Testing Business Ideas

4.6 (9)

·

3 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Avoid wasting time and money building something nobody wants. Learn how to de-risk your product or service idea in 10 days.

Course overview

Transform your idea into a business

Join a small group of peers for an intimate 10 day course to rapidly test your product or service idea. You'll map your risk, run experiments and receive live feedback on your real ideas.

Who is this course for

01

You're an entrepreneur who doesn't have time to make something nobody wants.

02

You're a corporate innovator who wants to challenge the status quo and create new revenue streams.

03

You're a solopreneur who has a side project but is nervous about making the leap.

Key Deliverables

Assumptions Map

You'll create an Assumptions Map for your product, service or business that can be shared with stakeholders.

Experiment Plan

You'll create an Experiment Plan that details out how you are running experiments to address your riskiest assumptions.

Additional Resources

You'll receive a list of digital experimentation tools, the Testing Business Ideas experiment library and more...

What past students are saying

        The types of rapid experiments were really beneficial. I believe we always fall into the trap of doing the same ones over and over.
Paige Leonard

Paige Leonard

Assistant Director - Marshall University
        David provides you with a toolbox, that enables you to de-risk the idea by yourself without relying on external service providers.
Oliver Barnickel

Oliver Barnickel

Digital Collectibles Manager - ESL Gaming
        I have undergrad and grad degrees in business and yet have never had such a delightful and enlightening course about how to rapidly & calmly de-risk and test ideas.
Christian Abt

Christian Abt

Entrepreneur
        This highly interactive workshop environment enhanced my ability to apply the concepts from the Testing Business Ideas book to my specific client engagements.
Eric Kutche

Eric Kutche

Managing Principal - 313 Works
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Testing Business Ideas

Meet your instructor

David J. Bland

David J. Bland

Co-author of Testing Business Ideas, Founder at Precoil.

I help people test ideas.


I'm the co-author of Testing Business Ideas with Alex Osterwalder. I pioneered GE FastWorks with Eric Ries, coached emerging product teams at Adobe and even helped Toyota apply lean startup practices.


Before my transition into coaching, I spent over 10 years of my career at early stage technology startups.


I stay connected to the startup scene through my work with Silicon Valley venture capitalists and startup accelerators. 


And most importantly, I created this course to help you quickly test your ideas, because I wasted years of my life building things nobody wanted.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Jan 12—Jan 15

    Jan

    12

    Testing Business Ideas - Kickoff

    Thu 1/126:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)

    Start Here: Orientation

    4 items

Week 2

Jan 16—Jan 22

    Jan

    17

    Testing Business Ideas - Extracting Risk Workshop (1/4)

    Tue 1/176:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Jan

    18

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Wed 1/186:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    19

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Thu 1/1912:00 AM—1:00 AM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    19

    Testing Business Ideas - Assumptions Mapping Workshop (2/4)

    Thu 1/196:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Extracting Risk

    3 items

    Assumptions Mapping

    3 items

Week 3

Jan 23—Jan 26

    Jan

    23

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Mon 1/236:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    24

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Tue 1/2412:00 AM—1:00 AM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    24

    Testing Business Ideas - Rapid Experimentation Workshop (3/4)

    Tue 1/246:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Jan

    25

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Wed 1/256:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    26

    Optional: Testing Business Ideas - Coaching Session

    Thu 1/2612:00 AM—1:00 AM (UTC)
    Optional

    Jan

    26

    Testing Business Ideas - Managing Experiments Workshop (4/4)

    Thu 1/266:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Rapid Experimentation

    3 items

    Managing Experiments

    2 items

    Additional Resources

    5 items

Course schedule

6-8 hours per week

  • January 12, 2022 - Kickoff Session

    10:00am - 11am Pacific Time

    Introductions and goal setting for the course. Get to know your peers, learn more about how the course is structured and ask David your questions.

  • January 16 - 26, 2023

    The course will run from January 18th to January 26, 2023. You'll work both independently and in groups on your product, service and business ideas.

  • Tuesdays & Thursdays

    10:00am - 12:00pm Pacific Time

    Live 2 hour workshops that occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00am pacific time. You'll work through individual exercises but also get peer feedback in groups. While these are recorded, we highly recommend you attend these live if possible.

  • Live Coaching Sessions

    10:00am & 4:00pm Pacific Time

    Live 1 hour coaching sessions with David to get pointed feedback on your assumptions, experiments and strategy. Occurs at 10:00am and 4:00pm on non-workshop days to accommodate different time zones. These sessions are not recorded.

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Testing Business Ideas

Apply the concepts from my book with live feedback on your real ideas.

What's it like to be a part of the Testing Business Ideas cohort?

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active, not passive

This course focuses on live workshops and hands-on with real product, service and business ideas.

Learn by doing

Reduce the risk in your product, service or business idea while helping others.

Find your tribe

Find a tribe to help keep you making progress well beyond the course.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Testing Business Ideas