Month 2: Product Focus

In the second month, you will take everything you have learned about your market and customer, and think about how you can create value for them. What is your product? How do you know what is your quantified value proposition? What is your competitive advantage? What are your hypotheses, and how do you validate them?

Every great company has a great product or service. You need to be able to clearly define and articulate your product’s benefits and value proposition in order to build a scalable business.

Prepare

Download a template for the daily standup meeting here.

Download this mentor meeting preparation template to structure your conversation in the most productive way.

Set up a 1-1.5 hour session with the entire team to discuss how the team is doing, share thoughts on team dynamics, and come up with ideas for improving the effectiveness of the team.

Now is a great time to have a check-in with your cofounders to see how everyone is doing, and to make sure your goals are aligned. Use this discussion guide from Kit Hickey and Erin Scott, instructors of the highly popular class “Entrepreneurial Founding and Teams”, to help you get started.

Learn

Watch these short videos to review Disciplined Entrepreneurship, Theme 2: What can you do for your customer

View the following videos to learn skills that are relevant for this month.

Check out the following masterclasses with content relevant for product definition and product development.

Build

Use this worksheet to help define your quantified value proposition.

Define your minimum viable business product (MVBP) with this worksheet, then review your progress and program plan towards building your MVBP.

Use this worksheet to revisit your competitive advantage

Use this worksheet to define the decision making unit (DMU), or buyer personas.

Use this worksheet to define the decision making process (DMP), or buying process.

Reflect

Complete the rubric for Month 2, and reflect on what you achieved, what you did not, what you learned, and how that informs what you will do in Month 2.

Use this worksheet to take inventory of what you have learned as an entrepreneur – and think about how that informs what you do and how you do it in the next month.

Watch this video to hear the story of Spyce, a delta v alumni team.

Use this template to frame a retrospective for the past month, and help you plan the next month.