This document outlines a course on customer development for startups taught at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. The course introduces tools for entrepreneurs and covers business model design, customer discovery, validation, creation, and company building. It challenges traditional views of sales, marketing, and business development roles. Students complete application exercises analyzing companies' business models and customer development processes. They also conduct a team research project interviewing founders about their experiences with customer development. The goal is to teach students how to search for a scalable business model by getting customer feedback, rather than focusing only on products.
In this presentation I shared my perspective about how to use the best of of Lean Startup and Scrum principles for building new product and for any new enhancement projects. Shared the practices like Lean Canvas, Wireframing, Prototyping, One metric that matters, User Story Mapping etc. in the the overall framework of Problem Validation->Solution Validation--> Scale.
"Life is too short to build something which nobody wants". Let us make successful products, services and companies..
In this presentation I shared my perspective about how to use the best of of Lean Startup and Scrum principles for building new product and for any new enhancement projects. Shared the practices like Lean Canvas, Wireframing, Prototyping, One metric that matters, User Story Mapping etc. in the the overall framework of Problem Validation->Solution Validation--> Scale.
"Life is too short to build something which nobody wants". Let us make successful products, services and companies..
Getting to Product Market Fit - An Overview of Customer Discovery & ValidationJason Evanish
An overview of the first two stages of Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany: Customer Discovery and Customer Validation. Includes in depth advice on the customer development interview as well.
I'm writing a book on How to Build Customer Driven Products based on tactics like the ones in this presentation. You can sign up to learn more here: http://eepurl.com/RZoO9
The First 2 Steps to the Epiphany: Customer Discovery, Customer Validation an...Jason Evanish
An outline of the key parts of the first two steps of Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany as well as how to do customer development interviews.
I'm writing a book on How to Build Customer Driven Products based on tactics like the ones in this presentation. You can sign up to learn more here: http://eepurl.com/RZoO9
Getting to Product Market Fit - An Overview of Customer Discovery & ValidationJason Evanish
An overview of the first two stages of Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany: Customer Discovery and Customer Validation. Includes in depth advice on the customer development interview as well.
I'm writing a book on How to Build Customer Driven Products based on tactics like the ones in this presentation. You can sign up to learn more here: http://eepurl.com/RZoO9
The First 2 Steps to the Epiphany: Customer Discovery, Customer Validation an...Jason Evanish
An outline of the key parts of the first two steps of Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany as well as how to do customer development interviews.
I'm writing a book on How to Build Customer Driven Products based on tactics like the ones in this presentation. You can sign up to learn more here: http://eepurl.com/RZoO9
This 14 Week Bootcamp starts 29th April 2020 and helps business owners tackle the widespread disruption to small and medium businesses dues to COVID 19. It is crucial to take measures and formulate action plans to mitigate risks on impacts to business operations.
For most businesses, this involves renewing business models, customer acquisition, finding new revenue streams and always, always be innovating.
This Innovation Program, designed by The Scale Institute at Charles Sturt University, is tailored to ensure your business not only can survive, but continues to thrive!
The cost is $150 per week and involves a 3-hour commitment from those who enrol in the program.
Teaching Business Students the Art and Science of Innovation.docxerlindaw
Teaching Business Students the Art and Science of Innovation
Dr. Uma G. Gupta, State University of New York at Buffalo State, NY, USA
ABSTRACT
Today the ability to innovate has become a core and sought after business competency. While innovation is often
taught in capstone business courses as a topic, this paper argues that the time is right to make innovation the central
theme in teaching strategic management. The McKinsey &Company framework is used to teach students the eight
essential ingredients of innovation and its execution. The opportunities to integrate previous knowledge about other
business functions into the teaching of innovation is outlined. The critical business lessons that can be imparted to
business students through the McKinsey framework is discussed.
Keywords: Strategic management curriculum, innovation, innovation framework, business competencies.
INTRODUCTION:
Strategic management is a capstone course in most undergraduate business degree programs in U.S. institutions. The
strategic management course integrates fundamental business concepts from accounting, finance, production, human
resources, marketing, and leadership and challenges students to apply these integrated concepts in order to leam how
to run a business. This gives students a deeper understanding of the many challenges that CEOs face in ensuring the
success and sustainability of their company in the face of rapid changes. They realize that while hindsight is easy,
consistent and high-quality execution is not.
