Lecture 3 January 11, 2012

Mentor introductionTeams

Market HypothesesVision Statement

Introduction of mentors

• Elizabeth Tito• Al Schneider• Kevin Scanlon• Bob Buce• Ananth Natarajan• Hal Zerem

Al Schneider

• President (2007-9 ) Los Angeles Network Tech Coast Angels

• Co-founder, Vice-Chairman Pasadena Angels

Kevin Scanlon• Tech Coast Angels, Pasadena Angels.

• Senior Management, Director and Vice President for Cancer at Schering AG, Berlin (1996-2000).

• Helped start a gene therapy company, Xenex

• President, International Society of Cancer Gene Therapy (2001-2004).

• Editor, The Cancer Gene Therapy Journal;(1991-present)

Robert Buce

Principal and Advisor- numerous Start-ups.

Former Partner and member of Board of Directors- KPMG Consulting

Clients include CarsDirect.com, Intel, Toshiba, National Semiconductor, Verizon, Pacific Bell, Mazda, and Samsung

Ananth Natarajan• Co-founder, CEO Infinite Biomedical Technologies (IBT) in

1997 and has been the CEO of the company since then. • BSE in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering

Duke UniversityMSE in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University

• MD from the University Of Chicago Pritzker School Of Medicine.

• Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology USC

• Ananth has several publications, presentations, and patents to his credit. Cited by Technology Review magazine as one of the top 100 young (under 35) Innovators and Leaders in Technology in the world

• Member of the Caltech Associates

Hal Zarem• PhD Caltech (advisor: Amnon Yariv)

• Silicon Light Machines President and CEO

• JDSU Vice President of Sales and Marketing

• Ortel Corporation General Manager

• Authored/Co-authored 34 publications

Current TeamsTeamName

Members

Anchovi:

Earthquake Early Warning System:

Cloud Control:

Locality:

Fluidica:

Unu:

ImaginLabs:

Teresa Xu, Tommaso Rosi, Peter Welinder, Lita Yang

Vanessa Heckman, Stephen Wu, Shiyan Song

Wael Halbawi, Mariya Vasileva, Kyung Keun Park, Amit Alon (Cole Herskskowitz, Ka Suen, Sam Jones)

Neha Samdaria, Nnoduka Eruchalu, Chris Pombrol, Mike Paluchniak (Michael Wu and William Candrick)

Granton Jindal, Shell Zhang, Mason Freedman (Vedran Coralic, Prof Tim Coloniuus)

Xida Zheng, Angie Wang, Phillip Young (?)

Xiaodi Hou, James Leet, Ran Duan (Sebastien LePrince)

Agenda - Teamwork

• Why work together in a team?• Evolution of a team• Team structure (roles and responsibilities)• Getting the most out of group work• Activity

• Thanks to Andy Downard

FormingEvolution of a Team or a Partnership

• Create team• Introduce yourself with teammates• Learn about opportunity• Begin setting objectives• Split up the work and get started• Work and think independently

StormingEvolution of a Team

• Reassessment of initial plan– What is realistic to solve?– What is each member best suited to address?

• Different ideas compete for consideration• Egos come out and can clash!• Can be an uncomfortable experience• Risk - Getting stuck here for entire project!

NormingEvolution of a Team

• Work together and identify with team• Establish roles and rules• Motivation increases

– Higher quality work– Enjoy working with team

• Risk - Groupthink (What is this?)– Stop questioning– Reinforce beliefs– Minority is suppressed– Can take time

Getting the Most Out of Group Work

• Avoid GROUPTHINK– Let your own opinions be known– Don’t suppress other’s opinions– Solicit, if necessary, other’s opinions

• What are historical examples that illustrate the risks of groupthink?– Housing bubble– Dot com– German groupthink that the Nazis were doing a good job– Y2K– WMD

PerformingEvolution of a Team

• The best teams will reach this highest level• Members are knowledgeable and motivated• Disagreements are resolved within team

– Use established norms– Little or no need for supervision

Suggested ReadingEvolution of a Team

Wikipedia Article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forming-storming-norming-performing

Original Tuckman Article (1965):http://dennislearningcenter.osu.edu/references/GROUP%20DEV%20ARTICLE.doc

Team StructureRoles and Responsibilities

• Defining roles increases efficiency– Focuses team– Decreases conflict

• Key roles for E102 projects– Leader– Recorder– Timekeeper/Process Monitor

• Alternation is fine

LeaderRoles and Responsibilities

• Plan meeting– Set agenda– Coordinate a date and time

• Run meeting– Execute plan set by agenda – Ensure that team rules are followed– Mediate disagreements– Process discussion at end

RecorderRoles and Responsibilities

• Take notes at meeting– Key points of issues discussed– Emphasis on action items Who What When

• Organize notes after meeting• Send meeting minutes to team members

TimekeeperRoles and Responsibilities

• Work with Leader to budget time for discussion of agenda items

• Periodically inform Leader of how actual progress compares to schedule

• Can also be process monitor– Is everybody contributing?– Is everybody able to contribute?

