CASE FILE #003
Fieldwork Kickoff + Deployment
Taking Your Investigation Live
BUS 399: Entrepreneurship Capstone
Fri Jan 23, 2026 | Week 2, Day 2 (Make-up)
🔍 Today's Investigation
- Fieldwork Kickoff - Your discovery mission begins
- Understanding MCPs - Plugins that give Claude superpowers
- GitHub Setup - Your code's home base
- Context7 MCP - Live documentation access
- Git Workflow - Pushing code to GitHub
- Vercel Deployment - Taking your project live
⚠ Important Notice
NO CLASS
Monday, January 26
Use the time for fieldwork - conduct your customer discovery interviews!
Next class: Wednesday, January 28
🔍 Fieldwork Mission
Your Assignment
Go into the field and conduct customer discovery interviews to gather evidence about real problems and real people.
Goals:
- Validate (or invalidate) your assumptions
- Discover unexpected insights
- Build empathy with your users
Deliverable:
- Minimum 8 interviews
- Documented in your venture log
- Due: Wednesday, Jan 28
🎯 Interview Targets
- People who have the problem you're investigating
- People who have tried solutions (competitors, workarounds)
- Extreme users - power users or complete beginners
- Adjacent stakeholders - people affected by the problem
Quantity: Aim for 5-8 conversations this week
Quality over Quantity: 3 deep conversations beat 10 shallow ones
📅 Interview Logistics
Where?
- Coffee shops, their workspace
- Video call (Zoom, Google Meet)
- Phone call (if necessary)
- Their context is best
How Long?
- Ask for 20-30 minutes
- Often runs longer (that's good!)
- Respect their time
Scheduling Tip:
Reach out to 3x the number you need. Not everyone will respond or be available.
💡 Discovery Reminders
From Wednesday's investigation training:
- Open questions: "Tell me about..." "Walk me through..."
- Laddering: Keep asking "Why?" to dig deeper
- 80/20 Rule: Listen 80%, talk 20%
- Past behavior: "Last time you..." not "Would you..."
- No pitching: You're learning, not selling
Review: Week 2, Day 1 slides for full techniques
📝 Documentation Requirements
What to Capture (During or Immediately After)
- Direct quotes - their exact words
- Context - where, when, situation
- Emotions - frustration, excitement, confusion
- Workarounds - what they do today
- Surprises - what you didn't expect
- Contradictions - say vs. do
- Follow-up questions - for next time
- Permission - for photos, recording
Document within 24 hours! Memory fades fast. Raw notes > polished notes later.
🔌 What is MCP?
Model Context Protocol
A standardized way to give Claude access to external tools and services.
Claude Code
Your AI partner
→
→
External Service
GitHub, docs, etc.
Think of MCPs as plugins that extend what Claude can do.
🧠 Why MCPs Matter
Without MCPs:
- Claude only knows training data
- Can't access live information
- Can't interact with your tools
- Limited to local files
With MCPs:
- Access up-to-date documentation
- Create GitHub repos & issues
- Search the web
- Control browsers, databases, more
MCPs turn Claude from an assistant into a capable agent.
📦 Popular MCPs
GitHub
Repo management, issues, PRs
Context7
Live documentation fetching
Puppeteer
Browser automation, screenshots
Brave Search
Web research & search
Sequential Thinking
Structured problem-solving
File System
Extended file operations
We'll install GitHub and Context7 today - the essentials for your deployment pipeline.
🛠 Managing MCPs
$ claude mcp list
$ claude mcp add [name] -- [command]
$ claude mcp remove [name]
$ claude mcp --help
👤 Creating a GitHub Account
- Go to github.com/signup
- Enter your email address
- Create a password (strong!)
- Choose a username (professional - you'll use this forever)
- Verify your email
- Choose the Free plan
Already have an account? Skip to the next slide.
📦 What is GitHub?
Repository (Repo)
A project folder that Git tracks. Contains all your code, history, and branches.
Commit
A saved snapshot of your code with a message describing what changed.
Branch
A parallel version of your code. Work on features without affecting main.
Push
Upload your local commits to GitHub (the cloud).
Pull
Download changes from GitHub to your local machine.
Think of it as: Google Docs for code, with time travel (version history) built in.
🔑 GitHub Personal Access Token
Claude Code needs a token to access GitHub on your behalf.
