [
10
]. Three questions that could be done during the
debrie ng stage are: What happened?, How did the learner feel? What does it
mean? [
37
]. Critical analysis and synthesis on the experience is also enumerated
at the debrie ng and re ection [
52
] stage.
The meaning of re ection here with debrie ng is to specify the buried thought
on experience which learner wants to take into consideration, in return to obtain
learning. Re ection is deliberately viewing and thinking about the experience
and then analyzing them [
10
], [
53
]. To re ect, the four styles of re ection the
learner could consider are telling, writing, multimedia and activities. Telling
could be done by storytelling, presentations, discussions and talking informal
way with other. Writing, on the other hand, includes directed writing, a case
of sheets (with a script, drawings and maps), a diary of tacking the thoughts
with respect to a period of time. Multimedia incorporates videos, photos, a
collage of illustrations or images or some visual representations. Finally, the
activities could be accomplished by interviewing someone or spending time for
some particular activity [
9
]. According to [
9
] some ways which help a learner to
re ect on experience are listed in the table where a learner should spend:
{ time alone and in silence environment, thinking quietly [
10
]
{ be aware o and carefully observe the current event [
10
]
{ examine the event [
10
] or task with deep understanding and the objective
why it is carried out
{ thinking and making sense of earlier experience [
10
] and connecting dots
with the current experience
{ should allow oneself to be emotional while re ecting on thoughts
To complete the learning process after debrie ng and re ection, a learner should
then evaluate and reconstruct in the light experience [
21
]. While
reconstructing the experience, a learner can do it individually, collectively or both[
21
]. The
main objective for this step is to make the experience ongoing and persuasive.
A learner should de ne the re ected experience, agree and deal with the
emotion and attitude. Basically to be compatible, clear and more understanding of
the new experience or information, a belief which was re ected [
10
]. The
learning element here involves three crucial elements of the learner's involvement
(capability of his mind, awareness, sensitivity) [
21
]. Experience-based learning
includes various elements. Learning occurs once the learner has pursued these
elements [
56
]. Furthermore, a learner should continuously re ect upon the
experiences encountered which help to enumerate and reconstruct them into the
buried understanding [
21
]. To obtain and share the learning inside the team
Entrepreneur
• Habitual
• Portfolio
• Serial
• Novice
Team
• Asking questions
• Looking for answers
and guidance
• Sharing mistakes
• Discussing
information and
results
• Unexpected
outcomes of action
Performs
Obtains
Occurs
Reflection
Debriefing, Evaluate
and Reconstruct
Experiential
Learning
Mind, Awareness
and Sensitivity
Experience
From
• Events/activities
(Formal or Informal)
• Information
available from other
entrepreneurs
Type
• Past
• Current
• Positive
• Negative
• Previous venture
Fig. 1. Conceptual framework for entrepreneurial experience-based learning
it is important to perform the re ection with the team members. This process
of re ection and action upon it could be carried out by a group of individual
learners in teams by asking questions, looking for answers, sharing mistakes and
unexpected outcomes and discussing them [
57
]. While doing so, learners share
their re ected experience. At few instances, learners learn from others shared
experience, but if the information available is in abundance [
49
].
4