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Mitch and Sam From TechSuite.io

Welcome to Tech Ready Founder Volume 1, the Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping Success, where you will learn how to go from “I have an idea for an app” to “I’m 100% ready to build my app.” The course will be led by Mitch Sapoff and Sam Corso from TechSuite, who for the last 5 years have been building and launching software successfully, having also helped well over 100 startups do the same. This has resulted in a combined $15+ Million in Venture funding, over $25 Million in revenue, and 5 exits between them and their clients.

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Welcome to Tech Ready Founder Volume 1, the Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping Success, where you will learn how to go from “I have an idea for an app” to “I’m 100% ready to build my app.” The course will be led by Mitch Sapoff and Sam Corso from TechSuite, who for the last 5 years have been building and launching software successfully, having also helped well over 100 startups do the same. This has resulted in a combined $15+ Million in Venture funding, over $25 Million in revenue, and 5 exits between them and their clients.

This course has been designed for hungry entrepreneurs looking to save a significant amount of money and time on development and nail it on their 1st try. By the end of this course, you will know how to devise a concrete product strategy for any idea, create an intuitive UI/UX, and validate your concept before even starting development. Here, we’ll be teaching you a product development methodology made famous by the Lean Startup, that’s currently used by almost all of Silicon Valley’s high-growth tech companies. With this, the whole goal is to get your idea out to the world as quickly and affordably as possible so that you can start gathering feedback and iterating immediately.

In Tech Ready Founder Volume 1, not only will we teach you how to prototype and validate your idea in 3 weeks or less, but we’ll actually walk you through the entire process from scratch with a mock app idea of our own. The ideal student for this course is an entrepreneur that’s not overly technical but has an app idea that they need help validating and building. If that sounds like you, let’s get started. We’d love to help you build the world’s next great idea.

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What's inside

Learning objectives

  • What is a software prototype and why do we do it?
  • How to go from idea to prototype
  • Discovering your customer, their pains, and their goals
  • Devising a solution to your customer's problems
  • Converting that solution from manual process to programmatic
  • Creating and testing product hypotheses
  • Setting and tracking actionable metrics and feedback mechanisms
  • Writing user stories
  • Prioritizing features
  • Converting user stories to wireframes
  • Finding design inspiration
  • Creating a brand identity
  • How to hire the best designer for your project
  • How to give proper feedback to your designer
  • Gathering feedback via usability testing with real customers
  • Processing and interpreting feedback
  • Revising your prototype and product strategy
  • Show more
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Syllabus

Week One - Laying The Foundations For Your Software Product

Book a call with Mitch on https://calendly.com/mitchfromtechsuite

Fail Faster or Succeed Sooner 1 - What is a software prototype?
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Fail Faster or Succeed Sooner 2 - Why we prototype
Fail Faster or Succeed Sooner 3 - How to go from idea to prototype
Product Strategy 1 - Problem
Product Strategy 2 - High-level solution
Product Strategy 3 - Customer avatar(s)
Product Strategy 4 - Product hypotheses
Product Strategy 5 - Actionable metrics
Product Strategy 6 - Feedback mechanism
Week Two - Creating Your Prototype
User Experience 1 - Creating your user stories
User Experience 2 - Prioritizing features
User Experience 3 - Converting user stories to wireframes
User Interface 1 - Finding design inspiration
User Interface - Creating a brand identity
User Interface 3 - Why you shouldn’t try this yourself

Book a call with Sam to get your prototype done in TechSuite's Prototyping Studio: https://calendly.com/samc621

For the 30-minute call, please come prepared with your brand identity and wireframes to ensure that you're ready to begin prototyping!

