Category: course information

The files below are handout versions of the slides from the February 3 and 4 classes:

Idea Selection and Team Formation: LLP Week -1 Class Slides

Overview of the Lean LaunchPad: leanlaunchpad

The files below are handout versions of the slides from the January 28 class:

Ideation & team formation slides: LLP Week -1.5 Class Slides

Overview of the Lean Launchpad: LLP Week -1.5 leanlaunchpad

You can download the first 72 pages of Osterwalder’s Business Model Generation by going to http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book. While you are there, you can also watch the short video and download a PDF of the business model canvas.

Many budding entrepreneurs begin with an idea but what if you want to start a venture and don’t have an idea or want to find a better one? Here are some tips to add to those offered in the first class.

Get in touch with your inner idea person: Many of us fight the fear that we aren’t “idea people.” While idea generation may come more naturally to some, watch David Kelley’s inspirational TED Talk on How to Build Your Creative Confidence to stimulate the creative problem-solver within. In addition, consider how your personality lends itself to idea generation as part of innovation. One way to begin is by reading Tom Kelley’s The Ten Faces of Innovation and asking yourself with which of the types you identify.

Get perspective: Check out these TED Talks for a broader view:

• In Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson touches on everything from the birth of European coffee houses in the late 1600s to the birth of global positioning (GPS) in the 1900s.
• Alan Iny’s talk Reigniting Creativity in Business is aimed at existing businesses, but he raises excellent points for anyone trying to generate ideas for a new venture.

Look for ideas in new places: While aha-moments do happen, fortune favors the prepared mind and systematically looking for problems to solve, unmet needs, and/or invention opportunities beyond your usual routine will raise the probability you will find some good ones (and perhaps even have a moment of genius). One of these articles or websites may be a good starting point for you:

• The “Sources of Innovation” section in Peter Drucker’s classic Harvard Business Review article on The Discipline of Innovation gives a thought provoking list of starting points for idea generation.
• 5 Ways to Innovate by Cross-Pollinating Ideas by Tina Seeling offers some fun and provocative examples.
• Grand Challenges for Engineering provides a broad-based list of categories. If you have a passion for a particular category may find useful in focusing idea generation efforts.

It can be especially worthwhile to look for ideas that have some built-in support and interest from investors, customers, or funding agencies:

• Investors have money to put into ideas and teams, so it is well worth considering what they are looking for. Here is what Homebrew has to say on the topic. (Thanks to UMass Amherst’s entrepreneur-in-residence Steve Willis for sharing)
• Innocentive offers various challenges on behalf of organizations that are offering a reward for solutions. Reading through the challenges offers an interesting perspective on the needs of others and the problems they are trying to solve.
• The XPrize Foundation commands interest with its ambitious programs and prizes.
• The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, provide funding every year for technology development by innovation-driven small businesses. Keep an eye on their solicitations to see what they want to fund in the future.

Leave a comment to share which of these resources you found helpful and/or to recommend others.

We are looking forward to the first class meetings on January 20 and 21. The files below are handouts of the material that will be presented:

• An overview and introduction to the course: LLP Week -2 Class Slides part 1
• Background to help you prepare for the January 27 or 28 class: LLP Week -2 Class Slides part 2

This blog site serves as the course web site for two Spring 2015 UMass Amherst courses focused on the Lean Launch Pad for Entrepreneurship:

MGMT 341 – New Ventures (Wednesdays 10:10 am – 12:30 pm, ILC 311)

ENGIN 597H – Technology Management: Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Tuesdays 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm, ISOM 106)

Both course are team-taught by Profs. Bill Wooldridge, David McLaughlin, and Karen Utgoff, with Teaching Assistant Jared Rand

Common course syllabus: LLP syllabus Version 1.1

Semester Schedule: LLP Schedule Spring 2015