EIP: Week Two

This week's focus is on market segmentation and understanding customer needs as crucial steps in developing a business value proposition. At the start of the process, each team identifies potential users for their solution and conducts primary market research. The focus begins with the customer, emphasizing the importance of a paying customer as fundamental to a business's success. 

We then distinguish between primary and secondary customers. This is crucial, especially in multi-sided markets. The initial market segmentation process involves brainstorming a wide range of potential users, using improvisation and socialization, without initially focusing on viability. Potential customer segments have to be narrowed down using personal, analytical, and external filters until a "beachhead market" is identified, i.e. a segment where the envisioned innovation has the highest odds of success. 

Once this is settled we have to focus on building end user profile, focusing on demographic and psychographic characteristics, to deepen customer understanding and align the business strategy. Creating a persona, a real individual who represents the target market, is essential to maintain focus and clarity in all business decisions.

In the final step of this first 'customer-centric' stage of the business value proposition development process, student teams will calculate the Total Addressable Market (TAM) size for their beachhead market to ensure it is appropriately scaled.

At the end of the week, the class will join the AI Accelerator Pitching event at the Bayes Centre to catch a glimpse of how entrepreneurs' pitches have evolved in start-ups that have been working on their value proposition for a substantial period of time.