The Business Design Seminar

Have you ever said, “I have an idea for a business!”

But then thought, “I don’t know how to build it, I don’t know how to launch it, I don’t know how to monetize it, I don’t know the path from here to there.” And then, stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it?

Have you ever said, “This could change things!” But then thought, “this is too big for me, it will require too much of an investment, and involve too much risk.” And then, let the dream fade?

Have you ever said, “I am going to start a business”? But then thought, “Most businesses fail. What would make my business different?” And then, decided to wait?

I built the Business Design Seminar for you.

The Business Design Seminar is a three-month, online, small cohort, business design workshop for new entrepreneurs that will walk you one step at a time through a process to get you the answers you need to launch your business.

You will work with a cohort of peers; give and get feedback; do the market research; prototype, test, and validate your idea; make a plan, launch, measure, and continually change until you get it right.

It won’t be easy. Most businesses fail because they create great solutions to the wrong problems. Most people don't know exactly what they want or need. As a result, it is almost impossible to upon hit the right solution the first time and a lot of time, money, and effort is spent undoing ingenious solutions to the wrong problem.

In the Business Design Seminar you will design your products and your value proposition. You will work in discreet stages, orchestrated to ensure that failures occur early – while they are cheap and correctable, and push past your initial gut response solution. You will develop products and services that you customers actually want, need, and will pay for.

We will be opening enrollment soon. I hope you’ll sign up to be notified by email when registration opens.

Start a business now. The world will change when you do.

Key Details

• 10 learning modules shared over 12 weeks

• Two 120 minutes online cohort meetings per week

• Exercises and questions to guide and advance your thinking

• Support and feedback that will challenge you to go further and dig deeper

• 24/7 discussion board and private Slack Channel for personal feedback, troubleshooting.

Imagine having the business you’ve wanted…

When you do work that matters – work that you are passionate about – every meeting is important and it feels like you are getting paid to play. If you can create real value for the people you serve, you will make things better for everyone – your customers, your community, and you.

The Business Design Seminar will give you a clear plan and help you reduce risk.

• Learn massive amounts about your customers before you build anything.

• Use that learning to create value by designing products and services that customers actually want, need, and will pay for.

• Shift the failures from the end where it is expensive and life threatening to your business, to the beginning where they are cheap, correctible, and useful.

• Design, test, learn, and change as you validate your idea, understand and create your value proposition, and earn customers.

Is the Business Design Seminar for You?

• You have a creative business idea, but lack concrete steps to execute your plan

• You’re a domain expert with innovative insights on improving and selling a product or service

• You need to adapt your existing business to the changes wrought by the global health and economic disruptions

What’s the Curriculum?

The Business Design Seminar is structured to get you to ask the right questions in the right order – so you can minimize risk and maximize your chances of success.

The questions covered include:

• What’s my vision?

• Who’s it for?

• What’s it for?

• What must it do?

• How will I create value?

• What is my offering?

• How will I test it?

• How do I earn my customers?

• How do I make it great?

• How do I get to launch.

What’s the format?

Learning Prompts and Projects: The Business Design Seminar is built around learning prompts and projects in which you design your business.

Work with a Cohort: There are two live cohort meetings each week. Meeting times will be determined once the cohort is assembled.

Peer Review: After you submit each project, you peer review the work of your cohort while your cohort peer reviews your project.

Reflect and Integrate: After receiving your peer review, you write a ‘reflection summary’ that considers all of the feedback, discussion and how your perspective and learning has changed, since first seeing the Learning Prompt.

How is the Business Design Seminar different?

This is not a self study video course or a class to just teach you business or product design skills.

Instead, you will will work with a cohort of peers; give and get feedback; and walk through a structured process as you do the market research, prototype, test, and validate your idea, value proposition, and products and service offerings; make a plan, launch, measure, and continually change until you get it right.

At the end of the work, you will have a very good idea of the product you want to launch and a plan on how you will get there.

Will I have a business at the end of the program?

While it has never been easier to start a business, it won’t be easy.

Most businesses fail because they create great solutions to the wrong problems. Most people don't know exactly what they want or need. As a result, it is almost impossible to hit upon the right solution the first time and a lot of time, money, and effort is spent undoing ingenious solutions to the wrong problem. In the Business Design Seminar you will work in discreet stages, orchestrated to ensure that failures occur early – while they are cheap and correctable, and push past your initial gut response solution.

It’s likely you won’t have a thriving business after just eight weeks. But you will have a vision for where you want to go and a process, tool kit, and a plan for how to deal with the setbacks that will inevitably occur until you succeed.