Solution Validation Reflection (1)

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University of Nebraska, Lincoln *

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321

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Management

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Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by LieutenantViper2542

Solution Description: Throughout the planning and experimenting phase of this process, my riskiest assumption was that my key partners would be educators, textbook/exam printing companies, and parents. I decided to test this assumption because if it turned out to be incorrect, I would not be able to get the business off the ground. It was necessary to have textbook/exam printing companies partner with me in this process, otherwise, the entire business would fall apart. Similarly, the business could not survive without educators on board with the idea, as they are the primarily adults teaching the students that the business is meant to serve. To test this assumption, I created a survey that asked educators, students, and parents to identify how the current education system makes them feel and what their struggles are with it. Then, I included a section that asked survey responders to suggest how they would solve their self-proclaimed problem and why they would solve it that way. Finally, I offered many different possible educational solutions, including switching to a homeschool style of learning, keeping the public school style of learning as it is now, or giving students the option to take a self-paced curriculum that allowed them to choose their courses and exam dates. I had each survey responder identify which option they thought would help them the most by rating its helpfulness to them on a scale of 1-10 and explaining why they thought so. Most of the questions in the survey were structured this way, including questions such as, “What is your current satisfaction level with the public education system?” and “How effective do believe a self-paced curriculum would be to you?”, where participants had to rate their answers from one to ten. I intentionally structured the survey this way to avoid acquiescence bias. In creating the survey, I made sure to keep the language approachable and not use professional jargon that common parents and students wouldn’t understand. I also kept questions

short and easy to understand, this way I knew that the responses I got were genuine and not simply guesswork from confused survey takers. The purpose of the survey was to determine which group of survey responders was most supportive of the business idea and thus, would most willingly offer the most help in getting the business off the ground. This would allow me to test my riskiest assumption that my key partners would be educators, textbook/exam printing companies, and parents. I distributed these surveys through GroupMe, Instagram, and Facebook. I attempted to distribute my survey through a variety of channels that people who a variety of ages would be on. Since I was surveying parents and educators, I thought it was important to put the survey out on a public forum that people who were older would see, so Facebook was the perfect place. Students, on the other hand, have a much greater chance of seeing the survey if it were on Instagram and GroupMe. I found many trends in the responses I received. Of all the survey responders, it was the students who gave the largest number of responses, with student responses taking up 63% of my 30 survey participants. This makes me have to consider if the chosen channels that I had planned on using for my target market, (Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube) should be altered so I could market my product with better success, as my target market is actually educators and school administrators. However, despite this challenge, the data I received from my survey was encouraging. When asked to rate their current level of satisfaction with the current public school system, students’ responses had a positive and direct relationship, with a linear regression of 1.3. This suggests that each student had a very stable and similar dissatisfaction score when compared to

their peers and that as students got older, their dissatisfaction with the public school system did not decrease significantly. For the success of the business, this is wonderful news, as the positive and consistent linear regression suggests the students rated the helpfulness of a self-paced alternative curriculum to be helpful to them. Thus, the business has a good possibility of being successful because there will constantly be a need for the alternative curriculum in public schools and the company has many opportunities to expand, considering the variety of ages and education levels that expressed low satisfaction scores in the current school system and the consistent and tight ranges of positivity towards implementing a unique educational curriculum. However, the parents and educators had a linear regression of 2.6, meaning there is a low probability I will be able to receive a lot of support from parents and educators, as their appreciation for the business idea consistently scored low and as educators and parents have the most resources to funding, I may have trouble finding backing and financial contribution. Business Model Evolution: Initially, my business model aimed at serving students’ burnout and disengagement by offering interesting educational materials that better fit the technology students are used to in the 21st century. My customer segments were originally going to be high school-aged students and I was going to use TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat as my channels. However, after conducting customer interviews, many of these details changed quite a lot. First of all, although customer interviews maintained that it was students who struggled with burnout and motivation issues, it was hard to find ways to alter their school day or school work without conflicting with governmental laws. Because of this, I had to change my target market to teachers, curriculum

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planners, and school administrators, who would adopt the alternative curriculum in their schools and by doing so, offer a way for students to receive the help they need. I also had to change the channels I used to advertise this alternative curriculum because since I changed my target market to older teachers and administrators, the channels would have to be a little older too. I changed my channels from Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat to Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. One of the greatest assumptions within my business model that I learned most about was the assumption that my key partners would be educators, textbook/exam printing companies, and parents. Because not having any of those three as key partners would be detrimental to the success of the business, I had to do a lot of research on other companies who were offering similar educational support to students and who their key partners were. Through that research, I learned a lot about the key partners most educational-related businesses use so that I knew if my assumption was correct or not. This will save me from a lot of trouble in the future. One of the most significant activities that taught me the most throughout the process was the MVP designer assignment. The questions on the homework asked me to consider the weakest points in my business plan and consider how I can improve the weaknesses in the plan. The MVP designer assignment got me to consider the fact that my key partners were not a complete guarantee, and thus, I would have to do a lot of research and have a backup plan in case I hypothesized the incorrect key partners. The data I have collected along the way supports how I am framing my business model in multiple ways. To begin with, when students were asked to rate their current level of satisfaction with the traditional model of schooling in public, government-funded schools (with 1 being “not satisfied at all”, to ten being “completely satisfied”), the median number landed at a satisfaction level of 4.7 among students, 6.3 among teachers, and 8.2 among parents. This data supports the

