Michael Marasco I gave this presentation at NCIIA 2014 in San Jose on March 22, 2014. We talked about our experience evolving the curriculum using iCorp tools: UDACITY course, Startup Owners Manual, and LeanLaunchpad. We give 6 lessons for educators that we took away from using the iCorp material

1. Flipping the Classroom and
Getting out of the Building:
The experience of incorporating Udacity, Launchpadcentral, and
The Startup Owner‟s Manual in a multi-disciplinary
entrepreneurship course at Northwestern University
Michael Marasco & Todd Warren

2. Agenda
• NUvention Courses and NUvention Web: History and Curricular
Objectives
• Syllabus and approach: Before and After Adoption of I-Corps Curricula
• Lessons Learned from NUvention Web 2013
• Changes for 2014, and mid-course lessons (Hot off the presses!)

3. What is NUvention?
• Interdisciplinary/Experiential
• What students are asking for
• Alums with deep experience chair classes
• The next step beyond case based learning
• More strucutred incubator/accelerator experience
• Start-ups are not a goal but nice follow-on validation
• True partnership of students, faculty, alums, government, and industry

4. NUvention Web
• Focused on Web or Mobile Applications
• Business and Design and Software Engineering
• Undergraduate and Graduate
• Two Quarters
• Chaired by Alum; Mentored and Evaluated by Advisory Board
• 2014 is our 5th year

5. Our 2012 Epiphany…
2012
Syllabus
• Four Steps to the Epiphany, RunningLean, Contextual Design, Lectures
• Instructor-driven team formation based on general areas
• Team meetings with mentors
• Lots of homework
• Mid and end course formal pitches to Advisory
2013
Syllabus
• Startup Weekend kick-off and specific idea team formation 60 days prior to class
• Weekly Critiques/limited lecture in specialized areas
• Blank Udacity course
• Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas
• Heavier software development focus

6. Lesson 1: Think beyond the canvas
• Get students focused on the value proposition and market
• Better Tool: Character, Context, Problem, Payoff (C2P2)
• Canvas/Customer Development alone will not guarantee a large
enough market to target: Actually pushes students to smaller TAM’s
• Better Tool: Market Brief (more like Four Steps Worksheets) focus on
market size, segment definition, turning the C2P2 into a positioning
statement.
• Cannot ignore competition
• Better Tool: GoogleDoc with competitive matrix of team versus top
10 competitors

7. Lesson 2: Critique isn‟t the only way to
run class
• 12 Teams, all critique==complete class boredom by week 3
• Student peer critique in LPC lacked real value
• Instructor team felt like it was hard to have longer more interactive
feedback with teams.
• Solution:
• Split Critique (2 rooms, 6 teams each, 2 critiquers/room+TA)
• Combined “lessons learned” (mini lecture using class examples, tie back to
Udacity)
• 60-90 minutes team timewith faculty engagement
• Don’t Critique every week

8. Lesson 3: A great MOOC is not a
panacea
• Even good students focus on the project and business, not on the
readings or lectures.
• MOOC is no better than a text (especially because Udacity has no way
to track/LPC new functionality addresses)
• A general course is abstract. Most students need specifics that meet
them halfway to learn
• Mini lectures mentioned before, all about examples with the team’s projects
• Blank’s UCSF Life Sciences class highlights this evolution as well

9. Lesson 4: Make “Getting out of the
Building” Effective
• Give them some tools to help make interviews effective.
• Customer Maps
• Contextual Design Idea of “context”
• Types of interviews (open ended, watching the customer, practice
presentation)
• Green field vs. paper vs. actual prototype interviews
• Large numbers of interviews = Learning
• Very important to review what they are doing

10. Lesson 5: Form teams that stick
• 2013 team formation evolved to student driven based on their input
• Complete Mayhem:
• All students looking for team members to pursue their personal idea
• Early Customer Development challenges idea and non idea owner looks to bolt if idea owner
unwilling to pivot to what CD is pointing to
• B School discovery students unwilling to pivot
• Intense faculty intervention required since joint idea ownership did not occur
• Talking pivot is much easier than pivoting
• Set expectations around finding well rounded team. Idea is secondary/tertiary
• Lost faculty meeting time with teams to critiques which amplified issues since
faculty not sitting with teams

11. Lesson 6: Drive to Problem
Solution/Market Fit
• Create milestones for both
• Push SW development early so can have MVP
• Concierge MVP
• Real MVP
• True hypothesis testing can then start
• Use real life companies to drive teams to fit
• Everpix vs. WhatsApp
• Advisory Board mentors can really help here
• “Red” cards and “Yellow” cards for folks who get stuck or in love with
their idea too much

12. 2014 Curriculum Changes
• Defer Canvas Introduction until Mid first Quarter
• Put customer, problem/solution front and center
• Give interview quantity it’s own column in the syllabus
• Force teams to have a working MVP in first 5 weeks
• Less Critique, More Team time
• Use more focused team assessment
• Team formation based on roles, less on ideas—insure balance!
• Team time in class versus breakouts

13. Lessons so far in 2014
• We are adding more critique in 2nd quarter
• Will use the “split class” technique to better use class time
• Still need to work on hypothesis building
• Augment udacity with best practices in class usage of launchpadcentral
• Need to introduce startup Product Management
• Considering making it a formal role (we did so in early years)
• It’s important to be a tough coach/practice tough love
• “When good students fall in love with bad ideas”
• Engage customer segments beyond other students

14. NUvention Web „14
•Value Prop
•Target
Customer
•Problem
Scenario Payoff
Problem ID
•Interviews
•Persona
•Target
Market/Context
Customer
Development
•Prod Mgt
•UI
•Initial Canvas
•Initial Prod
MVP
•Product Mgt
•Product Market
Fit
•Product
Refinement
Initial Pitch
Scenario Slice MVP

15. NUvention Web ‟14 - Spring
•Flesh out
Canvas
•Re-Engage
Customers
•Dev Iterations
Persist or
Pivot?
•Get, Keep,
Grow
•Engage Early
Customers
•Advanced
Agile
Acquire &
Build
•Launch
•Customer
Purchase/Trial
•Cohort
Analysis
First
Customer
Ship
•Business
Model Proof
•Refined
Product
•Customer
Feedback
Final Pitch
Product and Customer Development
Build
MeasureLearn
Build
MeasureLearn
Build
MeasureLearn

16. Stuff We Love from the Curriculum
• Focus on getting out of the building
• Get, Keep, Grow
• One page marketing tactics
• Online critique in Launcpadcentral
• Market Sizing—though should be expanded and enhanced
• LPC/BMC levels playing field for non business students
• GitHub as technical and business repository