Translation of the first assignment of Technology Entrepreneurship course at Stanford University
I want to continue the topic raised by ArMikael in this topic about the Technology Entrepreneurship course at Stanford University
Below is the translation of the first task. Original here
Team building, brainstorming ideas
')
Soon you will receive your initial groups of 8-10 participants. These are not final teams. You will be able to adjust and shape them after the first task is done.
On the first task, we would like to work with your initial brainstorming team regarding the 5 worst and 5 best ideas of a startup. This is just a warm-up, brainstorming, and therefore you do not need to use the idea that you are going to implement in your startup project.
In particular, we would like to ask you the following:
1) As a team, create 5 of your "worst" ideas of a startup, and then 5 "best" ideas of a startup. Sometimes it's easier and more fun to start brainstorming, coming up with ideas that would never work. For example, selling ice to people in very cold climates, for example, in Alaska. Or selling space flights to Mars.
For the best ideas, if you have difficulties, it is often easier to start with problems or needs that you personally experienced and know well. You can also talk to people about their needs / concerns that you might be trying to solve. We would like you to practice summarizing the idea in two sentences and thinking about the aspects of the business model for each of these ideas (the worst and the best). For each idea, you must complete the boxes in the following two sentences.
Offer number 1
For (target audience)
which (statement of necessity or possibility),
what (product / service name) is (product / service category)
that (the statement of benefit).
Offer number 2
Unlike (the main competitive alternative),
our product (approval of the main difference).
The target audience is your initial guess of the type of person who can buy the product. The statement of necessity is the need (problem) of the client in this product or service. The primary competitive alternative is which product or company is currently competing with your product to perform the same task or solve the same problem. The main difference is how your product or service differs from the product or service of your main competitor.
So for the sale of ice in Alaska, in the example above, we would like to have something like this:
Offer number 1
For Alaskans aged 18 to 100,
who need cold drinks but they don’t like
that they are pre-packaged in large ice cubes and small ice cubes are a consumer product,
which makes it possible to create cold drinks.
Offer number 2
Unlike ice bags, which are currently sold in stores,
Our product offers small ice cubes so you can place them more in the drink.
Obviously, this is a very simple example, but it helps us summarize ideas and get started with a business model.
2) Once you have created these two sentences for each idea, you can use them to fill in the initial assessment for each aspect of the business model for each idea.
This may help you view the next video about the business model and use the canvas of the business model to think about every aspect.
www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas
Until April 2, you must enter venture-lab.org and enter your answers for the top 5 and 5 worst ideas, including one (or maybe 2) suggestions for each part of the business model as follows:
(If the area does not belong to your idea, just leave this field blank.)
Customer segment:
Who are our most important customers? Do paying customers coincide with product users? (in this example, this is the age of Alaska residents 18-100)
Suggestions for use:
What benefits do we offer to customers? (In other words, what problems of the client are we trying to solve?) (In the example, these are cold drinks and ice cubes)
Main partners:
Who are our main partners, if any? These can be suppliers or distributors. (in this example, these could be ice makers or supplier companies and retailers)
Main activities:
What are the requirements of our main activity must be fulfilled by us.
Key Resources:
What key resources do we need? (In the example, this could be the initial financing of payment to ice producers)
Customer Relations and Marketing:
How can we reach our customers so that they know our product and how can we maintain relationships with them if necessary?
Channels:
How do we deliver our products or services to customers (via the Internet, through retail stores, by mail?)
Revenue streams:
How do our customers pay us and how much? (By subscription, one-time fee, based on each use?) (In this example, it can be a fee for each bag of ice, or it can be a subscription to get ice every week.)
Cost structure:
What are our most important expenses? Materials staff?
We will provide more detailed information on each of these aspects of the business model, so don’t worry if none of them are clear yet. The point is to make you think about each of these aspects of startup ideas and give you the opportunity to have fun with your team in creating initial assessments for each aspect.
Later in the course, when working on a startup project, you will thoroughly think over and test these business models, so at the moment we just want you to start working with this structure. So do not worry if it is not perfect, or you not sure what to put and what category does not apply to your idea.
Think about which of your “worst” startup ideas is “worst” and which of the “best” is the best, and discuss it with your group.
We aim to show you our video and launch this part, but there are some final meetings with lawyers and fixing access / IP editing problems to make it work first.
But at the same time, we are happy for all of you that have begun the formation of teams and the practice of ideas for brainstorming. If you have questions, please ask them below, and vote for the most common questions so that we (or your fellow students) could answer them. In addition, you can also use advice on assistance.
