2026 (Current Year) Special graduate degree programs Specially Offered Degree Programs for Graduate Students Academy for Leadership

Doctoral Practical Group Work for Leadership I F

Academic unit or major: Academy for Leadership
Instructor(s): Keisuke Yamada / Yuri Matsuzaki / Mayu Watanabe
Class Format: Exercise
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms)
Class: F
Course Code: TAL.W602
Number of credits: 020
Course offered: 2026
Offered quarter: 3-4Q
Syllabus updated: Mar 9, 2026
Language: English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

In this course, students will practice the abilities they learned in "Fundamental Group Work for Leadership” (TAL.W501), “Fundamental Group Work for Leadership I” (TAL.W502), and “Fundamental Group Work for Leadership II” (TAL.W503) by pursuing group projects below.
・S Class (held in Q1 and Q2): Students will form teams to verify the commercial viability of their own business ideas, ultimately aiming to create a business plan to attract investment from venture capitalists and other institutions through the Lean Launchpad Program (LLP).

・F Class (held in Q3 and Q4): Students will form teams and develop a new web service proposed by them from scratch in a hackathon-style program (Programming Boot Camp; PBC) over a short period of around four days.

Detailed information about each program and its schedule will be announced at the beginning of the term. Please be sure to attend the pre-registration briefing and refer to the Total website (https://www.total.titech.ac.jp/).

To complete this program, experts who are familiar with the program and has extensive experience in developing startups or programming web application have been invited as mentors to guide the student teams.
S class(Lean Launchpad Program; LLP): Takashi Tsutsumi, CEO of Startup Brain Co., Ltd.
F class (Programming Boot Camp): a group of experts led by Junichiro Ueno of Scaleout Inc.

To complete the program, students will be required to comprehensively demonstrate the elements of "leadership" and "entrepreneurship," such as sharing a vision and purpose, empathy, issue identification, proposing solutions (ideas), prototyping, user testing, verifying hypotheses, communicating with customers, collaborators, and team staff, and taking actions.

Course description and aims

At the end of this course, students will be able to:
(1) Propose the practical ideas with high probability for solving the social issues.
(2) Explicate the probability of judgement and suggestion logically , and proceed consensus and keeping motivation among team.
(3) Understanding core and truth of feedbacks from society and reflect them into your judgement and suggestion.
(4) Presenting your emotion to your judgement and suggestion effectively and having support from others.

Keywords

Leadership/Followership, Consensus Building, Social Issues

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

1. S Class:
(1) Students considering enrolling in this program should attend one of several information sessions held between late February and the end of March, begin creating a business idea and forming a team, and participate in preparatory sessions (meet-up meetings) starting in mid-April.
(2) Program Procedures After the Program Begins:
i. Students will form teams based on their proposed business ideas (new product/service ideas) and verify their feasibility. Business feasibility testing involves conducting multiple interviews with potential customers to determine whether there is a customer base eager for the proposed new product or service. Depending on the results, students may change the appeal of the proposed new product or service or the target customer base, continuing their search.
ii. Based on the results of these interviews, students will be able to present a business plan and logically explain the high likelihood of market expansion.
iii. External experts familiar with this program and with extensive experience in startup development will accompany and advise student teams, enabling them to set logical next steps and change direction.

2. F Class:
(1) Students considering enrolling in this course should attend one of several information sessions held between late July and the end of September, begin creating the web service they wish to develop and form a team, and participate in preparatory sessions (meet-up meetings) beginning in mid-October.
(2) After the program begins:
i. Students will form teams based on their own proposed web application ideas and develop them from scratch to a level that can be verified by users in a short period of time.
ii. Students will exchange information about the development status and hold discussions with experts to refine the web application they are developing.
iii. An external expert with extensive experience in web application development will accompany and advise student teams, enabling them to set logical next steps and change direction.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	1. S-Class: Preparation before the program starts (2-3 sessions in total) and the program will be held about once every 2 weeks, with activity reports and subsequent activity policies being decided. The program is scheduled for a total of 8-9 sessions over about 2 months. In addition, in the final session, several practitioners, including investors, will participate and provide feedback and advice on the students' presentations. Preparation before the program starts (2-3 sessions in total): Presentation of business ideas and team building Session 1: Setting the problem and hypothetical setting of the service (product) to be provided and the business model Session 2: Reporting on user verification results/The meaning and setting of MVP (Minimum Value Product) Session 3: Reporting on user verification results/How to think about sales and profit models Session 4: Reporting on user verification results/How to think about scalable business Session 5: Reporting on user verification results/Creating a business plan Session 6: Final presentation about business plan 2. F-class: Session 1: Proposing development ideas and team building (1) Session 2: Deciding on development ideas and teams Session 3: Clarifying the appeal of the service and identifying customers/creating a development plan Session 4-6: Web application development / trialing other teams' apps and feedback & final presentation (Session 4 to 6 will be held in 3-day camp)	Assignments will be announced in each class. Students may be required to have out of the class meetings to accomplish the project.

Course schedule

Objectives

Class 1

1. S-Class:
Preparation before the program starts (2-3 sessions in total) and the program will be held about once every 2 weeks, with activity reports and subsequent activity policies being decided. The program is scheduled for a total of 8-9 sessions over about 2 months. In addition, in the final session, several practitioners, including investors, will participate and provide feedback and advice on the students' presentations.

Preparation before the program starts (2-3 sessions in total): Presentation of business ideas and team building
Session 1: Setting the problem and hypothetical setting of the service (product) to be provided and the business model
Session 2: Reporting on user verification results/The meaning and setting of MVP (Minimum Value Product)
Session 3: Reporting on user verification results/How to think about sales and profit models
Session 4: Reporting on user verification results/How to think about scalable business
Session 5: Reporting on user verification results/Creating a business plan
Session 6: Final presentation about business plan

2. F-class:
Session 1: Proposing development ideas and team building (1)
Session 2: Deciding on development ideas and teams
Session 3: Clarifying the appeal of the service and identifying customers/creating a development plan
Session 4-6: Web application development / trialing other teams' apps and feedback & final presentation
(Session 4 to 6 will be held in 3-day camp)

Assignments will be announced in each class. Students may be required to have out of the class meetings to accomplish the project.

Study advice (preparation and review)

Textbook(s)

Course materials will be provided during class.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Course materials will be provided during class.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Students will be assessed (pass/fail) on the achievement of the learning outcomes such as proposing the practical ideas for solving the social issues, consensus building in the group, dealing with the feedback from the society, and so on, as well as on the rationality of discussion and contribution to collaboration work.

Related courses

TAL.W502 ： Fundamental Group Work for Leadership I
TAL.W503 ： Fundamental Group Work for Leadership II
TAL.W603 ： Practical Group Work for Leadership II

Prerequisites

Registered students of ToTAL should have successfully completed either one of the Fundamental Group Work for Leadership (TAL.W501) or Fundamental Group Work for Leadership I (TAL.W502) before taking this course.

Other

The Graduate Attribute of this course: GA0D, GA1D