2025:Training/Session 5 (Lean Startup)

Session 5: Lean Startup

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Congratulations on prototyping and honing in on some potentially viable Strategic Priorities. Now, we are going to see whether the projects we've identified will be viable. We'll do this by identifying the value proposition they hold and testing these value propositions with institutional stakeholders.

This week, you'll apply the Lean Startup approach as you develop the projects that you want to implement at your school. You will test some of your hypotheses about those projects and whether those projects will be embraced by the institution. This can be a combination of team and individual work. You will also meet with any previously trained and current Fellows (or student leaders) at your institution to get feedback on your plan and join forces in support of one another.

Business Model Canvas

Why the Business Model Canvas (BMC)?

A fundamentally important part of the Lean Startup method is the Business Model Canvas and its use in testing your hypotheses for how a new product or service will translate to a scalable business opportunity. Watch this quick 4 minute overview with Alex Osterwalder, creator of the Business Model Canvas, explaining the BMC.



Here's the original business model canvas, adapted to include key questions asked in each segment.

Mission Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a tool that can be applied to many different sectors. Steve Blank, a pivotal figure of the Lean Startup movement, created an adaptation of the BMC called the Mission Model Canvas (MMC) to apply similar principles to areas that are not business-oriented. Blank used the MMC to teach a new course called "Hacking for Defense". Using this tool, the defense sector is able to test its hypotheses about defense-related (and oftentimes large-scale) projects before spending millions of dollars on a solution.

The Mission Model Canvas he developed is a means by which members of the armed forces can speak with other members of the armed forces or civilians to ensure the imagined solution will really serve the needs of the defense mission at hand. See the adapted Mission Model Canvas below:

Change Model Canvas

Just like this powerful tool has been adapted to be more applicable to the defense and other sectors, we have created a tool that is more relevant for you, as change agents who aspire to achieve lasting institutional change. We're calling it the Change Model Canvas.



This Change Model Canvas allows you to model whether your change strategy will work on campus. Each section has more relevant questions to those catalyzing social change. Instead of Customers from whom you collect revenue, you have Population Segments whose educational experience you wish to improve. Instead of Channels through which you might sell a product, you have Pathways that identify how best you might reach your student population segments. However, just as for the BMC, it is vital that you identify a matching Value Proposition for each Population Segment. One new area of our canvas is the Sustainability Strategy. Here, you can identify how you intend to ensure the project continues even after you have graduated.

At the top, you can identify your Problem Statement. Phrase this as a "How Might We?" question so you can work toward acquiring the broadest possible set of solutions. The Change Strategy is the name you are giving to the project or solution you are testing. Ex: TEDx event or makerspace in the Skills Development Center. The Metrics of Success should be customized for each person you are interviewing. Ask yourself, "How might we measure that this project was effective in solving our interviewees' or institutional stakeholders' problems?"

As an example, your stakeholders might consider the makerspace a success if it increases the "Number of students who acquire product management skills." Alternatively, they may consider the TEDx event a success if it increases the "Number of students who join the Entrepreneurship Club."

HOW TO COMPLETE THE CHANGE MODEL CANVAS: To complete this assignment, complete the yellow post-it notes on the Change Model Canvases in Section 5 of the Training Mural.

1. Complete the Change Model Canvas as you would the Business Model Canvas, from right to left concentrating first on the Population Segments and the Value Proposition you are offering to each one. Then, focus on the Pathways to identify the ways you are going to reach these individuals. Note: Your Population Segments can be as broad as "All first year students" or as narrow as "Women engineering majors who don't reside on campus." The narrower your audience, the more targeted your offering.
2. Rough out all the other boxes. Note, the Change Model Canvas is not meant to be completed like a class paper with 12 point type, but rather each section should have 2-3 bullet points. For an example of the level of detail each box might have, you can view the first 1.5 minutes of this video which completes the BMC for the popular women's clothing store, Zara.

Assignment

Your assignment this week is to hold one-on-one interviews with institutional stakeholders. Why one-on-one when you’re going to gather them into one room for the Stakeholder Meeting? Great question! The reason you want to take the time to meet with them one-on-one is to really spend time listening to them and understanding their individual needs. What keeps them up at night with respect to fulfilling their mission as it relates to supporting students? Then, test whether there is alignment with the needs they’ve articulated and the project you came to test. By paying special attention to their needs, you are much more likely to have aligned interests and earned their support when you have 12 people at a Stakeholder Meeting and the stakes are high. Conversely, without investing this time you could run the risk of one person - who feels you really don’t understand them - to be overly critical of your efforts in front of many stakeholders. Critique is helpful, but overly critical individuals could take away from the potential of your stakeholder meeting. So, be sure not to take short cuts. Meet these folks individually before you convince them in a group.
In Session 1, each person should have selected three or more administrative or faculty leaders who are on your invite list for the stakeholder meeting. If you uncovered new people during the Landscape Canvas, be sure to include them. This could be your Faculty Champion and other people such as your Career Placement Officer, Dean or Entrepreneurship Center Director. Pick institutional stakeholders who you think are most important to the future success of the project or might be direct beneficiaries of its potential impact.

