Business Planning Midterm Review - Weeks 1–7 Concept Matching Notes

This is a mid-term scope summary for the Business Planning course (Prof. Im Jeong-ah, Saturday 16:30~19:05). The scope covers slides 1~7 (Weeks 1~7). No other materials are included.

Exam Announcement Status: As of October 24, 2026, there is no exam notice posted in the lecture hall or LMS online exam registration. Since the exam date and scope are unconfirmed per official announcements, this post bundles the entire content from Weeks 1~7.

According to the roadmap, the mid-term is scheduled for Week 8, covering Weeks 1~7 theory, with both multiple-choice and short-answer questions. Please re-check the schedule via official announcements. The review standard is based on the Week 7 material tips: "one sentence of meaning + one example per keyword."

Week 1: Orientation - Exactly Three Items for the Exam

• Course Definition: Develop skills in data searching and analysis; classify and analyze collected data according to planning objectives to create documentation through numerical data and charts.
• Operation: TU-PBL (Problem-Based Learning) course; weekly flow: Theory → Team Activity → Presentation → Feedback.
• Textbooks: Service Planning Skills (Main), AI Business Theory and 101 Business Model Stories (Supplementary).
• Final Deliverable: One team-based AI-driven business plan presentation in Week 14.

Here are the exam points for these three items.

• Business Planning: It is not about "what to make," but defining "who’s what problem is being solved."
• Difference between Technology and Business: Technology is the problem of "can we build it?"; Business is the problem of "is there someone who will pay for it?"
• Slogan: "Great services start from a problem, not an idea."

Grading includes multiple items like attendance, exams, assignments, and presentations. Since numbers vary by source version, checking the original syllabus (LMS) is the most accurate way to confirm.

Week 2: Finding the Problem Over the Idea

Why You Shouldn’t Start with an Idea

Order	Flow	Result
Idea First	Idea → Build → Find Customers	"Who is going to use this?" - Most fail
Problem First	Problem → Confirm Customers → Build	"When will it come out?" - There are people waiting for it

The conclusion is "Ideas are cheap, but problems are precious." You have to actively look for problems where people are experiencing inconvenience.

Starting Points - 3 Good, 3 Risky

• Good Starting Points: Inconvenience I experienced (most certain) · Others’ complaints (1-star reviews, etc. = signals of a problem) · Things people are already enduring (Excel, manual work = opportunity)
• Risky Starting Points: "AI is trendy" (customers disappear) · "It doesn’t exist yet" (there is a reason it doesn’t exist) · "Everyone can use it" (no one uses it)

Inconvenience Is in Actions, Not Words

1. Just enduring it - The most certain opportunity often comes from familiar inconveniences.
2. Working around it in strange ways (Excel, KakaoTalk 'Send to Myself') - Workarounds = evidence of a problem.
3. Spending more money or time - A signal of willingness to pay.
4. Giving up completely - The biggest market exists where people have given up.

Three discovery questions: "Does this usually take this long?" · "Why are you still doing this by hand?" · "When was the last time you got angry about something like this?" TIP - Ask "When was the last time you found something inconvenient?" instead of "What do you need?"

Three Lenses

Time ("Why does this take so long?") · Effort ("Why are humans doing this?") · Emotion ("Where do I feel anxious or annoyed?") - Services arise where time is wasted, repetitive labor is the domain of AI, and eliminating anxiety leads to payment.

One-Sentence Problem Definition Formula

Who + When/In what situation + Because of what + What loss/damage is experienced

Example: "Third-year students returning after a leave of absence have no way to see their remaining graduation requirements at a glance just before course registration, so they dig through community posts and mistakenly add the wrong subjects." - All four elements are present, so you can see what needs to be built.

Four Questions to Judge a 'Worth-Solving Problem'

Does it actually exist (3+ specific people) · Is it frequent (recommended: 1+ times a week) · Does a workaround exist · Can the effect be described in one sentence using time, money, or mental peace. Three types to avoid: Problems that are too broad ("Solving youth unemployment") / Problems only you experience / Problems already well-solved ("It's inconvenient to catch a taxi").

Week 3: Understanding Customers and Personas

The Customer May Not Be One Person

Role	Definition	Point
User	The person actually using it hands-on	Experiences inconvenience directly
Buyer	The person opening their wallet	Most sensitive to price
Decider	The person approving "let's use this"	Most important in B2B

Examples: For a children's learning app, parents are the buyers. For corporate collaboration tools, team leaders and executives are the deciders. For a university team project app, all three roles are the same person.

Four Criteria for Segmenting Customers - Stronger as You Go Down

WEAK Demographics ("20s female" is weak) · NORMAL Occupation/Role ("Owner of a solo-run cafe") · STRONG Situation/Context ("3 days before deadline" = Week 2's 'When') · STRONGEST Behavioral Habits ("A person who manages with Excel" = evidence of enduring a problem)

Four-Stage Target Narrowing Funnel

Total Market (50 million) → Role (Solo living adults, approx. 7.5 million) → Situation (Solo living adults at 10 PM after work, hundreds of thousands - the moment they turn it on) → One Person (Kim Min-su, 22, 2nd year of solo living = Persona).

"Isn't it too small if narrowed to one person?" - There are hundreds of thousands of people like Kim Min-su. If you satisfy one person, similar people will follow; if you target everyone, you can't catch anyone. Common traits of narrowed targets include time constraints ("3rd month at the gym," "Night before presentation") - those in a rush are your first customers.

7-Box Persona Template

Definition: A virtual character with specific details like name, situation, daily routine, and inconveniences, written as if they were a real person. Generic descriptions like "Men and women in their 20s-30s, smartphone users" are statistical summaries, not personas.

Box	Content
01 Name/Age	A made-up name is required
02 Occupation/Role	Something that makes you imagine their daily routine
03 Daily Routine	Here you derive the time they turn on the service
04 Experienced Inconvenience	Week 2's problem in this person's language
05 Current Workaround/Vendetta	If empty, the problem is weak
06 Desired Outcome	The outcome, not the feature
07 One-Liner Quote	The strongest one-liner for presentation

Four Mistakes: Listing statistics · Creating an ideal type · No visual/time context · Including the solution in advance - Write only the problem; save the solution for Week 5. How to judge: If it evokes "I know someone like this," it’s a success. If it evokes "Who are they talking about?", it’s a failure. Three Principles: Real character · No solution · One number.

Week 4: Market and Competitive Service Analysis

SESSION 1 - How to View the Market

Stage	Question	Nature
TAM (Total Available Market)	How large is the entire field?	Justification
SAM (Serviceable Available Market)	The scope of our customers within that market	Direction - Apply persona conditions
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)	The size we can actually capture within one year	Plan - Most important in planning

TAM is justification, SAM is direction, SOM is the plan - you must state all three to be convincing. Forbidden phrases like "The market is huge," "Even capturing 1% would be great," and "There are no competitors" all sound like "I didn’t do research."

The formula is: Number of Customers × Amount per Customer × Frequency. Numbers must have sources; if none exist, specify as "estimates." Four research methods: Open statistics (e.g., Statistics Korea) · App reviews (1~2 stars are the best material) · Community search · Trying it yourself.

SESSION 2 - Three Types of Competitors and 6-Item Comparison Table

The starting point is the persona’s "Current Workaround." If they search on YouTube and then open a delivery app, those two are your competitors.

Type	Definition · Point
Direct Competitor	Same customer, method, and problem - Easy to find, e.g., recipe