Monday, June 29, 2015

LS2 Nate D.

  • Intro: At what point in the build season did we find out how accurate our assumptions really were?  Was it possible to accelerate this?  Could the assumptions be broken down into small experiments?  If so, how?
  • We did not find out how accurate our assumptions were until our final bot was in the week zero competition.  We never had a fully functional bot until this point and hadn't really driven.  We could have broken this down into a few different tests using a drive train and our pro type lifter.  We could have broken down how maneuverable our bot is with a drve train and some weights so we could figure out how lining up the totes would go.  We could have factored in lifting and driving speed to give ourselves a quicker and more accurate estimation of points per round.

  • Intro: Explain the build-measure-learn feedback loop.  What is the purpose of this loop?  Why is it a loop?
  • The build-measure-learn feedback loop is used to improve a product to get a better product.  The purpose is to put a product out there, see how it functions, and figure out ways to change it to be better.  It is a loop because it should be used over and over again until you have a high achieving product.  If you settle for "good enough" you will inevitably fall behind those who go the extra mile to be above and beyond.

  • Chapter 7: Ries says that traditional accounting doesn't work for a startup.  By analog, preset milestones during the build season (such as "we will be driving by the end of week 2 of build season" or "we will be able to score 20 points in a match by the week 0 competition") may not work either.  Do you agree?  What SHOULD we measure instead, starting with kickoff Saturday, to know we are actually making progress?
  • We should measure based on progress.  If we were to start by making a decent robot we could use the bml feedback loop to improve our robot to a high scoring bot.  We could start with a bot that scores maybe 10 points by week two and attempt to improve it by 5-10 points per week by adjusting features on the bot.

  • Chapter 7: Going back to some of the leap-of-faith assumptions, what would some minimum viable products (MVPs) look like that could validate these assumptions?  What would we measure with the MVPs?  Think specific to last season's game.
  • Some mvps would be drive trains and lifter ideas for the game we had last season.  We could prove the ideas to be effective or ineffective and improve on them without disassembling our whole robot.  We could measure things like speed, maneuverability, driver comfort, and precision.

  • Chapter 8: Explain the words "pivot" and "persevere" in the context of a team's way of doing things.
  • The basic definition of a pivot is a turn and persevere is to push onward.  In context of a team, pivoting would involve taking the idea in a new direction.  If a product was poorly received you would want to shake things up a bit to make it more appealing and well received.  To persevere in this sense would to continue with what you have been doing.  This is the attitude of "if it ain't broke don't fix it," so you continue to go in a direction that has shown to have favorable outcomes.

  • End with a summary of what you learned.
  • I learned all about the best ways to start and improve a product.  It shows that is best not to use mass amounts of resources to get a perfect product and have the possibility of it being unwanted.  It is better to start with something low quality and improve it to the needs of the customer.  This will show actual growth and what features are positive and which are negative. This is a process that could be incredibly useful in robotics because we can diagnose a problem right away when we only change one thing at a time.

Aren LS2 V2

Intro #2: We found out if our assumptions were correct about 2 weeks before the Onalaska competition.  We could have accelerated our learned earlier by just ordering the extensions to test them.  We did test a few of our assumptions like motor power needed and how much abuse the totes could take before falling over.  Our most important experiments (the extensions) needed to be tested with a robot under the appropriate load to test stability

Intro #3:  Intro: Explain the build-measure-learn feedback loop.  What is the purpose of this loop?  Why is it a loop?
-Build: make a MVP to test leap of faith assumptions
-Measure: see if your assumption was correct using innovative accounting.
-Learn: Take data from MVP and decide what needs to be done next
The purpose of this loop is to learn the best way to achieve your vision.  It is a loop because after you complete the loop you need to take what you learned and start over other wise you only learn once.

Chapter 7 #2:  A few MVP's we made to test leap of faith assumptions were simple lifters to test center of gravity on totes and a wood cut out to test tote intake capabilities of triangles.  We could have mounted the lifters to cut outs (with and without extensions) to test stability.

Chapter 8 #3:  When you have leaps of faith in your strategy you should build cheap and fast to test those assumptions.  Once you have the feed back you need you should either pivot and build or MVPs or you should persevere and start improving your product for the target audience.

Chapter 8 #1:  In the context of our team a persevere would be continuing to improve a basic design, for example our front triangles.  A pivot would be replacing the triangle with motorized wheels on arms.  An example of pivoting our strategy would be to change from a feeder station bot to a topper bot.

