Day 112: Get Ready to Innovate in the Legal Profession!
Photo by Alex Kondratiev on Unsplash
I was excited to learn today that my spring course on the Entrepreneurship Method and Mindset for lawyers busted through the enrollment cap TWICE. We have 31 students enrolled in this first-of-its-kind course at WVU College of Law. I can’t wait to dive in and see how our students can innovate in the legal profession!
Not much reading in this course, but lots of doing. Here’s a current agenda (subject to change) of what we’ll do each week:
PART ONE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A METHOD
Week 1 – What Is the Entrepreneurship Method?
On your own: [reading]
In class: Impact Statement exercise; Intro to the entrepreneurship method
Week 2 – Mindshift Exercise, “Tell Me Your Story”
On your own: Tell Me Your Story Exercise (interview 1 entrepreneur)
In class: Discuss entrepreneurship in practice
PART TWO: CREATING AND DEVELOPING OPPORTUNITIES
Week 3 – Creating and Recognizing New Opportunities
On your own: [reading[
In class: IDEATE idea-generating exercise
Week 4 – Building a Business Model
On your own: [reading]
In class: Lean Canvas business mapping exercise focusing on one idea you generated last week
Week 5 - Developing Your Customers
On your own: Identify 3 people who might be your customers; interview each of them (10 minutes or less) using Mindshift exercise questions
In class: Customer Journey Mapping exercise
Week 6: Testing and Experimenting with New Ideas (Prototyping)
In class: Using everyday household materials, build or diagram a rapid prototype of your product/service
On your own: Get feedback on your prototype from 3 target customers
Week 7: Introduction to Pitching
On your own: [reading], develop 2 short pitches of your idea
In class: Successful Pitching Styles exercise
PART THREE: EVALUATING AND ACTING ON OPPORTUNITIES
Week 8: Developing Networks and Building Teams
On your own: do Step 1 of “Building My Network” exercise
In class: Practice elevator pitching exercise; identify one promising networking event
Week 9: Creating Revenue Models
On your own: [reading]
In class: Revenue Model Pivot Practice exercise
Week 10: Anticipating and Using Failure Productively
On your own: Go Get Rejected! Exercise
In class: Pivot exercise
PART FOUR: SUPPORTING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Week 11: Bootstrapping and Crowdfunding
On your own: [reading]
In class: Group interview with an investor-entrepreneur pair
Week 12: Supporting Social Entrepreneurship
On your own: [reading]
In class: Why Should I Invest in You? exercise
PART FIVE: PITCH!
Week 13: Prep for Pitch
On your own: Work on your pitch and pitch deck
In class: Discussion of pitching
Week 14: PITCH!
On your own: Finalize your pitch and pitch deck
In class: Pitch your idea to the group! Plus feedback and next steps