Entrepreneurship 101, ORWhat's a nice PhD student like you doing in a course like this?

Chris  RiesbeckElectrical  Engineering  and  Computer  Science

Cogni8ve  Systems  Brown  BagJanuary  28,  2014

Friday, June 6, 2014

Most  of  my  curriculum  development  effort  these  days  is  spent  on:

agile  so)ware  development  (EECS  394)

how  to  develop  soHware  using  modern  sustainable  team  prac8ces  that  deliver  value  as  quickly  as  possible  to  the  client,  the  team,  and  the  organiza8on

so)ware  project  management  (MPD  405  and  MSIT  490)

how  to  define  and  manage  the  development  of  soHware  to  achieve  maximum  value  as  early  and  sustainably  as  possible

(agile  development  for)  lean  startups  (EECS  473  NUvenHon:  web)

how  to  create  viable  innova8ve  soHware  ventures

Friday, June 6, 2014

NUvention: Web (EECS 473)

Two-­‐quarter  Kellogg  /  McCormick  course  where  teams  create  and  launch  a  viable  soHware-­‐based  startup  business

Primary  faculty:

Mike  Marasco  (Clinical  Full  Professor,  Director  of  the  Farley  Center  for  Entrepreneurship  and  Innova8on)

Todd  Warren  (advisor  to  and  an  investor  in  Divergent  Ventures,  former  EECS  alum  and  MicrosoH  product  manager)

Steve  Olechowski  (Google  Product  Manager,  former  COO  of  Feedburner)

Rich  Gordon  (Professor  Medill;  Director  of  Digital  Innova8on)

Chris  Riesbeck  

h\p://fcei.northwestern.edu/curriculum/nuven8on/web.html

Friday, June 6, 2014

They  take  8me  away  from  doing  real  research

They  focus  on  developing  the  team  and  the  product,  not  you,  the  individual

There's  nothing  academically  interes8ng  about  product  development  or  entrepreneurship

No!

Are Such Courses Relevant To Cognitive Systems PhD Students?

Friday, June 6, 2014

Science vs Business

Goal:  facts  and  models  about  the  real  worldMethods:  formal  models,  empirical  studiesProgress:  knowledge  accumula8on  and  paradigm  shiHs

Goal:  profit,  growthMethods:  Trendy  buzzword  of  the  monthProgress:  booms  and  busts

Developing software startups is business, not science

Science Business

Friday, June 6, 2014

Or is it?

Friday, June 6, 2014

What These Courses Are About

A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/

http://lean.st/principles/build-measure-learn

Lean Startups

Lean startup = startup + agile development

Friday, June 6, 2014

Is creating a lean startup science?

Friday, June 6, 2014

There Are Hypotheses

http://steveblank.com/2010/10/25/entrepreneurship-as-a-science-–-the-business-modelcustomer-development-stack/

"One of the key tenets of Customer Development is that your business model is nothing more than a set of untested hypotheses."

Friday, June 6, 2014

There Are Metrics

http://startitup.co/guides/294/becoming-a-lean-startup-guru

Friday, June 6, 2014

There are Curricula

http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/lean-launchpad-educators-curriculum/34

Friday, June 6, 2014

There's A Body of Practice

MVP

Design

HCI

Business

DevelopmentProduct TestingAgile

Design

including...

Friday, June 6, 2014

There's NSF Funding!

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

Friday, June 6, 2014

There Are Theories

Effectua8on:  a  logic  for  entrepreneurial  planning

Instead  of:  find  best  means  to  achieve  a  specified  goal

Experiment  with  what  can  be  achieved  given  current  abili8es

Effectua8on  heuris8cs:

Bird-­‐in-­‐hand,

Affordable  loss

Make  lemonade

Partners  not  compe8torsSaras D. Sarasvathy Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise

Saras D. Sarasvathy Entrepreneurship as a Science of the Artificial

Friday, June 6, 2014

Returning to the original question...

Friday, June 6, 2014

Are Such Courses Relevant To Cognitive Systems PhD Students?

Maybe. Perhaps we need a new model for what a PhD student does.

Friday, June 6, 2014

NUvention: Research?

MVP

Design

HCI

Funding

DevelopmentIdea Testing

AgileDesign

Minimum Viable Product ThesisFast Build-Measure-Learn loopOut of the building explorationThesis Pivots

Team development (ILS model)Partners (sellers, maintainers, not just co-authors)Test-driven development

Team development (ILS model)Partners (sellers, maintainers, etc, not just co-authors)Test-driven development

Business Funding model, i.e., what will sustain the deployment and development of your idea?

Friday, June 6, 2014