387 Spring 2020

Here are the instructions for the remainder of the semester

Just click anywhere on the text above

Meanwhile, add 387opportunities@gmail.com and profcraigarmstrong@gmail.com to your email's address book so you do not miss announcements from me. Do it now.

Syllabus

(On Google Docs)

New Year's Eve Soapbox Moment

All of you have probably been taking standardized tests to demonstrate academic achievement since third grade. The intensity of testing and the stakes for doing well on standardized tests got higher each year until you got accepted to college (am I right?). Now that you're in college you are all experts on the general, standardized knowledge you needed to get here (by definition).

It turns out, however, that the knowledge you need to be successful in entrepreneurship is anything but "standardized." Through the course of teaching entrepreneurship for nearly 20 years now I've seen the futility in trying to standardize anything that I teach to entrepreneurship students because each of you has different learning styles, is at different stages in building your learning capacities, and has different goals for learning entrepreneurship. Obviously everyone needs a baseline of standardized knowledge to establish an effective foundations of understanding, analogous to how people learn new languages. What you do with that foundation, though, is what makes you unique, even amazing.

That's why I now take a strong interest in your learning styles and preferences. These presumably have a great effect on how you learn and how effectively you learn. I say presumably because we don't have a ton of empirical evidence to support these claims. What I do know is that each of you has different learning styles and capabilities, and that these styles and capabilities can form the basis of a customized and unique experiential learning approach that can really help you accelerate both learning about something and "learning how to learn."

I used to laugh at the expression experiential learning because I was a chemistry major and consulting scientist who could learn what I needed from textbooks and the laboratory. I didn't realize that the process I undertook as a consultant was actually learning how to learn. That's the capability I want for all of you to develop to the fullest extent possible, and that goal informs the processes I use to design pedagogies and learning experiences for you in the classroom. I think it's more effective in terms of absorbing content, more engaging as a learning process, and more memorable.

Smash fear, learn anythingFrom the EG conference: Productivity guru Tim Ferriss' fun, encouraging anecdotes show how one simple question -- "What's the worst that could happen?" -- is all you need to learn to do anything.

Presented for your consideration: "Identifying people a person may know," Google Patents, inventors James Duncan Work, Allen Blue, Reid Hoffman.

"Topics" Update

Make something. On top of learning how to pitch, you're going to make something in this course that represents your value proposition. That could be a landing page, press release, website, paper prototype, etc. The point is that if you have a model of your idea, then you can have a much richer conversation about your idea than you would without it. "Have a prototype? Now we can have a conversation!"

The Power of Iteration. Make something and pitch it; learn from your pitch; revise your "something made." Now revise your pitch. You're ready to talk to potential investors.

Pitching in multiple contexts: This means that you will learn how to pitch based on your situation. I'm being purposely cryptic here. You're welcome.

Opportunity creation, ideation, creativity, lateral thinking. We'll keep up with the de Bono random word cards to continue our lessons in lateral thinking; you'll learn how lateral thinking is different from creativity and how it can actually be more useful.

Opportunity evaluation. What's a good, great, bad, or ugly opportunity? Why can it be so hard to know the difference? We'll focus on aspects of the opportunity and its "fit" with you.

January 9

HELLO (google slides) Lego Adventure and de Bono random words / caption activities

January 14-16

Jan 14

Review syllabus (not the boring way, though); in-class activity; quick overview of MGT 386 lessons

Entrepreneurs and Opportunities (google slides)

Definition of Entrepreneur
Schumpeterian waves
Definition of entrepreneurial opportunity
Why entrepreneurial opportunities exist
Dimensions of entrepreneurial opportunities

Entrepreneurs and opportunities

Complete Kolb's Learning Style Questionnaire

Over the years, you have probably developed learning habits that help you benefit more from some experiences than from others. You may be unaware of this, and this questionnaire will help you pinpoint your learning preferences. Participate in and complete this survey by the end of Friday, January 17. This counts as 2 points toward your final grade. Stay dry on Jan 14!

Jan 16

Continue overview of MGT 386 lessons; make sure you complete Kolb's learning style questionnaire (see description and link above)

Entrepreneurial Opportunities (google slides)

I got a bit distracted and animated about:

Meet the SixthSense interactionThis demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry's SixthSense interaction is in my mind one of the best first examples of what we could and can do with augmented reality. This video is from TED2009 and has been viewed at least 11M times in the past ten years.

