Applied Innovation (Class)

Course Description

While not a prerequisite, this course builds on ‘Software Design’ (GBUS 8632) by using projects from that class as topics for student teams.

Innovation is a contact sport. While there are certainly ways to kill it from above, the magic happens at the team level. The purpose of this course is to both understand and practice today’s leading innovation techniques. Students will do this first hand through a series of clinics with practitioners in Silicon Valley.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Identify when and where to use customer discovery so you’re testing ideas that you know have relevance for a distinct customer
2. Design testable value propositions and run rapid experiments on them before over-investing, a la Lean Startup
3. Instrument observation and testing into everything you build and market so you remain focused and decisive
4. Facilitate productive interfaces with your engineering team to keep your development pipeline healthy

Please Note: The class will take place in San Francisco, CA. (Students will make their own arrangements for travel and lodging with recommendations from the program.)

Teams and Projects

While the assignments are a mix of individual and team assignments, students will work in teams of 3 (min) to 4 (max) individuals. While these will be projects that have been developed in ‘Software Design’ (GBUS 8632), the course is designed to accommodate students who are new to the topics.

Course Structure

Our class sessions operate in pairs: In the first session, we’ll cover an applied innovation topic and prepare your work to present in clinic. In the second session, you’ll work with a practitioner from Silicon Valley on developing your concept and improving your practice.

Grading

Category	Due Date	Percent of Final Grade
1. Attendance & Participation	Every day/ongoing	65
2. Team Project- Portfolio Entry	(as stated on Canvas)	35

Attendance & Participation: 65%

My objective is to provide a stimulating environment for you to learn the process of software development. This portion of your grade includes the following:
being prepared for each session: understand the topics at hand and being able to discuss your work and your team’s work
on-time, full attendance
I expect you to inform me before class if you will be missing. Absences for reasons other than illness for which I do not receive prior notice will count against your class participation grade.

Team Project- Portfolio Entry: 35%

This is your team explanation of what you did and why in the form of a portfolio entry on Behance.

Session 1: Knowing Just Enough- Prep.

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in customer discovery and design research.

Case

The Win You Design

Assignment

1. Read the case.
   Andrew went into his launch with data and insights that made him confident he’d encounter a lot of demand, but he didn’t. Why?
   What do you think he should do? Why?
   What do you think went well with his process for developing the venture?
   What do you think could have gone better? What would you do differently?
   How do you think he should develop the venture from here?
   Specifically, what should he focus on next week?
2. Read ‘Why Innovation Is So Hard‘ and ‘Here’s Why So Many Companies Find It So Hard to Innovate‘. What do you think? Why do these problems exist? How important are they? Have you experienced or observed them? If so, how did you (or the third party) handle them?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The intro. and the section ‘Persona & Problem Hypothesis’ are applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Personas for Design, Development, & Growth
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
3. Written Tutorial- Needfinding with Problem Scenarios
   ditto for problem scenarios (/jobs to be done)

Session 2: Knowing Just Enough- Practice

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in customer discovery and design research.

Assignment

1. Prepare your work for presentation and discussion with our guest practitioner (TBD). Please be prepared to present answers to at least these questions:
   What is the project about?
   Who is the focal customer/persona?
   Who is the early market? What ‘hair on fire’ need/habit/job/desire are you delivering on for them?
   What’s a day in the life for them? What shoes do they wear?
   Where does your product/offer come into play?
   How are they going to go from finding out your offer exists to loyal evangelist?
2. Read ‘When Everyone Is Doing Design Thinking, Is It Still a Competitive Advantage?‘. What’s the difference between doing design thinking and mastering it? How does that happen? What might that look like someplace you’ve worked?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The intro. and the section ‘Persona & Problem Hypothesis’ are applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Personas for Design, Development, & Growth
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
3. Written Tutorial: Day in the Life
   A guide to putting together a day in the life board for your personas.
4. Written Tutorial: Storyboarding Customer Acquisition with AIDAOR
5. Written Tutorial- Needfinding with Problem Scenarios
   ditto for problem scenarios (/jobs to be done)

Session 3: Knowing Just Enough- Retro & Next Steps

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in customer discovery and design research.

Assignment

1. Reflect on the session. How did it go? How has your perspective on the project changed? What do you plan to do differently (/specifically) on because of that?
2. Watch ‘Just Enough Research‘. What’s hard about doing things well? If your current design is a series of decisions, what are those decisions? Which are most critical to the success of the venture? How might you test them? If questions determine results, what are the most important questions for this project? Why is ‘How do we get Millenials to like us?’ a bad question?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The intro. and the section ‘Persona & Problem Hypothesis’ are applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Personas for Design, Development, & Growth
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
3. Written Tutorial: Day in the Life
   A guide to putting together a day in the life board for your personas.
4. Written Tutorial: Storyboarding Customer Acquisition with AIDAOR
5. Written Tutorial- Needfinding with Problem Scenarios
   ditto for problem scenarios (/jobs to be done)

Session 4: Testing Propositions- Prep.

