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LunchLoop
From stated interest to actual purchasing
Marketing research & entrepreneurship
From stated interest to actual purchasing
Noor has an encouraging survey, a disappointing sales pilot and an €18,000 app proposal. LunchLoop delivers office lunches in reusable containers. Is the problem price, timing, the ordering experience — or a lunch routine that already works? Students investigate a company dossier with interviews, transaction data and conflicting stakeholder views. Their job is to find a defensible next decision before the next investment.
The assignment & learning goals
Advise Noor whether to invest, modify, postpone or stop. Separate claims from behaviour, investigate rival explanations and design a research sequence within €1,200, twenty team staff hours and ten working days.
Deliver an evidence board, one test card and a concise investment recommendation. A well-supported decision to stop is as valuable as a decision to proceed.
- Distinguish stated interest from paid behaviour.
- Select research that can change a specific decision.
- Balance customer value with operational and financial viability.
- Revise an assumption when new evidence arrives.
Activities & levels
Sort claims, calculate the funnel and expose missing denominators.
Interview a fictional employee and map the working day.
Buy methods, reject alternatives and precommit decision rules.
Use lunch tokens to explore contribution and operating constraints.
Defend a decision as founder, operator, office manager or investor.
BASED ON THESE INNOGRAPHICS
The research lens for LunchLoop: identify the uncertainty, choose a method that can change the investment decision, and explain which conclusion the evidence can support.
The student case and innographic are separate files. Use the visual to discuss research choices; teaching notes remain separate.
Suggested simulation programme for LunchLoop
Customer Discovery Simulation
Five teaching days over 3–5 weeks · approximately four facilitated hours per day · 8–12 additional team hours
Use LunchLoop as the recurring decision dossier. Teams start with Noor's investment question, practise customer discovery in an existing simulation scenario, and return to LunchLoop to revise their research plan and recommendation. Keep the same core hypothesis visible before and after each game session.
Work through LunchLoop's evidence and sales funnel; use 50 Research Methods to choose a discriminating test.
Output: Evidence board, rival explanations and one provisional test card.Rehearse interviews about recent lunch decisions and plan recruitment beyond enthusiastic respondents; critique the ten-day budget.
Output: Interview guide and feasible research sequence with decision rules.Run Customer Discovery Simulation using an available scenario; record expectations before each evidence-gathering choice.
Output: Decision log and a comparison between stated interest and behavioural evidence.Apply lessons from the game to Noor's collection-time, attendance and price uncertainties; use the case's instructor evidence cards to revise the proposed test.
Output: Revised hypothesis, test conditions and explicit limitations.Run a second session or selected round; compare reasoning, then defend the LunchLoop app decision in an investor hearing.
Output: Before/after hypothesis comparison, final recommendation and individual reflection.This is a proposed teaching sequence, not a built-in LunchLoop game scenario. Case data and evidence cards are used alongside the software. Instructor interview role-plays are practice, not real customer validation. The facilitator selects available game rounds; timing and scope are agreed separately.
Discuss this programme ↗The case is public. Teaching notes are intended for instructors and are made available after review.
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