Summary:
The steer section is all about making sure your on the right path to achieving your vision.  What I learned was make an MVP to test assumptions,  Make designs easy to test and easy to measure with actionable metrics.  Finally the last section emphasized taking all  you learned from MVPs and deciding whether to persevere or pivot.

Notes/Direct Application to team:
Khanban:  Use as build measure feedback loop.
Back Log: Make longer extension, test wheels
Processing: build it
Built:  Once built you would put in a line down the hall.  You get a tag that might look like this.

Test time start:______
Testers:____________
__________________
Need Driver opinion:
 Yes__        NO__

Hook tag on part, when it time for you to test you get 30 minutes?? (subject to change)
to test part on robot.

Essential Things for this to work.
-Modular assembly
-all modules must be made asap(especially drive train)


Jacob Ls1

  • The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?
As with all businesses, our team is constantly running into new challenges.  These range from faulty parts and poor/rushed designs to social friction and lacking time.  These challenges affect all teams and some fair better than others, in particular the older teams who have a method that works.  These teams are like modern businesses that have been around for a while and have a way of doing things which has kept them relatively steady while newer teams like us are like startup companies trying to find a way to "win".  Without the longstanding data, teams like ours are forced to operate in uncertainty and create a great new product, our robot, in a short period of time.  This perfectly matches Ries's definition of entrepreneurship,  "A human institution designed to create new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty". 
  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
Productivity is the ability to progress towards what you set out to develop in a timely and efficient manner.  What you set out to develop depends on the company, it can be knowledge of a subject or a product that fills a specific need.  In the case of building robots in FRC the goal is twofold, to teach students about STEM principles and to make an awesome robot.  An extremely productive team could, at the end of the build  season, have a robot that accomplishes what the team set out to make it do and know a lot about how said robot works.  Productivity does not necessarily mean success though;  not all productive teams will have an amazing robot, but they will have knowledge as to what went wrong and how to not do it again in the next cycle (build season).  In this way they are working towards the end goal of a great robot and they have learned STEM principles (don't use cheap mechanum wheels if you can afford it) from their failure.  Based on this definition, we were mildly productive in that we made a successful"ish" robot and learned a lot about designing it, but their was a lot of time put into debating and our design process was not very efficient.
  • Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?
It assumed that customers would not want to go through the hassle of changing to a new im system and bringing all of their friends with them.  It turned out that the customers actually preferred having a separate system since it allowed them to meet new people, something 3D avatars are very good for, and they enjoyed the challenge of getting their friends to join.  The obvious route to have found this out would have been to release their product heavily scaled  back from their goal to see if people would even download it based on its description.
  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
A notable worry about our robot was that it would need a wider wheelbase than could fit inside of a basic frame.  This led to one of our first prototypes having wheels the extensions which removed the stability problem, but would have required a large amount of structural reworking and time to make feasible.  Debate on whether or not to keep these stalled design progress until we eventually just cut holes in the base frame and tried to tip the robot.  after doing this, it was obviously more tippy, but not dangerously so.  We could have found this out very easily with wooden frame, a stack of totes and 6 spots to put wheels (two fro the excess stability, and two for the all in frame).
  • Chapter 4:  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
The Zappos founders assumed that people would pay for shoes online.  This was tested simply by making a limited website and seeing if people would buy the shoes.  This was much more efficient than IMVU since it tested what the public wanted before any real work was put into the product.
  • Summary
One of the most important lessons I took from these chapters is to always test your assumptions.  It is clear from the cases studies and information that you can't assume you are always right, and you need to test things to see if they are actually true.  Another importing thing I learned is to do your tests and adjustments quickly so you can come up with what you set out to make faster.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Bryan LS1

  • Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?

Well, challenges are inevitable. At anytime, you could run into a challenge, such as not being able to agree on something, or simply not knowing what to do next. Building an FRC robot and running an FRC team have many challenges and problems. They always will have challenges and problems mostly because not everyone is the same exact person. Everyone has different views on what should be done and they all solve it in different ways, whether it be efficient or atheistic. Both areas have their own challenges like Eric Ries identified. No one can agree. Plain and simple not everyone can agree and people also need to be more open minded to take in ideas and then become able to mesh ideas and work finally starts getting done.

Our FRC team is a group of entrepreneurs due to how we have to become seen by the public eye and make our own ideas that will be able to be agreed on to make something. We are our own business. We made our team which requires money and resources just like a business.


