3. 2 4 5 63 7 9 1081
We set out to
understand our
customer
Chapter 1
Week
4. What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Public orgs (e.g. gov’t,
police departments,
public universities)
➣ Private orgs (e.g.
companies with ~30+
employees, private
universities/medical
schools, volunteer orgs)
➣ Employees & staff who
undergo training
Who are our most
important customers?
➣Companies & Orgs
(HR/Diversity dept)
Our original business model canvas evolved over time
We initially thought that we could
impact many different customer
segments
5. We entered the class interested in exploring
applications in Education, Police, Medical
Institutions, and Companies...
… and our interviews helped us narrow our focus
6. “This is exciting,
but I’m not sure
what budget we
have for this”
Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost of Student Affairs
Our interviews helped us narrow our focus... 6 interviews
Stanford University, Colorado
College, Teach for America
7. “Customized content
is important and
would need to be co-
developed with
officers”
Ben Singleton
Director of Analytics at NYPD
Our interviews helped us narrow our focus... 2 interviews
NYPD, Axon
8. “Doctors will only
listen to other
doctors”
Dr. Hannah Valentine
Chief Officer @ NIH
Our interviews helped us narrow our focus... 3 interviews
Stanford Medicine, NIH, Crisis
Prevention Institute
9. We discovered an
unmet need in
corporations: Chief
Culture / Diversity
Officers have limited
selection in current
market
This guided our focus
toward corporations
“We have a new role - the Chief
Culture Officer. Like the Chief
Diversity Officer & Chief
Learning Officer, it reports to the
CEO. I’ll send your pilot proposal
to all 3. This is something we
have to do”
Head of Diversity Strategy Programs,
Wells Fargo
...Until we landed on our target customer - large
corporations with a CDO
35 interviews
Walmart, Dropbox, Youtube,
Airbnb, MetLife, Citibank, etc.
10. What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging 360/AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Large corporate
companies with dedicated
DEI function and spend
➣ University
administration and faculty
trainings
➣ Police departments
➣ Medical institutions
Interviews helped us choose our target customer...
University admin and
faculty trainings not
right initial target
because of lack of
resources
Police and medical
Institutions not right
initial customer because
subject matter expertise
11. Then
HR lead / Training / Compliance Lead
● Existing role with set budgets
● Budgets may be “first cut” due to
lower priority than core business
ops
● No clear D&I strategy
We also got smarter on our actual buyer
Now
Chief Diversity Officer / Chief Culture Officer
● New role created in the last 5 years
● Few effective solutions to serve this new
role and new budget
● High priority, especially in tech
● Clear D&I strategy and currently paying
for trainings
Valerie Williams
Global Head of
Inclusion &
Diversity at Stripe
Lauren Guite
Head of Learning at
Freckle
12. 2 4 5 63 7 9 1081
Curveball:
We heard about
some new
regulations and
needed to
understand more
Chapter 2
Week
13. What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging 360/AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
...but new CA regulations made us question our target segment
Small companies will be
affected by recent
California regulation
For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Large corporate
companies with dedicated
DEI function and spend
➣Companies between 5-
50 employees that will be
affected by new California
state regulation for sexual
harassment training
➣ University
administration and faculty
trainings
➣ Police departments
➣ Medical institutions
14. Potential required
customer!
New CA regulations:
● Companies >5 employees must
provide sexual harassment and
bullying trainings
● All employees must undergo starting
Jan 1, 2020
● Must be interactive
Smaller underserved companies will
need new diversity training solutions
& won’t be able to afford in-person
workshops
15. Pivot averted: interviews revealed that small
startups (<20 people) not willing to pay
whereas large companies see compliance
separate from D&I
Larger companies are
approaching compliance
training separate from D&I
training
Opportunity to combine legal
compliance need with
diversity training needs
Opportunity
Smaller companies (<100) are
focused on growing fast and
using internal/free resources
More engaging D&I trainings
are not compelling to smaller
startups
Size matters
16. What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging 360/AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
New CA regulations made us realize that we must be scalable
For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Large corporate
companies with dedicated
DEI function and spend
➣ Large & Medium
companies now needing
to scale D&I training to
non-managers due to CA
statute
➣Companies between 5-
50 employees
➣ University
administration and faculty
trainings
➣ Police departments
➣ Medical institutions
Large/medium
companies will need to
scale compliance
trainings
Small companies (<100)
do not have budget to
use higher quality
external resources
17. 2 4 5 63 7 9 1081
We have a target
customer. Now we
need a product →
on to content
creation!
