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Startup Needs Sorter

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About This MicroSim

A needs vs. wants assessment asks one question of every item on a founder's resource list: could the first lean test happen without it? If the answer is yes, the item is a want for now, however urgent it feels. Only the genuine needs belong in a minimal viable budget.

Learners work through six cards from Jordan's shopping list for the mobile dog-grooming idea and choose Genuine Need or Can Wait (Want). The feedback is immediate:

  • A correct answer flashes green; an incorrect answer flashes amber.
  • The correct category is stamped on the card.
  • A one-sentence explanation says why, so a wrong answer still teaches something.

Some cards are deliberately tempting. A branded van wrap and a professional booking website both sound like what a real business has, yet neither is needed to groom a few dogs in a borrowed driveway. A business license is not a physical item at all, but it is still a genuine need: an activity resource need that has to happen before Jordan can operate legally.

How to Use

  1. Read the item on the card.
  2. Click Genuine Need or Can Wait (Want).
  3. Read the feedback, then click Next Card.
  4. After card 6, click See Results for your score and a review of all six items.
  5. Click Try Again to sort the same six cards in a new, shuffled order.

The progress bar across the top turns green or amber for each card as you go. The stack behind the current card shrinks as cards are dealt. Nothing is saved; the score lasts only for the current session.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/startup-needs-sorter/main.html"
        height="500px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Given a list of items a founder is considering purchasing, participants will classify each one as a Genuine Need (a one-time need the first lean test cannot run without) or a want that can wait, applying the needs vs. wants assessment to Jordan's grooming-van example.

Bloom Level: Apply (L3). Bloom Verb: classify.

Duration

5-10 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 15 reading on startup needs, one-time needs, and the three kinds of resource needs
  • Chapter 6 reading on Jordan's draft offer, including text-message booking

Activities

  1. Solo sort (4 min): Each participant sorts all six cards and notes their score.
  2. Debrief the tempting wants (3 min): As a group, discuss the van wrap and the booking website. What makes each one feel like a need? What would have to be true about the lean test before either one became a genuine need?
  3. Sort your own list (3 min): Each participant writes five items they expect to buy for their own venture and labels each one Genuine Need or Can Wait, asking "could my first lean test happen without this?" for every line.

Assessment

  • Did the participant classify at least 5 of 6 cards correctly on a second, shuffled attempt?
  • Can the participant explain why a business license counts as a genuine need even though it is not a physical item?
  • Can the participant name one want on their own list and a cheaper way to run the first lean test without it, such as borrowing, renting, or sharing?

References

  1. Lean startup - Wikipedia - The build-measure-learn approach behind testing an idea with the smallest possible spend.
  2. Bootstrapping - Wikipedia - Starting a venture on the founder's own resources, which makes separating needs from wants essential.
  3. Minimum viable product - Wikipedia - The smallest version of an offer that still produces real learning, the product-side twin of a minimal viable budget.
  4. Fixed cost - Wikipedia - Background on the cost categories that follow once startup needs are settled.