  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?

Productivity is something our team doesn't know much about. Well that is true to an extent, we know when to buckle down and get to work, but we don't always do it well. Productivity is basically how productive you/your team can be. When building an FRC robot, productivity is how well the team is working together to be able to build the robot and how well they communicate. And no. Our team was not productive for the most part.

  • Chapter 2: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?

They thought that the people that used their product wanted to use instant messaging systems that weren't made by IMVU. Customers wanted an IM system that was in the specific game so that when people got onto that game, they could have new, different, online friends instead of the school and work friends. A faster, more efficient and cheaper way for them to find out these stats would be to test it with only a small amount of people and then if they didn't like it then they could've changed it.

  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
We experimented with the ramp to figure out how we could've gotten it to work or if it would've worked at all. We could've had different groups try different things instead of one group doing one thing at a time. Also, we should've worked on better prototypes.

  • Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?

Well Zappos was wise and saw and asked if there was a problem first instead of making a solution for a problem that didn't exist. The Zappos founders were wiser than the IMVU team because of their decision to figure out the problem and then fix it. Also, it was with a small amount of people that they figured out the problem rather than just a whole bunch of consumers.

Overall, I learned that not only I, but the team should figure out the problem before making a solution. Also, we need to work together and not always make a large scale thing right away. We need to start small rather than charging right into the final thing.

Braxton LS1

Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?

Similarly to a modern business, running a FRC team and building a robot can run into a multitude of challenges, be they related to design, scheduling, team morale, and more. Part of this is due to the similar nature of a FRC team to a business, in this case, a startup. Both often face extreme uncertainties throughout their lifetime, in the case of FRC, what next years game will be, and how we can prepare for it. Similar to entrepreneurs in these situations, we must adapt quickly, and attempt to experiment, and to 'go with the flow', as the phrase goes, allowing ourselves to tackle challenges as they appear, and to use a fluid strategy of experimentation to overcome our challenges.

Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?

Productivity is a key part of every business, and by extension, our team. Productivity is, depending on your current business plan and philosophy, either achieving your set goals in a timely and efficient manner, or gathering the coveted validated learning, with as little waste as possible. When we build our robot, productivity is of the second type. We must attempt to learn all we can during the build process, as well as design and build new and improved ideas and designs for the robot without wasting time or manpower. Based on this definition and explanation, our last build season had room for improvement. A lot of time was spent designing systems we would eventually scrap, discussing the same ideas with different people, and backtracking to previous designs that were not given their due process. Now, to be fair, I was not on the design or build team during this process, so my knowledge is mainly second-hand and observation, and therefore may not be the most accurate.

Chapter 2: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?

IMVU assumed that customers would would an inter-operable IM client that could function with existing clients, as customers would want to experience IMVU with their existing friends. In actuality, customers wanted to make new friends using the IMVU service, and they would prefer a dedicated IM client for the IMVU service. A faster way for Eric and his co-founders to learn this could have been to experiment with early users of the service, and to see what they wanted, as opposed to making and acting off a plan utilizing a multitude of assumptions.

Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?

One of the many aspects of the robot that we were unsure of this last season was the idea of whether or not to load from the front of the robot or the back. We spent many hours near whiteboards, CAD models, and the bot itself trying to decide which way was best to load in totes. I suppose the process could have been expedited by spending more time just collecting raw data from the bot and our model of the chute.

Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?

In the case of Zappos, the founder, Nick Swinmurn, assumed that customers would want to purchase shoes in an online setting. They also made assumptions relating to how important aspects of e-commerce would be handled, such as returns and customer support. These assumptions were tested nearly immediately, as opposed to the IMVU team, who spent a while developing assumed features and a business plan. Zappos instead started with experimentation, and evolved their business plan from that point.

Summary

In summary, this section of the reading contained a lot of information and anecdotes about how and why to experiment on assumptions when running a startup, as opposed to making a complex and strategic plan. They also discussed pivoting and persevering in your plan based upon your results from the experimentation. A lot of discussion was had about why experimentation was more effective than traditional market research, and how it is often helpful to allow early access customers to use a prototype model of your product, and develop from there. All in all, there were several important core elements to these effects discussed in these chapters.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Nate LS1

  • Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?
  • Like modern business we need to know what is needed in out product and be able to quickly produce an effective product.  Out FRC team is a group of entrepreneurs because we are basically running a non-profit organization.  To do this we must be able to gain money to use for our robot and other things by our customers why they should support us.

