SYLLABUS
- Professor Karim Lakhani, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University
- Professor Vish Krishnan, Jacobs Family Chair in Management and Engineering Leadership, University of California San Diego
What Is This Course About?
How does an invention become an enduring innovation?
In this five-section introductory course, you’ll explore how entrepreneurs match promising technology with customer needs to launch successful new businesses. In addition to hearing stories and advice from industry experts and entrepreneurs, you'll work with real technologies to develop, refine, and select your own business ideas.
What Will I Learn?
- Section 1: Problem Solving and Systematic Innovation
- A systematic approach to technology entrepreneurship
- Section 2: Matching Needs and Seeds
- How to generate new use scenarios by matching customer needs with promising technology seeds
- Section 3: Generating Business and Operating Models
- How to align business and operating models
- Section 4: Determining Readiness and Market Fit
- How to evaluate a technology for readiness and market fit
- Section 5: Financing Your Venture
- How to position opportunities to secure funding
When Are Things Due?
The course is self-paced and has no specific deadlines for assignments. Learners have until the close of the course to complete all work.
What Are the Assignments and Grading?
The passing grade for the course is 50%.
Assignments consist of:
- Ungraded practice problems
- Graded assignments (five total)
- Assignment 1 (10%)
- Assignment 2 (20%)
- Assignment 3 (20%)
- Assignment 4 (20%)
- Assignment 5 (30%)
NOTE: The assignment for Section 5 (Capstone) is available to verified-track learners only.
How Do I Select a Technology (and Why Do I Need One)?
This course takes an applied approach. Section assignments focus on how you will transfer skills and knowledge from the course to the real world.
In Section 2, you will be asked to select a technology seed. You will use this technology in assignments to practice the various problem-solving methodologies introduced in the course.
To select your technology, you can choose from the following options:
- A curated library of technologies provided in the course
- A technology that you have developed, or one that you have an existing interest in
You will need to select a technology in order to complete the assignments.
Feature-Based Enrollment
The end-of-course capstone is available only to learners who have purchased a verified certificate. Locked content is marked with a lock icon, as shown to the right. Click the image to see a full-sized version. If you are using screen reader software, you will hear "Content available only to verified-track learners."
When you see this icon, it indicates there are one or more graded assignments on this page. Verified learners will be able to see and complete these assignments, which will count toward their certificate of completion.
In addition, audit learners will lose access to the course after a certain number of weeks. The length of time varies by course, and is noted on the course signup page at edX.org. This time is counted from when you enroll or from when the course begins, whichever is later. Verified learners retain course access indefinitely.
If you have questions, please use the Contact Us link here or at the bottom of the page.
Certification
EdX offers an optional fee-based verified certificate to those who have passed the course. If you achieve a passing grade of 50% in this course, you are eligible to receive a verified certificate.
Your certificate will indicate you have successfully completed the course, but will not include a specific grade or course hours.
You can upgrade to the certificate track from within the course. The cost is $99.
Support and Contacting the Course Team
Questions about the course should be submitted via the course discussion boards using the "+General" category. Be sure to mark your post as a question.
For questions about your edX account or the edx platform, please contact the edX Support Team.
Participation Agreement
This document sets forth certain terms that apply to participants in the HarvardX course Technology Entrepreneurship: Lab to Market (HX LBTechX). By participating in HX LBTechX, you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If any of these terms is unacceptable to you, do not take part in HX LBTechX.
The purpose of HX LBTechX is educational. You will learn about creating a commercialization plan, and in the process some of you may create commercialization plans. That exercise is intended to be a learning experience. It will take place in an open educational environment and under conditions different from those under which ideas for a business are often developed. You assume the risk of sharing your ideas and working with others on a commercialization plan in this environment.
You acknowledge that there is no expectation of confidentiality in HX LBTechX. Anyone with whom you share information or ideas in HX LBTechX will be free to discuss, share and use them. These rights are in addition to those you have granted under the edX Terms of Service.
You – not Harvard, the course instructors, staff, or anyone else – are responsible for any business idea or project you choose to work on in HX LBTechX. Your responsibilities include, among other things:
- Protecting any intellectual property that you may develop and own. Note, for example, that certain disclosures of information about your ideas or inventions may adversely affect your ability to obtain patent protection in the future;
- Making suitable arrangements and entering into appropriate agreements setting forth the rights and obligations of you and your co-venturers, including any business founders, managers or inventors;
- Choosing appropriate advisors and service providers to assist your venture, and entering into appropriate agreements with them. These may include lawyers, accountants, software or website developers, product testers, and other consultants; and
- Resolving any conflicts that may arise involving other HX LBTechX participants.
As you think about how best to establish a business and protect intellectual property, and what formal agreements to put into place among venture founders, managers, inventors and other relevant parties, recognize that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach or set of documents. You are best served by consulting with legal counsel of your own choosing to help you determine how to address the issues relevant to your venture.
- The terms of this agreement are additional to the edX Terms of Service.
Honor Code Statement
HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.
Nondiscrimination/Anti-Harassment Policy
Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form.
Research Statement
HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.