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Market Research for IT Startups

• Course name: Market Research for IT Startups
• Code discipline:
• Subject area: Technological Entrepreneurship

Short Description

This course is for students who see themselves as entrepreneurs. The course is designed for the early development of business ideas and provides methods and guidelines for business research. The course teaches how to assess the potential of business ideas, hypothesis thinking, methods for generating ideas and testing their quality

Prerequisites

Prerequisite subjects

• N/A

Prerequisite topics

• N/A

Course Topics

Course Sections and Topics

Section	Topics within the section
Ideation tools	Art VS Creativity Ability to discover How to generate ideas Creativity sources Ideation in groups Rules for ideation for startups
Market research content	Types of research: primary vs secondary How to plan a research Market research chapters content Frameworks used in a market research (SWOT, Persona, etc) Tools and sources to conduct a competitors analysis
Customer development	Interviews are the main tool for “Get Out The Building” technique The "Mum's Test" Jobs-To-Be-Done Good and bad interview questions
Market sizing	Market analysis VS market sizing Sizing stakeholders and their interests Sizing methods TAM SAM SOM calculation examples
Data for a research	Sources and tools for competitors overview Sources and tools for product and traffic analysis Sources and tools for trend watching Life hacks for search
Founder motivation	Ways to Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur Exercises for founders motivation
Pitch Day	Market research results presentations

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

What is the main purpose of this course?

This course aims to give students theoretical knowledge and practical skills on how to assess market potential at an early stage of an IT startup (or any company) development. The ultimate goal is to teach students to conduct market research for their business.

ILOs defined at three levels

Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Market research techniques using open data,
• Typology of market assessment methods,
• Types of research data and their application,
• Market research components: competitors overview, value proposition, trend watching, venture status, business models, buyers profile etc

Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Methods of ideation,
• TAM SAM SOM method, 2 approaches,
• Applied tools and resources for market sizing,
• Principles to work with business hypotheses

Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

• Identify and describe the market
• Assess market potential for any business idea
• Conduct relevant market research before starting up a business
• Use the most relevant and high-quality data for a market research

Grading

Course grading range

Grade	Range	Description of performance
A. Excellent	85-100	-
B. Good	70-84	-
C. Satisfactory	50-69	-
D. Fail	0-50	-

Course activities and grading breakdown

Activity Type	Percentage of the overall course grade
Paper #0: Market research structure	0-10 scale (costs 10% final)
Paper #1: TAM SAM SOM	0-10 scale (costs 20% final)
Workshops activity	3 points for each of 7 workshops: 1 point=participation, 2 points=discussion, 3 points=valuable results (costs 21% final)
Paper #2: Market research	0-10 scale (costs 30% final)
Final Presentation	0-10 scale (costs 20% final)

Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course

Participation is important. Showing up and participating in discussions is the key to success in this course.
Students work in teams, so coordinating teamwork will be an important factor for success.
Reading the provided materials is mandatory, as lectures will mainly consist of discussions and reflections not slides or reading from scratch.
The main assignment in the course is Market research paper which is supposed to be useful not only for this course but s a basis for future business oriented courses

Resources, literature and reference materials

Open access resources

• - article with reflections on the methodology book on the 55 typical business models
• - a book with instructions on how to communicate with your potential users. How to conduct interviews so that you understand what the client wants to say and not what you want to hear.
• - the case book on the Jobs To Be Done. With JTBD, we can make predictions about which products will be in demand in the market and which will not. The idea behind the theory is that people don't buy products, but "hire" them to perform certain jobs.
• A selection of with a summary of key ideas from Harvard Business Review
• F. Sesno "" - the book on how to get information out of people through questions.
• a visual guide book to dealing with your inner procrastinator

Closed access resources

• Crunchbase.com
• Statista.com

Software and tools used within the course

• Boardofinnovation.com
• Miro.com
• Notion.com
• MS Teams

Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities

Activities and Teaching Methods

Teaching and Learning Methods within each section

Teaching Techniques	Section 1	Section 2	Section 3	Section 4	Section 5	Section 6	Section 7
Problem-based learning (students learn by solving open-ended problems without a strictly-defined solution)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Project-based learning (students work on a project)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Differentiated learning (provide tasks and activities at several levels of difficulty to fit students needs and level)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Contextual learning (activities and tasks are connected to the real world to make it easier for students to relate to them);	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Business game (learn by playing a game that incorporates the principles of the material covered within the course).	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
inquiry-based learning	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Activities within each section