One of the key factors today in ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of any business is the art and
science of innovation. The rise of the new economy, characterized by intense global competition, advanced
information technologies, a virtual 24x7 workforce, and an almost ubiquitous world of online business transactions
free of geographical boundaries, has made information, knowledge, and innovation integral and invaluable in
creating and managing sustainable competitive advantage. In other words, it is not enough if our students understand
the fundamental concepts of business and how to apply them to a business setting. Instead, today they should know
how to apply core business concepts through the lens of speed, innovation, and customer service. This paper focuses
on how to integrate the fundamentals of innovation into the strategic management curriculum.
There are at least three challenges in teaching innovation to undergraduate students.
1- What does it mean? Not only students, but business owners and leaders too, sometimes struggle to define
innovation in meaningful, concrete and operational terms, although many understand it intuitively. Words
such as creative, unique, transformation, revolution, etc. come to mind, but how can we teach students to
translate this into operational concepts that can be executed for the long-range success of a company?
2. Company size: Most students are familiar with the big br.
This 14 Week Bootcamp starts 29th April 2020 and helps business owners tackle the widespread disruption to small and medium businesses dues to COVID 19. It is crucial to take measures and formulate action plans to mitigate risks on impacts to business operations.
For most businesses, this involves renewing business models, customer acquisition, finding new revenue streams and always, always be innovating.
This Innovation Program, designed by The Scale Institute at Charles Sturt University, is tailored to ensure your business not only can survive, but continues to thrive!
The cost is $150 per week and involves a 3-hour commitment from those who enrol in the program.
Why do we need business models or Mindset behind Business Model ApproachVasily Ryzhonkov
Entrepreneurship is about creating innovative ideas and transforming them into ventures that generate value. Through the years the only way how entrepreneurs documented their ideas and presented to investors was writing business plans. However, it is widely recognized that business plans immediately become obsolete after first meeting with reality. Business plans are also too long to write, they are seldom updated, almost never read by others (even investors for whom they were written). Nowadays everyone in the entrepreneurship world speaks about business model as more important issue than business plan. There are plenty of materials about what is a business model, how to use them; more than 40 different types of business models appeared since 1985 (M. Porter). However, only a few words said about why and when particular model of business model should be used for idea development and venture creation. This article is aimed at disclosure of mindset behind business model approach to entrepreneurship. Second purpose is to define main ways how business models could be applied to entrepreneurship.
Business Development framework is based on identifying the triggering events leading to the need to expand the organization business beyond its current boundaries. It also provides answer to the following questions and draws conclusions in the form of action items:
• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to go?
• Why do we want to do that?
• How can we do that?
• How much will it cost us?
• Is it worth doing?
• How do we know we have reached there?
1What did you do best in your undergraduate studies Have you ever.pdfchughakshit42
1
What did you do best in your undergraduate studies? Have you ever had an interdisciplinary
learning experience? If so, what impressed or interested you?
2
What knowledge and skills have you learned by participating in a class, such as an undergraduate
class, that is relevant to the major you are applying for? What do you think will help you succeed
in applying for the major? Please make a summary from the aspects of professional knowledge,
research methods, skills tools, etc.
Course 1
TitleFoundation of Finance (90/100)
Content of the course and your learning focus
Why are you impressed
Your Achievements
Course 2
TitleInvestment Analysis (86/100)
Content of the course and your learning focus
Why are you impressed
Your Achievements
Course3
TitleFinancial Decision Making (92/100)
Content of the course and your learning focus
Why are you impressed
Your Achievements
3
Please list any project activities you have participated in; certain experimental research projects;
or some kind of academic competition; (what research experience do you have related to the
major you are aiming to apply for? And can this experience prove your learning and research
ability to the university? Did you encounter any academic difficulties in your research, how did
you overcome them, or how did you conduct your research? Please mainly describe what you
have done and achieved. Please highlight the professionalism and depth of the activity, please
note that what you have done reflects the quality characteristics of your study target major)
Academic Programs 1
Situation: Project name, purpose, specific academic fields: AIA GROUP LIMITED (HONG
KONG STUDY TOUR) 2019.07-2019.08
Task: Academic key points and what you need to accomplish
Participated in the planning and promotion of insurance products in AIA Group Limited, and
cooperated with team members to design product recommendation advertisements, which won
the second place Participated in a business case analysis competition at the University of Hong
Kong: Why Samsung is successful. Analyzedthe industry competitiveness of the company by
means of SWOT and Porter's Five Forces Model within three hoursParticipated in writing
analysis reports on the development of Samsung products, marketing strategies and enterprise
competitiveness; made PowerPoint independently and participated in presentation of the results
Action: The obstacles you encounter, your academic understanding and practical operation
Result: Your results
Thinking & Reflection: What kind of progress, new ideas and reflections you have generated
throughout the process:
Academic Programs 2
Situation: Project name, purpose, specific academic fields:
Task: Academic key points and what you need to accomplish
Action: The obstacles you encounter, your academic understanding and practical operation
Result: Your results
Thinking & Reflection: What kind of progress, new ideas and reflections you have generated
throughout the process:
4
What has helped you most in your ac.
