[WORKBOOK] Colmena: Find opportunities worth your ambition. Help change the world.
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50% your path · 50% our community. Find opportunities worth your ambition—and your place in changing Guatemala and the world.
Build your future while helping shape the bigger picture: your livelihood, mastery and creative freedom; our shared capacity to solve problems and create opportunities.
What could that look like?
- Global commerce: build international businesses and open markets for Guatemalan producers.
- Healthcare and personal care: expand access to quality care, independence and wellbeing.
- Industry, agriculture and energy: build productive capacity, improve resource use and make essential systems more dependable.
- Film, storytelling and multimedia: create work that reaches worldwide audiences, builds creative livelihoods and moves people to understand, care and participate.
- Education and research: expand what people can discover, build and contribute.
Colmena brings ambitious people together to pursue changes like these. Learn from the best worldwide. Develop taste. Join strong efforts or organize new ones. Experiment, measure and make useful results travel.
Put the ambition to work
Use this workbook to explore an opportunity, organize a mission or rethink a whole system. Leave with a 50/50 opportunity brief, a team invitation, a meaningful test and a story others can join.
Bring a notebook or shared document and internet access. The preparation exercises take about two hours; research and experiments need their own time. The missions below are proposed examples.
1. Expand the menu · 30 minutes
If the only futures you encounter are familiar jobs, your choices begin inside a small enclosure.
Potential Network’s path catalogue offers directions to investigate. In the catalogue shared while preparing this workbook, examples include:
| Field | Catalogue paths worth exploring | A bigger question |
|---|---|---|
| Commerce | Niche ecommerce operator; cross-border commerce operator; marketplace specialist | What could we sell worldwide, and what route would make that exchange dependable? |
| Making and industry | Carpenter + digital fabrication; microfactory operator; reverse-engineering specialist | Which products or production capabilities could we develop and make accessible to others? |
| Healthcare and accessibility | Bioinformatics engineer; prosthetics engineer; assistive-technology designer; lab automation engineer | What could improve access, independence, research or the work of delivering care? |
| Personal care and development | Elderly and end-of-life care; human performance coach; social skills coach; hairdresser + personal brand | How could people receive better support, develop confidence and live with more autonomy? |
| Agriculture and energy | Precision farmer; farm automation integrator; microgrid operator | Which constraints on productivity, resources or reliability deserve a different arrangement? |
| Creative work | Entertainment producer; writer and storyteller; interactive storyteller; AI-assisted animation studio; game developer | What original work, studio, audience or cultural contribution could we build? |
| Learning | Apprenticeship designer; skills assessor; simulation-based trainer | How could more people become demonstrably capable of valuable work? |
These are starting directions. A catalogue label, tool list or “emerging” tag does not establish demand or make a prediction true.
Music, film, animation, games, photography, podcasts, writing, live performance and immersive experiences all belong in the exploration. An original creation can be the central mission. Its value may involve expression, enjoyment, cultural memory or a new artistic language as well as income.
Exercise: three possibilities outside your usual horizon
Spend five minutes choosing a problem or creative ambition. Spend 15 minutes finding three examples worldwide. Use the remaining ten minutes to compare them.
Look for a working product, a creator’s account, a demonstration, a research project or a team already doing the work. Go beyond the promotional headline. Record the source and date.
What I want to change or create:
Example / source / date:
Who uses, funds or values it:
What makes it possible:
Evidence it works—and what that evidence actually establishes:
Something we could join, adapt or improve:
What I still need to verify: ___
Commerce example: Investigate three sellers serving compact living spaces. Compare product dimensions, materials, customer questions, prices, assembly instructions and delivery arrangements. Ask whether there is an opening you can serve credibly.
Care variation: Study how organizations help people navigate appointments and practical support. Examine who maintains the information and how a user reaches a real service.
Creative variation: Study three animated shorts, games or music releases. Examine the work itself, the audience, production choices, distribution and how the creators sustain their practice.
Output: three sourced examples and one opportunity worth deeper investigation.
