User Innovation in Resource Scarcity

Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of goals beyond available resources. This definition highlights a common challenge faced by entrepreneurs. This challenge is the lack of resources to pursue and grow one’s idea.

Is this familiar to you?

In this course you will learn about the process – and importance – of innovating in resource-scarce environments, because this is where innovation often happens.

Here’s the main point: resource scarcity is not an unsurmountable barrier, but a solvable problem. There are effective bootstrapping tactics and strategies that you can learn and apply for the benefit of your venture and personal growth.

This course accompanies the existing MITx courses “You Can Innovate: User Innovation and Entrepreneurship” and “Product and Service Creation in the Internet Age.” As such, the curriculum of this course is based on the field of user innovation, pioneered by Professor Eric von Hippel at MIT.

Ultimately, the goal of the course is to inspire you in a very practical way. We want you to know that you too can be the entrepreneur of your dreams.

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Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fishing_with_cast-net_from_a_boat_near_Kozhikode_Beach.jpg

What you'll learn

• Bootstrapping strategies and tactics
• How to harness innovation communities for entrepreneurial problem discovery and problem solving
• How to apply innovation toolkits in product innovation and development