1/3 ~ Overview
DMA 160 STU 2
M/W 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Instructor: Matthew Manos
matt@verynice.co
@verynicetweets
mattmanos.com/UCLA
Course Description:
The focus of this course is to provide students with a set of hands-on, radical, approaches to Innovation,
Entrepreneurship, and the Design of Business. The class will introduce historical as well as new and emerging
methodologies and perspective in the field of entrepreneurship, in order to provide a basis for students to invent
their own. Students will engage with a series of experimental models for generating innovative business that will
give them practical (and potentially impractical) skills to become informed entrepreneurs. The class will culminate
in a final project in which each student will develop and test a new methodology for entrepreneurial endeavor.
Class Format:
Each week will have two meetings. The course will be highly intensive with students producing a total of four
projects centered around entrepreneurial methodology. The first two weeks will provide students with an introduction to entrepreneurship and innovation practices as well as contemporary strategies used in the entrepreneurial community including Design-Thinking and the Lean Startup Methodology. The third week will focus on
practical business skills. The fourth week will introduce more radical approaches to innovation and entrepreneurship that have yet to be recognized as mainstream ideologies. The remainder of the term will be dedicated to
independent research and experimentation as each student develops their final project.
Recommended Reading:
The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen
The Design of Business, Roger Martin
The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limit of Markets, Michael Sandel
The Human Drift, King Camp Gillette
2/3 ~ Schedule
DMA 160 STU 2
M/W 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Instructor: Matthew Manos
matt@verynice.co
@verynicetweets
mattmanos.com/UCLA
Week 01 ~ Entrepreneurship & Innovation
In the first week, students will be immersed in the history and terminology of “entrepreneurship” and “innovation.” We will study the evolved definition of these terms, and discuss the role of “design” in the practice of
entrepreneurship. Project 1, “An Entrepreneurial Stroll,” will be assigned and completed by the second meeting.
Project 2, “Destructive Innovation,” will kick-off in the second meeting, and will be due in Week 02.
Week 02 ~ Contemporary Methodologies
Contrary to popular belief, entrepreneurship doesn’t just happen - ideation comes from an extensive process.
Two methodologies of particular relevance today are Design-Thinking, and the Lean Startup methodology. Students will be introduced to these contemporary methodologies, and will be challeneged to begin thinking critically of these methods in order to define their own. At the beginning of meeting 1, students will present Project 2
in the casual format. Project 3, “People-Knowing,” will be assigned in the beginning of meeting 2.
Week 03 ~ Business Tips & Tricks
In the third week, students will gain practical day-to-day business skills. Without these skills, the logistics of
entrepreneurship will not be possible. We will discuss self-promotion (and self-defense) tactics in the first meeting. Also during the first meeting, students will have individual meetings with Matthew to discuss their progress
on Project 3. In the second meeting, design-business expert, Terry Lee Stone will visit the class to give a talk on
business ethics, money, and contracts. At the beginning of meeting 2, students are required to submit Project 3.
Week 04 ~ Diegetic Entrepreneurship
For the final lecture of the course, students will be introduced to the principles of “diegetic business,” the design
of business for a history, future, or moment other than our own. This week will give students hands-on experience leveraging tactics of fiction and scenario development into the innovation process. The final assignment,
and will be announced in meeting 2 of week 4.
Week 05-06 ~ Research & Experimentation
For the remaining two weeks of the quarter, up until the final student presentations, we will be using the class
time to work independently and iteratively on the final assignment.
Final Critique ~ 8/1
Specific expectations for the final presentation and deliverable will be discussed in Week 04.
3/3 ~ Projects
DMA 160 STU 2
M/W 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Instructor: Matthew Manos
matt@verynice.co
@verynicetweets
mattmanos.com/UCLA
Project 01: An Entrepreneurial Stroll
Students will embark on an entrepreneurial stroll on their way home from the first class meeting. Every 100 steps,
the student will be prompted to take note of 3 specific observations: a non-living thing, a living thing, and a space.
Each student will synthesize their findings into an executive summary statement that describes their product (nonliving thing), market (living thing), and location (space). Students will present their business to the class in the form
of an elevator pitch, and we will have a brief discussion about the process as a whole. Due 06/27.
Project 02: Destructive Innovation
Working in groups of 3, students will invent a fictional machine that is capable of limiting or capturing a human’s
ability to communicate. For example: a machine that is able to read and translate sign language. The purpose of
the exercise is to design a system that is impenetrable - a machine that can capture everything we are trying to
communicate. For homework, each student will then work individually at home to invent a new product, service, or
business that is capable of destroying the machine they created in class. Due 07/02
Project 03: People-Knowing
When creating a new product, or undergoing a new entrepreneurial endeavor, it is crucial to include the audience
your business is engaging with in the process of innovation. In this project, students will research a community
with very specific needs, and will write a proposal for a methodology unique to that audience. Due 07/11.
Project 04: The Implication of “Things”
How much of an effect would changing one moment in history have on the present condition? What if the cultural
standards that we know and understand did not exist? What new opportunities could arise from a speculative
shift in what we see as “normal”? These questions pose scenarios that are uncomfortable and unknown, therefore
raising more questions. In this workshop, students will explore the implication of “things,” by responding in an
entrepreneurial manner to situations that present alternative realities.
Project 05: Final
The class will culminate in a final project that each student will work on independently, or in small groups if it is
appropriate for the interests of each student. The specific prompt for the final project will be distributed in week 4.
Due 08/01.