User Interface 5 - Assessing themes
User Interface 6 - Feedbacking the designer
Week Three - Testing Your Concept With Real Customers
Gathering Feedback On Your Prototype 1 - Why you need feedback

Live Usability Test Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bMmmX8FtBs

Virtual Usability Test Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U0PfOQNlZg

Gathering Feedback On Your Prototype 3 - Processing feedback
Gathering Feedback On Your Prototype 4 - Updating wireframes

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Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping with these activities:
The Lean Startup
Reinforce the core principles of the Lean Startup methodology, which is central to the course's approach to app prototyping and validation.
Show steps
  • Read the book, focusing on the core concepts.
  • Identify examples of Lean Startup principles in action.
  • Relate the book's concepts to the course syllabus.
Brush up on UI/UX principles
Strengthen your understanding of UI/UX design principles to better inform your prototyping process and create more user-friendly app interfaces.
Browse courses on UI/UX Design
Show steps
  • Review basic UI/UX design concepts.
  • Explore examples of good and bad UI/UX design.
  • Practice applying UI/UX principles to wireframes.
Prototype a competitor's app
Apply the course's prototyping techniques to an existing app to gain practical experience and identify areas for improvement.
Show steps
  • Choose a competitor's app to prototype.
  • Identify the app's core features and user flows.
  • Create wireframes and a basic prototype of the app.
  • Test the prototype with potential users.
Four other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all seven activities
Document your prototyping process
Solidify your understanding of the prototyping process by documenting each step and reflecting on your learnings.
Show steps
  • Choose a prototyping project to document.
  • Record each step of the prototyping process.
  • Reflect on your learnings and challenges.
  • Share your documentation with others.
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Learn a structured approach to rapid prototyping and testing, complementing the course's focus on efficient validation.
Show steps
  • Read the book, focusing on the design sprint framework.
  • Identify how the sprint framework can be applied to app prototyping.
  • Consider how to adapt the sprint framework for individual projects.
Explore advanced prototyping tools
Expand your prototyping toolkit by learning how to use more advanced features in prototyping software.
Show steps
  • Identify advanced features in your prototyping tool.
  • Find tutorials on how to use these features.
  • Practice using the advanced features in your prototypes.
Help other students with prototyping
Reinforce your understanding of prototyping by helping other students with their projects and answering their questions.
Show steps
  • Offer assistance to other students in the course forums.
  • Share your prototyping tips and tricks.
  • Provide feedback on other students' prototypes.