2. Develop taste for the opportunity · 20 minutes
Taste helps you perceive what belongs together and why. Apply it to the whole arrangement: the product, people, economics, communication and consequences.
Our Developing Taste workbook gives you a practice: study strong work closely, reproduce a manageable fragment, understand its principles, investigate its roots and test your own choices.
For Colmena, ask what makes an opportunity worth pursuing.
Exercise: examine the mechanism
Choose the strongest example from your research. Spend eight minutes inspecting a specific part, six minutes reconstructing how it works and six minutes challenging your explanation.
The outcome I admire:
Three decisions that help produce it:
The relationship between those decisions:
A dependency people might overlook:
What could transfer to our situation:
What would need changing:
Who benefits, and who carries costs: ___
What would make this a poor opportunity for us: ___
Filled commerce example: A beautiful furniture listing depends on accurate dimensions, a product that arrives intact and instructions a buyer can follow. Better photography cannot rescue a product that repeatedly breaks in transit. Study that whole relationship before ordering equipment.
Care example: A polished directory becomes useful only if its information remains accurate and people can reach the listed services.
Creative example: Expensive animation can still have weak pacing. Recreate a short sequence privately to understand how staging, sound and timing create its effect. Use your own expression or appropriate rights for public work.
Output: a reasoned choice and a critical dependency to investigate.
3. Write the 50/50 opportunity brief · 20 minutes
An opportunity is a situation where useful change could become possible. A mission is the change people organize to pursue.
The 50/50 principle asks you to build value in both directions. Write each side explicitly. Shared benefit needs a mechanism: a reusable route, accessible service, paid apprenticeship, open resource, useful artwork or another concrete contribution.
Copy this brief
Mission: We are working toward ___ for .
Why it matters:
Why now:
Strong examples and evidence:
My/our path: income, capability, ownership or creative development we seek:
Our community: who else benefits, how and on what terms:
The connection between the two:
What could multiply the result:
What we can influence:
What depends on other people or systems:
First uncertainty to test:
A person accountable for the next move:
Review date: ___
Three filled mission sketches
| International commerce | Healthcare and personal care | Original multimedia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ambition | Build a repeatable route from Guatemalan production to a specific international market. | Make it easier for people to find and arrange appropriate care and practical support. | Build a studio producing original Guatemalan stories for audiences worldwide. |
| Your path | Product ownership, export capabilities and sustainable producer earnings. | Develop a viable coordination service and expertise in accessible service design. | Authorship, creative mastery, owned work and sustainable studio income. |
| Our community | Other producers can use documented arrangements and learn the capabilities. | People and caregivers face fewer avoidable dead ends; service information is maintained. | Audiences gain worthwhile work; collaborators receive agreed credit and compensation; new creators gain a route into production. |
| First uncertainty | Can the offer attract buyers at a price that covers the complete delivery? | Can people use a verified guide to identify and reach an appropriate service? | Does a short original piece connect with its intended audience and make them want more? |
| Possible expansion | Additional products, producers and markets after the route proves dependable. | Partnerships with care providers and support organizations, with clear responsibilities. | A series, game, album, live production, licensing or additional studio projects. |
For the care mission, start by choosing a specific group and access problem. Clinical decisions and clinical work belong with qualified professionals; members can contribute research, software, communication, operations and design within an agreed role.
The 50/50 should survive success. Decide how shared resources stay accessible, how collaborators are paid and credited, and who maintains what you build.
Output: a brief someone else can understand and challenge.
4. Find your place in the work · 15 minutes
You can initiate a mission, join an existing effort or provide a capability several teams need.
Before founding another organization, look for people already addressing the opportunity. A useful contribution to a strong existing effort may move faster.
Exercise: map capabilities and make one specific invitation
Spend five minutes mapping the work, five identifying people or organizations, and five writing the invitation.
| Capability needed | What we have | Missing contribution | Person responsible / next contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Understand users and context | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Build or deliver the work | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Reach an audience or customer | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Run operations and measure | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Document and tell the story | ___ | ___ | ___ |
Commerce example: A maker brings production knowledge. A commerce operator investigates demand and delivery economics. A designer tests assembly and instructions. A producer documents the attempt. One person owns the next decision.
