Innovator's Method: Post #3--Case Study

Case Study. Rent the Runway—Jennifer Hyman, Harvard MBA student. What to wear

to a formal event? Women do not want to be seen in same dress, but can’t afford to buy designer dresses. Would the Netflix model work for renting formal, designer dresses? In the past, when markets were more certain, people wrote business plans. Now—with uncertainty—answering key questions with experiments gets us to market sooner and cheaper. Three questions and experiments used: Experiment #1—Will women rent and return the dresses? #2—Will they rent a dress they can’t try on—as seen only on the Web? #3—Will the Netflix model work? Outcome: She determined that the Netflix model would work.