Hi class,
Reaching group consensus can be a difficult task, especially in 90 minutes with five people. However, there are studies that “time-boxing” yourself can actually lead to more creativity and productivity. For today’s blog, I’d like people to share some tips, advice, things they’ve notice that help keep the group on track and organized. Think of this as an opportunity to cross-share outside of your group – it could be logistical things like sending calendar invites, using google docs, etc…to assigning a different “leader” for each meeting to keep things on track. These are just examples, so please think broadly!
Regarding presentations – I have not had a chance to connect with Professor Solomon on expectations. I requested that he send expectations on whether or not you should be prepared to present, and if so, what the grading criteria is. To be clear, I am not expecting to see PowerPoint format for the BMCs, but if that is easier for you, then feel free (I heard at least one group say this). However, I have all of the paper BMCs, so in the event Professor Solomon would like to hear from you on Tuesday, I would expect your paper draft to be filled in completely.
As always, please let me know if you have questions.
Have a great weekend!
dw
Our team finds it extremely helpful to share all knowledge via Facebook because we are able to notify each other instantly. Also if someone did not see the post, we know that they should be brought up to speed in our next meeting. Overall it is a simple method that allows for quick and easy communication. With regards to organizing our challenge, we found visuals to be quite useful. By drawing Coke’s internal and external system of communications, we were able to see which parts were confusing or troubling. Sometimes a simple system of arrows can be the best explanation.
After coming back with researched answers to some of the questions that we raised from Tuesday’s class, we came to a consensus regarding our business model pretty quickly, so the majority of the class was spent finetuning the different sections of the model, and sharing our thoughts regarding the Internet of Things industry, and the specifics of what Wipro can do, such as what cool startups Wipro should look into partnering or acquire. From our research, we also discovered that Wipro has already begun implementing some ideas that we came up with, so it is good to know that we are thinking along the right tracks. The trick is now to come up with even more innovative ideas to really help them grow and expand through our business model!
I noticed a similar thing during our group’s discussion – specific ideas would pop up and we’d do a quick Google search to find that Coke had similar initiatives in place already. It was nice to know we were on the right line of thinking. Now we’re doing individual research to find case studies about other companies who have developed technology valuation models to see how we can apply others’ best practices to transform Coke’s business model. Because Coke is such a huge company with stakeholders spanning the globe, we decided it would also be helpful to hop on another call this coming week with our client sponsor at Coke.
Our team strategy is to map out our entire plan and discussion points and then delve into the details. For instance when completing the chart today we discussed that we were going to first identify our customers and then their needs/issues and then develop a solution and from there figure out the remaining categories (relationship, activities, etc). I think that instead of just jumping into discussion it’s best to figure out what you wish to accomplish as a team and the best approach to it beforehand. Another way of keeping the group organized and on track is that once in a while one of us will remind the group of either the remaining time or the issue/discussion point on hand. As a group we tend to digress from our original topic so it’s extremely beneficial to have someone point out that we’re straying too far from our original idea so we can get back on track.
I agree with the fact that 90 minutes is not enough to finalize 5 peoples’ ideas into one business model. Our group did feel very time pressured in todays class. HOWEVER, we definitely used this to our advantage and used the time boxing tactic to increase our efficiency. We created many versions of our business model and with every repetition we narrowed and specified our focus. By the end of it, we had 3 versions of our business model and ended up crafting the final version in the last 15 minutes of class. I also noticed that my team was very good about picking the low-hanging fruit. We often tried to complete as many easy things as possible FIRST so that we had more time to work through the more difficult concepts later. We are looking forward to presenting it next week!
In addition to just a limitation of time, it was also a necessity for clarity of various ideas. Our group began brainstorming of possible solutions to the challenge, but kept hitting different roadblocks in which we had to make assumptions with regards to the answers. We set up a time to chat with our group leader next week, to address these assumptions, which would help us better understand the best idea to pursue going forward.
The brainstorming session was really useful, however. It forced us understand their existing business model more, just by trying to figure out what to do differently.
