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 | 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 Experiment testing session | 7.11 Financing |
| 5 | 46 | 12.11 Pitch IV | 14.11 Financing II |
| 5 | 47 | Video session 19.11 | 21.11 Slush/Startup game II |
| 6 | 48 | 26.11 Pitch V | 28.11 Challenges and opportunities in startup life |
| 6 | 49 | 3.12 Ethics | 5.12 Design your life |
| exam week | 50 | 10.12 Final pitch | 11-13.12 Team and personal exams |
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.
Write your own team member promise and hand it in here.
Deadline: Monday, September 16, 21:00
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.
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
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 researchEvery 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?
Analysing 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.