Building Things That Matter
This workshop gives students a clear, practical path from idea to impact by showing how successful companies ground every decision in deep customer understanding. Instead of starting with what’s possible to build, we’ll focus on what real people are actually trying to accomplish—and how that insight should shape product decisions and go-to-market priorities from day one.
Students will be introduced to two powerful, founder-tested lenses—Jobs To Be Done and the Ideal Customer Persona—and learn how they work together to keep teams focused on solving the right problem for the right audience. Through concrete examples, the session demystifies how customers “hire” products to make progress in their lives across functional, social, and emotional dimensions—and why overlooking this leads so many early startups astray.
The workshop walks students through the essential questions that drive effective discovery: What is the customer trying to achieve? Where are they struggling today? What alternatives are they already using—and why would they switch? From there, we’ll define what an ideal early customer actually looks like, helping founders resist the trap of building for everyone and instead identify a clear, credible first audience.
With JTBD and ICP aligned, students will learn how to prioritize MVP features, craft messaging that resonates, and take early steps toward product–market fit—without wasting time, energy, or resources.
Students leave with a simple, repeatable mental model for turning ideas into solutions that matter, along with a practical checklist they can apply immediately to sharpen their concept, clarify their customer, and focus their early go-to-market efforts.
Speaker(s):
Kofi Ampadu, Founder and General Partner of SKU’d Ventures