Today’s discussion was full of wisdom and rigid argument. We were finally reached at consensus that we were developing a new product for Fujitsu. But the journey to it was a long detour. After talking with Dan, we were clear that the new business model should be on the topic of our challenge, which is higher education. But initially we were very focused on how we can leverage Fujitsu’s products, services, and solutions to better facilitating universities. We thought of using Platform as a Service (PaaS) and ask schools like Berkeley to use it. But it occurred to us that we were merely finding new customers instead of coming up with a new business plan. We changed the direction and started with what was the problem with our college experience. And we found ourselves in a lot of common when talking about how Telebears is horrible. And it leads us to develop a centralized college system, which could be developed by Fujitsu as a platform, and for each university we are going to provide the API.
I have noticed that our team finds it useful to keep track of time. When we realized we only had 30 minutes left, we made sure to finish the new business model as soon as possible. We spent the first part of class discussing mobile application ideas and questions we have for Steve Myers. We got a bit caught up in the logistics of the application that we had little time to write down the new business model. Even though bouncing ideas off of one another was valuable, it was not predominantly the intention of the class. We can better stay on track if we delegate a person every meeting to make sure we are fulfilling our goals.
Our team actually already formulated a rough outline of what we wanted to add to Wipro’s business model on Tuesday. However, we had some unanswered questions from our discussion and decided to do some more research for those questions before meeting up today. Now that we had all the information, we quickly iterated on our business model and came to a consensus. The rest of the class was spent thinking through the specific details of each sections and what that might look like if it were implemented. We spent a lot of time talking about the cool Internet of Things startups that Wipro should look into. We came up with a list of a few startups that are doing things that we thought Wipro should target. In the midst of this research, we also found out that Wipro had started funding a lot of IoT ideas, some of which we were thinking about as well. This worked well for us since we stayed on topic and kept on thinking of new ideas and talking through them.
For my team, we first decided to go over all of the existing aspects of the BMC to serve as the foundation so we can expand off of it and keep our new ideas distant from them. Once we had the existing aspects laid out, we began to brainstorm and express our ideas for each category. When we brainstormed we were able to narrow down and define our ideas. We do not have a solid and concrete business plan, but we have a very precise idea of what we want to develop. Being able to share our thoughts allowed us to reveal new ideas and we are pretty confident on how we want our business plan to become and are excited to see it progress.
I am on the same team as Elizabeth. Yesterday, we had a really thorough discussion and brainstorming of what we want to do. It was easy to jot down our ideas that overlap with each other for the existing business model, but it was so much harder to unify our planned new business models and make them into one solid business model. However, I am really glad that i have such a great team of members. We went through each and every one of our ideas meticulously and discuss how to incorporate one with the other. Besides solid teamwork, we also communicate via doodles, google drive and email. Looking forward to see progress and excited to share the ideas next week!
In this class, we put all our ideas about the project in order to transform our individual canvas in just one and complete canvas business model. Our discussion was really fruitful, each member contributed something interesting .Even, if I believe constructive disagreement is essential to get the best result ,we were also very motivated to reach common group consensus. We shared all the information we had and decided which concepts were the key for accomplishing the challenge.
I think this task is not only helping us to acquire knowledge about open innovation and business model but also to develop other skills such as working in group and improving our social and speaking abilities.
Last week’s class definitely helped our group come closer towards a consensus on which direction we would like our business model to go. I thought that today’s lecture (9/16) was very inspiring and actually helped encourage our group to meet even more frequently and to seek advice from experts in the telehealth industry. I noticed from past experiences working in groups that each individual should feel like they are part of the team in order to work well together produce good results. Our group will be having a team building and brainstorming session together with a barbecue! Who says that you have to separate work and fun?
For my UnitedHealth group, all class was about the new product (a smartphone app) and potential ways to implement it. We drew some ideas from the video gaming industry and discussed why and how people get “hooked” to playing video games. Ideally, as the project progresses, we will find the equivalents of what works in the gaming industry to what could be implemented in the health care industry. We’re still a long way from a concrete product, but we’re making steady progress.
