Innovating In the Enterprise I: Putting Your Ideas in Motion (Redwood City)

This is session one of a three-part class series designed around teaching ‘intrapreneurs’ a systematic approach to formulating, developing, and integrating new ideas into their companies.

Innovation is a watchword for just about every company these days. But what does that really mean and how do you do it consistently? In this class series, you’ll learn a systematic, repeatable and teachable approach to driving innovation at your company.

Students can pick and choose from three integrated modules: 1) Needfinding & Solution Validation 2) The 20 Minute Business Case and 3) Building the Right Product.

If you’re looking to become more effective at leading valuable change in the enterprise, this series is for you. By the end, you’ll have a systematic playbook for innovation that you can leverage in any role or situation.

ABOUT SESSION I

Why do so many ideas, big and small, fail to get traction? Most fail because either a) they didn’t take careful stock of their audience or b) they just weren’t meant to be.

In this module, you’ll learn how to use today’s best practices in design thinking and needfinding to generate high quality ideas with a sturdy anchor to the actual circumstances and desires of their audience. You’ll then learn how to effectively operate in small, success-based batches using 0, 30, and 90 day validation criteria to determine whether you have an idea worth pursuing or whether it’s time to try something different.

TAKEAWAYS

• Hands-on experience using personas and problem scenarios to focus your understanding of the customer/user
• Use of storyboards to operationalize, present, and test your understanding
• Techniques formulate user hypotheses and test them with interviews & observations
• Hands-on understanding of how to apply Lean Startup in the enterprise
• Ability to structure the uncertainty in any new concept into a set of readily testable assumptions
• Managing concept testing effectively using 0, 30, 90 day success

ABOUT GENERAL ASSEMBLY (GA)

At General Assembly, we are creating a global community of individuals empowered to pursue work they love, by offering full-time immersive programs, long-form courses, and classes and workshops on the most relevant skills of the 21st century – from web development and user experience design, to business fundamentals, to data science, to product management and digital marketing.

Established in early 2011 as an innovative community in New York City for entrepreneurs and startup companies, General Assembly is an educational institution that transforms thinkers into creators through education in technology, business and design at nine campuses across four continents.