Lecture 3
January 14, 2010
Teams
Vision Statement
Market Hypotheses
Current Teams
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
Forming
Evolution of a Team
•
•
•
•
•
•
Create team
Introduce yourself with teammates
Learn about opportunity
Begin setting objectives
Split up the work and get started
Work and think independently
Storming
Evolution 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!
Norming
Evolution 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 surpressed
Can take time
• Examples
–
–
–
–
–
–
Bernie madorf
Health care reform
Global warming
Enron
Bubble
Alterrnative energy
Performing
Evolution 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
• Risk - Revert back to an earlier stage (How?)
Suggested Reading
Evolution 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 Structure
Roles and Responsibilities
• Defining roles increases efficiency
– Focuses team
– Decreases conflict
• Key roles for E102 projects
– Leader
– Recorder
– Timekeeper/Process Monitor
• Alternation is fine
Leader
Roles 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
Recorder
Roles 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
Timekeeper
Roles 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 of
Group Work
• Avoid GROUPTHINK
– Let your own opinions be known
– Don’t suppress other’s opinions
• What are historical examples that illustrate
the risks of groupthink?
Getting the Most Out of
Group Work (cont’d)
• Effective Communication
– Choose a mode of communication (email, wiki,
Facebook, 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 Mike 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 DEVELOPMENT
SAMPLE TEAMWORK EVALUATION FORM
This 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
1. Is available when needed
and is punctual
2. Communicates clearly
and constructively
3. Does fair share
4. Contributes quality work
5. Helps to manage conflict
6. Completes tasks effectively
and on time
Grade
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
•
•
•
•
Purpose of writing a Vision Statement
Market Hypotheses
Structure of a Vision statement
Activity
Purpose of Writing a
Vision Statement
• Make market hypotheses
– Define scope of market research
– Identify and interview customers
• Organize and focus teamwork
• Market research that follows from Vision
Statement should identify early, profitable
opportunities (‘Low Hanging Fruit’)
Market Hypotheses
• Your team aims to ‘push’ your technology
out to meet one or more market needs
• Key elements of a market hypotheses for a
technology looking for a market
– Identification of niche markets
– Customer needs that are currently not met
– How your technology meets 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
Examples of Market Hypotheses
• People are upset because they can’t catch
the fish they want
• Justify existence of TTO
• People don’t have immediate care for their
heart attack
• People want to monitor their own health
Market Hypotheses (cont’d)
• Your group will submit three market
hypotheses
• Use a ‘low hanging fruit’ niche as the input
to the Vision Statement
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
Activity
• Get together in your groups
• Brainstorm market hypotheses
• Prepare to present one potential market
hypothesis
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
Summary of HW for Tuesday
All Teams do this!!
–
–
–
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
All E-mail HW prior to noon on Tuesday to Andy 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 nonpresenting teams
Prepare a signed Team Rules Statement
Show roles and names of people initially assuming these roles
Present Market Hypotheses
Present Vision Statement
Prepare elevator speech for mentors (doesn’t have to be sent)