EIP: Week Three

The focus of this week is on combining financial literacy with product integration into customer workflows, critical for developing a robust entrepreneurial strategy.

Understanding financial statements is essential as they record economic events for stakeholders using the universal "language of business." Key documents like balance sheets detail assets and liabilities, while income statements cover revenue, expenses, and profits. Depreciation and amortisation help allocate costs of assets over time, and the cash flow statement emphasizes the importance of tracking liquidity separately from profitability. Accrual accounting records transactions as they occur, reflecting a real-time financial picture.

After this 'detour' to introduce basic financial concepts, the course returns to focusing on how the products student teams are developing fit into their presumed customer’s workflow by examining the full life cycle use case. This involves understanding customer objectives and identifying how your product addresses these needs. The focus is on the problem the new innovation addresses, aligning with what customers aim to achieve.

In the next step, developing a high-level product specification helps ensure team alignment and emphasises the benefits your product offers. Student teams will be asked to creating a draft brochure or landing page which communicates these benefits clearly.

On the basis of this specification,  a quantified Value Proposition (QVP) will be produced by each team that clearly demonstrates the measurable benefits of their product. It is important to present improvements without overpromising, comparing the status quo in the customer's life with the potential enhancements the new product offers To validate their understanding of the market and ensure the viability of the proposition, the process involves identifying additional ('the next 10') potential customers who closely match the original persona.