The Innovation-to-Market course is intended as an entry point for innovators, seekers of a creative solutions, designers of novel approaches to social problems or makers of impactful products at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

You’ll begin by forming a hypothesis about your business concept. You will then test that hypothesis by interviewing potential users and customers of your product or service. The purpose of this is to identify a “product-market fit.” Simply put, is your proposed product/service addressing a real need or demand? Is the pain point sufficiently large that customers will pay money for your solution? If so, how much? Is it a big enough market for you to bother pursuing? If the answer to any of these questions is “no” you are better off finding out earlier and pivoting to a new value proposition, perhaps changing which customers you will go after or what product features you will incorporate.

Innovation-to-Market is designed to get you thinking along these lines and get you started actually doing some of this customer discovery by getting out there and interviewing potential customers. It is not just a theory-based lecture course. While there is some delivery of content and knowledge sharing, the most important aspect is to gain some experiential learning-by-doing.

The I2M program consists of live classroom sessions* and weekly mentor meetings. All D2P programs are free and open to UW–Madison faculty, staff, and students, and employees of UW–Madison affiliate organizations.

*Please Note: The format for Summer 2022 instruction will be virtual. Classroom sessions will be online. Team mentoring will be optionally remote or in-person as individually coordinated. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us to discuss your concerns and/or circumstances.

Have questions before you apply? Sign up for a mentor chat or attend a D2P Open House.

Summer 2022 dates: June 1 – July 27 (Wednesdays, 9 – 11 am)

Eight-week course includes 5 live online classroom sessions (June 1, 8, and 22; July 13, 27) plus weekly mentor check-ins.

Summer applications due: Monday, May 16, 2022, at 9 am

More information, course objectives and application guidelines