hypothesis that students and educators alike are not content with the current educational practices. When asked to explain further how they came to their chosen satisfaction level, 74% of student responses fell into two categories: either they were unmotivated and burnout or they felt they had no autonomy in their own workday. These statistics emphasized the great need for modernization in the schooling format for students and in addition, helped me understand the largest problems students were having in their education. By asking questions like the one above, I am able to take the means of each question response and build a curriculum that will benefit the students’ most pressing concerns and problems. In understanding that 74% of students are having problems with stress and overwork in school, I can integrate frequent breaks and increase class flexibility for students in the alternative curriculum, so students can have more control over their schedule and rest when they feel exhausted and burnt out. As for future plans, I think that it would still be helpful to give the same survey to school administrators and curriculum writers. The first round of surveys was not given to all of the people in our proposed target market, so we didn’t get a chance to fully test out if our business model was a popular and viable solution among those groups of people. If we gave the survey to school administrators and curriculum writers and received positive comments back from them, we would have greater confidence that our business model is going to be successful. It would also be vital to distribute the survey to these other groups of people, as the surveys filled out by parents and educators did not show a lot of support for the business plan, which may cause funding and investing problems later. Having a tighter linear regression from school admin and curriculum writers would encourage me that we might have more support.

Purpose Evolution: From the beginning of the project, my personal purpose has not changed. I have always had a great passion for helping students achieve their best in school and from my experience with COVID, I have watched many other students struggle to stay focused and engaged with their studies. At the beginning of the project, my personal purpose was to provide students who felt burnt-out and disengaged in their education with engaging materials and curriculums that would allow students more freedom and flexibility in their schedule and work pacing. The customer interviews I conducted only validated my hypothesis that students were struggling with burnout and disengagement. I interviewed students of many different ages, grade levels, and experiences and even with the differences, every student reported the same issues. These interviews, along with doing some financial analyses and weakness identification, confirmed that not only was this a business that needed to be made but that it could be successful if we got more support from adults. The impact I want to make by offering students alternative curriculums and helpful educational materials has stayed true from the beginning of the process. At the start, I intended for my impact to offer students peace, reassurance, and resources that will allow them to succeed in their schooling. After verifying that students were struggling with their schoolwork, I knew my intended impact would be met and would resound with many students in my community. Because of this, my impact has not changed from the beginning of the project. My purpose has also not changed from the beginning of the project. In August and throughout the process, my purpose was to help students who were struggling in school to gain some autonomy and feel more control of their school schedule. Though the way I go about doing

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that has changed, my overall purpose has not. I still want to help students achieve their best and feel confident in their schoolwork. Even though there were multiple incorrect assumptions I made throughout the process, I managed to stay dedicated to the project by reminding myself of all the students I was serving. Though at times, it could be frustrating to have to change so many aspects of my original plan, it kept me dedicated to the process by remembering what a positive impact the business was going to have on so many students around the globe. As for the next steps in the process, I think it is time to begin making prototypes of the curriculum and begin running tests for how effective our first trials of the curriculum are on small groups of students. Takeaway Skill: My entrepreneurial skillset has been strengthened in many ways throughout this process. First of all, after interviewing multiple people, I have a greater awareness of the questions that are helpful to ask in customer interviews and which ones are rhetorical or leading. In addition, throughout the process of making a business model and analyzing its success financially, I now have a better understanding of how to make a financial projection and test the weaknesses of my business model. Going forward, the skills I have gained in being able to read and understand financial statements will be beneficial to my success moving forward, not only in the fact that I will be able to analyze if future business ventures are worth looking into, but also because having knowledge of sales conversion rates, average real estate, and marketing costs, and the typical costs in a business model will help me to manage my future business.

These skills were strengthened in exercises such as the Revenue Model Matching assignment and the Financial Projections Simulator, which both made me carefully consider all the expenses my business would have, how much profit I would have to be grossing to cover all those expenses, and if, due to these factors, my business was a viable opportunity to pursue or not. The process of completing those assignments was a rude awakening in how unrealistic many of my proposed salary and production costs were and how I would need to be making a profit that was much greater than I had initially proposed to cover those expenses. Having the ability to read and complete financial analyses on a business model is essential for individuals interested in the entrepreneurial process because, without it, one cannot have any decent prediction if their business is likely to survive. They will not have an awareness of their business’ weaknesses. Without knowing those factors, it will be hard for the individual to be successful in their business venture. I will apply this skill in the future by making sure I carefully consider the financials behind any business I am considering either investing in or starting myself before I get too involved. Taking that precautionary step will help me avoid potential legal problems, such as becoming involved in a business that is unknowingly committing fraud, and will help ensure the business I am getting into will survive and be successful.

Solution Validation Reflection (1)

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