TU-E4100 - Startup Experience D, Lecture, 7.9.2022-9.12.2022
This course space end date is set to 09.12.2022 Search Courses: TU-E4100
Topic outline
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Schedule Date Place Description 27 - Sep Learning Hub Atrium - 1007a, Maarintie 8 Interview techniques and customer approach, understanding customer segmentation 29 - Sep U8 - U270, Kandidaattikeskus Psychological flexibility 4 - Oct Learning Hub Atrium - 1007a, Maarintie 8 SDG workshop and discussion on interviews finding 6 - Oct U8 - U270, Kandidaattikeskus Business model, cash and financing startups
During this sprint, you will learn how to interact with customers and to get the most out of your interviews and prototype testing. Please watch this video by Sonja, one of our AVP teachers, who will introduce you to the topic and give you directions in interviews and customers understanding.
Understanding the market and the industry is vital for every early-stage startups. Before coming up with the business model, startups need to evaluate the market size and estimate the market to see if the business is viable. Investors and startups use this information to make decisions and gauge the potential of the pitched ideas and solutions. We have Lauri Kokkila, one of our guest speakers who you will meet later on, talking about market size and market estimation. Please watch these videos before continuing with your project.-
Support Materials. Highly recommend that you all download the PDFs to prepare for the lecture.
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Students mustMark as done
Fill out this process checklist with your answers
You will need to revise your answers from the previous sprints (all the previous sprints starting from this sprint). The teaching team will go through your answers and address them during workshops and lab times on Tuesdays. We will track the progress of the team based on the answers and how it changes every sprint. -
Students mustMake a submissionDevise a plan for your interviews and data collection plan.
Interviews mean face-to-face, video or voice calls. Written communication with an interviewee is not considered an interview in this exercise. As well, each team member should do at least 3 1-on-1 interviews. Panel discussions or group discussions will also not count as an interview in this exercise.
In practice, you need to book calendar times to carry out the interviews. And in this exercise, we expect you to provide the schedule or timeline for your minimum 3 interviews.
In your interview and data collection plan, you should give details on what questions and what focus you would take. Your individual minimum quota for interviewees is 3 for each student in the first round. Team must do a minimum of 20 interviews in total during this sprint.
For example (keep in mind this is only an example). You can follow this template but feel free to adjust it to suit your needs.
Interview plan Focus Questions Interviewee target Electric vehicles usage If interviewees have EV:
----------------
If interviewees do not have EV:
---------------------People with cars Public transport vs own vehicle ------------------- People who commute to work -
Upload the first version of your prototype and the plan to test the prototype with your "customers"/"users".
These are the questions to guide you:
- What is the Value Proposition of your current idea?
- What is your testing plan for your prototype?
- What are you trying to learn and what have you learnt from previous prototypes?
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Students mustMake a submissionOutline what your team members have learnt from the findings.
We mean what insights you have gained not what the interviewees said. -
Students mustMake a submission
Fill out your first version of Lean Canvas. Fill it as much as you can. Only fill out these three for now:
- Problem
- Solution
- Unique Value Proposition (+high value concept)
Specify what is known and what are your assumptions? What are your riskiest assumptions?
We will revise every sprint from now until sprint 6 and will eventually will this up by the end of the course.
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Students mustMake a submission
Record a 3-min video reflecting on your progress during this sprint. Use these questions as guidelines.
- How do I see my contribution to the team during sprint 3?
- How did I use the course content during this sprint?
- What are some things that I struggle to communicate with the team?
- How should I be developing myself for the next sprint?
- How do I see my contribution to the team during sprint 3?
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Students mustMake a submission
Start by listening to this audio (mindfulness-based exercise) and ground yourself to this moment, so you can observe your body, emotions, thoughts and surroundings (7 minutes):
When facing difficulties (in the start-up world or in general), our mind is a master of creating negative thoughts and interpretations that we tend to believe. Those thoughts can include negative ideas about ourselves, the others or the world around us (“I am not good enough”, “My ideas suck”, “My team members don’t like me”, or “Everyone else already knows what to do”). If we take our thoughts too seriously, they can have a negative impact on our feelings and actions. However, we can learn to have some distance from them by realizing that they are just thoughts – not reality itself.
Learn more about this theme by watching this video (4 min):
You can practice finding distance to your thoughts with these exercises (choose one or both):
Stage-metaphor (mindfulness audio, 6 min)
Sushi Train Metaphor (video, 2 min)
Question for reflecting on your own:
What kind of difficult emotions, thoughts and other notions have you noticed during this course yourself? Take a moment (about 2-5 minutes) to write them down. If naming them feels difficult, you can also draw pictures or use some images that describe them better.