Creating, Recognizing, Evaluating and Pitching Opportunities - MGT 387 001
Course schedule listing from MyBama
Time: 12:30p-1:45P, Tuesdays and Thursdays
Where: 215 BidgoodDate Range: Jan 13, 2016 - Apr 29, 2016
Write better walkthroughs with the 3x3 method
Read: The syllabus, the syllabus, the syllabus.........
View: MGT 387 Student Goals for the course (aggregated with comments and annotations)
After class video viewing and homework - The future that should be here now
"Why worry about doing something you love? That's a bunch of baloney. Figure out what the opportunity is. Find a thing, get good at it, learn to love it later." - Mike Rowe
Also read: Mike Rowe Talks about a Pencil, excerpted from Riklan Resources
In class
In-class exercise: Real Escape Game
SIDEBAR: America's Best Days May Be Behind It (NYTimes.com, 1/19/16)
Take Quiz 1 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday. Your quiz will cover material presented in "Entrepreneurs and Opportunities" and "How to get startup ideas" You will receive Quiz 1 by email early Thursday afternoon. Update: You should have received Quiz 1 from me at 2:50pm 1/21.
“Courage is only the accumulation of small steps.”
- György Konrád
Student Feedback on "Four Constructs" exercise from Jan 21. The military conducts after-action reports; athletes watch tape to evaluate their performances. I need your feedback to help me improve.
Presentation Slides: Creativity
Twenty-Two Creativity Techniques
"Let's find a problem...and Lotus Blossom Technique it" (said nearly nobody in history)
Histogram - Uses for a Brick for MGT 387 Spring 2016
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Related: The 68-95-99.7 rule
After class:
Read
View before class: A crash course in creativity (Tina Selig video)
and Tactics to Spark Creativity (video accompaniment to WSJ article posted above)
Sir Ken Robinson on TED: Do schools kill creativity?
Related to this Video: Check out this map of Ken Robinson's popular TED Talk on Mindmeister.com
Take Quiz 2 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday.
Out of Class "Lecture"
Watch this video on Human-Centered Design
and view this slide presentation
and read Empathy on the Edge
FINALLY, watch this video by Sarah Stein Greenberg, executive director of the Stanford D School
I will send out some questions about the presentation and videos later on February 2
Venture Capitalists Look to the Future at the Upfront Summit in Hollywood (video)
Opener: Nike+Accelerator Retrospective
Take Quiz 3 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday.
Here's a video companion to empathic thinking...
Sidebar: Jessica Livingston Talks Female Founders, Business Cycles, and Her Favorite Event of the Year(TechCrunch.com, 2/8/16)
Phenomena topic: The Gig Economy
Presentation slides: SCAMMPERR Power
In-class exercise: Thinkpak cards and the $9 bike; break into SIX teams; take some markers, a piece of poster board, and SEVEN Thinkpak cards per team
Sidebar: Foot In Mouth: 17 Quotes From Big Corporate Execs Who Laughed Off Disruption When It Hit
YOUR FEEDBACK on the Thinkpak and $9 cardboard bike exercise
Week Postscript #1 How to change someone's mind, according to science (Washington Post, 2/11/2016)
Meanwhile, here's your video for the SCAMMPERR card work we've done this week:
A few more thoughts about ideas and human-centered design
View: Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from (TED Talks)
Slides: More thoughts about ideas and human-centered design
Read: DESIGN THAT MATTERS: Designing Contextually Appropriate Products: The NeoNurture car parts incubator
Company profile: Hello, Alfred and Founders on BusinessInsider
Presentation: Human-Centered Design: Inspiration
Practice: Frame Your Design Challenge: Make the Tuscaloosa Bar Scene Safer
You Try It! Frame Your Design Challenge for Tuscaloosa Bar Scene
An alternate opinion: The Problem with Design Thinking
The full design cycle in class
Opportunity Recognition
Reading: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities
Graded assignment coming up: Opportunity Registers
Read: The four forces of entrepreneurial opportunities, MIT Entrepreneurship Review, mARCH 28, 2010
Sidebar: What It’s Really Like to Risk It All in Silicon Valley, NY Times, 2/28
Question of the day: Why don't we already have this? (This IBM commercial came out in 2006; bonus points if you recognize the actor)
Turn in homework assignment - Decisions and Dilemmas - and complete Quiz 7 by 11:59:59 pm, Sunday, March 6
Opportunity Evaluation
Slides: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities
Novelty slides: Your responses to the decisions and dilemmas homework
Reading: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities
Also read:
DO: Turn in opportunity register by 11:59:59 pm, Sunday, March 13 - Hint: Write an opportunity register for a business that is based on a single vending machine (related: The "truth" about vending machine opportunities)
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Bonus Reading: There’s more to early-stage funding than VC money (TechCrunch.com, March 6, 2016)
Question of the Day: "WHY?!"
