From prototyping to validating business models (Coursera)

Offered by The Open University,
From prototyping to validating business models (Coursera)

On this course, you’ll discover what sustainable business value means in the context of prototyping and validating business models. You will appraise your value proposition to stakeholders and its likely impact across people, planet, profit, and progress. You’ll develop a comprehensive snapshot of your business model value from three levels of analysis: environmental, social and business, and learn how to effectively pitch your sustainable business concepts.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Via text-based resources and task books, you’ll gain comprehensive understanding and benefit from in-depth reference points as you formulate your ideas and plans.
This course is part of the Sustainability for business success Specialization.

What you'll learn

  • Appraise your value proposition to stakeholders and its likely impact in the real world across people, planet, profit and progress.
  • Develop a comprehensive snapshot of your business model value from three levels of analysis: environmental, social and business.

Syllabus

Welcome to the course
On this course, you will discover how to articulate and prototype the underlying value you intend to generate across your ecosystem stakeholders. More specifically, you will understand how your intended business concept delivers value to solve the needs, problems and issues you may have identified early within your systems map.

Developing and prototyping sustainable business models
This week, you will detail how your intended business concept delivers value to solve the needs, problems and issues you identified in your systems map. This is a vital step to allow you to move beyond concepts towards real-world application and implementation.

Testing and validating sustainable business concepts
This week, you will learn how to prioritise the most important and critical elements to test, and learn how to use quick validation cycles with your key ecosystem stakeholders.

Course conclusion and assessment
It’s time to draw together the threads of your learning. This week, you will learn how to put together an effective pitch to potential seed or angel investors.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Coursera) Coursera
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Coursera)

Extreme weather events, wars, famine and environmental destruction are just a few of the wicked problems faced by humanity. That’s why in 2015 the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that target the big challenges such as how to eliminate poverty, how to protect the environment and how to bring about peace. Every member state committed to achieving these goals by 2030. What can businesses do to counter climate change and create a sustainable business culture? Why is this relevant for business anyway? Explore how business can contribute to a better future for people AND the planet without giving up profits.

Aug 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
User Experience & Interaction Design for AR/VR/MR/XR (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

User Experience & Interaction Design for AR/VR/MR/XR (Coursera)

This second course in the XR for Everybody specialization looks at how to design new user experiences for XR technologies. The course provides learners with a design thinking mindset and equips them with a fundamental toolbox for creating XR applications using rapid prototyping. It starts with a broad overview of the complete XR design process, discussing different paths to becoming an XR creator, what is generally involved in making XR experiences, and how to best get started.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration (Coursera) Coursera
Erasmus University Rotterdam

A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration (Coursera)

Integrated landscape management and large-scale landscape restoration should be in every company’s business strategy because in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goal on Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG Number 15.3) scaling up and acceleration of business-driven landscape restoration is urgently needed.

Sep 7th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Foundational Sustainability Skills & Competencies (Coursera) Coursera
Arizona State University

Foundational Sustainability Skills & Competencies (Coursera)

The third course in this specialization takes the skills and knowledge learners have gained in the previous two courses and develops them into concrete skills that will serve the learner when they enter the field as a sustainability analyst. These skills include developing sustainability goals and initiatives, reporting and planning, maintaining document accuracy, and identifying partners for sustainability initiatives. This course focuses on the real-world application of all the skills the learners have gained in the previous two courses, using video, text, interactive, and peer-reviewed content and activities to support continued growth and learning.

Aug 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Managing the New Product Development Process (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado Boulder

Managing the New Product Development Process (Coursera)

This course covers the product development process in detail. With the opportunity defined, learners begin with ideation techniques such as Design Thinking to create new product concepts. Learners define the tools to create product specifications that meet customer requirements, then conceptualize different ways of meeting those requirements. Learners conclude by exploring prototyping and the techniques used to down-select to a concept that is then carried through launch.

Aug 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Understanding the need for a sustainable business (Coursera) Coursera
The Open University

Understanding the need for a sustainable business (Coursera)

This course will help you to discover the features of sustainable business and how you can adopt these for business success. You will gain a high-level understanding of the critical ‘big picture’ issues facing humanity today and learn how we can address them through innovation development and implementation. You’ll consider implications for businesses arising from UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You will assess existing business design and innovation approaches to problem solving in a sustainability context.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Using Rapid Prototyping in the Engineering Design Process (Coursera) Coursera
Arizona State University

Using Rapid Prototyping in the Engineering Design Process (Coursera)

Hello, everyone! Welcome to this course on Using Rapid Prototyping in the Engineering Design Process. This is part of the Rapid Prototyping and Tooling specialization. In this course, I’ll cover the engineering design process and how it can be used to solve open-ended problems. I’ll discuss the different stages of prototyping and why it is advantageous to produce prototypes rapidly. I’ll then discuss engineering drawings and how to communicate information about 3-dimensional objects on 2-dimensional mediums such as paper or a computer screen.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Sustainable Business Enterprises (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Sustainable Business Enterprises (Coursera)

This course will explore current challenges and opportunities facing firms in the area of environmental sustainability. It will begin with an introduction to sustainability, with a particular focus on how environmental sustainability is relevant to business. Topics such as unsustainable consumption/consumer behavior, market research sustainable product design, sustainable value chains and communications will be covered. The bottom-up approach in terms of immersion, emersion, and design as applied to sustainable business enterprise will be covered.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
UX (User Experience) Capstone (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

UX (User Experience) Capstone (Coursera)

In this UX capstone course, you’ll conduct a multi-stage user experience project to design a product from scratch. You will employ interviews, inspection methods, and user testing, along with ideation, design, and prototyping methods to gain and communicate valuable insight that can be used to deliver a compelling product.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Thinking about sustainable business systemically (Coursera) Coursera
The Open University

Thinking about sustainable business systemically (Coursera)

On this course, you’ll examine the process, methodology and impact of global circular economy initiatives. You’ll use systems thinking and mapping to understand the underlying dynamics and interaction of your problem-opportunity space and explore the likely impacts and effects of changing and/or influencing key elements of your systems. You’ll also identify key ‘leverage points’ of potential change across your systems map that you can address through future business interventions.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Design Research para Estratégia e Inovação (Coursera) Coursera
FIA Business School

Design Research para Estratégia e Inovação (Coursera)

Nossas boas-vindas ao Curso Design Research para Estratégia e Inovação.Neste curso, você aprenderá sobre os principais elementos da Design Research (DR) aplicada à geração de inovação e estratégia. Tal método é fundamental para a criação de produtos, serviços e sistemas que atendam às necessidades humanas. No entanto, apesar de sua utilidade, a DR é amplamente negligenciada por muitas instituições e executivos. A DR, em essência, orienta as equipes para descobrir insights e desenvolver experiências de usuário que gerem valor.

Aug 24th 2026
4 Weeks
Design-Led Strategy: Design thinking for business strategy and entrepreneurship (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Sydney

Design-Led Strategy: Design thinking for business strategy and entrepreneurship (Coursera)

This course is for entrepreneurial managers who are looking for tools and techniques to introduce exciting, innovative products or services to market quickly and informed by high-quality customer insights. It is applicable to a range of organizations from small-medium sized enterprises through to corporates, and across a range of industrial segments.

Aug 31st 2026
5-12 Weeks