Just like that, two and a half weeks are gone and past. What a great way to see and experience India. Between our pre-course trip to the Taj Mahal, the program at KLE, and the post program tour, I feel like I got a good helping of what India has to offer.

The coursework was really good. I thought it was a good balance of lecture and practical work and I enjoyed the parts where we got out of the classroom and worked as a team. As part of our team’s project we needed to conduct interviews with surgeons at local hospitals. I was quite skeptical about how it would go when we showed up at these hospitals. The first hospital we arrived at went very much as I expected. We waited around for awhile until we eventually got to speak to the administer who told us that no one would be available to talk to us and that we should come back another time. However, the visit to our second hospital completely caught me off guard.

When we arrived at the second hospital, we were only waiting for five to ten minutes before we were shown into the surgeon’s office. Not only was he a surgeon, but he was also an instructor of surgery. He was extremely polite, happy to help us, and very informative. The interview went great and he provided us with some critical customer input. Not only was his own interview a great success, but he also gave us the contact information for a couple of other surgeons and told us that we could use him as a reference when reaching out to them. We even got a photo with him. When we finished the interview, he said we’d have to excuse him, because he was supposed to be in surgery! What a great experience!

This is one of the big takeaways that I had from this course. When developing a product, you not only have to ensure there are customers for your product, but you 100% need to reach out to those potential customers and get their input and feedback. This primary research is critical in product development. It is going to be very time intensive, and some of that time will be wasted and you’ll never end up talking to someone. However, the information you gain from those potential customers that you are able to reach is priceless to an entrepreneur’s endeavor. Do whatever you have to in order to make those interactions happen and get the input of your customers!

Lastly, I really enjoyed the post session tour, especially going to the tomb and martyr sites of St. Thomas the Apostle.

Thanks for a great time in India!