Workshop: Imagining Creative Ways to Test Your Idea

A strong idea does not need to be fully built before you can start learning from it. In this hands-on workshop, Emily Roller, Assistant Director of Student Programming at Tsai CITY, will guide students through defining the core “thing” they are creating and identifying creative, low-risk ways to test whether it works as intended. They will then have the opportunity to create a vibe-coded prototype. Students will explore how minimum viable products, prototypes, pilots, and other early experiments can generate useful feedback before significant time or resources are invested. By imagining different ways an idea could be experienced, tested, or challenged, students will learn how to turn assumptions into experiments and gather meaningful feedback from real users or audiences. Designed for Launch Pad students but open to any student interested in venture creation, the workshop offers a practical foundation for testing ideas early and refining them with greater clarity and intention. Students will leave with approaches they can apply directly to their own projects as they move from concept to execution.