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Spring 2011 mba 295 f syllalbus rev 3
1. University of California at Berkeley - Haas School of Business
MBA/EWMBA 295F
The Customer Development Process in High Tech:
Sales, Marketing & Business Development in a Startup
Instructor: Steve Blank Time: 6-8pm Room C210
Prerequisite(s): Passion, Creativity and Resilience
Class Format: Seminar & Research Project Units of Credit: 2
Purpose of the Course
Why Teach This Class?
Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of
known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills,
marketing, operations, etc.)
In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or more accurately,
startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable
business model.) There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills
(business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) to optimize
this search.
Many entrepreneurship courses focus on teaching students “how to write a
business plan.” Others emphasize how to build a product. If you’ve read any of my
previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but
understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. are what make it a business, 2)
business plans are fine for large companies where there is an existing market, existing
product and existing customers. In a startup none of these are known.
Therefore we developed a class to teach how to think about all the parts of
building a business, not just the product.
What’s Different About the Class?
This class will introduce management tools for entrepreneurs. We’ll build the class
around the business model / customer development / solution stack.
The class will cover Business Model Design as well the four steps of Customer
Development; Customer Discovery - understanding customer problems and needs,
Customer Validation -developing a sales model that can be replicated, Customer
Creation - creating and driving end user demand, and Company Building - transitioning
the organization from learning and discovery to a well oiled machine engineered for
execution.
Page 1 of 7 Spring 2011 revision 3 Blank
2. The key points of this class are:
1. Get out of the building. Very few technology startups fail for lack of technology. They
almost always fail for lack of customers. Yet surprisingly few companies take the basic
step of attempting to learn about their customers (or potential customers) until it is too
late - it's just so easy to focus on product and technology instead. True, there are the
rare products that have literally no market risk; they are all about technology risk (i.e. life
sciences and a "cure for cancer"). For everyone else you need to get some facts to
inform and qualify our hypotheses ("fancy word for guesses") about what kind of product
customers will ultimately buy.
2. Theory of market types. Market Types explain why different startups face wildly
different challenges and time horizons. There are three fundamental situations that
change what your company needs to do: creating a new market, bringing a new product
to an existing market, and resegmenting an existing market. If you're entering an
existing market, competition comes from the incumbent players. When creating a new
market, it may take years before you get traction with early customers.
3. Finding a market for the product as specified. Customer Development tries is to find
the minimum feature set required to get early customers.
4. Phases of product & company growth. Customer Development posits that startups go
through four stages of growth; Customer Discovery (when you're just trying to figure out
if there are any customers who might want your product), Customer Validation (when
you make your first revenue by selling your early product), Customer Creation (akin to a
traditional startup launch,) and Company Building (where you gear up to Cross the
Chasm and realign management.
5. Learning and iterating vs. linear execution. In the early stage of a startup companies
are focused on figuring out which way is up. In a traditional startup, they would probably
launch their product and company, failing or succeeding spectacularly. Only after a
major, public, and expensive failure would they iterate.
6. Premature Execution: An insight of Customer Development is that startups need time
spent in a mindset of learning and iterating, before they try to launch. During that time,
they can collect facts and change direction in private, without dramatic and public
embarrassment for their founders and investors.
This course will challenge your perception of the traditional sales, marketing and
business development roles, leave you with a new way to view and organize these
roles, and help you increase the odds of a successful venture.