Chapter 3
Week
18. For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Large corporate
companies with dedicated
DEI function and spend
➣ Large & Medium
companies now needing
to scale DEI training to
non-managers due to CA
statute
➣ University
administration and faculty
trainings
➣ Police departments
➣ Medical institutions
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
...and we heard loud & clear how critical content would be
What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging 360/AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
We believed that we
could produce engaging
and effective trainings in
360 video, AR, and VR
24. What medium is the best
for interactivity and
flexibility?
● Not 360 video!
○ Thought: fast and easy to prototype
○ Reality
■ Hard to make high quality,
production value - see picture on
right for example
■ Higher need for film experience and
harder to enter as novices
■ Quote to have professional ten
minute 360 video ~$15,000
26. For whom are we
creating value?
➣ Large corporate
companies with dedicated
DEI function and spend
➣ University
administration and faculty
trainings
➣ Police departments
➣ Medical institutions
Which customer’s
problems are we solving?
➣ Current implicit bias
training is costly, ineffective
& fails to create sustained
change
Which customer needs are
we satisfying?
➣ Better engagement &
retention of bias training
➣ More effective product
for DEI* budget owners
➣ Employee and customer
satisfaction from trainings
➣ More inclusive &
profitable companies that
work across difference
Who are our Key
Partners?
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI* service
providers
➣ Hardware providers
➣ DEI* Research
Institutes (Clayman,
Ford, Urban, etc)
Who are our key
suppliers?
➣ Hardware providers
➣ AR/VR producers
➣ DEI*content
creators
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
➣ Investment in production of quality AR/VR experiences
➣ Hardware costs
➣ Business development & marketing
For what value are our customers willing to pay? How do we
make money?
➣ Corporate Implicit Bias Training is already a part of budget;
customers are WTP for improved engagement and performance
Through which
Channels should we
reach our Customer
Segments?
➣ Through HR/ Talent/
Diversity/ CEO
departments
What Key Resources do
our Value Props require?
➣ Expert AR/VR creators
➣ Production level AR/VR or
➣ LMS* Curriculum
What relationship
does each Customer
Segment expect?
➣ Client: Long term,
service provider
relationship
➣ Client Employees:
Access to resources
We learned that VR is key to achieving our vision
What Key Activities do
our Value Propositions
require?
➣ Engaging 360/AR/VR
experiences to outperform
traditional methods
➣ Best in class DEI*
curriculum
360 video experiences
do not support our value
propositions
28. Customer SegmentsKey Activities Value PropositionKey Partners
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model? For what value are our customers willing to pay?
