Stop the guesswork. Start identifying the best user. Join us for a day-long, hands-on exposition of the essential tools for identifying your early adopters and a scalable user community.

Who is the workshop for? If you are committed to striking out on your own, co-founding, joining a startup very early, or developing a new product, then this workshop is for you. If you have startup and/or product development experience that is great, but it is not required.

What do you need to bring? Your smartphone (tablet), favorite pens, and a good description what problem you are working on for whom (e.g. statement, website, canvas).

How do we proceed? We offer a fast-paced, hands-on, and personalized workshop that sets you up for your venture and/or product development.

10.00-10.10 Welcome, overview, and introductions

10.10-10.30 Kick-off interaction Who is your best user? How do I identify a scalable user community? Why do we start from the user persona?

10.30-11.20 Tandem work User persona 1 (description and definition)

11.20-12.00 Tandem work User persona 2 (the alternative)

12.00-12.20 Refreshment talk What is user-centered startup design? Which are the advantages of involving users as co-innovators?

12.20-13.10 Group work Validating the user persona: The value proposition (including a first quantification)

13.10-14.00 Group work Understanding the market: Achieving segmentation, selecting the beachhead, and calculating total addressable market

14.00-15.00 Late lunch

15.00-15.50 Tandem work Validating the market: Early adopter profile (including a first quantification)

15.50-16.30 Group work Selecting early traction channels

16.30-16.50 Refreshment talk What to do when early adopters ≠ scalable user base?

16.50-17.20 Tandem work Who are my co-innovating users? How do I reach them?

17.20-18.00 Group work Roadmap to kick-off user-centered startup or product design

N.B. Ideally, you sign up for the course as a tandem (e.g. two friends, co-founders). The workshop will show you how well you match and work together. If you sign up on your own, we will match you for tandem work. The overall maximum number of participants is twelve (i.e. 6 tandems and/or 3 groups).