INNO9008 Creating Value through Technology: Leveraging STEM Driven Innovation GE

2018

4.5

Specific contact hours for each topic include

• 3 x Full day intensive workshop immersions and
• 1 x full day application workshop

Attendance is also required at a number of additional course level full day application workshops.

None

Core topic

Assignments, Project, Tests

This topic guides students as they put the agile innovation process to work, actively learning to apply theory of developing a technology startup in a range of potential settings including corporate and governmental. Most new products fail and building great products is hard. Comparing and analysing product development strategy options, while following an agile lean product development process, students explore how entrepreneurs apply an entrepreneurial mindset of innovation, risk taking and large scale transformation to user problem solving and product differentiation. Students put the agile product development process to practice, which amongst others involves determining your target customers, creating a winning product strategy and defining your minimum viable product (MVP) to achieve product-market fit. Students will learn and apply a range of entrepreneurial marketing tools to create a social media presence for a technology-driven innovation that helps to receive feedback from early adopters, potentially funding development of the new product.

This topic aims to:

Create innovative and enterprising students who demonstrate creativity and entrepreneurial thinking in their field of endeavour. The aim is to find, and better solve, `customer jobs to be done`, creating sustainable commercial value in the market (product-market fit). Students will learn how to create and test value propositions and apply early stage product/market development skills, tools and techniques. From the early stages of agile product development, students will be working in short cycles, in a modular fashion and continually innovate in the light of experience and customer feedback. This topic has a focus on applying theory to practical testing, while building on the analysis of metrics in the technology problem- and solution space. To support their discovery journey, student learning will be based on a combination of the latest theories and practices, applying elements of agile innovation, lean startup, customer discovery and effectuation.

On successful completion of this topic students should be able to:

• Systematically review and evaluate research from a variety of sources to make informed judgements on problem-solution fit under product-market conditions.
• Analytically compare product development strategy options and learn how to make better decisions in the process.
• Understand and apply the process of commercial value validation, to discover customer problems, needs, wants and the `job to be done’.
• Build on the analysis of metrics in the technology problem- and solution space
• Develop and test the entrepreneurial vision by identifying assumptions and designing test cycles, analysing and validating customer problems and solutions in a range of settings, including startup and corporate.
• Understand and apply theories of early stages of product and market development, including agile sprint techniques, product differentiation, competitor analysis and niche market development strategies
• Communicate a range of startup business arguments by evaluating and implementing alternative communication strategies as appropriate to the audience