Schedule and materials
Note that possible changes in course schedules will not show up in the mycourses calendar so pay attention to any changes which will be reported in class or as mycourses announcements.
The overall course schedule can be found here:
| Sprint | wk | Tue 9-12 / 10-13 | Thu 14-16 |
| 1 | 37 | Intro sessions on Tuesday, Team building on Wednesday Thursday | |
| 1 | 38 | 17.09 Team formation | 19.09 Startup game |
| 2 | 39 | "24.09 Problem pitch Pitch training" | 26.09 User research |
| 2 | 40 | 1.10 Analyzing users data | 3.10 Experimentation and prototyping |
| 3 | 41 | 8.10 Pitch II | 10.10 Marketing I |
| 3 | 42 | 15.10 Disruption | 17.10 Marketing II |
| exam week | 43 | Team exam, exam times will be booked later | |
| 4 | 44 | 29.10 Pitch III | 31.10 Market estimation |
| 4 | 45 | 5.11 Video session | 7.11 Financing |
| 5 | 46 | 12.11 Pitch IV | 14.11 Financing II |
| 5 | 47 | 19.11 Prototype testing session | 21.11 Slush/Company Visit:Nokia Open Innovation Challenge finals |
| 6 | 48 | 26.11 Pitch V | 28.11 Design your life |
| 6 | 49 | 3.12 Company Visit:Taival | 5.12 Challenges and opportunities in startup life |
| exam week | 50 | 10.12 Final pitch | 11-13.12 Team and personal exams |
Sprint 1: Intro week + discovering a problem to solve
The intro week consists of 3 separate sessions in week 1 and a team formation/hiring session in the second week. You need to participate in all first week sessions in order to join the course.
Pre-lecture assignment: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=26158§ion=3
Lecture material
Introduction slide here
Critical thinking slides here
Course details slides here
Post-lecture assignment
Deadline: Thursday, September 12, 14:00.
Susan Wolcott and Cindy Lynch have created a tutorial for learning about critical thinking and open-ended problem solving. The tutorial can be found here: http://www.wolcottlynch.com/tutorial.html
Your assignment:
- Download the tutorial (as a zip file) from the page
- Read at least the introduction: file name is Tutorial_Introduction.pdf
- The topic of your pre-course essay was open-ended. Using the form Tutorial_EvaluationForm.pdf, evaluate your own essay that you wrote for the class.
- Hand in the filled-in evaluation form in this assignment (click on header to hand in)
Teamwork and being a team member.
Jari's slides here.
Lauri Järvilehto talks about personal development and entrepreneurship
Personal development exercises in the tab "Self development track"
Lauri's slides here.
Link to the dashboard: http://designingyour.life/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/DYL-Love-Play-Work-Health-Dashboard-Worksheet-v21.pdf
Håkan's slides on team formation and CEO workare here.
Write your own team member promise and hand it in here.
Deadline: Monday, September 16, 21:00
Team formation session. Slides.
Book a session with your favorite CEO here: https://doodle.com/poll/5ba99hvpi8txp2ui
CEOs prepare a 3 minute pitch of yourselves and/or your idea.
The idea of the startup game is to get your team to actively think about what you need to achieve and what skills you might need to strengthen in your team.
Pre-workshop assignment: none
Post-workshop team assignment: post photos of the different steps of your game progress in your team forum.
- The Team Agreement must be submitted as a signed (all team members must sign the document) hard copy to a course staff representative no later than the lecture on Sep 24.
Håkan's slides here.
Present your problem. 3 minutes.
The first pitch MUST be about a customer problem that your team wants to solve. No references to a solution can be done.
The pitch deck must be included as a file, PowerPoint or PDF. If you use Google Slides to edit and manage your presentation, you need to download a version of the deck. All the slides will be shown from the same computer provided by the teacher.
Deadline for slides: Monday Sep 23rd, 21:00.
Click the title link to access resources for pitching.
Please upload your slides here and name the file after your group name (group A-D). Thank you.
Sprint 2: Validating the problem and developing company working methods
Every team member: 1-2 min video reflection, post it in the group forum (not here) after Tuesday before Thursday then CEO (future COO) comments on the reflection before COO debriefing.
In video please reflect what did you learn during the last two weeks, what was new for you, how was the team formation process, critical thinking assessment, entrepreneurship game? How do you feel about the course now? Also, you should say how your routines execution is going? Do you manage to steadily execute routines or do you encounter challenges? and if you do, explain why? If you have challenges - do you have a plan on how to get back on execution?
The basics for working in Startup Experience are the concepts of sprints, iterative work and experiments.
Pre-Assignment: To complete before class
Watch videos: Introduction to iterative work and Trello.
Watch videos: Introduction to user research.