Thank you for your comment Jean! It was great bouncing ideas off each other. I am also wondering if our team is too big. I noticed how its much harder for us to land on concrete ideas because there are so many of our opinions. I also feel like we get caught up in the details. It may be good to have all of us come up with an idea and then pitch it to each other. I am excited to see how this professes and I think that we will have a clearer idea after speaking with Steve.
I also agree with Alex’s comment that we need to be better with time management and keep things on track. I think we should all take leadership with this. The last 30 minutes of class were great. We split into two teams and made a lot of things happen in a short amount of time.
During brainstorm discussions for Coke, our group comes up with many seemingly unrelated ideas naturally in the flow of conversation. To help track and organize our ideas, we write them down on Post-it notes as they come up. Afterward, we star the ones to further research and consolidate similar ideas together. This keeps us from limiting the scope / scale of our ideation process, which would be incredibly detrimental to a class about open innovation.
It was great to share and hear other people’s ideas and opinions but since we had a time constraint and we had a presentation to prepare before next class we had to make progress during class. But sometimes, it was hard to make progress when people were not expressing different ideas and not reaching consensus. Though this environment could foster creativity, I think in terms of time efficiency and making progress, it would be effective to select a leader to organize the ideas, give direction and make progress.
I think it’s really important to find a working style that works for everyone in the group. For my group, before every discussion, we decide on what we want to achieve and how we want to do it first. After that, we start the discussion and really follow our goal. This approach keeps us on track for every discussion and avoid unnecessary work during the discussion. Also it’s really important to give every group member a chance to express his/her ideas. We really tried to involve everyone in the discussion and see what we can achieve as a group rather than individuals.
By the end of this class we had a complete BMC for Wipro. Although we had already an outline from tuesday we made som changes that we believe improved the outcome. I believe we all feel comfortable with presenting this to the class next week, but we also know we have a lot of research ahead of us. Wipro is a huge company and the Iot is very complex. However, it feels like our group dynamics with business, economics and computer science will really benfit us in this case.
It looks like many wheels are turning in your heads. Some of you seem to have arrived at a consensus and some of your are still exploring. This is very normal at this stage and this will continue for some time as you do more research and listen to more lectures and ideas presented from guest speakers. I am looking forward to your thoughts. You are all moving on the right track.
I feel my group was able to attain consensus because of our repeated efforts to ensure all members of the team focused on this being an open ideation brainstorming phase. This allowed us to integrate every idea of innovation on the business model into our presentation, and use our 90 minutes effectively to do so.
We have been using google docs and a lot of online communication outside of class to collect and share our thoughts. However, I still believe our in person team interactions are the most productive team meetings we have, getting an incredible amount of the work needed, to be finished in class itself!
My advice to other teams would be to acknowledge now is not the time to discuss why ideas won’t work and filter out ideation, but rather to encourage brainstorming and ideating, giving every idea generated a chance to be considered.
I also absolutely loved our speaker and am greatly looking forward to meeting the rest of the incredible connections we will be learning from in this class!
I really enjoyed working with my team on Tuesday and Thursday! I definitely saw the value in using the Business Canvas as a strategic management tool. The Business Canvas is also an extremely visual tool which is always helpful. Having the framework of the Business Model really helped our team describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot our business model several times on Tuesday and Thursday. There was initially some confusion about the definition of business activities and resources, but looking at it in the context of value proposition helped us resolve the confusion. For example, Key Activities are the most important activities in executing a company’s value proposition. Interestingly, the business canvas helped us understand the potential trade-offs UnitedHealth will make as they transition from the old business model to the proposed new business model.
Looking back now, I think my team thought the project and business model canvas was much simpler than it really ended up being. At the time, we were set on the easiest way to to address Wipro’s challenge. We wanted to create a set of standard protocols for IoT that could be adapted by others in this space. However, we completely settled on this idea rather than venturing into more innovative ideas like the smart city platform we eventually settled on. It was good that we had the time to work together and come up with some ideas but I think we wouldn’t have been able to produce the same final product without Professor Darwin’s push. We could have done a better job at being more proactive and looking for a greater challenge in our business model from the start.