uploaded directionsIndividual Course ProjectALL Course Project Assignments (Please scroll down to find the correctly corresponding week’s assignment.) OverviewIn this course, Concept and Product Development, you will develop your individual project to bring a product or service into existence. You should not start with your solution, instead start with a problem someone is having that they seem likely to pay you to solve it. These assignments will help you work through processes to validate that a) the problem is prevalent and b) people are willing to pay for a solution . There are 3 deliverables for this project. Assignment 1 gets you started by asking you to identify 10 pain points, then narrow them down through a set of primary research steps. Assignments 2 and 3 will help you to take 1 of these ideas through a design process to get it launched as your final project. The outcome of the course project will be a prototype if you are developing a product, or a web page if you are developing a service. You will need to include a picture of your prototype for your product, or a link to your webpage for your service as part of your final project. For prototype assistance, please see Tampa Hackerspace. For service webpage services, please see webs, wix, weebly, google sites, blogger, wordpress, Etsy, Facebook pages, and more. Here are the details of each assignment: Concept ReportReview in your readings, Sanders’ “Learn by Doing” concept, Belz’ “Where do new products come from,” and Kelley’s notions of “enlightened trial and error.”Write down every time you notice a situation that you think you can improve (may result in the development of either a product or service). For example, my kids are tracking lots of dirt into the house, so I’m spending too much time hauling around my vacuum cleaner. Potential products for this situation could be self-cleaning shoes, better doormats, improved vacuum system, auto cleaning flooring in front of door, etc. Your list should contain at least 10 situations that you would like to improve.Next, use your list of situations to generate at least 2 customer pain points for each situation. For example, 1) I hate it when I step in the gritty dirt my kids have tracked in. 2) I hate hauling a heavy vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess my kids track in on their shoes. 3) I hate it when my kids forget to wipe their shoes.Choose at least 3 of the top situations that you would like to address. Make sure they are something that you have the expertise (or can partner with an expert) to address. For instance, there’s not much use in choosing a high-tech problem such as home security monitoring if you have no clue about such things and don’t know any experts who would partner with you.Conduct primary research to determine which of the situations and resulting pain points from your list are prevalent, and whether people would be willing to pay for a solution. Use data to identify and narrow your target pain point. Here’s how:Develop 5-10 primary research questions about the situations and pain points. Use the questions to determine a) how prevalent the pain point is, i.e. how many people share it, b) how do they deal with them now, c) will they pay for a solution, d) how much would they pay? Include your research questions in your report.Use at least 2 of the following methods to conduct your research:o Do 5-10 Interviews (phone or in-person). Include your questions in your report.o Send 10-20 Surveys (you may use Facebook surveys, email, free Survey Monkey, or Google Drive forms; you may survey the class if they are willing). Include a valid link to the survey in your report.o Make 1-2 Observations of customers dealing with the situations now (in their regular lives).o Search the internet for complaints around these situations or pain points. 5. Analyze data by creating a content analysis table of 2-5 complaint “themes” found for each situation/pain point and how many times the theme was mentioned. Include quotes or other relevant data from research. Organize survey results and use graphs to summarize data to support your conclusions. 6. Narrow your top 3 situations to the top 1 pain point you will base the rest of your project solving. Write 1 concluding paragraph stating what your pain point will be and why. Use the following questions as guidance on key information to explain why:How prevalent is the pain point?How severe did your research show the pain point was?What is the most common way to cope with the issue?How likely they people pay you to solve it?How likely are people to adequately pay you to solve it?What is a minimum viable solution people would tolerate trying in order to start solving it?7. Before going any further with your project, you must determine whether the product or service already exists. If a Google search doesn’t turn up a similar product to one you are considering developing, then conduct a preliminary patent search to make sure you don’t infringe on an existing patent. The following links explain how to conduct your own search.https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244693https://www.uspto.gov/video/cbt/ptrcsearching/Include information in your report on existing products or services that are similar to yours. What similar patents did you find? Is your concept still viable? Why or why not? How will your product or service be different (BETTER!) than the competition?8. List the references you used.Deliverable for Week 2 Project Submission:Submit your Concept Report to the Week 2 Dropbox. Make sure that you’ve included all 8 parts required.ASSIGNMENT 2– Demo & Research Report(1-2 page report)1) Review Sanders’ and Belz’ design chapters and Blank’s Customer Discovery concept.Demo: Create a minimum viable solution (this is usually free information about your potential product and how it