UoN Youth Entrepreneurs Training (Day 2)

University of Nairobi Youth Entrepreneurs Strengthen Customer Discovery, Branding and Business Development Skills

University of Nairobi (UoN) Youth Entrepreneurs strengthened their skills in customer discovery, financial management, product development, and branding on the second day, August 11, 2026, of an eight-day training programme that supports them in developing and refining viable business ideas.

The training focused on helping youth entrepreneurs better understand their customers, identify market opportunities, and develop products and services that address specific needs. It also provided practical tools for strengthening their marketing and branding strategies as they develop their enterprises.

The day began with a recap of the first day’s sessions, presented by the program rapporteurs. The session helped the Entrepreneurs reconnect with the lessons from the previous day and link them to the day’s activities. This was followed by a session on financial management facilitated by Dr. Grace Kariuki of Equity Bank. The session focused on practical approaches to managing business finances and strengthening the financial foundations needed to sustain an enterprise.

Applying design thinking to customer discovery

A central component of the day was a practical session on design thinking and customer discovery. The UoN Youth Entrepreneurs were introduced to design thinking as an iterative process that requires entrepreneurs to continually test their assumptions and refine their understanding of a business problem.

The session explored the stages of clarification, ideation, development, and implementation. Clarification involves narrowing the focus and defining the problem; ideation involves generating possible solutions; while development involves experimentation and prototyping to test ideas and learn from customers.

Through a customer discovery group exercise, participants examined how interviews and other forms of customer evidence can help entrepreneurs move beyond assumptions. They considered questions including: Who are we designing for? What is the customer trying to accomplish? What insights emerge from customer interactions? And how can the business respond to these needs?

The UoN Youth Entrepreneurs then presented their group work, demonstrating how they had applied design thinking and customer discovery principles to their respective enterprises.

Defining the target customer and aligning products with customer needs

The training progressed to customer persona development, equipping the entrepreneurs with a structured approach to understanding the people they intend to serve. The session covered data collection, identification of user groups, data analysis, prioritisation and presentation of customer personas in narrative form. The entrepreneurs subsequently developed personas for their businesses and presented them to the team.

A clear understanding of the target customer can guide decisions on product development, marketing and brand communication, while helping entrepreneurs focus their resources on the markets they seek to serve.

The UoN Youth Entrepreneurs also applied the Value Proposition Canvas to examine how their products and services respond to customer needs. The activity enabled them to map customer jobs, pains and gains and align these with product features and pain relievers. This provided a practical framework for identifying gaps between what an enterprise offers and what its customers value, helping the entrepreneurs refine their value propositions.

Developing stronger brands

The final session focused on branding and brand strategy. The entrepreneurs explored the elements that shape how a business is recognised and perceived by its customers.

These included the brand name, tagline and logo; the brand promise, which defines what customers can consistently expect from the business; brand personality, which shapes how the business wants to be perceived; and brand associations, including colours, images, fonts, taglines and other visual elements.

The day’s activities provided the UoN Youth Entrepreneurs with practical tools to test their business assumptions, understand their customers, refine their value propositions and develop stronger brand identities as they progress through the incubation programme.

By Emilly Owiti, August 11, 2026