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Course Description

The Customer Discovery Foundations course is for early-stage startup founders who are interested in exploring the market potential of an innovation or idea on which they've been working and learning entrepreneurial skills. Participants study how to “get out of the building” and talk to potential customers.

The goal is for participants to determine whether they are solving a real-world problem with a sizable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps researchers identify new ways to apply their current or future research to solve real-life challenges. Each startup is expected to conduct 20 customer discovery interviews throughout the course.

In this course, you will learn how to:

  • Identify their top customer segments.

  • Develop hypotheses about the value proposition they offer each customer segment.

  • Find and effectively interview potential customers about their problems and needs.

Throughout the course, you will work independently and meet with your entrepreneur in residence to master course concepts and complete customer discovery interviews.

Benefits to the Learner

  • Make evidence-based decisions about commercialization potential by implementing principles of the Lean Startup Methodology and use of the Business Model Canvas.

  • Distinguish between a startup and a company and recognize the iterative nature of the search process.

  • Using (virtual) face-to-face conversations with potential customers in a given market segment, discover the key value propositions that solve an urgent problem and can therefore drive changes in adoption/buying behavior.

  • Determine the size of the market opportunity for solving a specific and important real-world problem with your solution.

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Cornell University Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA)
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