Innovation and new products development is an increasingly critical activity in most firms. Often, it determines the long-term success of a firm. This project-based class takes you through the steps of building a successful product. You experience the entire innovation process from analyzing business opportunities, generating ideas, assessing product-market fit, validating your idea, to pitching your solution to experts and industry partners. The highlight of the course is your participation in the InnoDays challenge in which you conceive, design and prototype a new product or service. The InnoDays take place from 13 - 15 May at an external location in Vienna. (Times are communicated in the syllabus, marked as "extern").

In the first part of the course (sessions before the Easter break), you will learn theories and practical tools necessary to succeed in the InnoDays. In the second part of the course, you will work on your ideas and prepare for the event. Please note that your participation in the event is mandatory to pass the course. 

The course helps passionate and entrepreneurial students learn the best techniques to develop new products. Your goal is to build a minimum viable product that will attract customers. Whether you want to launch your own business or explore a bold new concept within an existing company, you will learn how to embrace entrepreneurship and put your idea into practice.

By the end of this course, you will learn how to:

• Conduct customer development and competitive analysis to identify new product opportunities
• Design a viable business model for a new product
• Design and develop a prototype that offers a creative and effective solution to customer problems
• Conduct user testing of your prototype to validate your assumptions and evaluate your product
• Communicate your product idea and results of your development efforts in a compelling pitch

Completing this course will also contribute to students’ ability to work in interdisciplinary teams, deal with uncertainty, work under time pressure, and giving and receiving feedback.

You need to attend at least 80% of the scheduled classroom units in order to pass the course. Full participation during the InnoDays (13, 14 and 15 May) is mandatory to pass the course. No exceptions can be made. If you are unable to attend the InnoDays due to an illness, accident or any other circumstance that is beyond your control, please contact ulrike.kaiser@wu.ac.at.

The primary method of learning in this course is project-based learning. We balance academic learning (theory) with hands-on practical work (practice). You will acquire theoretical knowledge based on a combination of lectures, discussions, case studies, workshops, reading assignments and student presentations. The theoretical knowledge is applied with your practical work on a challenge of the InnoDays. The class runs through the phases of study, plan, act and reflect.

• Study (ongoing): Study key theoretical concepts in the startup and innovation literature.
• Plan: Understand the practical challenges of the InnoDays and brainstorm ideas.
• Act: During this step put your ideas into action. You will participate in the InnoDays to ideate, prototype and validate solutions for companies' innovation challenge during 48 hours.
• Reflect: Reflect on your experiences and specify your lessons learned. You will present your project and compile a final report.

Students can reach max. 100 pts (100%). The grading components are as follows:

Theory

• 20% Literature Quiz, individual grade

Project work and reflection (InnoDays Challenge)

• 20% Idea pitch video, individual work
• 40% Project work during the InnoDays and pitch deck, group work
• 20% Reflection paper, individual work

The grading scheme is as follows:  90 pts or more: 1 (excellent), 80 pts or more: 2 (good), 70 pts or more: 3 (satisfactory), 60 pts or more: 4 (sufficient), 59.5 pts or below: 5 (fail).

Pls send an e-mail to ulrike.kaiser@wu.ac.at