address the pain point, or a free consultation for a potential service). Provide your minimum viable solution for “free” to at least 5 target prospects. The “fee” is only the prospects’ feedback. Make sure you provide a pre-order form with a space for suggestions and comments. Report what pain point you chose, what solution you provided, and what feedback you got. Would anyone pre-order? What suggestions/comments did you receive? How will you use that feedback to adjust your offering?2) Refer to Belz’ “external environment” scanning and research advice.Use interactions about your minimum viable solution to summarize the following: Identifying target market – who/what is the target market? How was it identified? Why?Positioning – how will you position the product or service? Did this change as a result of the research?Conclude the report with the following:Describe the product/service you will develop/offerHow much will you sell if for?Where will you sell it?How will they you /promote it? 3) ReferencesDeliverable for Week 5 Project SubmissionSubmit your Demo & Research Report to Week 5 Dropbox. Make sure that you have addressed all of the report requirements.Final Project – Prototype Testing ReportRefer to Blank’s “Customer Development” concept and Belz’ 5M’s of advertising.1) Briefly summarize (DO NOT REPEAT) the processes you used to narrow your list down to 1 customer pain point and why. Summary must be concise and organized with only key points.2) Create your prototype if you are developing a product, or a web page if you are developing a service. The product protoype may be functional (works like), visual (looks like) or both. (For products, please see Tampa Hackerspace or use modeling clay, or other materials. For service webpages, please see webs, wix, weebly, google sites, blogger, wordpress, Etsy, Facebook pages, and more.) Add a picture or video of your prototype for your product, or a link to your webpage for your service to the report. 3) Provide a detailed description of the product, including how it will be developed.4) Create a “sell sheet” flyer. One example of a “sell sheet” is here:5) Show your prototype or web page and sell sheet to 3-5 prospects for feedback (best if they’re not the same as those you used previously). Summarize their feedback in a paragraph along with how you can use the feedback to adjust your offering. Indicate if you’ve already incorporated this feedback in your prototype/sell sheet or website before submitting (I will look for it).6) Write what your next steps are to move forward with this new product or service (licensing, branding, beta testing, company formation, etc). 7) ReferencesDeliverable for Week 7 Final Project SubmissionSubmit your Prototype Testing Report to Week 5 Dropbox. Make sure you have included all required elements.Note: if you only provide your sell sheet and not your prototype picture and/or website, you will not receive full credit.

Prompt Imagine you are a newly hired manager at a publicly traded, global corporation of your choosing. You have been asked to review the company’s past and current  financial performance and health and make initial financial projections in order to begin planning for the upcoming year. Your supervisor is particularly interested in a fresh perspective on what your analysis reveals about potential risks and opportunities, as well as recommendations for next steps. Because you will eventually need to convince internal stakeholders, including senior management, of the feasibility and desirability of your suggested activities, it is important that you justify your projections and recommendations, explaining how they were informed by existing information and modeling different scenarios. Your financial analysis and projection report will include several financial tables, along with a comprehensive narrative describing the company’s context and financial performance and health, and your analytical approach and conclusions. Your report should be geared toward an executive audience with basic accounting and finance knowledge and should be well organized, clear, concise, convincing, and free of distracting errors. Note that, in addition to the company’s financial statements and website, other authoritative news sources—such as annual reports and external sites like Bloomberg—may offer insights that facilitate analysis or provide information on the company’s priorities, challenges, and geographic distribution. Specifically, your financial analysis and projection report must include the following critical elements. Most of the critical elements align with a particular course outcome (shown in brackets). Executive Summary: Clearly and concisely summarize your principal findings, projections, and recommendations as a manager, with the goal of persuading busy executives to support your ideas and read further. Provide your intended audience with a solid but brief sense of the parameters of your analysis and who you would consult in refining it further, and why. Remember that your goal is to convince readers of the validity of your observations while recognizing limitations that affect business decisions. II. Financial Performance and Health: In this section, you will evaluate the company’s recent financial performance and current financial health, given its organizational context. In particular, you must cover the following: A. Organizational Context 1. What key goods or services does your company provide, for whom, where, and why? How do these features of the company (major products or services, customers, location, etc.) help set the boundaries for business decisions? [MBA-520-02] 2. How is the company organized and managed (by product groups, geographic region, function, etc.)