1. Learn empathy, 2. Ask people at Palo Alto coffee shops to get a sense for what they might need, 3. Profit !!!
In his final quarter at the D.school, Mr. Kothari enrolled in Launchpad, a class that asks students to sign a pledge agreeing to introduce a product or service in 10 weeks.
Mr. Akshay Kothari Kothari and his partner, Ankit Gupta, spoke with people at Palo Alto coffee shops to get a sense for what they might need. One common frustration people had was the constant fire hose of news they were getting from a wide variety of sources. So they decided they could make the most impact with Pulse, a news-reader application that allows users to customize their news feeds.
They released the app early, five weeks into the course. That timing -- just before Apple's 2010 Worldwide Developer's Conference -- could not have been more fortunate.