BASECAMP

FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

LESSON 1: INTRODUCING VERTICAL

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In his book Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. We’ll explain how Vertical takes inspiration from his ideas and how you can too.

LESSON 2: HOW TEChnology IS BUILT TODAY

If you haven’t developed technology first-hand before, this is a primer on the two main ways technology is created these days: agile and waterfall. These have both been around for decades and have both their adherents and detractors. We’ll explain what they are all about here.

LESSON 3: THERE’S A BETTER WAY — THE VERTICAL THESIS

Now that we’ve given you an idea of the old-school options that are currently available to do it, we’ll show you why we created Vertical. It’s here to provide you with the step-by-step guidance you need to create the exact technology you and your audience need.

LESSON 4: your first step in mastering features

Features and mastery of them are critical to creating your technology. The next important thing to uncover is the process you will need to craft and deliver them. Features don’t just happen on their own — you have to set the stage for the best possible outcomes with them in your technology to happen. You’ll learn the three steps, which you will use repeatedly through our accelerator program, essential for getting you there successfully.

LESSON 5: GETTING STARTED WItH VERticAL

There are three essential skills that you will need to learn to get started with Vertical.

Mastering Features is the cornerstone of the Vertical process, and achieving mastery with them is the primary skill you’ll be learning in this accelerator.

Systems Thinking is a way of describing solutions and solving problems using tools like analog, procedural, digital, and hierarchical thinking.

And Mind Mapping is one of the best tools and techniques that you have probably never heard of for capturing and documenting complex information in simple visual outlines.

All of these will be game-changers and set the stage for you to deliver your technology and launch your venture.

SKILLS and CAPABILITIES

WORKSHOP 1: MASTERING FEATURES

Features are the cornerstone of the Vertical process, and achieving mastery with them is the primary skill you’ll be learning in our accelerator programs. This workshop introduces the high-level concepts that we’ll be using, which at its most basic answers just three questions: Who is it for? What do they need? And how will we deliver it? It’s a simple framework, but one that will reveal the complexity of your technology and give your team the tools they need to build it.

WORKSHOP 2: SYSTEMS THINKING

Now that you’re thinking in terms of features and products, your technology still has to become much more than just an app. It has to be a coherent, integrated set of user experiences crafted and curated for your audience. And there is also everything that you have to build behind the scenes to deliver those experiences. We think Donald A. Norman put it best: “Make them all work together seamlessly. That's systems thinking.”

WORKSHOP 3: MIND MAPPING

Vertical uses mind mapping tools like Freemind and Meistermind extensively. You’ve probably heard of or even used some of the same concepts before, but we’ll show you how to use these tools to unlock some fantastic capabilities: they’ll allow you to understand, create, and build technology in ways that other tools simply can’t.

WORKSHOP 4: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHer

Now that we have given you the fundamental building blocks of Vertical, let’s put them to use for the first time here and begin laying the groundwork for your technology.