? How does that affect accounting and financial information and subsequent business decisions? [MBA-520-02] B. Recent Financial Performance 1. Assess what the company’s consolidated income statements for the last three years say about its financial performance. Use relevant indicators, graphs, and spreadsheets to support your narrative. (Include all spreadsheets in an appendix.) For example, what do the amounts and year-to-year changes in revenue, operating income, net profit or loss, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization tell you? Do any items stand out? [MBA-520-01] 2. Assess what the company’s consolidated cash flow statements for the same time period say about its financial performance. Use relevant indicators, graphs, and spreadsheets to support your narrative. For example, what do the amounts and year-to-year changes in cash from operating activities, cash from investing, cash from financing, and total cash flow tell you? Do any items stand out? [MBA520-01] 3. Assess the company’s underlying financial performance. Support your answer with the analysis above and relevant research. For example, is recent performance substantially affected by unusual events such as a major acquisition or spin-off? Is the business thriving or struggling in its industry? How do you know? [MBA-520-01] C. Current Financial Health 1. Assess how the company is capitalized and what that tells you about its financial health. Support your response with relevant graphs, spreadsheets, and indicators such as cash and cash equivalents, total debt, shareholders’ equity, current ratio, debt/equity ratio, and days sales outstanding (DSO). For example, does the company have enough cash for payroll and other bills? Does it have the right mix of debt versus equity (stock)? How do you know? [MBA-520-01] 2. Does the company have the right amount of cash and other resources (e.g., key people, technologies, reputation, physical assets) to fuel future growth? What does this suggest for business decisions? For example, if it has too much cash, should it pay a large dividend, repurchase its own shares, or reinvest the excess funds? [MBA-520-02] 3. Assess the financial value of the company using relevant indicators. What does your assessment imply for future business health and performance? For example, what is the business’s current market value? What is its price-to-earnings ratio? What do these suggest about investor perceptions of the business’s future? [MBA-520-01] III. Success Factors and Risks: Use this section to discuss the factors that may affect current and future performance. Specifically: A. How do the company’s financial and strategic priorities affect accounting procedures and business decisions? How might that affect business success? For example, is management growth-oriented or efficiency-oriented? What is the company’s approach to risk and short- versus longterm planning horizons? [MBA-520-03] B. How might the company better capitalize on nonfinancial factors such as market share, reputation, human resources, physical facilities, or patents? Support your response with relevant research and analysis. [MBA-520-03] C. What are the most significant internal risks to the company’s financial performance? Give evidence to support your response. For example, is the company vulnerable to technological changes or cyberattacks? Loss of high-talent personnel? Production disruptions? [MBA-520-03] IV. Projections: Using what you know about the company’s financial health and performance, forecast its future performance. In particular, you should: A. Project the company’s likely consolidated financial performance for each of the next three years. Support your analysis with an appendix spreadsheet showing actual results for the most recent year, along with your projections and assumptions. Remember that your supervisor is interested in fresh perspectives, so you should not just replicate existing financial statements: You should add other relevant calculations or disaggregations to help inform decisions. [MBA-520-04] B. Modify your projections for the coming year to show a best- and worst-case scenario based on the potential success factors and risks you identified. As with your initial projections, support your analysis with an appendix spreadsheet, specifying your assumptions and including relevant calculations and disaggregations beyond those in existing financial reports. [MBA-520-04] C. Discuss how your assumptions, forecasting methodology, and information gaps affect your projections. Why are your projections appropriate? For example, are they consistent with the company’s mission and priorities? Aggressive but achievable? How would changing your assumptions change your projections? [MBA-520-04] Business Opportunities: In this section, discuss the incremental impact of a hypothetical but reasonable and simple new investment project, such as a new product or facility or a cost-cutting investment, as an initial step in thinking about the future. Be sure to address the following: A. Based on your knowledge of this company, what is a likely investment it would consider and why? Be sure to describe the basic features of the investment as a foundation for considering its potential financial impact. [MBA-520-05] B. Evaluate the approximate costs and benefits of the investment you identified, explaining how they would affect your spreadsheet projections and business decisions. Estimates are sufficient but should be grounded in common sense and insight into the company. [MBA520-05] C. Assess the implications of how the potential investment affects budgeting and related business decisions. For example, does the investment involve significant cash spending this coming year, followed by benefits in the following year? How might that affect short-term and long-term spending priorities? Does the benefit outweigh the cost? [MBA-520-05] Use the critical elements as sub- headings to get all your points.