Assignments
Submit one post per team per assignment on
Ed.
Use Project name: Assignment title as the subject, except for
the introduction below. Include any files or links in the post.
Assignments for weeks 3–14 are due the Sunday before each class date, from September 20 through December 6, including the November 3 holiday week. Include the five-line weekly update in the same post. All dated assignments are due at 11:59pm Eastern Time (just before midnight) on the date listed, including the final submission.
The week 2 introduction is due after admission; the final submission is due December 15. These two assignments do not require a weekly update.
| Due (2026) | Assignment | What to submit |
|---|---|---|
| Week 2 After admission |
Project and team intro |
Subject: If your team already posted its introduction after admission, you are done. |
| User conversations |
Brief notes from 5 user conversations. For each: the person's role and relevance to your idea, the problem and how they handle it today, and one direct quote. Names are not required. Add one short paragraph on the patterns, surprises, and what they mean for the problem and users you will focus on. Include your first weekly update. |
|
| Proposal |
Problem, user, wedge task, what "working" means, and your metric. 10 user conversations total. Include notes for the additional conversations in the User conversations format, and link your earlier notes to document the total. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Evals |
An eval set of 20 real cases and the current pass rate. Submit a table with each case's input or context, pass criterion, observed result, and pass/fail outcome. State the system version tested and any human assistance used. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Launch readiness |
A working prototype, feedback from a target user, and a plan to onboard your first users. Follow the launch checklist. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Launch |
A live URL and one external target user who has tried the intended workflow. Briefly describe the user's task, what happened, and evidence of the attempt, such as a usage record or user feedback. This launch requirement is non-negotiable. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Mock diligence |
A 5-slide progress deck for the visiting investors: (1) problem and user; (2) product and workflow; (3) evidence from users and evals; (4) what you have tried and learned; (5) biggest risk and next experiment. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Pivot or persevere |
A written decision supported by evidence. Still due during the Election Day holiday week. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Distribution |
3 distribution experiments run. Submit a table with each experiment's hypothesis, audience and channel, action taken, exposure and outcome counts, and what you learned or will do next. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Cost and pricing |
Measured cost per successful task, a price quoted to a real user, and their answer. Use the cost measurement guide. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Rehearsal deck |
Deck v1 for a 3-minute pitch. Use the pitch outline for all three pitch decks. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Revised deck |
Deck v2, revised after the rehearsal and rehearsed again using the 3-minute pitch outline. Include your weekly update. |
|
| Demo Day deck |
Your presentation deck for the 3-minute Demo Day pitch on December 8, incorporating feedback from your 1:1 and using the pitch outline. Include your last weekly update. |
|
| Final submission |
A product link with access instructions and a concise writeup. Link your existing user, eval, distribution, and cost evidence; explain your main decisions, limitations, and what you learned. Note which parts were AI-generated and which were written. Due one week after Demo Day. |
Weekly update
Include these five lines in each assignment post from September 20 through December 6 (weeks 3–14). Twelve updates in total. No extensions.
1. Shipped this week:
2. Our number, and last week's number:
3. What a user told us (a real quote, not a summary):
4. Biggest blocker:
5. Next week's target:About line 2. For your first update, report the number of people you have talked to who have the problem. Starting with the September 27 proposal, report your own metric and it locks. You may change it once, in the November 1 pivot-or-persevere decision, and not otherwise.
Guides
Use these guides while building and preparing for class. Submission dates are listed in the assignment list.
Launch checklist
- Choose one user workflow and define a successful task.
- Start with a small group of users who have the problem. Invite them directly and watch someone try the product.
- Explain the product's limits, request only the permissions and data it needs, and provide a way to recover from failures.
- Track completed tasks, failures, costs, and feedback. Decide what to change or test next.
How to measure cost
Log costs while building and testing, using the same real cases for reliability and cost. Include failures and retries.
Add model and tool costs plus human fallback time valued at a stated hourly rate. Divide the total by the number of successfully completed tasks.
Report the success rate and human minutes separately. If no task succeeds, report that result rather than zero cost. Use measured usage and time, and state any assumptions used to convert them to dollars.
Pitch outline
For a three-minute pitch: problem and user; product or demo; evidence and what you learned; next step. Use this outline for all three pitch decks.