EIP: Weeks Four and Five

These two weeks in the course are reserved for initial development of the software and/or hardware demonstrator that will underpin the business value proposition developed by each student team. 

Students teams will take a break from focusing on the customer, and freely use any technologies available to them to start developing mock-ups, storyboards, prototypes, or even fully functioning proof-of-concept implementations of their envisioned product. 

Later on in the course, there will be further opportunity to continue this technical development, but it is important to for teams to consider what they want to expend effort on - there is a fine line between 

• spending way too much time on technical development while ignoring the business aspects of developing a business value proposition on the one hand and,
• having too little to show in terms of technical assets so that the audience of a demonstration would not be convinced of the potential of the team to develop innovative products in the longer term.

To navigate this tension, teams should focus on being able to demonstrate the core idea of their product without wasting time on ancillary features, and also take into account that the 'simpler' the technological innovation, the further a team would have been expected to get ahead over 3-4 weeks of work (by the time of the final pitch and demo). 

During these two weeks, the course will also include a couple of invited guest lectures, one from a seasoned entrepreneur, and one on ethical development of technology.