Applied Entrepreneurship 1: Design Thinking for Business Acceleration

Week 1 – Begin at the Beginning

Objectives:

• Assess your personal interests
• Set personal goals
• Establish advisory group
• Be introduced to the Business Model Canvas

Activities:

• Assessment tool
• Set up an advisory group
• Develop a customer persona

Discussion:

• Customer persona

Week 2 – The Business Model Canvas

Objectives:

• Understand and utilize the Business Model Canvas;
• State a hypothesis grounded in the categories of your business regarding how best to grow;
• Develop a plan to test your hypothesis with advisors, peers, and potential and existing customers

Activities:

• Meet with two advisory board members
• Interview three customers

Discussion:

• Developing customer relationships

Week 3 – The BMC in Real Life

Objectives:

• Fill out the Business Model Canvas
• Discuss it with your advisory group
• Determine which components you’ll need to iterate
• Develop an organization chart for your business
• Interview one person you’d like to hire

Activities:

• Interview one person to hire
• Develop an organizational chart

Discussion:

• Interviewing to hire

Week 4 – Test with your Customers

Objectives:

• Test your model with existing customers
• Test your model with potential customers
• Observe at least one competitive company
• Learn about franchises

Activities:

• Test your model with existing customers
• Test your model with potential customers
• Observe at least one competitive company

Discussion:

• Speaking with customers versus advisory group

Week 5 – Let’s iterate!

Objectives:

• Review findings from existing and potential customers
• Meet and brainstorm with advisory group
• Discuss your progress and plans with your peers in class
• Start preparing your final presentation

Activities:

• Test with different customers or those you want to get
• Obtain input from advisors – fellow students – instructors
• Draft presentation

Week 6 – Accelerate!

Objectives:

• Present final acceleration plan

Activities:

• Present final acceleration plan