The HHS Ignite Accelerator

Syllabus and 3 Month Framework

Broadly, the accelerator framework breaks down as follows:

Pre-Boot Camp: Do a couple of interviews. Start to understand what were about.
Boot Camp: 3 days to figure out what the 3 months will look like.
Weekly Check-ins: Scrum-like conference calls led by Instructors [5 minutes per team]
What did you learn last week?
What are you doing next week?
What are your immediate barriers?
Monthly Presentations: Bigger Reports out to leadership [15 minutes per team]
What is your updated Problem Statement?
Who is your updated Target Customer?
What is your updated Hypothesis / Value Proposition?
What does the current version of your product look like?
Tell us the story of how you evolved over the last month.
Shark Tank: the Pitch for support for your next steps!
Post Shark Tank: Assess the situation and prepare for next steps

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Pre-Boot Camp
Goals:
Begin exposure to concepts and methodologies and get logistical items in place to help ensure we
are all able to hit the ground running on Day 1
Activities:
1. Please watch the following videos (on vimeo.com). Note: These were made for a similar private
sector accelerator program. You can replace corporation with organization.

Pre-Planning Pt. 1 (4:55)

Interviews Pt. 1 (5:40)
Interviews Pt. 2 (3:49)
Asking the Right Question (2:37)
Assuming you know what the customer wants (1:56)
Understanding the Problem (the right way) (3:22)

2. Conduct 2-5 interviews prior to the Boot Camp.

3. Schedule 2-3 Interviews for Tuesday afternoon of the Boot Camp.
The following are completely optional but may be of interest.
4. For additional insights into the customer discovery process (Links go to Vimeo.com):

Customers Lie (2:37)

The Distracted Customer (3:12)
Engaging the Customer (3:37)
Customer Empathy (2:25)
The User, the Buyer & the Saboteur (2:24)
Death by Demo 1 (2:18)
Death by Demo 2 (1:45)

5. Videos from the Kauffman Founders School (Links go to YouTube.com):

The Lean Approach: Getting Out of the Building: Customer Development (5:44)
The Lean Approach: Customer Development Data (2:11)
The Lean Approach: Minimum Viable Products (5:52)

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The Boot Camp

Goals:

Define what success for your project looks like

Develop project plan with major milestones
Build version 1 (low-res prototype) of your product
Refine the following. These will be updated and presented monthly:
Problem Statement
Customer Segmentation
Hypothesis / Value Proposition

Activities:
Monday the 12th: 9-5 + Happy Hour
Tuesday the 13th: 9-5:30
Wednesday the 14th: 9-5
Full Agenda can be found at hhs.gov/idealab.

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Month 1
Goals for the Month:
Get comfortable talking to people (youll be doing a lot of this). Through these interactions, gain a
deeper understanding of the problem and the unique value you provide to the situation.
By the end of the month, you should have iterated to version 2 of your product.
Activities:
01/22: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
01/29: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
02/05: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
02/10: Monthly Presentation to UMD and HHS CTO
Updated Problem Statement
Updated Customer Segmentation
Updated Hypothesis / Value Proposition
Version 2 of your product
Tell the story of how you went from V1 to V2

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Month 2
Goals:
You may be moving beyond paper / electronic prototypes now to something that can actually be
used by an end-user. Its still really rough, but someone can really hold it now and provide
feedback.
By the end of the month, you should have iterated to version 3 of your product.
Activities:
02/12: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
02/19: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
02/26: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
03/05: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
03/09: Monthly Presentation to the CTO and IDEA Lab Leadership
Updated Problem Statement
Updated Customer Segmentation
Updated Hypothesis / Value Proposition
Version 3 of your product
Tell the story of how you went from V2 to V3

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Month 3
Goals:
You are beta-testing the product in a more meaningful manner now. Youll want to start thinking
about the Shark Tank and how to sell the product. Critical to this will be metrics: If applicable,
youll want to capture a baseline somehow. And then youll have a few users test your product;
how did that
By the end of the month, you should have iterated to version 4 of your product.
Activities:
03/12: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
03/19: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
03/26: Weekly Check-in with your Instructor
04/02: Monthly Presentation (to Instructors and Bryan)
Updated Problem Statement
Updated Customer Segmentation
Updated Hypothesis / Value Proposition
Version 4 of your product
Tell the story of how you went from V3 to V4

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Final 2 Weeks
Training: Storytelling and Making a pitch
Goals:
Prep and then Shark Tank!
Activities
04/09: Make first practice Pitch to Instructors
04/15: Make the Pitch to network of Advisors
04/20: Pitch to IDEA Lab to see if you make the Shark Tank
04/22: The Shark Tank

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Post Shark Tank

Goals:
Assess the situation. Prepare next steps.
Activities
Week of 04/04: One-on-one debrief convos
Schedule any follow-up Presentations

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