Invitation template:
We are investigating . We found , and our next uncertainty is . We need someone who can ___ for approximately ___ by . You would gain ; the shared contribution would be . Here is the brief and the decision your work would inform: ___.
Ask for a bounded contribution people can accept or decline. Agree on compensation, ownership, credit and what may be shared before producing joint work.
Output: named responsibilities and one invitation ready to send.
5. Design an experiment that earns the next move · 20 minutes
An experiment tests an uncertainty through action. Choose an uncertainty important enough that its answer changes your plan.
The first action can be inexpensive while the mission remains ambitious.
Experiment card
Spend five minutes naming the uncertainty, ten designing the test and five checking whether the result will support a decision.
Mission:
Assumption: We believe ___ because .
Test: We will ___ with ___ by .
People, materials and access required:
Time and spending limit:
Baseline or comparison:
Primary measure and evidence source:
Threshold for the next decision, set before the test:
Continue if:
Change direction if:
Stop or pause if:
What this test cannot establish:
Owner and review date: ___
Proposed experiments for the three missions
Commerce — test demand and delivery together. Choose one product and target segment. Obtain realistic production, packaging and delivery estimates. Prepare an original offer with clear terms, show it to prospective buyers and record their responses. If you accept orders, be ready to fulfill the stated promise. Compare willingness to buy with costs; investigate why people decline. A paid order is stronger purchase evidence than a compliment, and still leaves fulfillment and repeat demand to prove.
Care access — test a route through the information. With a service partner, verify a small set of relevant services and prepare a plain-language guide. Ask consenting participants to use it to locate and contact an appropriate service. Record confusion, unreachable contacts and time spent. Keep personal health details out of the public log. Successful navigation establishes something about access; it does not demonstrate improved health.
Multimedia — test an original piece. Make a short animated scene, playable game segment, music performance or pilot episode. Agree on contributor rights and use material you can publish. Show it to a defined audience through one chosen channel. Observe where attention holds, what people understand and whether they take the intended next step. Ask what they remember before explaining your intention. Use that evidence to choose the next production.
These are workbook proposals. They are separate from Potential Network’s existing experiment catalogue.
Choose measures that match the ambition
A KPI is a measure you use to judge progress. Keep the first dashboard to a few measures that support a decision.
| Mission | Useful measures | A distinction to preserve |
|---|---|---|
| Commerce | Contribution margin after variable costs; delivery reliability; repeat purchases; producer earnings; another producer using the route | Revenue alone does not show profit or a repeatable operation. |
| Care and personal support | Successful contacts; completed access steps; user-reported difficulty; staff time; sustained service availability | Navigation, satisfaction, care quality and health outcomes require different evidence. |
| Creative work | Completion and return by the intended audience; remembered meaning; paid demand where relevant; production cost; creator and collaborator earnings | Reach, artistic achievement and a viable studio each need their own examination. |
Record the numerator, denominator, time period and source. “Three of eight invited testers completed the task” tells more than “people loved it.” Include money and time spent, failures and unexpected effects.
Output: a test ready to run and a decision it can inform.
6. Communicate so people can participate · 15 minutes to plan
Communication connects the opportunity to the people who can use, fund, join or improve it.
Develop the craft. Study strong work, practice structure, record usable sound, edit deliberately and distribute where the intended audience already pays attention.
Reality shows are one option. So are demonstrations, investigations, explainers, interviews, practical guides, photography, animation, podcasts, music, games and live experiences.
Story and distribution card
Who needs to encounter this:
What they should understand, feel or do:
The person and ambition we follow:
The question or stakes:
The decisions and attempts we will capture:
Evidence or result we can show:
Format and reason it fits:
Channel and how we will reach the intended audience:
Specific invitation:
Useful response we will track:
Production owner and release date: ___
Commerce example: “Can this workshop deliver a flat-pack product to its first international buyer at a viable margin?” Capture the design decision, packing test, costs and delivery result. Invite the next relevant buyer or logistics collaborator.
