Burton Snowboards: Jake Carpenter
This lesson is an episode of NPR's How I Built This.
Listen to the episodeWhat you'll get
Jake Carpenter, then 23, decided in 1977 to build a better version of the Snurfer, a stand-up sled he had loved as a teenager, and shaped test boards by hand, alone, in a Vermont barn; he tells Guy Raz how that grew into a new sport and one of the world's best-known snowboard brands. Hear it if you are making something for a use that barely exists yet, since it is a story of building by hand before anyone is buying.
Do this week
Make three versions of one part of your product this week, changing one thing in each, and have a likely customer try all three and pick one.