Fail early, fail small
with Karan Girotra
Available on demand
1-week sprint
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Welcome to the Product Experimentation Sprint
Launching a bad product is expensive. Failing early is cheap. We’ll teach you to test and improve your products during the experimentation phase to ensure more successful launches.
Module 1
Building and launching new products is risky. To avoid costly, time-consuming failures, it’s important to address risks in a smart, systematic way. Use the three steps of the De-Risking Framework to understand what risks to test, how to test them with experiments, and when to test them.
Lesson 1: Why to de-risk your product idea
The journey from idea to successful product is full of unknowns - you don’t know which aspects of your product will work and which won’t. Some level of failure is inevitable, but to be a good product builder it’s important to fail effectively, which means to fail as quickly and as cheaply as possible. To accomplish this, follow the De-risking Framework to know what risks to test, how to test them, and when to test them.
Lesson 1 case study: Segway
Segway demonstrates what may happen when companies fail to de-risk effectively. By focusing on technology and operations risks, Segway did not address a crucial risk - customer demand. This ultimately led to Segway’s downfall. Had Segway reduced customer demand risk prior to de-risking technology and operations risks, the team may have pivoted to focus on lucrative niche markets.
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Module 2
Segway demonstrates what may happen when companies fail to de-risk effectively. By focusing on technology and operations risks, Segway did not address a crucial risk - customer demand. This ultimately led to Segway’s downfall. Had Segway reduced customer demand risk prior to de-risking technology and operations risks, the team may have pivoted to focus on lucrative niche markets.
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Module 3: Finding the right market
You can’t de-risk your product idea with an excel sheet. To learn whether or not your idea works, you need to test your idea in the real world, with real customers, using experiments that collect primary data. In this module, discover a library of experiments and learn which experiments are the most effective for the type of risk you’re testing.
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Module 4: Testing your positioning
Choosing the right experiment is only the beginning. It’s just as important to design them well. Rigorous experiments will strengthen the evidence you get and increase your decision-making confidence. In this module, discover how to sequence experiments for the best cost-benefit ratio, and how to measure your progress on the journey from idea to validated product.
Sample 1-week Sprint Calendar
Section courses are built around the tight schedules of busy, full-time professionals.
Mon
Tues
Weds
Thurs - Pre Sprint
Meet your TA and cohort
Fri - Pre Sprint
Watch a welcome video from your professor
Mon - Sprint week
Watch your day 1 lesson content
Tues - Sprint week
Watch your day 2 lesson content
Weds - Sprint week
Thurs - Sprint week
Attend a project workshop hosted by your TA
Fri - Sprint week
Mon - Post Sprint
Submit your project
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Professor and TA interaction. Our world-class professors and teaching staff are here to help you make the most of the experience.
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Lifetime network. Connect with professionals from 60+ countries and across industries to gain fresh perspective from like-minded leaders.
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High-impact project. Apply the frameworks and strategies from the sprint to a real problem at work.