Page 2 of 7 Spring 2011 revision 3 Blank
3. Requirements
The main requirements for this class are passion, energy and resourcefulness.
The course also assumes that students have either; experience in bringing a new
product to market, taken a basic Entrepreneurship course, or have written a business
plan.
Method of Instruction:
The course will combine lectures, readings, case materials and regular class
involvement by entrepreneurs and business professionals. Well-prepared and
intellectually engaged students are essential for the class to succeed.
The readings for this course are principally from the course text: Four Steps to
the Epiphany, articles, book chapters and cases that will be published in an on-line
Reader. They are organized as required readings and cases for class discussion along
with suggested supplemental readings that will deepen your understanding of the class.
Method of Evaluation:
(1) Four Application Exercises assigned throughout the semester, students will work
individually and independent to analyze Business Model Design, Customer Discovery,
Customer Validation and Customer Creation choices companies have made. Students
will analyze a company’s business model and then look at their customer and market
hypothesis, channel and sales strategy, and demand creation activities. These
exercises will cover understanding early customer needs and matching them with
product features, how to research product distribution channels, creating a sales
roadmap for early customers, and demand creation and chasm-crossing sales plan to
transition to mainstream customers. The companies used in these exercises can be
known from direct experience or from independent research efforts.
(2) A team-written independent research paper (teams of 4) of approximately 10 pages
in length. This paper puts together all the lessons of customer development by doing
primary research outside the building interviewing founders of a company you selected.
The paper analyzes and compares the founders world-view with the lessons learned
from the class during the course of the semester.
Basis for Final Grade:
Students will be graded on the independent research project (50% of final grade),
completion and quality of effort related to the Application Exercises (25% of final grade),
Page 3 of 7 Spring 2011 revision 3 Blank
4. and class attendance and participation (25% of final grade).
Instructor
Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur and private investor. Since 1978 Steve has
been a founder of or participant in eight Silicon Valley startups including Zilog and
MIPS, two semiconductor startups; Ardent, a supercomputer company; Convergent
Technologies a workstation company; SuperMac, an Apple peripheral supplier; Rocket
Science, a video game company, and E.piphany; an enterprise software company.
These startups resulted in five IPO's, and three very deep craters. Steve's operational
roles have spanned CEO to VP of Marketing.
Steve has been lecturing at the Haas School at U.C. Berkeley in the entrepreneurship
program since 2002, Columbia Business School since 2005, and Stanford’s School of
Engineering since 2006. He is a Trustee at U.C. Santa Cruz. Currently, Steve serves
on the boards of Audubon California and the California League of Conservation Voters.
He was appointed to the California Coastal Commission by Governor Schwarzenegger
in February 2007.
Office hours: By appointment
Email: sblank@kandsranch.com
Twitter: sgblank
Blog: www.steveblank.com
Page 4 of 7 Spring 2011 revision 3 Blank
5. Class 1 Thursday, Jan 20th
Introduction to the Course
Learning Objectives: (1) Course organization (2) Barriers to Entrepreneurship (3) Entrepreneurship
Explosion, (4) Entrepreneurship as a Management Science.
Reading: Do Business Plans Make No Difference In The Real World?
Class 2 Thursday, Jan 27th -Part 1
Business Model Design
Learning Objectives: (1) Business Models versus Business Plans (2) Business Model Design
Reading: Osterwalder, Business Model Generation,
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads.php
http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/
Class 3 Thursday, Feb 3rd- Part 2
Business Model Design
Learning Objectives: (1) Business Models versus Business Plans (2) Business Model Design
Reading: Osterwalder, Business Model Generation
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads.php
http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/
FEB 10TH NO CLASS
Class 4 Thursday, Feb 17th
The Customer Development Process
Learning Objectives: (1) Product Development (2) Customer Development. (3) Business Model /
Customer Development / Agile Development Stack
Reading: Boyd – OODA Loop PowerPoint slides
Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 2
Supplemental Fast Company – The Strategy of a Fighter pilot
Reading McGrath & MacMillan – Entrepreneurial Mindset – Chapter 10 pages 231-245
Assignment: Application Exercise 1, Business Model due today
Class 5 Thursday, Feb 24th
The Customer Development Model: Customer Discovery -Part 1
Learning Objectives: (1) Board/Team Buy-in (2) Startup Hypothesis
(3) Testing the Problem and Product Concept
Reading Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 3
Supplemental Scan the Webvan source materials. The S-1, 10Q’s. 8K’s, etc.