We're saving for Tuesday, January 21:

isolating dimensions of entrepreneurial opportunities
Proof Eyewear and "worksheeting" opportunity dimensions (work in teams in class with worksheet)

January 21-23

Opportunity Evaluation: Two ways to look at Proof Eyewear

Jan 21

There *is* now a syllabus. Thank you for patience. Now give me a moment while I change everything.

Jan 23

More on Proof Eyewear (What's next?); see also How to Think Like a Shark Tank Shark.

[If you missed class on Jan 23 you can still submit the Proof Eyewear "What's Next?" assignment by opening the google doc (link above) and answering the questions. In terms of mechanics, open the file, then "make a copy" or "download as" a MS Word document; edit the edit your version of the document by answering below each question. When you are done, share or send your completed document to 387opportunities@gmail.com.]

Complete Quiz 1 by midnight, January 24

January 28-30

How entrepreneurs identify promising opportunities; Creativity, Lateral Thinking, De Bonolooza!

Jan 28: How entrepreneurs identify promising opportunities (google slides (start on slide 32), see Entrepreneurs and Opportunities above); Connect The Dots gameplay; HERE is the worksheet for playing the Connect the Dots game

Jan 30: a bit more on promising opportunities; TECHNIQUE: de Bono lateral thinking; random words activity; a few words about HUMOR.

NOTED: How to write 10,000 words a week

Opportunity Evaluation

February 4-6

Feb 4: A few words about pitching (big pain, brilliant solution, differentiation, why you?, CTA); ways to evaluate opportunities (google slides), hopefully lots of them; Debbie Gordon, How to Think Like A Shark Tank Shark

Feb 6: More thinking about opportunity evaluation - Autoshop in-class graded activity (note the assignment for MGT 387), Autoshop analogs; the Autoshop opportunity evaluation is worth 5 points toward your overall grade for this course. If you cannot be in class on Feb 6, please complete this assignment by midnight, February 7 (same deadline as Quiz 2).

Complete Quiz 2 by midnight, Friday, February 7

Opportunity Evaluation

Slides: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities

Reading: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities

Consider some of these pitches...

and also the feedback from the two "judges." The more you practice your pitch with "judges" the better your pitch will be. Feedback is not a precise instrument; you'll need a lot of it to calibrate how you choose your responses. Plus the way you take feedback from judges shows a lot about your humility and willingness to be coached.

#StartupTuneup @ Founder.University: 6 founders pitch to Jason & Dave Samuel of Freestyle Capital on merging communication networks, athlete performance tracking, DTC women's clothing, smart tabletop gaming systems & more!

1:31 Bryan pitches Project OWL (smart communications platform)
3:46 Erin pitches Nude Barre (DTC eco-friendly hosiery)
6:02 Mike pitches STACT (Athlete performance tracking)
8:05 Feedback & questions for Cohort 1
16:53 Rankings for Cohort 1
19:53 Jonathan pitches Move38 (smart tabletop gaming)
22:04 Brandon pitches ReplyBuy (text messaging support for sports, entertainment & higher education)
24:20 Stella pitches Stella Carakasi DTC (Size-inclusive & affordable luxury clothing for women)
28:22 Feedback & questions for Cohort 2
37:55 Rankings for Cohort 2

February 11 and 13

Feb 11

Human-Centered Design

Human-centered design

Feb 13

Design Thinking - Lessons from IDEO and Stanford’s D School (up to green empathy slide)

In-class activity: Design Project Zero - Redesign the Game Day Experience

Debriefing the DP0 activity

Reminder: First Opportunity Register Due February 18.

Wall Street Journal Feb 13, 2020 The Machine That Lets You Skip the Salad Bar: New vending machine innovations are turning out fresh, healthy food, sometimes even to order

February 18 & 20

Reminder: First Opportunity Register Due February 18

< Pssssstt. Spring break is less than a month away />

Feb 18

Progress Report

Pitch of the Day: Move38 (some of) our observations: "200% of their Kickstarter goal" isn't a helpful metric; it *is* helpful to know they had revenues of $137,000 from their Kickstarter campaign last year; at a COGS of $40 per unit and sale price of around $140, they sold around 1,000 units that cost them $40,000, and their profits were $137,000 - $40,000 - commission to Kickstarter = just under $100,000.

Slides: Tools for empathy-directed customer insights

Optional reading:

Armstrong, C.E. 2016. Teaching innovation through empathy: Design thinking in the undergraduate business classroom. Management Teaching Review, 1(3): 164-169.

