University of Nebraska High School Ideation Discussion Question

Coming to college wasn’t the only choice you could have made after high school graduation. You could’ve decided to scrap university life for something else, like starting your own business. It’s certainly not an unreasonable potential.

Let’s pretend that is actually what happened: you decided to forego a college education for the risk (and potential reward) of setting off on your own and starting some business/non-profit venture.

What would that look like?

This semester-long writing assignment will help to probe that potential reality by having you construct a narrative around the development of this venture. You will eventually discuss important topics like social responsibility, analytical decision-making, and strategic growth within the context of your organization.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, you need an idea of what venture you’ll set out on. Remember, market opportunities often exist because of some underlying “problem”. Your task is to think of a problem that interests you and by which you can organize a solution in the form of a product or service.

For the first writing assignment (Stage 1: Ideation), we have a few simple questions for you to answer:

What type of product/service are you going to produce?

Why are you producing this product/service?

Who will you produce it for? That is, who is your market?

Use what you have learned on ideation and innovation to motivate the product/service you have chosen to produce and answer these questions in narrative form.

Your response to the above questions should be between a total of 400-600 words. You will be graded on accuracy of content/concepts used, feasibility, and finally the organization and presentation of the writing. Please refer to the rubric posted on Canvas for more detail on grading.