Start with your means.
Who you are, what you know, and whom you can reach. Build directly from existing data, workflow access, and personal relationships without waiting for permissions.
AN EXPERIMENT IN COLLECTIVE INVENTION · UVA DARDEN
Better ideas.
Built together.
Bring your domain experience. Combine Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectuation framework, agentic AI, and 40 Darden peers and alumni to build and test a working prototype in one day.
ONE PERSON BRINGS A PERSPECTIVE.
THE ROOM CREATES A NEW POSSIBILITY. ↗
THE EXPERIENCE
Enduring practice. Collaborative speed.
01
SOLO PREPARATION · ~35 MIN
Upload & Explore Effectuation.
Upload your North Star and problem set. Use AI to proactively explore bird-in-hand, pilot-in-the-plane, crazy quilt, lemonade, and affordable loss, then refine your thinking with the program moderator.
02
UPCOMING LAB · JAN 29
Invent with the room.
Collide complementary expertise across 10 pods of four. Prototype fast with agentic AI and run uncoached 3-minute peer tests to see if anyone will actually use what you built.
03
EVIDENCE & V.LAB
Validate human feedback.
Capture how real humans engage with your approach. Document crazy quilt shifts, log verified behavior instead of polite praise, and scale your prototype into v.Lab.
THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION
Effectuation, put to work.
Keep human agency.
You own judgment and action. AI is a powerful copilot, but human judgment remains in the cockpit to decide what matters and what never gets delegated.
Co-create the direction.
Let committed partners and real stakeholders reshape the problem definition and solution through early voluntary contributions.
Learn from surprise.
Turn unexpected constraints, edge-case failures, or model hallucinations into distinct product advantages and guardrails.
Bound the experiment.
Commit only the time, budget, and exposure you can afford to lose on a rapid 24-hour test before writing complex code.
THE COHORT
Curated seats for students & alumni.
25 Professional-Degree Students
Full-time MBA and Executive MBA candidates ready to bring high-friction daily workflows, operational bottlenecks, or venture hypotheses to the room.
- Verify personal and team tool access
- Test assumptions with experienced industry alumni
- Leave with a working prototype and clear evidence
15 Darden Alumni
Leaders across enterprise ops, healthcare, tech, and private equity who bring deep domain context, real data scenarios, and reach to first users.
- Collaborate directly with MBA builders
- Assess agentic capabilities without corporate spin
- Take home a repeatable method for your team
APPLY FOR A SEAT · 40 SEATS TOTAL
Register your interest.
Thank you for your interest!
Your submission has been recorded. Our instructional team reviews applicants on a rolling basis. If selected, you will receive an invitation code with access to the preparation portal.