MVP Startup Studio

2-day advanced workshop for established startup teams, focused on deep user and UI/UX research, rapid experimentation, and scaling a startup team to hire the right talent.

The perfect program for teams actively participating in pitch competitions, campus incubators, and mentorship.

Teams leave with the confidence to build their solution and to grow their team when the time comes.

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BY THE END OF THE PROGRAM

Startup teams will learn

User personas

Learn how to define and align around who you’re building for. We’ll cover methods to identify your users’ motivations, goals, and behaviors so your team builds with clarity and empathy.

User journey mapping & JTBD

Uncover what your users are trying to accomplish. We’ll use journey mapping and the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework to identify pain points and opportunities along the path to solving real problems.

Cross functional team development

Startups require nimble teams wearing multiple hats. Learn how to structure early roles beyond “founder” and build a team capable of navigating the full customer lifecycle.

Customer lifecycle

Explore the end-to-end path of a customer—from first awareness to retention and renewal. Understand which roles and activities are essential at each stage to drive growth and loyalty.

Ideal customer persona (ICP)

Define your most valuable customer. You’ll narrow your focus by creating an Ideal Customer Persona that helps guide product decisions, marketing strategies, and team priorities.

Empathy mapping

Develop a deeper understanding of your users’ thoughts, feelings, and challenges. This session helps you visualize your customers’ mindset so you can build more impactful solutions.

Experimentation setup

Learn how to design and run lean experiments to validate your assumptions about what users want and need. This module helps you craft testable hypotheses around user behavior and value, then build scrappy experiments to gather real-world insights before investing in full development.

User experience research

Learn how to test and validate early product ideas through scrappy research and prototyping. This module helps you explore how to build the right MVP with just enough functionality to learn.

Product iteration best practices

Not all feedback is created equal. In this module, teams will learn how to interpret user experiment results, spot meaningful patterns, and decide what changes to implement—or intentionally ignore. We’ll cover practical frameworks for prioritizing feedback, balancing vision with data, and iterating quickly without losing focus.

Tech stack for startup teams

Choose the right tools to build, test, and scale your startup. We’ll discuss how to assemble a lean tech stack that supports collaboration, product development, and values-aligned decision-making.

Day 1 - Mapping the customer & user journeys

Outcomes: Teams build out their hypothesized current state user journeys, user/customer personas, and experiments to test these assumptions

Teams introduce their businesses and we lay out expectations and goals for the MVP Startup Studio

Teams create empathy maps of our end-user to determine our user personas

Teams map out the user journey for a person or organization who uses the solution, including their jobs-to-be-done

Teams map out the entire customer lifecycle from top-of-funnel awareness through renewal

Teams draw up an experiment that they will test tomorrow with actual users to gain valuable product insights

Day 2 - User experience research and team maturation

We introduce how mature startup teams grow, including typical roles & career paths associated with them

We discuss the modern tech stack for a B2B and B2C company that is lean but effective

Teams facilitate experiments with 3-5 users, testing their assumptions and refining their hypotheses

Teams present the results of their user research and how the experiments affected their user journeys

Outcomes: Teams learn how to mature their startup as they grow, test their hypotheses experimenting with real users, and decide which feedback to implement

FAQ

Questions about the MVP Startup Studio

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What is the MVP Startup Studio?

A 2-day program for established startup teams that will teach them advanced entrepreneurship and product iteration principles. Teams will deeply analyze their user and customer personas, mock up journey maps, and focus on how their solution delivers real value for customers and users.

The program leans heavily on experimentation and hypothesis testing, inviting real users to participate in user research. This gives teams real insights into their user and customer journeys, equipping them with actionable data to determine how to iterate their solution.

We also cover how early-stage startups build functional teams, including GTM, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success. Not only will this help teams mature, but it will introduce students to startup career paths that await them if they decide not to pursue their startup full-time.

What kind of ideas and industries are allowed to participate?

This is ultimately up to you, but the MVP Startup Studio is open to all kinds of teams, from Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) to Business-to-Consumer (B2C) to Business-to-Business (B2B). Although the Studio is open to all startup teams, this methodology is most commonly employed by software companies.

How much does an MVP Startup Studio program cost?

The program is free for students. The Startup Bug contracts with the institution. The price will vary based on the scope, level of customization, and your budget, but will likely fall between $6500 and $8000.

What is the preferred classroom structure for an MVP Startup Studio workshop?

This program can be in-person, hybrid, or virtual. In-person is the preferred format.

How many teams can we accept?

The ideal maximum is six teams.

I don't see a topic on the list that I'd like covered. Can you teach it?

Talk to us about it! The Startup Bug team can create a bespoke curriculum that better matches your program's needs.