Lean LaunchPad Educators Program
I’m at the Lean LaunchPad Educators Program – Steve Blank’s entrepreneurship curriculum delivered to 90+ educators around the world. I’m here thanks to the efforts of NYU to cultivate entrepreneurship across the school, with ITP as a potentially ideal place to adopt the methods.
We are all entrepreneurship-leaning educators at the grad and undergrad level, and there are a number of regional accelerators and incubators who teach methods. The best components of this program: the course materials, curriculum, handbooks for teaching are all available publicly, with back up video support and class room examples. Underwritten by the NCIIA, a not for profit organization that has also funded this approach to be delivered to National Science Foundation grantees. It is available here: Lean LaunchPad Educators Program.
But the richest conversations are occurring amongst participants who have adopted or are considering a Lean LaunchPad approach. Hopefully today we will get into the following topics:
- Adapting Lean LaunchPad for Social Entrepreneurship.
- The perceived conflict between Design Thinking and Lean – the perception that design approaches “take too long” was shared by Steve Blank – yet Eric Reis and others have referenced design thinking approaches as part of the core building blocks of lean startup.
- Adapting Lean LaunchPad for startups in regulated industries – where does FDA fit into to a medical device or mHealth startup.
- Recognition that the educator techniques borrow from Art and Design school methods of critique, and classroom dynamics shift from the professor as pedagogue to a team learning approach. Charrette-style.
Looking forward to today’s discussions.