- Go to GitHub.com and click your profile picture (top right)
- Click Settings
- Scroll to Developer settings (bottom of left sidebar)
- Click Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic)
- Click Generate new token (classic)
- Give it a name (e.g., "Claude Code")
- Select scopes: repo (full control of repos)
- Click Generate token and COPY IT IMMEDIATELY
You can only see the token ONCE! Copy it before closing the page.
🔌 Installing GitHub MCP
$ claude mcp add github \
-e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN \
-- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github
$ claude mcp list
github: connected
What this enables: Claude can now create repos, push code, manage issues, and more - all from conversation!
📖 What is Context7?
Live Documentation Fetching
Context7 gives Claude access to up-to-date documentation for libraries and frameworks.
Without Context7:
Claude's knowledge has a cutoff date. New library versions, APIs, and features may be unknown.
With Context7:
Claude fetches current docs in real-time. Always accurate, always current.
Works with: React, Next.js, Tailwind, Firebase, Vercel, and thousands more.
🔌 Installing Context7 MCP
$ claude mcp add context7 -- npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp@latest
$ claude mcp list
github: connected
context7: connected
Usage Example:
Just mention a library in your prompt! Claude will automatically fetch relevant docs.
"Help me set up authentication with Next.js App Router"
📋 Git Basics Recap
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Initial commit"
$ git status
The workflow: make changes → add → commit → push
📂 Creating a GitHub Repo
- Go to github.com
- Click + → New repository
- Name your repo
- Choose Public or Private
- Click Create repository
With GitHub MCP:
Just ask Claude!
"Create a new GitHub repo called my-project"
Claude will handle it through the MCP.
🚀 Connecting & Pushing
$ git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo.git
$ git push -u origin main
$ git push
First push tip: GitHub may ask for authentication. Use your Personal Access Token as the password!
⚡ What is Vercel?
Deployment Platform
Vercel takes your code from GitHub and automatically deploys it to the web.
Features:
- Push code = instant deploy
- Free SSL/HTTPS
- Global CDN (fast everywhere)
- Preview URLs for testing
Free Tier Includes:
- Unlimited deployments
- Custom domains
- 100GB bandwidth/month
- Serverless functions
Created by the team behind Next.js - perfect for modern web apps.
👤 Vercel Account Setup
- Go to vercel.com
- Click Start Deploying or Sign Up
- Choose Continue with GitHub (recommended!)
- Authorize Vercel to access your GitHub
- Complete the onboarding questions
Why GitHub login? It automatically connects your repos - one less step later!
🔗 Connecting Vercel to GitHub
→
→
→
Live Site
yourapp.vercel.app
The magic: Once connected, every push to GitHub automatically triggers a new deployment. No manual steps needed!
📥 Importing a Project
- From Vercel dashboard, click Add New → Project
- Select the GitHub repository you want to deploy
- Configure project settings (usually defaults work)
- Click Deploy
- Wait 30-60 seconds...
- Your site is live!
You'll get a URL like: your-project.vercel.app
🔄 Automatic Deployments
CI/CD: Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment
Every time you push to GitHub, Vercel automatically:
Build Process:
- Detects your framework
- Installs dependencies
- Runs build command
- Optimizes for production
Deploy Process:
- Uploads to global CDN
- Updates DNS
- Invalidates caches
- Site is live!
You: Push code. Vercel: Everything else.
👀 Preview Deployments
Test Before You Ship
Every pull request gets its own unique preview URL.
- main branch → production URL (yourapp.vercel.app)
- Pull requests → preview URL (yourapp-xyz-123.vercel.app)
- Test changes before merging
- Share previews with teammates for review
- Preview auto-deletes when PR is merged or closed
This is how professional teams ship without breaking production!
💡 The Complete Pipeline
Claude Code
Write code with AI
→
→
→
The Developer Experience:
Chat with Claude → Code appears → Push → Site is live
From idea to deployed in minutes, not hours.
📋 Assignments & Next Steps
- Conduct 5+ interviews by Wednesday, Jan 28
- Document findings in your venture log
- Set up GitHub account (if you haven't)
- Install GitHub MCP and Context7 MCP
- Create a Vercel account (connect to GitHub)
Reading: YM&P sections 6-7 (RESOURCEFUL, DESCRIBE) for Wednesday
❓ Questions?
The case is open.
What do you need to know?
🚀 Your Investigation Goes Live
This week:
Go into the field. Gather evidence.
Set up your deployment pipeline.
Prepare to build.
Remember: NO CLASS Monday, January 26
Use the time for fieldwork!
The truth is out there. Go find it.