Lean canvas editable template (.ppt)
Slides user researchAnalysing data that you have collected in interviews and experiments
To complete before class
Video pre-reading (click on header)
Conduct sprint 2 interviews.
Document your findings (instructions in the lecture on Thursday, Sep 26)Moving your concept forward using experimentation and prototyping.
To complete before class
Watch two intro videos.
Experimentation canvas here.
Short description of team workflow. Teams need to provide the team name, team number, topic teams are working for the project + the digital tool your team choose to manage the work (trello or whatever they will choose) + the right to the staff to see your teamwork management process on real-time.
Deadline: Oct 7, 21:00
3 minutes.
Deadline for slides: Monday, Oct 7, 21:00.
Upload your mind map to your group forum by Oct 8, 21:00.
COO comments on team member's mind map by Oct 9, 21:00.
For sprint 2 COOs
Location: AVP Space, meeting rooms Hub and Central Park
Note: Sessions starts 13:00, not 13:15.
To complete before session
Write sprint report, COO report template here
Watch and comment on team member sprint reflection.
Sprint 3
Maisa Mattila, Netprofile
Maisa's slides are here, the outline for the plan for next Thursday is on page 26.
To be completed before class:
Pre-reading: watch intro video
To be completed after class:
Prepare content plan as input for workshop on Oct 17.Essi Isomäki, Netprofile
Content plan and execution
To be completed before class:
Initial content plan based on Oct 10 lecture.
To be completed after class:
Content creation assignmentPlease conduct an experiment and submit a report (one page) for the result.
The midterm exam is a team exam where the whole team meets with Jari Ylitalo.
No preparation is needed. Please show up on time.
Book a time slot that works for your whole team!
Online marketing content, deadline Mon, Oct 28 21:00.
- Content plan
- 4-5 content pieces (4 for teams size 5, 5 for teams size 6). The idea is that everyone (except COO) will write one content piece. The piece means any type of marketing material for any channel - blog post, the poster with infographics, video, twit, article etc. You can make different materials for more/less the same channels. If you have video or smth else that you can't upload in MyCourses, you can upload pdf or doc. with a link. The material should be different, channels could be the same. One small notice - materials should follow the principles of inbound marketing - you shouldn't tell customers about your solution, instead -try to grasp customer's attention by talking about the topic, industry and users' problems.
- Please name your files with the Group name.
3-minute pitch.
Deadline for slide submission: Mon, Oct 28, 21:00
Upload your short essay (one A4) to your group forum by Oct 29, 21:00.
COO comments on team member's essay by Oct 30, 21:00.
For sprint 3 COOs
Location: AVP Space, meeting rooms Hub and Central Park
Note: Sessions starts 13:00, not 13:15.
To complete before session
Write sprint report, COO report template here
Watch and comment on team member sprint reflection essays.
Sprint 4
Lauri Kokkila, VC Company Inventure
Lauri's slides here
Inventure's product-market-fit canvas here
How to estimate your potential market
To be completed before class:
1. Watch the introductory videos and read up on metrics.
2. Things you should know before the class
- What is your product and your market?
- Who is your paying customer (and user, if it is a different person)?
- What is your assumption(s) for the business model?
- What sales models are typical in your market?
To be completed after lecture:
Market estimate for your business.
- What is your product and your market?
Making a video in 3 hours:
- Script/plan
- Storyboard
- Shooting
- Editing
- Publishing
To be completed before class
Check out the pre-work videos
Ensure that your team brings with you at least:
- One camera for shooting the video (a good quality mobile phone is perfectly OK)
- One computer with a video editing software that at least one person knows how to use (eg iMovie for Apple or from this list for Windows: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/best-free-video-editing-software). You can edit on a mobile phone, but that tends to be quite cumbersome and slow.
- Additionally you could bring
- External microphone
- Tripod
- Any other cool video gear you might own
The Financing part will consist of 2 session with Tuomas Maisala, who is a startup advisor focusing on helping startups get early financing.
To be completed before class
Read the prework material
To be completed after class
Instructions in the lecture slides.
Prepare a 20 minute investment negotiation with an investor/finanser of your choice. You should assume that the party you are negotiating with has seen your last pitch deck so do not (just) duplicate that content.
Estimating your market.
Use at least two different approaches to estimate the size and value of your market. Include any calculations eg as Excel spreadsheet or similar.
5 minutes,
Deadline for slides: Mon 11 Nov, 21:00
Post your self reflection video (1-2 minutes) in your group forum by Nov 12, 21:00
COO comments on each member's self reflection by Nov 13, 21:00
For sprint 4 COOs
Location: AVP Space, meeting rooms Hub and Central Park
Note: Sessions starts 13:00, not 13:15.