Care example: Show a fictional scenario using verified service information. Explain what the guide helps someone do. Invite a service provider to correct an entry or a consenting tester to examine accessibility.
Creative example: Release a compelling scene as a work in its own right. A separate production diary can show how the team achieved its sound or visual language. Give each piece a clear purpose and audience.
A simple production sequence
- Before: write the audience promise, opening image, question and intended response.
- During: capture the starting condition, consequential choices, attempt and result. Get permission for identifiable people and private information.
- Edit: open with something worth seeing or hearing. Make the situation understandable. Preserve evidence that complicates your preferred story.
- Review: check sound, readability, factual claims, credits and whether the invitation works on a phone.
- Release and learn: distribute through the chosen channel. Record useful responses and change the next piece accordingly.
The guerrilla spirit lives here: resourcefulness, unexpected demonstrations, inventive partnerships and visible action. Earn attention through something worth encountering. Be clear about who is behind it and respect the people and places involved.
If the mission suits a reality series, use our reality-show guide: decide whether each episode resolves or continues across a season, and whether the engine comes from repeatable rules, particular people or both. Each episode needs a meaningful payoff.
Output: a production plan that supports the mission, with a clear invitation.
7. Use Potential Network to keep the loop connected
Potential Network gives directions and experiments a home. Colmena is its Guatemala-focused network, being developed in Spanish.
The documented participation loop includes a short profile, directions to explore, small experiments and a journal. The paths page shared for this workbook also lets members express curiosity and attach a path as a direction. New members currently wait for operator approval.
Use that structure alongside this workbook:
- Describe your interests, goal, available time and capabilities honestly.
- Explore paths that expand your horizon. Combine them around a mission.
- Choose a relevant available experiment, or prepare your proposed test with this workbook.
- Record what happened: evidence, wins, blockers, lessons and the next decision.
- Share an appropriate summary with people who could contribute.
Keep your mission brief in a document if the app has no fitting place for it. Coordinate directly where needed. The broader collaboration described here is work to build; software alone does not assemble a team or deliver a result.
8. Review, then multiply what deserves to grow
At the agreed date, bring the brief, result and evidence together. A 20-minute review is enough to decide the next move.
What we attempted:
What happened, with source and date:
Who participated / who responded:
Time and money spent:
What advanced our path:
What benefited others—and evidence for it:
A cost, failure or unintended effect:
What remains unknown:
Persist / pause / pivot, and why:
Next action / owner / date:
What we can share for someone else to use: ___
Commerce: A profitable delivery could justify testing a repeat order. A repeatable route across products and producers needs further evidence.
Care: Fewer dead ends could justify maintaining the guide with a partner and testing another access problem.
Creative: A scene that connects with its intended audience could earn a second episode or a larger production commitment. Look at creative intention, audience response, workload and economics together.
Multiplication can mean another customer, another team, a reusable production method, an accessible tool or an organization adopting the approach. Ask what lets the useful result travel without losing its quality.
Your Colmena participation brief
Keep this short enough to share:
I am pursuing:
It could make possible:
The worldwide examples I am learning from:
My 50%—what I seek to build:
Our 50%—what others gain and how:
The effort I want to join or organize:
The capability I bring:
The contribution or partner I need next:
Our next test and decision: ___
Where to follow the evidence or contact me: ___
Bring a strong brief. Bring an uncomfortable question. Bring a capability you are willing to develop. Help other people make their strongest work possible too.
We are looking for people ready to question familiar arrangements, learn from the world and move quickly on worthwhile possibilities. Serious ambition deserves serious judgment, organized action and stories people can follow.
Request to join Colmena. If you want to organize a mission, bring a network or explore hands-on support, contact NoFate. Tell us who it serves, what could become possible, what you are willing to change and the people, time and resources available.
Your two-minute start: write one change you would be proud to help make in the world, one future you want for yourself and a possible connection between them. Find one example that makes that connection worth investigating.
NoFate is a lab that runs in public. Receipts and failures included.