Economics in India

Design a Wallet

Contributed by: Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford University, California, USA. Introduction “Design a Wallet” is a highly interactive, experiential learning exercise to help anyone designing a product or service to become more customer and market-oriented. It emphasizes the idea that entrepreneurs create value by solving the problems and/or meeting the wants and needs of their customers. The exercise is a great way to introduce the concepts of entrepreneurship to your class, and has much more impact than a routine lecture session. Since it is classroom-based, it can easily be integrated into a course or workshop. In fact, this exercise will turn your class into a fun-filled center buzzing with activity and enthusiasm. Learning Objectives The exercise demonstrates that, in order to create value as an entrepreneur or a member of any organization, you must first understand the market – that is, you need to really understand your customer, and then develop a product that meets the needs and wants of this customer. Emphasizes customer- and market-oriented product development. Demonstrates the need to design products or solutions that fill the desires and/or needs of the market/customers, rather than those of the person developing the product. Gives a hands-on and immediate experience of interviewing a customer, designing a product for him or her based on the findings, and then receiving immediate feedback from the customer on the product. When to Use This exercise is highly versatile and can be used to teach a range of entrepreneurial skills. A clear use is while teaching the concept of “Value creation for the customer”. Though this exercise emphasizes value creation, it is a good supplement to any discussion or activity dealing with idea generation and opportunity recognition. As part of an idea generation class, it helps the students to look at the external world and identify problems that need solving - a...