Schedule

Strategies for Innovating Startups
A1 Ideas: generating many possible value propositions  
A2 Competitors: understanding the competitive landscape
A3 Scenarios: articulating, validating, and revising user scenarios
A4 Probes: prototyping to answer open questions
A5 Pitches: pitching your innovations to the world

This schedule is subject to change.
Week Tuesday Thursday
1 April 4
Lecture (Lecture PDFs posted here after class): Introduction, syllabus, service design, innovation process

Activities: enrollment, icebreakers, small teams

Review A1 (Generating Ideas). 
April 6
Lecture topics: PEST, value proposition

Activities: PEST historical analysis, value proposition diagrams, reading quiz

Required reading due today:
  1. Friedman (2013 Jul 20). Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’, NY Times.
  2. Cagan & Vogel, 2012, on Creating Breakthrough Products, Ch. 1.
    2 April 11
    A1 presentations: sign-up

    DUE TODAY:
    A1 Presentations (PEST analysis, value propositions, novel concepts)

    		 April 13
    Lecture topics: team building, startup examples, competitive analysis

    In-class activities: reading quiz, startup examples,  review A2 (competitors), teams assigned, team exercises, team contract, online data gathering. 

    Required reading due today:
    1. Glushko, 2010, Seven Contexts for Service System Design
    2. Schwab, 2017, IDEO Studied Innovation In 100+ Companies–Here’s What It Found
    3 April 18
    Lecture topics: Team building and pivoting

    A2 group crit presentations

    DUE TODAY:
    All A2 deliverables (information gathering competitive analysis, updated value propositions)     		April 20
    Lecture topics: idea generation

    In-class activities: review A3 (scenarios), "How might we" statements, group ideation, reading quiz

    Required reading due today:
    1. Patnaik and Becker, 1999, Needfinding
    2. Blank and Dorf, 2013, Customer Discovery
    4 April 25
    Lecture topics: user scenarios, storyboarding

    In-class activities: revise written scenarios, sketching exercises

    DUE TODAY:
    Written drafts of user scenarios
    		 April 27
    Lecture topics: speed dating, role playing

    In-class activities: storyboard revisions, prepare online speed dating, reading quiz

    Required reading due today:  
    1. Davidoff, 2007, Speed dating
    2. Martin, 2012, Bodystorming and Role Playing
    5 May 2
    A3 presentations: sign-up

    DUE TODAY:
    A3 Presentations (final storyboards, feedback from speed dating, updated value proposition, role-playing skit for one scenario)  
      		May 4
      Lecture topics: branding and web marketing

      In-class activities: finish A3 presentations,
      review A4 (probes), review value proposition hypotheses/stakeholders, create moodboards
      6 May 9
      A4 group crit, reading quiz

      DUE TODAY:
      Draft of branding materials (      moodboards, type options, and two branding alternatives)

      Required reading due today:
      1. Stine 2013, 9 Principles of Branding


      		 May 11
      Lecture topics: MVPs, prototyping, service enactments
       
      In-class activities: Wizard-of-Oz prototyping activity, prepare online ad campaign and unbounce pages, plans for service enactments, reading quiz.

      Required reading due today:
      1. Ries, 2011, The Concierge MVP
      2. Dow, 2011, Parallel Prototyping (short)
      7 May 16
      Worksession 

      In-class activities: launch ad campaigns, practice service enactments, A4 analysis and presentations

      DUE TODAY:
      Two final branding alternatives, Unbounce landing pages, plan for service enactments      		 May 18
      Lecture topics: crowdfunding, video sketches

      In-class activities: review A5 (pitches), write elevator pitches, scripts for video
      8 May 23
      A4 presentations

      DUE TODAY:
      A4 Presentations (updated value proposition, branding alternatives, data from ad campaign, video/photos from service enactments)        		May 25
      Lecture topics: budgeting and quantifying value hypotheses

      In-class activities: iterate on video scripts and storyboards, work on prototype wireframes, create crowdfunding pages, budgets

      DUE TODAY:
      Rough script and storyboard for final video
      Wireframes for key pages of UI prototype
      9 May 30
      A5 group crit

      DUE TODAY:
      Drafts of crowdfunding campaign, hi-fi prototypes, poster sketch, and video script/storyboards
        		June 1
        In-class activities: group worksession
        10 June 6
        In-class activities: group worksession
        		 June 8
        In-class activities: group worksession

        FINAL VIDEO MARATHON AND POSTER SESSION (FRI June 9):
        A5 pitches (final video, hi-fi prototypes, posters to highlight final branding, value flow model, UIs, budgets); all materials must be in your team's folder by midnight on June 9th.  
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