Getting the Most Out ofGroup Work (cont’d)

• Effective Communication– Choose a mode of communication (email, wiki, Facebook,

Google docs, face to face etc)– Let group members know if you’ll be late– Prevent interpersonal or work-related problems from

getting out of control• Speak frankly with team members• Periodically give each other feedback• Use Vedran as a resource for mediation of problems

• Try to minimize time in commonly uncomfortable ‘Storming’ phase by establishing norms upfront

Activity 1

• Get together in teams– Agree on the top three bad things that could happen.– Discuss what you would do about it

E 102: ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENTSAMPLE TEAMWORK EVALUATION FORMThis form gives some general criteria that you can use to evaluate the effectiveness of your team

collaboration. Fill out one for each team member, including yourself, using a scale of 0 to 10 for each criterion.

Team member’s name:Evaluator’s name:Criterion

Comments Grade1. Is available when neededand is punctual

2. Communicates clearly and constructively

3. Does fair share

4. Contributes quality work

5. Helps to manage conflict

6. Completes tasks effectivelyand on time

Thoughts on Team Rules• Each team member will have deliverables for every

meeting• No interruptions• Disagreements resolved by vote and may be

discussed at subsequent meetings• Face-to-face meetings >> online chatting• Meeting notes can appear on wiki or Google notes• Honest and open communication at all times• Rotation a good idea

Teamwork Recap

• Good teams have…– Open communication– A set of rules that are agreed upon and followed– Structured roles and responsibilities– Shared motivation

• Good teams avoid…– Suppressing opinions– Groupthink

Vision Statement

• Market Hypotheses• Purpose of writing a Vision Statement• Structure of a Vision statement• Activity

Market Hypothesis

• Theory of the case• Assumptions

– You need to make to proceed– You need to verify– You need to adjust

Market Hypotheses

• Your team aims to ‘push’ your technology out to meet one or more market needs

• Key elements of market hypotheses for a technology looking for a market– Identification of possible niche markets– Customer needs that are currently not met– How (Does?) your technology meet these needs

Market Hypotheses (cont’d)

• Heuristic - pick ‘low hanging fruit’ first– Customers who NEED your technology at any price– Typically small markets– Essential early sales that justify further investment

• Proves that there is a market• Profitable sales before cost reduction from economies

of scale can be realized

Market Hypotheses (cont’d)

• State as an hypothesis that you need to prove• Examples:

– There is a market for this product greater than 100M

– People in the identified market really need this product

– So and so would make a great customer– Etc.

Activity 2

• Get together in your Teams• Brainstorm market hypotheses• Prepare to present one potential market

hypothesis

Market Hypotheses for HW

• Submit three market hypotheses• Use a ‘low hanging fruit’ niche as the input to

the Vision Statement

Purpose of Writing aVision Statement

• To Test Market Hypotheses– Define scope of market research– Identify and interview customers

• Organize and focus team• Market research that follows should identify

early, profitable opportunities (‘Low Hanging Fruit’)

Structure of a Vision Statement• Name of Product• For [target customer segment(s)]• Who wants/needs [solution to dilemma]• [Company name ] provides [product features]• That provide [compelling reason to buy from

company]• Unlike [main competitor]• [Company’s key differentiator]• As evidenced by [evidence]

Structure of a Vision Statement (cont’d)

• Name: for the sake of this argument make the company name reflect the product

• For: Be as specific as you can. Can include both primary market segment and secondary market segment

• Needs: Describe market pain you are addressing• That provide: How do you alleviate pain?• Unlike: Show how it is done now by others. (This can

include doing nothing!)• Evidence: If any at this stage, If not, present where you

are in development

Elevator Speech

• By accident you find yourself in an elevator with a potential investor. You want to convince him to investigate your idea more deeply. You have one minute (It’s a long elevator ride)

• This speech will be refined throughout the quarter– You will know more about the business– You will know more about effective delivery

• You will alternate team members in giving it

Right Now

• Begin Researching your project!– Talk with Caltech contacts (if problems let me or

Vedran know)– Search internet

Does it make sense??

Ref http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/

newLDR_90.htm

Summary of HW for Next TuesdayAll Teams do this!!

– Talk with Caltech contacts– All E-mail HW prior to noon on Tuesday to Vedran and Ken – Volunteer two teams to present HW for Tuesday and two for

Thursday– All send PDFs of PPT for presentation teams or PDFs of Word for

non-presenting teams 1. Prepare a signed Team Rules Statement2. Show roles and names of people initially assuming these

roles3. Present 5 Market Hypotheses4. Present Vision Statement