Feb 20

E-Fest EIX.org, April 23-25, 2020 - announcement and 2019 winners

Kickstarter of the day: GLAMOS

More on empathy-directed customer learning - We will run another team-based in-class activity to develop insights into customer needs on 2/20. This activity will *not* be graded, but I will collect your work with team member names. You may find attending also helps you do better on Quiz 3, due tomorrow night.

Slides: Testing your personas with landing pages; activity: create two different landing pages for different versions of your vending machine customer personas from Tuesday. Use Powerpoint, Google slides, Keynote, Google sites, or something else that's quick. Here are specific instructions I'll hand out in class for your teams to follow.

Complete Quiz 3 by 11:59 pm, Friday, Feb 21

February 25 & 27

Feb 25: OK, let's get started with pitching (page: How to Pitch)

Feb 27: Pitching practice in class (pitchers and catchers report for spring training)

Maybe: Understanding customer needs

How to pitch to a VCThinking startup? David S. Rose's rapid-fire TED U talk on pitching to a venture capitalist tells you the 10 things you need to know about yourself -- and prove to a VC -- before you fire up your slideshow.

Time to start thinking about entering the Aldag Competition - April 14

Here is the link to The Edge, and here is the link to find out about the Aldag Business Plan Competition.

Some notes on entry requirements and registration:

The entry period for the 2020 Edward K. Aldag, Jr. Business Plan Competition will open on February 7th. Please submit your intent to compete and business summary by March 11th.

Refer to this document for eligibility criteria and other details for the student competition.
Refer to this document for eligibility criteria and other details for the faculty/staff competition.
Participants can enter the competition individually or form teams.
The business submissions must be the team or individual’s own original work and ideas.
A given team can only compete in one of our Spring competitions.
Submission deadlines*:
- Intent to compete (students and faculty/staff): March 11th
- Draft presentation: March 26th
- Final presentation: April 8th
- *All deadlines are 11:59 PM CST on the date listed

Hey! Here is a business plan presentation template for Aldag from last year.

Artificial Intelligence getting under your skin? Use it to make your skin healthier! (Yes, it actually works)

https://www.fastcompany.com/90469026/this-company-uses-ai-to-formulate-your-perfect-skin-serum-and-it-works

And since y'all pitched a solution to a gameday experience problem on Feb 27, here are some insights on the convergence of stadiums, smart phones, and fund.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90452417/stadiums-smartphones-and-the-future-of-fun

March 3 & 5

Mar 3: Aldag info, plus this template of the presentation.

Mar 5: More on pitching; social skills, product attributes, audience, the basics and more; you will join in teams and begin work on creating (and delivering in class on Tuesday, March 10), a pitch for a bad product idea. The bad product idea must be one of the choices offered on the bad product slides accompanying these instructions. You *will* use slides for this presentation. Your slides will address: the big pain, the brilliant solution, how the solution is different, better, faster, whatever, than what people are currently using to solve the big pain. You *do not* need to include a "why you" slide, but you must include a call to action as your last slide. You'll start work today in class and finish preparing during the first 30 minutes of class on Tuesday; then each team will make its presentation in class. This assignment is worth 5 points toward your overall grade for this course.

Summing up

Pitch a bad product idea in a way that makes it seem useful in solving a problem
Prepare and pitch in teams; share duties and tasks
You will use slides; they must address big pain, brilliant solution, differentiation, and call to action. Here is an example presentation (note: example, not exemplary).
Props, costumes, and theatrics are welcome but not required.
I need one person from each team to send your final presentation to 387opportunities@gmail.com by the end of lecture on Tuesday, that person will cc: each of her|his teammates. Make sure the names of all team members are listed on the title slide!

Complete Quiz 4 by 11:59 pm, Sunday, March 8. Questions for this quiz come from How to Pitch and "Why We Pitch"

March 10 & 12

Mar 10: Pitch a bad product in teams, 1-3 minutes with presentation slides, 5 points toward your course grade.

Mar 12: No lecture

March 17 & 19

Spring Break

March 24 & 26

Eternal spring break. Flakes of gold floating in my brain from the Schläg...

and here are the instructions for how to proceed for the remainder of the semester

Jeff Dyer on Innovation - The innovator's DNA frameworkNew ideas are generated as a result of associational thinking, which includes four behaviors—questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting—that trigger thinking and new ideas.

Bonus instruction from Jeff Dyer of BYU on Innovation

Jeff talks about the roles of association, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting - all mindsets and behaviors you can adopt - to be an effective innovator.

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