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The bar cards have arrived!
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Spring Break (3/12 - 3/20)
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Topic: How to pitch
Read:
Class Content - In class March 22:
Guest speaker: Audrey Vermilyea, Co-founder, Monarch Espresso Bar (See Kickstarter campaign here)
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Class Content
View these slides: How to Pitch - all quiz questions come from this deck
Complete Quiz 9 by 11:59pm, Sunday, March 27. I'll send out the quiz mid-afternoon today
Related
Kickstarter for Musicians: Getting Started - presented by Kickstarter on YouTube Michael Harp will be watching!
Newsworthy
Read a/or View
“Pay Attention” Notes from Chapter 17 of "The Launch Pad," by Randall Stross, with elaborations
Class Content
Monarch Espresso Bar Kickstarter update
Advanced pitching techniques with a pitch-off competition
In-class assignment - create a pitch for a product or service that is targeted to the University of Alabama (students, faculty, staff, athletes, teams, etc.)
Group - build a pitch for a truck-based business
First thing, we need to talk about changes to the course syllabus - Revised graded assignments on one slide
2014 Elevator Pitch Winner, University of Dayton Business Plan Competition
Wheely's Coffee Cart - Wheelyscafe.com
Knowing your audience - create a customer persona (in class, 5 points of your grade)
Tips for creating your customer persona:
Customer Personas from Actual Students (!)
If you missed class today then you missed a chance to knock out the customer persona assignment in class. You will need to view the customer persona slides above, view customer personas from actual students, and read the tips for creating your customer persona above. Then you will need to create your own customer persona. I recommend that you do this for the truck-based business you worked on in class on Thursday, March 31. Create your persona on a sheet of paper or in a presentation slide. If you use a sheet of paper, take a digital image when you are done. Send either the digital image or the slide to me at 387opportunities@gmail.com by the end of this week.
Here are student customer personas from class today 1 234567
Feature startup: Hudl Full video analysis tools from any computer or mobile device for athletes and teams.
Know what your audience wants - create a value proposition canvas (in class, 5 points of your grade)
If you missed class today then you missed a chance to knock out the value proposition canvas assignment in class. You will need to view the value proposition slides above and create your own value proposition canvas. I recommend that you do this for the truck-based business you worked on in class on Thursday, March 31. Create your canvas using this worksheet. Send the document to me at 387opportunities@gmail.com by the end of this week.
Here are student value proposition canvases from class today
Watch These Entrepreneurs Pitch Their Startups to Judges from Techstars and AlleyNYC
Hint: Don't look at your slides constantly...
Nice Weather for Ducks
View: The Facebook before it was famous
In class
Turning your pitch into a Minimum Viable Product - Landing Pages (in class, 5 points of your grade)
Your landing page should have at a minimum: (1) Title or Name of the product or company; (2) Tagline; (3) Testimonial; (4) Bullet list of benefits of your offering; and (5) a Call to action (e.g., sign up box)
Use THIS TEMPLATE to create your landing page if you're not using paper and pen(cil)
Opening Topic: Social Entrepreneurship
Related: Complete - in class - survey on social entrepreneurship you received before class
In class: Come ready to improvise and practice pitching
You are Not a Lottery Ticket Assignment (5 points)
Check out Hubspot's Manifesto for Culture
Culture Code: Creating A Lovable Company from HubSpot
LinkedIn has a new app to help college students find jobs Forbes.com - watch the video on top
Optional but helpful reading: Email response to a student who is nervous about videorecording a pitch
Your survey results on social entrepreneurship and internship opportunities for same
https://youtu.be/Mhllo1xQer8?list=RDMhllo1xQer8
You are not a lottery ticket assignment
Read this chapter from Peter Thiel's Zero to One and answer these questions from a google form.
Developing your storytelling skills (see, e.g., Storytelling for Influence, IDEOU.com)
Tension: The secret sauce of brand building, Jenn Maer on Medium.com, 2/10/15
Social entrepreneurship: Ugly baby slides
Social entrepreneurs: Pioneering social change
Visit: TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund
Apply Now to Pitch TOMS' Social Entrepreneurship Fund Inc.com
In class: Storytelling
Record your video pitch for your truck-based business, dammit; finish up your un-turned-in stuff. Record a social entrepreneurship pitch for extra credit. You can do this in class. Really!
Social Entrepreneurship Pitches at Columbia Business School
Working with Video
Practice your pitches
One of uncountable reasons why I'll miss Prince for a long time: "Get off the stage!"
Deliver your pitches and wrap-up
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HandsOn TV on doing things that don't scale
Body language, the power is in the palm of your hands | Allan Pease | TEDxMacquarieUniversity
The skill of self-confidence | Ivan Joseph | REDxRyersonU
Self-confidence: "The ability to believe in yourself to accomplish any task"