To complete before session
Write sprint report
Watch and comment on team member sprint reflection.
Sprint 5
Tuomas' slides here.
The workshop format is your first funding negotiation with whoever you chose to approach:
[bank/Business Finland Tempo funding/business angel]Each negotiation will be held on the stage with an expert acting as the chosen counterpart. Each negotiation is expected to last 20 min.
To be completed before class
The details of your negotiation can be found by clicking on the title link.
Deadline for sending your proposal to Tuomas is Tuesday, Nov 12, 23:59.
To be completed after class
Hand in updated financing plan (taking into account any feedback that you get in the negotiation).
Video lists:
Editable platform business canvas here.
When building prototypes, it is always a very good idea to test the prototype before taking it to real customers. In this workshop you will be testing one of your prototypes with your peers in the class.
To be completed before class:
Prepare a prototype (that you will then take to your customers/users for testing). For this session, the prototype should be such that it can be tested in the normall class environment.
Bring the prototype to the lecture. You should have:
- Experiment canvas prepared
- Be prepared to shortly describe your prototype (purpose and design)
- Be prepared to test the prototype with your peers in class.
- You will test with 4 other teams, so make sure you can redo the test 4 times. One test should optimally take about 10, no more than 15 minutes.
To be completed after class:
Complete the Experiment Canvas with the outcome of the tests with your peers.Implement possible changes to your prototype based on feedback from your peers.
Nokia Open Innovation Challenge finals
•100’000 innovation competition for startups•Finals on Thursday, November 21•Only Aalto Startup Experience students are invited•Location: Nokia Meet& Greet Center•Public transport: reittiopas.fiClick the title link to check the schedule.
Finance proposal updated after feedback from the negotiation exercise.
The material should contain:
- Financing plan and rational
- Proposal to finanser
- Updated proposal deck
5 minutes,
Deadline for slides: Mon Nov 25, 21:00
Format: mind map
Post your self reflection in your group forum by Nov 26, 21:00
COO comments on each member's self reflection by Nov 27, 21:00
For sprint 5 COOs
Location: AVP Space, meeting rooms Hub and Central Park
Note: Sessions starts 13:00, not 13:15.
To complete before session
Write sprint report
Watch and comment on team member sprint reflection.
Sprint 6
Lecturers: Lidia Borisova & Johannes Kaira
Check the instruction from Lidia by clicking the title link.
- When: Dec 3, 11:00 – 13:00 (we will meet in the lobby at 10:45)
Program:
•Intro to digitalization
•Team challenge with mentoring/coaching
•Tekniikantie12, Otaniemi, goo.gl/maps/v4DGgYXLmdQY2LuSA Lecturer: Lauri Järvilehto
Lauri will share his own experience as an entrepreneur and give students tips to have enough courage to start running their own businesses.
Final pitch: 5 minutes.
The final pitch is part of your exam so the whole team must be present!
In the session you will first have your final pitch.
After the pitches, we will view all the product/concept videos. The videos cannot be part of the pitch and the pitch must not rely on the videos.
Product/concept video: 1 min.
Video content: Interesting and engaging ways to present your product or service (address to general public who never heard about your project before)
Please upload your video to online platforms and post links here, don't submit video files to mycourses.
You can upload videos to AVP youtube channel or your own ones.
ID:avp.startup.experience
password: SE_2019_video_session
Deadline for videos and pitch slides: Monday, Dec 9, 21:00
Post your self reflection essay (one page) in your group forum by Dec 10, 21:00
COO comments on each member's self reflection by Dec 11, 21:00
For sprint 6 COOs
Location: AVP Space, meeting rooms Hub and Central Park
Note: Sessions starts 14:30, not 13:00.
To complete before session
Write sprint report
Watch and comment on team member sprint reflection.
Schedule a 1 hour meeting for your team with Jari using the above header link to Doodle.
Whole team must be present. Please be on time.
The location is AVP - Central Park.
Dec 11 09:00 - 10:00 Group B - Dialogue Island
Dec 11 10:30 - 11:30 Group E - Ki:We
Dec 11 12:30 - 13:30 Group C - Nuppu
Dec 11 14:00 - 15:00 Group D - Motus
Dec 13 10:30 - 11:30 Group A - MealsurfThe final personal exam is a 45-50 minute oral exam. Book your exam slot with these Doodles:
https://doodle.com/poll/mgwrcv4tfdzc3pe5
Dec 13th, students start with Lidia in AVP HUB, then with Håkan in Central Park.
Please book team exam before you book a personal exam.
Locations:
Dec 10th & 11th: AVP HUB
Dec 12th: AVP HUB and Central Park (everyone starts from AVP HUB then changes to Central Park.
Final personal exam booking:
