In-person. Focus, Teamwork and 100% Participation.
Just finished my annual University of California, Berkeley course. This year was in-person. We were all locked in. No multi-tasking, 100% participation, no spectators.
“Best course I’ve had regarding honesty about a product. Others always essentially require that the product works even though sometimes the correct answer is that it doesn’t.” —Student
Many students remarked it was the most work of any class they'd had but also where they learned the most. Being in person brought focus, accountability and camaraderie to learning.
“It was interesting to see how much work should be put into the prototyping and product discovery stage before actually developing anything.” —Student
I broke the class into 3 person teams and gave them sample products to discover.
They analyzed the customer journey, spoke to experts, refined their problem statements and chose a success metric.
Then they sketched and ideated possible solutions, created prototypes, recruited users and conducted user testing with multiple possible solutions.
The course culminates with their presentation of findings and possible next steps.
“The Discovery process was very insightful and applicable in general even if I never manage a product. I can definitely see myself using the ideas and techniques from the class in a general setting.” —Student
One student remarked that this course was more about entrepreneurship than his Entrepreneurship course.
“This class had more actual tangible things I feel like I could apply in the future since we did it ourselves instead of just learning about it.” —Student
A tech business starts with a great product. And a great product comes from a solid Discovery process.
Truly amazing way to kick off 2025.
Let's make 2025 the year of being in-person.
Thank you to the students of 270R and the UC Berkeley Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership.
My favorite quote:
“I gained perspective on how important it is to be able to adapt a product to fit a customer need – it isn’t all about just creating some cool technology and then shoving it down people’s throats.” —Student