Career center

Learners who complete Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Startup Founder
A Startup Founder is responsible for launching and growing a new business venture. This involves developing a business plan, securing funding, building a team, and overseeing all aspects of operations. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* is designed for entrepreneurs and will be critical to a startup founder, particularly by teaching them how to prototype and validate an idea in a short period of time. The course walks through the entire process of app development from scratch. Additionally, the course’s focus on product strategy, UI/UX design, and usability testing directly addresses the challenges faced by startup founders in the early stages of development.
Product Manager
The role of a Product Manager is to guide the vision, strategy, and roadmap for a product. This involves understanding customer needs, market trends, and business goals, and then translating that understanding into actionable plans for the development team. The course, *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping*, offers valuable insight, because it helps build a foundation for a product manager to create product hypotheses and prioritize features, learn to devise a concrete product strategy for any idea, and create an intuitive user interface and user experience. A product manager will find the lessons on gathering and processing feedback particularly relevant for product iteration and improvement.
Product Owner
A Product Owner defines and manages the product backlog, ensuring that the development team is working on the most valuable features. This involves gathering requirements, prioritizing tasks, and communicating with stakeholders. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* aids the product owner by teaching them to devise a concrete product strategy for any idea, and helping to create an intuitive user interface and user experience. A product owner will find the modules about devising a solution to your customer’s problems and converting that solution from manual process to programmatic to be the most valuable.
User Experience Designer
A User Experience Designer focuses on creating user friendly and intuitive interfaces for digital products. This involves conducting user research, developing wireframes and prototypes, and testing designs. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* will be very useful because this course covers creating an intuitive user interface and user experience. It also emphasizes gathering feedback via usability testing with real customers, processing and interpreting feedback, and revising your prototype and product strategy. A user experience designer benefits from understanding the entire product development lifecycle, including product strategy and validation.
Innovation Manager
An Innovation Manager fosters a culture of innovation within an organization and develops new product or service ideas. This involves conducting research, running experiments, and managing innovation projects. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* will be useful because this will teach the innovation manager how to prototype and validate an idea, and it walks you through the entire process from scratch with a mock app idea of our own. The lessons on customer avatar(s), product hypotheses, actionable metrics, and feedback mechanism are particularly relevant.
Product Designer
A Product Designer is involved in the overall design and functionality of a product, considering both aesthetics and usability. This involves creating prototypes, conducting user research, and collaborating with engineers and product managers. A product designer should take *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* because this course will teach you how to create a prototype and validate an idea in 3 weeks or less, and it will walk you through the entire process from scratch with a mock app idea. The module on finding design inspiration is valuable to product designers.
Interaction Designer
An Interaction Designer focuses on how users interact with a digital product. This includes designing user interfaces, creating prototypes, and conducting usability testing. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* will be valuable because it teaches creating an intuitive user interface and user experience. The course also helps with gathering feedback via usability testing with real customers, processing and interpreting feedback, and revising your prototype and product strategy. Interaction designers will find the focus on user stories and wireframing beneficial.
Usability Tester
A Usability Tester evaluates the ease of use and effectiveness of a product by observing users as they interact with it. This involves designing test plans, recruiting participants, and analyzing results. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* includes gathering feedback via usability testing with real customers, processing and interpreting feedback, and revising your prototype and product strategy. The course will give the usability tester the tools to create better tests and to interpret the tests they create.
Design Strategist
A Design Strategist aligns design initiatives with business goals. This involves conducting research, facilitating workshops, and developing design strategies. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* will be useful because it helps the design strategist to devise a concrete product strategy for any idea. Additionally, the course will assist with converting user stories to wireframes. The design strategist can benefit from learning how to gather feedback via usability testing with real customers, processing and interpreting feedback, and revising your prototype and product strategy.
Chief Technology Officer
The Chief Technology Officer, or CTO, is responsible for overseeing the technological vision and strategy of a company. This involves making decisions about technology infrastructure, development processes, and innovation. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* helps the CTO better understand the practical aspects of app prototyping, product validation, and user feedback integration. The course teaches a product development methodology made famous by the Lean Startup, which is what is currently used by almost all of Silicon Valley’s high-growth tech companies.
UI Developer
A User Interface Developer is responsible for implementing the visual elements of a software application. This involves working with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other front end technologies. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* discusses user interface design. The course is useful because it helps the user interface developer to create a brand identity and to assess themes. UI developers may find direction in the feedbacking that the course teaches.
Software Architect
A Software Architect designs the high-level structure of software systems. This involves making decisions about technologies, frameworks, and system integration. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* helps the Software Architect with the design and architecture of app prototypes. The course discusses how to gather feedback via usability testing with real customers, processing and interpreting feedback, and revising your prototype and product strategy. Software architects can use what they learn to better align technical designs with user needs.
Technology Consultant
A Technology Consultant advises clients on how to use technology to meet their business goals. This involves assessing current systems, recommending new technologies, and managing implementation projects. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* may aid technology consultants, specifically in the areas of app development and product validation. The course will teach you how to prototype and validate your idea in a short time frame. A technology consultant will benefit from understanding how to effectively guide clients through these processes.
Application Developer
An Application Developer is responsible for designing, coding, and testing software applications. This involves working with programming languages, software development tools, and various platforms. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* may support an application developer, specifically by improving their collaboration with designers, understanding product strategy, and creating user stories. The course teaches programmatic conversion from a manual process. Application developers will learn how to integrate user feedback into the development process.
Business Analyst
A Business Analyst is responsible for identifying and analyzing business needs and problems, and then recommending solutions. This involves gathering requirements, documenting processes, and communicating with stakeholders. *Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping* may be useful to a business analyst by teaching them how to create and test product hypotheses, set and track actionable metrics and feedback mechanisms, and prioritize features. From this course, a business analyst may also be better equipped to devise a concrete product strategy for any idea.

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Tech Ready Founder: The Ultimate Guide to App Prototyping.
Is foundational to the course's methodology. It introduces the Lean Startup principles, emphasizing validated learning, rapid iteration, and building a minimum viable product (MVP). Understanding these concepts is crucial for effectively prototyping and validating app ideas. This book provides the theoretical framework for the practical exercises in the course.
Offers a structured approach to rapid prototyping and testing, complementing the course's focus on efficient validation. It provides a detailed framework for conducting design sprints, which can be applied to app development. This book is particularly useful for teams looking to quickly iterate on ideas and gather user feedback.

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