LAUNCHING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPSTONE

DESIGN EXPERIENCE: BLAST-OFF OR FIZZLE OUT?

JARED BECKER: SENIOR IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

THOMAS M. KATONA: ASST. PROF. BIOMEDICAL ENG. & BUS INESS

LYNNE SLIVOVSKY: PROFESSOR COMPUTER ENGINEERING

LUCAS TOOHEY: SENIOR IN BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

JONATHAN YORK: ASSOC. PROF. BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSH IP

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT

� Culminating event

� Full year design experience

� Student teams from engineering & business

� Student initiated projects

� Lean Launchpad + Agile Engineering

CONTEXT: CAL POLY

• ~20,000 Students (90% Undergrad)

• CIE in 5th Year

• EVERY STUDENT DOES SENIOR PROJECT

WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION

What if you could get

real time information

about home water

usage?

THE PROBLEM

THE SOLUTION: INTERDISCIPLINARY ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPSTONE COURSE

ArchitectureEngineering Business

AgricultureScience

& Math

Liberal

Arts

YEAR 1: PILOT COHORT

ArchitectureEngineering Business

AgricultureScience

& Math

Liberal

Arts

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT?Existing

Interdisciplinary

Engineering

Course

Existing

Single

Discipline

Courses

Interdisciplinary

Entrepreneurial

Course

Teaming

Structure

Teams assigned by

faculty

Teams assigned

or individual

projects

Team formation by

students

Project ScopeProject scope

defined

Project scope

defined

Creativity and

ideation define

starting assumptions

Opportunity

Identification

Receive

requirements from

industry sponsor

Requirements

based on

engineer’s

desires

Lean Startup

methodologies

Customer

Discovery

Industry Sponsor

Calls/Meetings

Industry Sponsor

Calls/Meetings

Customer

development as

continuous process

Engineering

Methodology

Design (Fall), Build

(Winter), Test

(Spring)

Design (Fall),

Build (Winter),

Test (Spring)

Agile engineering

Product

DevelopmentDesign/build/test Design/build/test Iterative prototyping

Funding Industry SponsorInternally

supported

VentureWell Course

Development Grant

Project Teams

Lean Startup

Design Sprints

??

WHO CARES?

Participant College & Discipline

# of Participants

# of Graduating

SeniorsBusiness (Total) 26 700Business – Entrepreneurship 22 37

Business - Marketing 1 106Industrial Technology 3 52

Engineering (Total) 40 920Aerospace Engineering 1 58Biomedical Engineering 3 69

Computer Engineering 9 71Computer Science 4 86

Electrical Engineering 7 118General Engineering 1 15

Industrial Engineering 1 69Manufacturing Engineering 1 14

Mechanical Engineering 12 192Software Engineering 1 26

Agriculture (Total) 1 930Agriculture Business 1 162

~4% of Engineering &

Business StudentsIn Year 1

in one class

SOUNDS GREAT…..SO WHAT HAPPENED

NO PLAN SURVIVES FIRST CONTACT WITH CUSTOMERS

TRIED FORMING TEAMS USING LEAN LAUNCHPAD PLAYBOOK

� 3 info sessions with food in spring 2015

� ~30-40 students per info session

� Not a single project pitched at these sessionsbecame part of the class

� Small % of the students enrolled in the class

+ ≠

SET UP SYLLABUS TO START VALUE PROP & BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS WEEK 1

� Needed substantial time for team formation

� Team dynamics, project viability and projectscope became early focus

� Had to drastically re-orient class

Summary Topics/Exercises

Key Deliverables

Week 1 - Research on companies and startups in the domain of interest

- Real Startup Deep Dive Paper

Week 2 - Domains of interest ideation- Intro to Lean LaunchPad (value

propositions and customer segments)

Week 3 - Finalize teams and domains - Team Contract- Initial Concepts Due

Week 4 - Intro to value proposition canvas- Customer archetypes

Week 5 - Group presentations on initial value proposition canvas

- Design concept activity

- Initial Value Proposition Canvas

Week 6 - Value proposition canvas- Value proposition mad libs

- Initial customer interview list

Week 7 - Customer development interview skills

- Revised customer interview list and questions

- Design Concept Update Due

Week 8 - Business model canvas seminar and BMC risk assessment activity

Week 9 - Engineering requirements

Week 10 - Customer discovery debrief and BMC revision

- First customer interviews completed

Week 11 Final Presentations and Minimum Viable Products

Final Presentations and Minimum Viable Products

Week 12 No Class – Finals Week Low Resolution Design Documentation

HOW DID WE ADJUST (1ST QUARTER)

TEAMFORMATION

VALUE PROP

CUSTOMER DEV. + ENG.

REQUIREMENTS

SECOND QUARTER

� Series of 3 design sprints

� Action in the face of ambiguity

� Example Design Sprint� Commit to testable MVP with metrics

� Build/code/hack/model a functional prototype

� Defend all aspects of prototype vs. customerdevelopment AND engineering requirements

� Minimum # of customer interviews

� Updated business model canvas

IMPORTANT LESSONS FOR TEACHING

� Teaching team matters a lot

� Philosophical compatibility

� Trust / Ability to yield control

� Regular discussion and review (adaptable)

� Team should be relational vs. transactional

� Our predictions on projects weren’t always correct

- Visual + Audio + Touch-

- Imersus-Jared Becker

Mechanical Engineering

-Class Highlights-

The WHY of engineering

Speak another language

Real opportunities

-Class Lowlights-

Differing goals among students

Slow start

Differentiating between class and company

ONLINE APPLICATION INTERFACE

Add

Screens

Search Content

VIRTUALITY REALITY INTERFACE

TAKEAWAYS...

- Truly “ learn by doing ”

- Perform al l aspects of business

development in one sett ing

- Work amongst and/or lead a

diverse team

- Timing & Pace

- Expectat ions/Commitment

PROS CONS

Knowledge Gap