Accidental Innovator
5 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Launch and test-drive a disruptive innovation without committing your life and livelihood.
Accidental Innovator
5 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Launch and test-drive a disruptive innovation without committing your life and livelihood.
Course overview
Disrupt without Distress
In 3 weeks, develop and launch an MVP and test the market for a disruptive innovation that can scale - without giving up your life or livelihood.
Who is this course for
01
Aspiring intrapreneurs wanting to launch something new within their established organization.
02
Side Hustlers wanting to leverage their day gigs to launch something separate and scalable.
03
Potential Startup Founders wanting to get from a vague hunch to an actionable vision quickly.
In Three Weeks You'll
Discover what you know and how to improve it quickly
Whether you have a hunch, a vision, or just a need to innovate, discover what you already know - and what you will need to learn - to launch something disruptive. Learn how to practice applied curiosity to continuously improve what you create.
Optimize your idea for maximum value and buildability
Learn to improve your idea to maximize its potential value, pick the most promising business model, and identify and prioritize the gaps you'll need to fill. Learn which issues need resolution and which can wait.
Build and test an MVP to get real market feedback before you spend a dime
Build your market iteratively while you build an MVP. Use your actual situation, assets, constraints, and real feedback to build a realistically disruptive roadmap you can use to lead and succeed.
Choose the next step that's right for you
Learn to decide whether to pursue your idea, pause it for a better time, or pivot to something more promising.
Accidental Innovator
Meet your instructor
Dan Reus
Founder and Chief Instigator - Openly Disruptive
Dan has worked with thousands of aspiring innovators, startup founders, and intrapreneurs (innovators working within larger organizations) on disruptive innovation in areas like food/ag/nutrition, consumer products and tech, STEM education, venture capital and private equity, spacetech, healthcare and healthtech, privacy, connected communites, biotech, location based tech, advanced manufacturing, and AR/VR and the metaverse.
In addition to coaching, advising, and supporting innovators, he has worked on launching his own innovations in personalized healthcare, the connected pet home/family, media/publishing, and sports marketing.
Starting with innovative experience design, strategic marketing with c-suite clients at Fortune 500 multinational firms, and helping develop emerging innovation ecosystems, Dan's career is all about helping innovators at all levels stay sane while they make a difference by finding the right path at the right time.
Course syllabus
01
Get from vagueness to an actionable vision.
Like many first time innovators, you've noticed a major problem to be solved or opportunity to be addressed. How do you get it out of your head and heart and into the real world?
Together we'll learn how to turn a vague hunch into something ready to test and improve - and be ready to get real world feedback that tells us if/how to proceed.
02
Get real with less pain.
It's hard to put our prized idea out into the world to face rejection or ridicule - but until we do, it's just an idea.
Innovators need to interact with others to turn visions into reality. With your cohort, you'll learn how to use low risk real world situations to optimize your innovation, get useful feedback, and maintain a positive attitude.
03
Iterate with a purpose.
No innovation - no matter how incremental or disruptive - looked the same on day 1000 as it did on day 1. Lasting ideas need the marketplace, users, and support to reach their potential, but you don't have infinite time or patience.
With your cohort, you'll learn to iteratively develop your vision so you can quickly assess its real potential.
04
Pivot, persist, pause, or let it perish.
We have more ideas than the capacity to bring them to life. Your work gave you a window into the potential and realities of bringing your idea to life. Now its time to discern what's in it for you.
Celebrate all you've learned and learn what the options are for going forward and how to choose the one that's right for you right now.
Course schedule
4-6 hours per week
Wednesdays
6:00pm-7:30pm Central US Time
Over 4 Wednesdays, we'll meet as a group to learn how to bring our idea to life, learn from guest speakers who are all successful innovators, and hold each other accountable for making progress.
Time to develop your idea
2-4 hours per week
Weekly, you'll work independently to define, test, and improve an idea you're passionate about, bringing feedback about your experience to the group.
Office hours (optional)
1-2 times during course
Talk 1:1 about your idea and what you want to do with it with your instructor.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active learning, not passive watching
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you