Reading: McGrath & MacMillan – Discovery-Driven Planning
McGrath & MacMillan – Entrepreneurial Mindset – Chapter 10 pages 256-261
Red Herring – Can Webvan Deliver?
Case: WebVan
Class 6 Thursday, March 3rd
The Customer Development Model: Customer Discovery - Part 2
Learning Objectives: (1) Customer Development Team (2) Customer Needs versus product features
(3) Understanding the customer.
Reading: Christensen – Discovering What Has Already Been Discovered
Page 5 of 7 Spring 2011 revision 3 Blank
6. Note on Lead User Research
Case: IMVU
Class 7 Thursday, March 10th
The Customer Development Model: Customer Validation - Part 1
Learning Objectives: (1) Customer Validation team (2) Value Proposition (3) Getting Ready to Sell
Reading: Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 4
Supplemental Heiman & Sanchez – The New Strategic Selling – Chap 2 Strategy & Tactics
Reading Heiman & Sanchez – The New Strategic Selling – Chap 5 Buying Influences
Case: Motive
Assignment: Application Exercise 2, Customer Discovery due today
Class 8 Thursday, March 17h
The Customer Development Model: Customer Validation - Part 2
Learning Objectives: (1) Earlyvangelists (2) Sales to early customers (3) Product and company
positioning (4 ) testing the financial model
Reading: Bosworth – Solution Selling – Strategy 1 & 4 - Three levels of Buyer Needs,
Solution Selling Tools
Moore – Positioning Your Product
Case: E Ink & E Ink 2005
March 24th NO CLASS
Class 9 Thursday, March 31st
Vertical Markets/The Three Types of Startups
Learning Objectives: (1) Market risk vs. Invention Risk (2) Vertical Markets (3) Market types and
startup goals
Reading: Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 1
Supplemental Clayton Christensen - Innovators Solution – pages 43-51
Reading Clayton Christensen - Six Keys to Creating New Growth Businesses
Case: In & Out Burger
Class 10 Thursday, April 7th
The Customer Development Model: Customer Creation - Part 1
Learning Objectives: (1) Customer Creation versus marketing communications (2) the four building
blocks of Customer Creation (3) the role of “branding”
Reading: Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 5
Holt - Brands & Branding
Assignment: Application Exercise 3, Customer Validation due today
Case: HP Kittyhawk
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7. Class 11 Thursday, April 14th
The Customer Development Model: Customer Creation - Part 2
Learning Objectives: (1) Company and Product Launch (2) Company and Product Positioning
(3) Demand Creation
Reading: McGrath & MacMillan – Entrepreneurial Mindset – Chapter 9 pages 197-215
Schuler - Lanchester Background
Case: Wildfire A-D
Class 12 Thursday, April 21st
The Customer Development Model: Company Building - Part 1
Learning Objectives: (1) Building a mainstream customer base by Market Type
Reading: Moore – Breaking into the Mainstream
Moore - Target Markets
Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 6
Case: Peppers & Rogers
Assignment: Application Exercise 4, Customer Creation due today
Class 13 Thursday, April 28th
The Customer Development Model: Company Building - Part 2
Learning Objectives: (1) Culture wars (2) Mission-centric culture (3) Fast-response departments
(4) Growing the company
Reading: Blank – Four Steps to the E.piphany – Chapter 6
Supplemental U.S. Marine Corps – Warfighting Manual – Pages 46-51 (Leadership/Training,)
Reading Pages 63-67 (Philosophy of Command), Pages 70-75 (Mission Tactics/Intent/Focus)
Boyd – Patterns of Conflicts – pages 75-80, 128-135
Bhide – Building the Self Sustaining Firm
Deliverables
(1) February 27th Application Exercise Papers Due – Business Model Design
(2) March 10th Application Exercise Papers Due: Customer Discovery
(3) April 7th Application Exercise Papers Due: Customer Validation
(4) April 21st Application Exercise Papers Due: Customer Creation
(5) May 12th Team Research Papers Due – 10 pages
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