BSTE:MarketResearchforITStartups

Syllabus: Market research for IT startups

Course name: Market Research for IT Startups Code discipline: Subject area: Technological Entrepreneurship P.1 Short Description and prerequisites

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 P.1.1 Prerequisite subject codes from the list N/A P.1.2 Prerequisite topics N/A P.2 Course Topics

This is a business-oriented course: throughout the course students research in teams or solely the market opportunities for the business idea they have. Flipped classroom format applied to the course. Students must complete home reading provided before the class. Lectures introduce topics through discussion and reflection on home reading materials. There are several assignments connected to the lecture topics mainly written. Assignments are designed to help students to understand and research the market of their potential business. Some activities happen in-class. Students present their progress on a regular basis. There are also regular feedback sessions between the instructor and each team. There is a demo-day/final project presentation at the end of the course. The result of their course work is supposed to be helpful for future business development.

Table 1: Course Sections and Topics Section Topics within the section 1. Ideation tools - Art VS Creativity - Ability to discover - How to generate ideas - Creativity sources - Ideation in groups - Rules for ideation for startups 2. 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 3. 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 4. Market sizing - Market analysis VS market sizing - Sizing stakeholders and their interests - Sizing methods - TAM SAM SOM calculation examples 5. 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 6. Founder motivation - Ways to Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur - Exercises for founders motivation 7. Pitch Day - Market research results presentations

P.3 Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) P.3.1 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. P.3.2 ILOs defined at three levels

We specify the intended learning outcomes at three levels: conceptual knowledge, practical skills, and comprehensive skills.

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

P.4 Grading Table 2: Course grading range

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

Table 3: 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) P.4.1 Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course (optional)

● 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 P.5 Resources, literature and reference materials

P.5.1 Open access resources ● Business Model Navigator - article with reflections on the methodology book on the 55 typical business models ● The Mom's Test - 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. ● When coffee and kale compete - 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 Clayton Christensen's best articles with a summary of key ideas from Harvard Business Review ● F. Sesno "Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change" - the book on how to get information out of people through questions. ● Market Sizing Guide by Pear Blog ● NPV method explained in detail ● How to Calculate Market Size Using TAM, SAM, and SOM ● The_End_of_Procrastination_How_to_Stop_Postponing_and_Live_a_Fulfilled.pdf a visual guide book to dealing with your inner procrastinator P.5.2 Closed access resources ● Crunchbase.com ● Statista.com

P.5.3 Software and tools used within the course ● Boardofinnovation.com ● Miro.com ● Notion.com ● MS Teams

Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities

P6. Activities and Teaching Methods Table A1: 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 0 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 0 1 0 0 0 0 Contextual learning (activities and tasks are connected to the real world to make it easier for students to relate to them); 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 Business game (learn by playing a game that incorporates the principles of the material covered within the course). 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 inquiry-based learning 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A2: Activities within each section Learning Activities Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Lectures 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Interactive Lectures 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Lab exercises 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Experiments 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Cases studies 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 Individual Projects 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Group projects 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 Flipped classroom 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Peer Review 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Discussions 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Presentations by students 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 Written reports 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 Oral Reports 1 0 1 0 0 0 1

P.7 Formative Assessment and Course Activities

Assessment and activities allow the instructor to check the students’ understanding and mastery of the course material, including theoretical and practical knowledge. In this section you have 3 types of evaluation: ● Written tasks: market research paper ● In class discussions and activities ● Final presentations

Assessment is about giving the students a grade based on their mastery of the subject. The two types of assessment you need to provide are: ● Final paper ● Retake P.7.1 Ongoing performance assessment

Both graded and non-graded activities during the semester (before the exam) Section 1

Activity Type Content Is Graded? Discussion 1. Difference between Art and Creativity. Examples from your personal experience 2. Tools to manage your attention: work with exercises above 3. 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? 4. Idea diary: share your experience, was it useful? How to keep motivation to continue? 5. Sharing your business ideas: is it risky for a founder? Why? 6. Name and discuss principles of hypothesis thinking 7. Name and comment on ideation tool you know. Did you have an experience with it? 8. Where to take creativity? Your advice 9. Lets find examples of “Steal like an artist” approach among startups 10. 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

P.7.2 Final assessment

For the final assessment, students should complete the Market Research paper. 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. 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.

Grading criteria for the final project presentation: 1. Market sizing has been carried out 2. Customer segments are named 3. Сompetitor analysis has been conducted 4. At least 2 prominent data sources are used 5. Customer discovery interviews conducted 6. Future steps are mapped out 7. The final report is visualized clearly and transparent

P.7.3 The retake exam. 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.