WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES 1

CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES

Next-Generation FellowshipProgram

Sharpeningyour
Problem Pitch

Ignite. Week1
https://www.wfglobal.org

WADHWANI FOUNDATION |CREATING JO BSCHANGING LIVES

Overview of
the program and
your learning
journeyover the
14weeks:
Milestone 1
Explore
Week 1:ProblemPitch
Re-visit your opportunity
Re-validate your problem
Refine and Perfect your
Problem Pitch
Week 2: Customerand
Market
Identify Market Types
Estimate Market Size
Define Market Positioning
Describe CustomerPersona
Week 3:Sustainable
DifferentiationStrategy
Craft Core Value Proposition
Create Sustainable
Differentiation Strategy
Deliver Value
WADHWANIFOUNDATION|CREATING JOBSCHANGING LIVES
Milestone 4
Launch
Milestone 3
Go-To-Market Week 9:Growth and Scale
Devise Growth Plan
Structure Scaling Strategy
Customer Acquisition
Milestone 2 Operational Excellence
Managing Money
Discover Week 7:SustainableBusiness Week10:Funding
Create Sources, Usesof Funds
Plan
Map Start-Up Cycle to Funding
Build Sales Plan
Build People Plan
Options
Create Pitch Deck
Build Financial Plan and Unit
Economics
Build Funding Plan
Week 4:BusinessModel Identify Metricsthat Matter
Build and Test your BusinessModel Week 8:GTM Strategy
Decision to Pivot or Persevere
Identify Appropriate GTM
Identify Riskiest Assumptions in Channels
Business Model
Develop Channel Partners
Week 5:MinimumLovableProduct Analyse Market Penetration
Create/ Iterate Prototype Strategy
Conduct CustomerInterviews Build Digital Marketing Plan
Analyse Feedback
Build the MLP
Week 6:SustainableBusinessPlan
Build Sales Plan
Build People Plan
Build Financial Plan and Unit
Economics
Build Funding Plan
Identify Metricsthat Matter
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Program introduction &
Welcoming Message
Welcome to Next Generation
Entrepreneurship Fellowship -
ignite.
we are very excited to have you here
with us and we promise you that you
will have a life changing experience
in the upcoming 14 weeks.
WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES
Throughout this week we will help you
learn more about the program details and
get you introduced to some basic
concepts to get you ready for building a
successful company.
So please pay attention to all details that
will be shared with you throughout our
weeks and connect with our team if you
have any questions at any point,
throughout the fellowship.
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 CONCEPTS
● A current analysis of the venture
● Revisit the Problem Statement
● Calibrate the Problem Statement on the
Great Problem Litmus Test
● Sharpen your Problem Pitch

By the end of the week, you will be able to:

● Analyze different aspects of your business.

● Have visibility of different aspects within your
business.
● Sharpen your Problem Pitch.

Steps:

1. Revisit your Problem Statement

2. The Great Problem Litmus Test
3. Sharpen Your Problem Pitch

WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES 5

TheProblem
Statement Problem
ProblemLitmus Sharpenyour
Statement– Test Pitch
Revisit

If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the
problem and one minute resolving it.

– Albert Einstein

A common quality that many entrepreneurs are missing, especially younger ones, is
working for long term success.

In a fast paced world, short term successes are over highlighted and over
celebrated. This makes many people believe that many of the successes out there
just happens overnight.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, remember that it takes years and a lot
of effort to get to where big companies are today.

Entrepreneurs tend to be solutions-driven people and will focus all of their

energy on the product they are building. Being able to deeply understand the
problem you are solving is critical. It’s going to affect everything about your
business:​
• How to understand which customers to talk to​
• How you pitch your startup​
• Build trust with customers​
• Gain insights your competitors might not have​
• How you differentiate yourself​
• How you execute strategically based on intensity of need​
• How your product fits into the life and activity of your customer
• How you think about the elements of your product, how it is introduced,
activated and what elements of your products are really important
• Why your customer would or would not use the product (now)

How To Frame A Problem To Find The Right Solution

Forbes
How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve
Harvard Business Review
How to Identify Problems Worth Solving
LinkedIn
WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES 6
Analyse your current
problem statement Problem
Statement–
Revisit
ProblemLitmus
Test
Sharpenyour
Pitch

The Great Problem Litmus Test:

1. Market Size:
Is this problem something that a lot of people face?
2. Pain Intensity:
How painful is this problem for those people? Does this problem need to be solved?
Are people so desperate to find a solution to this problem that they will use a buggy version?
3. Existing Alternatives
Is this problem being solved in other ways which are adequate?
Can this problem be solved in other ways?
3. Customer Psychology and Habit Change
Will people change their habits and adopt my solution?
4. Willingness to Pay
Will people pay to have this problem solved?
Will they pay ME to solve this problem for them?
5. Lovability
Will this solution become something they cannot live without?
6. Evangelisim
Will they go out and tell all of their friends about my solution?

AirBnb, the popular and fast-growing bed and breakfast startup

chain, defined its problem statement through three issues faced by
their customers – the price of hotels, the disconnection in existing
hotels, and the lack of methods to connect with locals, or somehow
become a host for a traveler.

WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES 7

Problem
Statement Problem
Statement–
Revisit
ProblemLitmus
Test
Sharpenyour
Pitch

● You have learnt different steps of why it is importantto start with the problem, how
to define a problemworthsolving,how to analyzesuch a problemto make sureyou
are really targeting the rootcause of the problemand not just the apparent deceiving
reasons. You have made sure that noone else is solving this problem,there aren’tsimilar
solutions to what you propose or there are not good enough solutions and you believe you
can create better solutions.

● Itis timeto get all of this info collected at one place usingthe problemstatement
canvas

● This will help you get a clear overview regardingthe different aspects of the problem
you are targetingand it will helpyou be more confident that you identified a problemworth
solving, a problem that aligns with your personal and professional goals and that no one
else has dominated solvingit.

● You shoulddothis until you find the right problem. Donot choose the first problem
you stumbleupon, especially if the data is showingyou it is not good enough. Dig
deeper until you find the root cause of a problemand you will be able to capture a great
marketgap!

CONTEXT PROBLEM ALTERNATIVES

When does the What is the root cause What do customers do now to
problem occur? of theproblem? fix theproblem?

CUSTOMERS EMOTIONAL IMPACT ALTERNATIVE SHORTCOMINGS

Whohas the problem most How does the customer feel? What are the disadvantages of
often? the alternatives?

QUANTIFIABLE IMPACT
What is the measurable impact
(include units)?

Problem Statement Canvas Credit: metabeta.com

WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES
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 Call to Action! Problem
Statement–
Revisit
ProblemLitmus
Test
Sharpenyour
Pitch

You have gone through the different steps of the Problem Statement Canvas -
identifying a problem,acquiringthe knowledge and learning the different tools that are
needed to identify a problem that you find interesting to start workingon and tackle.
Now you have a validatedproblem – one that you are sure has somepotential.

Always remember that documenting your outcomefrom those 2 weeks will help you keep
track of the problemand you can always come back and check your outcome.

It is now time to define the problem statement in a clear and succinct manner:

Steps of Problem Definition:

→ Put the problem in the context

→ Explain the relevance and criticality of the problem
→ Substantiate your claims (market data, customer interviews)
→ Propose a solution
→ Explain the incremental benefits of your proposed solution(s)

You can always use the samemodelin the future

and applyit on any problem you are workingon
to ensure proper analysisof the problem

WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES

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 nextgen.global@wfglobal.org

WADHWANI FOUNDATION | CREATING JOBS CHANGING LIVES