UPD. The blog wrote that the formation of teams will end within the next 24 hours.
Below is the translation of the first task. Original here
Team building, brainstorming ideas
')
Soon you will receive your initial groups of 8-10 participants. These are not final teams. You will be able to adjust and shape them after the first task is done.
On the first task, we would like to work with your initial brainstorming team regarding the 5 worst and 5 best ideas of a startup. This is just a warm-up, brainstorming, and therefore you do not need to use the idea that you are going to implement in your startup project.
In particular, we would like to ask you the following:
1) As a team, create 5 of your "worst" ideas of a startup, and then 5 "best" ideas of a startup. Sometimes it's easier and more fun to start brainstorming, coming up with ideas that would never work. For example, selling ice to people in very cold climates, for example, in Alaska. Or selling space flights to Mars.
For the best ideas, if you have difficulties, it is often easier to start with problems or needs that you personally experienced and know well. You can also talk to people about their needs / concerns that you might be trying to solve. We would like you to practice summarizing the idea in two sentences and thinking about the aspects of the business model for each of these ideas (the worst and the best). For each idea, you must complete the boxes in the following two sentences.
Offer number 1
For (target audience)
which (statement of necessity or possibility),
what (product / service name) is (product / service category)
that (the statement of benefit).
Offer number 2
Unlike (the main competitive alternative),
our product (approval of the main difference).
The target audience is your initial guess of the type of person who can buy the product. The statement of necessity is the need (problem) of the client in this product or service. The primary competitive alternative is which product or company is currently competing with your product to perform the same task or solve the same problem. The main difference is how your product or service differs from the product or service of your main competitor.
So for the sale of ice in Alaska, in the example above, we would like to have something like this:
Offer number 1
For Alaskans aged 18 to 100,
who need cold drinks but they don’t like
that they are pre-packaged in large ice cubes and small ice cubes are a consumer product,
which makes it possible to create cold drinks.
Offer number 2
Unlike ice bags, which are currently sold in stores,
Our product offers small ice cubes so you can place them more in the drink.
Obviously, this is a very simple example, but it helps us summarize ideas and get started with a business model.
2) Once you have created these two sentences for each idea, you can use them to fill in the initial assessment for each aspect of the business model for each idea.
This may help you view the next video about the business model and use the canvas of the business model to think about every aspect.
www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas
Until April 2, you must enter venture-lab.org and enter your answers for the top 5 and 5 worst ideas, including one (or maybe 2) suggestions for each part of the business model as follows:
(If the area does not belong to your idea, just leave this field blank.)
Customer segment:
Who are our most important customers? Do paying customers coincide with product users? (in this example, this is the age of Alaska residents 18-100)
Suggestions for use:
What benefits do we offer to customers? (In other words, what problems of the client are we trying to solve?) (In the example, these are cold drinks and ice cubes)
Main partners:
Who are our main partners, if any? These can be suppliers or distributors. (in this example, these could be ice makers or supplier companies and retailers)
Main activities:
What are the requirements of our main activity must be fulfilled by us.
Key Resources:
What key resources do we need? (In the example, this could be the initial financing of payment to ice producers)
Customer Relations and Marketing:
How can we reach our customers so that they know our product and how can we maintain relationships with them if necessary?
Channels:
How do we deliver our products or services to customers (via the Internet, through retail stores, by mail?)
Revenue streams:
How do our customers pay us and how much? (By subscription, one-time fee, based on each use?) (In this example, it can be a fee for each bag of ice, or it can be a subscription to get ice every week.)
Cost structure:
What are our most important expenses? Materials staff?
We will provide more detailed information on each of these aspects of the business model, so don’t worry if none of them are clear yet. The point is to make you think about each of these aspects of startup ideas and give you the opportunity to have fun with your team in creating initial assessments for each aspect.
Later in the course, when working on a startup project, you will thoroughly think over and test these business models, so at the moment we just want you to start working with this structure. So do not worry if it is not perfect, or you not sure what to put and what category does not apply to your idea.
Think about which of your “worst” startup ideas is “worst” and which of the “best” is the best, and discuss it with your group.
We aim to show you our video and launch this part, but there are some final meetings with lawyers and fixing access / IP editing problems to make it work first.
But at the same time, we are happy for all of you that have begun the formation of teams and the practice of ideas for brainstorming. If you have questions, please ask them below, and vote for the most common questions so that we (or your fellow students) could answer them. In addition, you can also use advice on assistance.
UPD. The blog wrote that the formation of teams will end within the next 24 hours.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/140748/
All Articles