Hello Class,
A quick update on results from today’s presentations. The average total score (50 points possible) are as follows:
- Wipro – 33
- Coke – 32
- GE – 31
- J&J – 29
- United – 28
- Fujitsu – 26
For the prompt today, please provide your own personal reflection on what could have gone better in your presentation. Are there elements from other presentations that you think would work well in your presentation?
Have a great weekend!
Dan
I found it helpful when other teams would walk through their recommendation’s value proposition for each “customer segment”; for example, J&J touched upon the fact that their platform would benefit patients, doctors, and J&J itself. I think our Coca-Cola presentation can be enhanced by clearly explaining the benefits to each group of internal stakeholders (the ETA, internal business owners, and other key influencers) instead of simply claiming that the platform will make all cross-functional communication smoother. This value must be clearly communicated to each customer segment so that they will buy in and engage with the platform – or else the value is lost!
These considerations will also be helpful as we move forward with developing mockups of our platform. We want to create home pages for different users that will contain information most valuable to them: an ETA member’s homepage (e.g. sponsors Brock & Frank) may contain different information than that of another department head’s (e.g. Marketing or Packaging) for example.
I agree with Jacqui – walking through the recommendation’s value proposition for each “customer segment” and creating platform mock-ups would be incredibly valuable for our audience’s comprehension of our new business model. Developing detailed and concrete personas is incredibly important for identifying and solving for pain points – as Professor Darwin expressed to us, many C-level executives in other mature companies may raise probling questions about our business models, as they face similar problems as Coke regarding the technology valuation & adoption process.
Another component I would consider for Coke’s presentation would be fleshing out a “user flow/journey” segment. As a group, we would visualize the process of pushing a new technology through our proposed online platform – i.e. how is a new packaging sensor introduced in the system and who are the specific “champion(s)” and “players” throughout the process? We would discuss how different business units/bottlers would potentially interact, making it easier to seem how feasible how proposed business model would be.
This exercise was helpful because it forced us to identify the main points of our presentation (given the 5 minute time constraint). It was very interesting to hear other teams present their challenges and discuss the advantages of their solution. The Wipro team did a really great job of presenting their “smart city” with enough detail to understand how it would be implemented but without overwhelming the listener with too much information.
I think our presentation could be improved by discussing the potential risks and mitigations. As with any solution, there could be many roadblocks. Our team should spend some time working out obstacles that might prevent our solution from working out. This will also show our sponsors that we have considered the issues from all angles.
I definitely agree with Anna. When speaking to Brock and Frank it is important to address what the risks are with this new digital platform. If the risks are not directly addressed then our new business model will appear not thought out.
It is also important to address the financial portion of the process on a deeper level. At the end of the day all companies are concerned about the bottom line. If this process increases their costs and does not increase its revenue then there will be no point of implementation. As a team, we need to delve into the costs of building and maintaining this proposed platform in addition to quantifying the benefits of the process.
One last element – to strengthen our proposal it is beneficial to walk through the process of implementation. By taking the sponsors through the step-by-step process they can better visualize where our creation where stands within the company.
Less is always, more. Time is not on our side when we’re pitching, so our United Healthcare team, definitely needs to get to the point faster. In class, we were less than half done with our pitch when we ran out of time. We could also do a better job of selling the problem. I think it’s as important to sell the problem as the product!
We’re also working on telling a story using 2 made-up personas in our presentation. A good story is more likely to instill confidence in our audience!
I was so inspired to see was far all the teams have come over the course of the semester!
I agree with Vedika and don’t want to repeat what has already been said.
Additionally, I think we need to step up our game with our slide deck. We need to make it more clean and with stronger visuals like the other groups. I really likes Wipro’s slide deck. The visuals were striking and got right to the point of what they were presenting. I do like in our slide deck the prototype of the app and how it was presented within the deck. I was just lost on what to articulate for those slides since they were not mine. A great lesson in knowing all your team members parts.
I also thought Wipro and Coke were very composed as a team and I would like our team to get to that point of congruency and confidence.
For our group presentation, there are definitely ways to improve ourselves. One thing is that we don’t have a script yet. And therefore we weren’t really prepared to talk with passion, and condensation. We came up with the slides by Monday night and submitted to Prof, and there weren’t enough time for us to change the graphics and do some mockups. We were preparing this slides and presentation for the purpose of getting feedback from peers, instead of being graded. Maybe Prof wasn’t very illustrative enough, and I thought we weren’t going to present on Thursday. And therefore for sure we didn’t plan to present and practice and practice.
I think our presentation went fairly well, given the limited time we had. One thing that I think we can improve on is explaining what our product does within the Smart City building process. There should also be a bit more coherence in our transitions, so we can make sure we tell a story throughout the presentation. I really like Coke’s presentation and their use of graphics to describe their business model, and I think Wipro can do the same in our own presentation. Especially for Smart Cities, I think utilizing graphics and animations will really help us illustrate our points and get our value proposition across.
I wasn’t able to present with my team, but I learned from my teammates that we need to focus on explaining what Wipro’s roles would be within the design, creation, implementation processes of the smart city. They told me that a lot of the class didn’t really understand where Wipro is stepping in, such as with the data center. For the next presentation, I think we can do a better job at telling more of a story about our idea.
As I told Professor Darwin, I unfortunately couldn’t make class last Thursday; however, after checking in with my team over the weekend I know that there is much room for growth. At the time of the presentation, my team and I didn’t have a full slide deck or script prepared. Finalizing those two key items are our top priority and I believe that once we have our content down, we can focus more on our group dynamic and presentation skills. I think the key item we need to do (which Professor Darwin has also stressed) is finding the right numbers and statistics to create the “wow” impact on our audience. After our conference call over the weekend, my team and I are feeling more “presentation ready” for the mock presentations next week.