eCornell wants to celebrate and encourage entrepreneurs in their quest to build great products. Cornell’s newest certificate program, A Systems Approach to Product and Service Design arms entrepreneurs with a eight step process to design and develop products the right way.

One of the most crucial steps involved in developing new products and services is to develop and articulate a clear understanding of customer needs. Believe it or not, many products are developed without a deep sense of how customers will use them, which often leads to products with low adoptions rates.

The Contest: Submit a quick video (5 minute maximum suggested) that either explains or demonstrates the great lengths you went through to understand what your customers want. The more creative the better!

What You Will Win: 1 winner will win a scholarship for the eCornell Systems Approach to Product and Service Design Certificate program, free of charge (a $3,500 dollar value). Two additional entrants will win 2 free courses each ($1,250 dollar value each).

How Do I Enter the Contest? Start by uploading your video at www.youtube.com with the subject heading that includes “eCornell Entrepreneur Online Video Contest Entry”. You can see a sample video at www.youtube.com/ecornell14850. Once your video is successfully uploaded, retrieve your unique URL and complete the registration form on the right of this page to enter.

Time Frame: The competition starts the week of September 28, 2009 and ends on November 30, 2009. Winners will be announced on December 14, 2009.

How do I win: Winners will be selected based on the following criteria:

1. Quality of response: How effective were you in answering the key question of what great lengths you went through to understand your customer’s needs
2. Creativity: How creative was your response? (e.g. this relates to how you developed your video/ the approach that you used to develop your entry)
3. Methodology: What approach did you use to develop a deep sense of your target customer’s needs?

Who Qualifies: Anyone who is currently developing a new product or service or who has done so in the past.

* Please see Official Rules for additional information.  By entering the video contest you are consenting to receive future communication from eCornell.