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in testing value propositions.

Assignment

1. Prepare your work for presentation and discussion with our guest practitioner Tristan Kromer. Please be prepared to present answers to at least these questions:
   What is the project about? What is the fundamental assumption that summarizes the whole venture?
   What are your key assumptions? Why?
   How do you plan to test them?
   What’s between where you are right now and doing that testing? What do you have to do to start the testing?
   What would you most like to know that you don’t know now?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Value Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Lean Startup
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.

Session 5: Testing Propositions- Practice

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in testing value propositions.

Assignment

1. Read ‘Importance = Business Impact * Uncertainty‘. How would you rate your key assumptions relative to these factors?
2. Read ‘6 Reasons Your Conversion Rate is Zero‘. Which of these might be applicable to your experiment ideas, if any? How will you resolve them?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Value Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Lean Startup
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.

Session 6: Testing Propositions- Retro & Next Steps

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in testing value propositions.

Assignment

1. Reflect on the session. How did it go? How has your perspective on the project changed? What do you plan to do differently (/specifically) on because of that?
2. Read ‘Why Lean Startup Changes Everything‘. What does Lean Startup change? Why does it need changing? Why is that change hard?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Value Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Lean Startup
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.

Session 7: Running a Lean UX Program- Prep.

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in applying lean UX.

Assignment

1. Prepare your work for presentation and discussion with our guest practitioner Laura Klein. Please be prepared to present answers to at least these questions:
   What is the project about?
   For a lead feature, what do you think you should measure?
   What are the right qual. vs. quant. focal points?
   What assumptions are you testing?
   What metrics will you use to make conclusions?
   What decisions will those metrics drive?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Usability Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
3. Written Tutorial- Your Usability Test Plan
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
4. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 8: Running a Lean UX Program- Practice

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in applying lean UX.

Assignment

1. Read ‘ Qual vs. Quant: When to Listen and When to Measure‘. What’s an example of something you’ve worked on or wondered about where you think leading with qualitative research is the right move? How about quantitative?
2. Read ‘Case Study: UX, Design, and Food on the Table‘. Why do you think the team lost sight of the larger user experience?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Usability Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
3. Written Tutorial- Your Usability Test Plan
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
4. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 9: Running a Lean UX Program- Retro & Next Steps

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in applying lean UX.

Assignment

1. Reflect on the session. How did it go? How has your perspective on the project changed? What do you plan to do differently (/specifically) on because of that?
2. Read ‘Solving Agile UX: Advice from Laura Klein‘. What’s the difference between agile and Lean UX? What does the one do vs. the other? How do they relate to each other?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- The Customer Discovery Handbook
   The section ‘Usability Hypothesis’ is applicable here.
2. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
3. Written Tutorial- Your Usability Test Plan
   This is background material on the basics of creating and researching personas.
4. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 10: Collaborating with Developers- Prep.

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in creating development-friendly inputs and collaborating with developers.

Assignment

1. Prepare your work for presentation and discussion with our guest practitioner Darren Kahan. Please be prepared to present answers to at least these questions:
   What is the project about?
   For a lead feature, what is the experience you want to provide to the user?
   How will you know if the user is succeeding?
   Do you have ideas on approach, comparable’s and wireframes, for example?
   What ideas do you have on platforms and approach?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
2. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 11: Collaborating with Developers- Practice

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in creating development-friendly inputs and collaborating with developers.

Assignment

1. Read ‘Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule ‘. What’s the difference? How will might you organize your work to minimize disruption to your makers? Does this mean that developers should just be left alone?
2. Read ‘How to Work With Software Engineers‘. This is very funny does a great job of creating contrast. How should you work with developers? How does that relate to what you’ve learned so far?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
2. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 12: Collaborating with Developers- Retro & Next Steps

Objective

Achieve a basic working proficiency in creating development-friendly inputs and collaborating with developers.

Assignment

1. Reflect on the session. How did it go? How has your perspective on the project changed? What do you plan to do differently (/specifically) on because of that?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- Your Best Agile User Story
   This is background on the user story- a central element in user-centric, hypothesis-driven development.
2. Written Tutorial- Your 20 Min. Prototype
   This is background material on the process of prototyping.

Session 13: Final Presentations…And a Contest!

Objective

Integrate and focus your learnings for the week into a specific set of deliverables and next steps for the venture.

Assignment

1. Please be prepared to answer and discuss the following:
   What does the venture know vs. not know?
   What does it most need to learn?
   What is the best way to achieve that?

Supporting Materials

1. Written Tutorial- Creating Your Innovation Portfolio
   See the entry for Application Design (or other if you prefer).