Learning Activities	Section 1	Section 2	Section 3	Section 4	Section 5	Section 6	Section 7
Pitch session	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

Formative Assessment and Course Activities

Ongoing performance assessment

Section 1

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Discussion	Difference between Art and Creativity. Examples from your personal experience Tools to manage your attention: work with exercises above Is it true that an ideation stage is the very first step to take when starting your own business? If not, what needs to be done before? Idea diary: share your experience, was it useful? How to keep motivation to continue? Sharing your business ideas: is it risky for a founder? Why? Name and discuss principles of hypothesis thinking Name and comment on ideation tool you know. Did you have an experience with it? Where to take creativity? Your advice Lets find examples of “Steal like an artist” approach among startups Create a list of 5 business ideas you have ever had in your mind. Choose 1 and make an exhaustive list of the problems that are associated with the proposed business idea.	0
Workshop	Break into teams, choose from the list below 1 tool to work with. Use the templates to create new business ideas. Summarize the results. Share your results and experience of using the template with other teams	1
Exercise	Start an "Idea diary" (not necessarily business ideas): create a convenient place for notes (notion, pinterest, instagram, paper notebook, etc.). Note the time/place/circumstances of ideas coming, learn to write down ideas. Draw conclusions from 1 week's work: where, when, how, why new ideas arise and whether you can manage their flow.	0

Section 2

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Discussion	What are the basic steps in market research? What are the commonly used market research methods? What research question types can be asked in surveys? Should startup prefer primary or secondary research?	0
Workshop	SWOT analysis: compare your business idea with competitors and market situation Get familiar with industry trends and reports: Find and create a list of 3 to 5 business research papers or trend reports in your industry	0
Home written assignment	Market research doc: create a structure that is: 1-2 pages long Describes your business idea Contains the structure of your future research Contains a list of questions to answer during the research for each chapter proposed Contains links and references to data sources potentilly interesting to use in a research Its feasible: it should be a chance you may answer all the questions stated in the doc The doc format is designed and well structured	1

Section 3

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Oral test	Good or bad interview question? Useful or useless feedback?	0
Workshop	Work on your customer profile using the Persona template. Make a client interview script with the help of the Problem-validation-script.	1
Case study	Watch the video with the case study. This is an example of HOW NOT to take a customer discovery interview. Discuss what went wrong?	0

Section 4

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Workshop	Estimate your target market using the TAM-SAM-SOM template in MIRO. Explain the data.	1
Case study	Learn a market sizing case: online babysitting service	0

Section 5

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Workshop	Use 3 tools from this lesson's theory that you are least familiar with or have not used at all. From each source, take one insight on the state of your project's market. (For example, the total size of your target market, a leading competitor, number of users, or a growing trend)	0
Oral presentation	Take one tool from the list below and create a “how-to” guide to the service for your classmates. The guide could be done in a form of 1) video-instruction 2) text 3) visualized scheme 4) presentation. The guide must answer how to use a tool and give an example of its use on concrete case study. Studying the guide should take your reader not mach then 15 min.	1

Section 6

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Workshop	Exercises: Personal SWOT Analysis List of Personal Achievements Analysis of Motivating Activities Your Personal Vision	0

Section 7

Activity Type	Content	Is Graded?
Pitch session	The final Market Research report should follow the structure discussed Content of the oral presentation may include: business description, market overview, main sources used in the research, competitors overview, monetization opportunity, market size, further stages of research or business work, team, comments on some challenges during the work	1

Final assessment

Section 1

1. For the final assessment, students should complete the Market Research paper.
2. It should follow the market research paper structure, contain information about market volume (TAM SAM SOM), data must be gathered with help of data sources learnt.
3. The paper should refer to market potential and give the basis to make business decisions, answer questions on how to start and develop your idea, what is your business model, target customer persona, product MVP etc.
4. Grading criteria for the final project presentation:
5. Market sizing has been carried out
6. Customer segments are named
7. Сompetitor analysis has been conducted
8. At least 2 prominent data sources are used
9. Customer discovery interviews conducted
10. Future steps are mapped out
11. The final report is visualized clearly and transparent

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

The retake exam

Section 1

1. For the retake, students have to submit the results of the market sizing exercise with the TAM SAM SOM method in the form of a visual framework studied.

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7