A Dalhousie University PhD student is investigating best practice among the region’s information technology startups and looking for a few dozen Nova Scotian founders to help him with the study.

Uchechukwu Nwogu, who is working on his doctorate in the Computer Science faculty, is looking into the processes and systems employed by innovation-driven companies in the region.

He will begin by interviewing IT founders in Nova Scotia, taking about six months to conclude this initial study. The companies can be in any stage of development. He hopes to expand the boundaries in subsequent studies.

“My project is investigating the practices that startups are using now, and at the end we want to improve their innovation strategies,” said Nwogu in an interview.

He hopes to interview at least 40 founders (and hopefully some employees) in the first phase, asking them about the processes and “knowledge systems” they use in developing products and bringing them to market.

“By the time we capture all of this data, we’ll understand what their processes are,” said the native of Nigeria. “The ultimate goal is to develop a validated framework or a knowledge resource that would capture lessons learned in new product development. The goal of the project is to understand the methodologies in place right now.”

Dr. Colin Conrad, a member of the Dal Computer Science faculty, said the project will “identify factors that will be valuable to startups across the region. And [Nwogu is] coming at this as an outsider, which is valuable. If I was doing it, I’d be coming in with biases.”

Any founders interested in participating in the project can contact Nwogu at unwogu@dal.ca.