With each person you interview for a single idea, you will populate one Change Model Canvas. That’s because each Canvas represents one test… a test to see if the value proposition for that single idea. And, interviewing that one person will tell you if your assumptions are correct or incorrect about whether this stakeholder finds this value proposition compelling enough to fund, support, and generally champion.
So, when we ask you to conduct three tests for the first idea you should have three Change Model Canvasses for that first idea. And, given that you’re testing four ideas with three people, that’s 12 Change Model Canvases. You can attend these meetings as a team, or divide and conquer, but each member of the team must participate in an interview and in building out the Change Model Canvases.

• Step 1: Use the Change Model Canvas at the top of Session 5 in the Training Mural. Each copy you prepare to test should have a Problem Statement, Change Strategy and Metric of Success identified that is meaningful to the person you are interviewing (see above for definitions).
• Step 2: Jot down your rough ideas using post-it notes. See HOW TO COMPLETE THE CHANGE MODEL CANVAS above for more information. Do this in advance of the meeting in order to identify your hypothesis of why this project should matter to this stakeholder.
• Step 3: Schedule a zoom call with three or more institutional stakeholders.
• Step 4: Test your change model for each of the four projects by interviewing the stakeholder by zoom, one at a time. Again, you'll meet with them as a group during the stakeholder meeting, but this one-on-one time will get personal buy-in from the people who are most important to the success of this project. Important: Just as in Design Thinking, the Lean Startup interviewing process is an art. Make sure not to sell your idea directly or put words in their mouth. Be sure to ask questions about their struggles serving the population segment you wish to serve. Listen carefully and probe for underlying beliefs and attitudes by asking "Tell us more?" or "Why?" You do not need to show or share your Change Model Canvas with your interviewee, but you do need to ask them questions that help you validate or invalidate your assumptions about the project. A useful interviewing resource for the Lean Startup Community is the free e-book, Talking to Humans. You can also refer back to the Toolkit: Interviewing Guidelines, shared during our session on Design Thinking.
• Step 5: Did your project assumptions pass the test? Did they fail miserably? Or, do you need to make slight modifications or ‘pivot’ in order to gain the support of this project with your interviewee? Factoring in this newfound information, fine-tune and prototype your UIF Project, or as they say in the Lean Startup Movement, "Test your MVP, or Minimum Viable Product" and learn more about your problem.
• Step 6: For each interview complete the following summary in Session 5 of the Training Mural:
  

• We thought… _____________________________________
• We learned… _____________________________________
• Next we will… _____________________________________

Deliverable 1: Change Model Canvases

This is due by the end of week 5. Submit a google doc reflection about the process of using the Lean Startup approach of testing your project ideas with each stakeholder. Drop the google doc in your campus folder and share the link in Training Update (visit the Submitting Assignments page for more on how to submit your assignment). It is very important that you show your work and complete all of Session 5 in the Training Mural so we can understand your progress.

Deliverable 2: Change Model Canvas Insights

Jump to the discussion

Join Forces with Fellows and Student Leaders

Your biggest allies at your instituion are current and previously trained University Innovation Fellows. No matter whether they were supported by your faculty sponsor or involved in your training to date, they know that 'it takes a village' and they will want to help and support you to be the best Fellow you can be. If you are the first year of Fellows, turn to current student leaders who will benefit from your work. We now need you to join forces with your previously trained Fellows (or other student leaders), no matter whether they have graduated or are still active in their roles. Within the next day, you will get an email introduction to these previously trained Fellows.

Assignment

For this assignment, we'd like you to connect with previously-trained Fellows from your school.

Step 1
Start planning a zoom meeting this week with previously-trained Fellows (or, at first-time UIF institutions, student leaders).

Step 2
Current UIF institutions should look in their email inbox for an introduction to previously-trained Fellows before the end of week 4. Stay tuned. Reply all to that email (keeping us copied on the thread). If you don't believe you have received that email, contact g@universityinnovation.org.

Step 3
Use the following tips as your guide for the email introduction:

• Decide in advance, or one of you quickly take the lead, and indicate how excited you are to meet them (if you haven't met them already) and how eager you are to connect with them.
• Invite them to your upcoming stakeholder meeting; and
• Schedule a meeting with them before the stakeholder meeting, using your Zoom link so that any Fellows who have graduated can patch in.
  
  

Step 4
Use the following Agenda as your guide:

• Start by introducing yourself (and your team ... 1 minute each, including name, major, passion, class year) and thanking attendees.
• Ask all invited guests to take a minute to introduce themselves.
• Find out what about the projects they initiated. What worked? What didn't? What did they learn? What would they do with another two years as UIF (or other student leadership)? Could they use your help seeing their project through to sustainability?
• Present your plans to the Fellows. Listen deeply to their feedback without interrupting or getting defensive. Remember, their perspectives are valuable and they, too, want what's best for the school.
• Ask them about the history of your school's I&E movement?
• Ask them about the current power dynamics, alliances and any strained relationships at your institution?
• Make plans to stay connected using Zoom, email, Facebook and any other means that makes communication easy. The ideal ongoing relationship is one where this team continues to advise you, helping you overcome obstacles and triage the challenges you may face.
  
  

Step 5

Post what you learned in the forum below.

Deliverable 3: What Did You Learn?

Jump to the discussion

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Pre-training Session 0 Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5 Session 6

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