ChannelKey Resources
Customer
Relationship
LMS = Learning Management Systems; D&I = Diversity and Inclusion
Our key learnings throughout the quarter led us to this:
Hardware
D&I Content
Providers
Clayman Institute
Ford Foundation
Interactive
Storytellers
Develop research-
backed
D&I curriculum
Create immersive
perspective taking VR
experiences
Test product efficacy
VR Creators
LMS Curriculum
More Effective Solution:
Increased engagement,
attitude change,
behavior change
Increased retention &
sense of belonging
More cost-effective &
scalable
More profitable &
innovative company
Long-term service
provider
Metrics expert
Resource provider
Direct sales
Chief Diversity Officer
Learning &
development lead
Companies with CDO
& dedicated budget
Companies with
recent bias incident
VR Experience
development
Hardware
Business
development &
sales
Improved
effectiveness &
engagement
Linking D&I
trainings
to D&I outcomes
Employee
retention & sense
of belonging
Tech companies with
increased D&I scrutiny
Hospitality & service
companies with front
line sales/ service
associates
29. Moving forward, we intend to pursue the $1.6BN spent on external solution
$8.0BNDomestic corporate spending on D&I Training
$3.4BND&I spending at Fortune 1000 Companies
$1.6BNSpending on external content & solutions
Target
Market
Served
Available
Market
Total
Addressable
Market
Melina
We are Praxis Labs, a company advancing Diversity & Inclusion outcomes through immersive, Virtual Reality based training experiences
Melina
Elise pulled our team of 4 together, as women of color the team quickly clicked through a shared passion for diversity, equity, & inclusion. At the beginning of the Lean Launchpad class, Katie Connor became our mentor. At this starting point we planned to use VR to reduce bias in schools, governments, and companies. After interviewing over 120 people including Customers, VR experts, and bias experts, and developing with our mentor, the team is now reimagining D&I training in VR to increase perspective-taking and provide a more effective and scalable solution.
Melina
The first 3 weeks in our journey were spent trying to understand who our customer segments are, and who would be our early adopters.
Melina
The team hypothesized that are customers were HR and D&I leads who are in charge of purchasing or developing trainings for their employees. We explore three customer segments which were HR and D&I leads at Public Organizations, Private Organizations, and Companies.
Melina
We explored public and private educational institutions, government sectors such as police departments, private hospitals, and companies across different sizes and industries.
Melina
From educational institutions
Melina
Melina
Melina
Where we found really found traction is with larger sized companies who have a Chief Diversity Officer. We learned that the CDO position had been created in the past 5 years and most Fortune 1000 companies under diversity scrutiny had one, and the CDO position was growing.
Melina
While the team saw opportunity in the future for other customer segments, we accepted that corporate companies had the budget and excitement to buy our product and became our target customer.
Melina
We also realized that the specific customer who we would be selling directly to, was not who we originally thought. Depending on the size of a company
Head of HR, Heads of Learning & Development, Directors of Diversity & Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer
Demi
Demi
Demi
Demi
Demi
Heather
So now that we actually have a customer in mind, we focused these next few weeks on content creation
Heather
Past interviews showed D&I leads were concerned and invested in what our content would be. We came in with the hypothesis that all immersive media could be powerful enough to produce engaging and effective trainings
Heather
To understand what was out there, we surveyed over 30 people about their experiences with existing trainings. The overwhelming response was that the e-learnings were boring and people wanted more engaging material. We thought we had hit the jackpot and were excited to come to class and share our findings.
Heather
But then the teaching staff reminded us, your end-user is not your customer!
Heather
Going back to our drawing board, we decided to refocus on our actual customers: D&I leads looking for improved outcomes.
Heather
In response to that, we developed storyboard content to pressure test against D&I leads to make sure we were on the right path
Heather
We originally expected that customers would be most excited about the content and topics we chose. Instead, we learned that D&I leads are most interested in whether we can make the content more interactive and customized to their own company.
Heather
So in our next iteration of product development, we wanted to explore which medium could create interactive and customizable content fast. Our first hunch was that 360 video was fast and easy to prototype. This did not go as we planned; it is hard to make high quality, as you can see in the picture on the right where I wore a laptop case to film with the camera
Heather
Instead we need a medium that supports our value props of effectiveness and scalability. During these weeks, we interviewed over 35 technology and D&I experts to find that VR is key in achieving our vision. D&I leads need to have empathy + pt to drive training effectiveness. Research out of the lab proves that vr can build empathy and pt more than other mediums. At the same time, companies need better ways to track D&I training effectiveness and VR can offer quantifiable metrics.
Heather
Elise
Elise
Elise
Elise
Elise
Elise
Elise
“Additionally, we’d love to share how our 6 MVPs helped us get to where we are now.”