  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
  • Productivity is moving forward towards a goal or product.  This is accomplished by validated learning and positive consumer feedback.  For our team, productivity would be making an effective robot in a timely fashion.  This season we were not very productive. We made a good robot,my it we worked at a very slow pace.  We failed to stay on task to get done what needed to be done.

  • Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?
  • IMVU assumed that people who used IM wanted the system to be simplified and all unclusive through all the providers.  The customers actually enjoyed the different systems and like to learn on those.  For this reason, IMVU was not well received and ultimately failed.  It would have been faster and easier to do expiraments involving customer rather than asking hypothetical questions.

  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
  • Last season we expiramented with a ramp on the back of the robot.  We found the correct way to do it multiple times but we never built it.  It would have been better if we had gone ahead and built it the first time instead of figuring it out about ten times over and never using it.

  • Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
  • The Zappos founders assumed people wanted to buy shoes online.  They tested this with small scale expiraments to test the demand for this.  This was more effective because they validated their assumption before they had a huge launch.

Summary
This reading went over launching a product.  It showed the ways that people typically use compared to better ways that are not used as much.  Typically a business will assume customer reactions to a product and have a large launch in hopes that people will want it.  The lean way involves many small scale expiraments.  This is effective because it shows how the product will be received and what adjustments need to be made.
LS1

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Ben LS1

  • Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?
  • Direction and communication are areas we struggle with as well. We have to be able to sort it all out and agree on the best execution. In the end, our product has to be able to compete with all the other products produced by other teams. We are entrepreneurs because we have to make a product(robot) in great uncertainty. We have to make something unthought of before. 

  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
  • I believe productivity is the increase in useable information or measurable progress made in producing something, be it a new component or applicable data. For FRC, productivity would be how much closer we get to deciding what design to use, the increase in understanding of our systems and possible future steps, or how much work is done to fabricate our parts. I don't think we were too unproductive, but we could definitely improve. Discuss what we learned about processes that day and implement what we learned. Working on things more important at the moment than just doing something for the sake of doing something.
  • Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did     customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they   learned?
  • They assumed that people wouldn't want to try to bring their friends to a new network, that people would rather keep with one network and just have it as an add on. In reality,  the customers wanted it as its own network since it made it much easier to meet strangers. They like the challenge of bringing their friends to a new network. They could have made quick prototypes with little effort and get feedback as quickly as possible so they could immediately start modifying to the customers wants.

  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?   
  • Deciding on the drivetrain, between four or six wheels could have been quicker. Instead of the long debate, we could have made quick, rough prototypes and run them over a ramp, seeing if they would work.

  • Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
  • Zappos assumed that people would want quick access to a wide variety to shoes in a single store. They set up an easy experiment to test this hypothesis. They tested their hypotheses by testing them immediately, instead of perfecting a project for  months and finding out afterward wether people actually wanted it. 
Lean startup is a system that will teach us to work smarter. We test our hypotheses and make sure we know what it is we are truly looking for before putting incredible amounts of work are put into an undesired product.



Ryan LS1

Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses? How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?


Answer: Just like modern busniess, the obstacles we run into as a team are very much alike. We may work hard and put a lot of effort into our startup robot, other teams around us may finish faster, or make a "better" robot than ours. Even rookie teams can find further sucess than teams such as us, who have had almost four years of experience. With every year, we are dealt a new challenge and have a very restricted amount of time to work with to make our product work, just like with modern business, the economy changes constantly and leaves little to no time to get with the current trends.


An entrepeneur is someone who organizes and operates a business. These people take very serious risks, both financialy, and economically.This is rings very true with members in an FRC team. They use their limited financial resources to build their robot and use business connections to get their name out there and hopefully create some publicity for their team.


Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity? Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?


Productivity is the quality and effectiveness of a productive effort. In an FRC definition, productivity is building a highly trained and skilled team of students that can simulteaneously build a great robot and build on their own character. This season showed an unmeasurable amount of productivity. With our connection to McNeilus Steel, we were able to increase our mechanical productivity ten fold, and with the increased size of the team, we could focus on other sections of our team and allocate more time to them. Even at competition, we found ourselves having down time, instead of fixing in-game injuries to our bot, we waited patiently for our bot to be queud.

Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?

They assumed that their product would recieve dreadfully negative feedback, every little bug and flawed detail broght to attentio, showing how twrrible their product was. In reality they didn't recieve any feedback, because no one ended up buying it. They could have recieved ideas ffrom their demographic of customers before putting out a product that nobody wanted.


Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?


From a Media standpoint, one thing that puzzled me was our team number location on the bot. Their were very few places that we could place our numbers so they could be seen, by a judge, camera, audience etc. Without interfering with moving parts or areas we needed to see working, we had no place to put our signs, but we used our "u-shape" to our advantage, taping to directional signs on one bar, killing two birds with one stone. I dont believe their was any other way to fix this issue other than experimenting phsycially with our bot.


Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?


Zappos assumed that their would be customers ready to buy shoes if an online shoe store was up and operating. Zappos was far more effeciant because they were observing real customer behavior, they put themselves in a position to interact with real customers and allowed themselves to be surprised by unexpected customer behavior


Summary: So far, the Vision aspect of this book is shining light on problems that all companies have at startup, and it seems to me that these are very similar with the problems we face as an FRC team. It is very important for us to identify these mistakes ahead of time, and take the "Zappos approach" to starting a new FRC season. I am very confident that with our experience and growing leadership skills we can approach this new season with a clear vision, and grow our productivity and quality.

LS1: John Vriezen

Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?

Answer: Modern businesses have to be able to thrive in fast changing envirnments, due to the pace of technology.  FRC robot building is similar in that there are only six weeks to design and build.   During that time, new insights about the game, game strategy, and technology available can be learned as you go-- this can come from team members, or from other resources such as Robot In Three Days, Chief Delphi discussions, and videos from other teams.  In additional, prior year robots (even years before your team existed) can help inform your design decisions.  For example, the ball used in 2014 was very similar to that used in 2008 and in both cases, throwing the ball over an overhead structure earned points.

In areas other than bot building, FRC can be a little more 'stable' in that some things can be more directly repeated with less 'startup' design.   Summer camps can be run similar to how they've been run in the past, but of course improvements can always be made.   Prior sponsors can be solicited again, but there are always opportunities for new sponsors and grant opportunities.  As the team's accomplishment accumulate, the story you tell these donors will need to evolve.

Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?
Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?

Answer: Productivity is not just a measure of how much work is being done.   The important measurement is how much useful work is being done.   We could organize all our tools and parts five times (in five different ways) and we'll have done a lot of work, but not be very productive.   For building a robot, being productive means different things at different stages of the build season.  Early on, being productive means quickly assessing and answering the big question items that will have significant influence on later activities.  For example, which robot capabilities are the most valuable and which are we capable of accomplishing given our resources?   What type of drive train is the right choice? Is there a unique way our robot can provide a key capability to a top alliance captain-- in 2015, this was the ability to grab RCs from the step during autonomous (at least this was the case for the very strong regionals.)

Was our team productive?   Definitely much more so than in prior years based on my limited knowledge of prior year efforts.   The decision to build a practice robot meant we were able to achieve a very large amount of driver practice, which is huge.   The extensive CAD efforts paid off in that we were able to iterate on our design and assemble our near final design from the ground up in a day and a half.  Areas where more productivity could occur is avoiding the lost time trying to find parts and tools, due to lack of organization of these.

Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?

IMVU assumed customers would want to extend their current IM systems and friends in those systems to add the IMVU features and invite their existing friends to do the same.   Customers were hesitant to do so, but were very willing to use the new system to meet 'strangers' and form a new friend group. 

IMVU could have figured this out more easily by experimenting with different approaches and delivery methods and contexts

Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?. 

We spent a lot of time refining the cam finger geometry so that they would lift both totes and RCs effectively.  Rather than doing this with McNeilus turnaround, we likely could have tried many variations using some hardwood and the shop's jigsaw and drill press and quickly arrived at a good shape. 


Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?

The HP case study was interesting, in light of the fact that my Company, Vision Solutions has been doing some similar things regarding charity and volunteerism.   The book discusses things HP might do, as it sounds like as of the writing, things were just getting started.    At Vision, they periodically have fund-raisers for natural disasters (which makes sense in a very real way, because our product provides protection for customers in the face of disasters like fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, etc.)   More recently, they started the site charity double match for employee donations, and finally they have now requested that employees log volunteer time in a separate time tracking system (over and above the tracking we do for regular vacation and project time tracking.)   This, I think is not being well accepted-- more busy work so that the company can 'brag' about how much volunteer time is done by their employees, and 'recognize' the big contributors-- not sure what form this recognition will take, however.

Getting back to the question--- All the companies started with small efforts to assess feasibility and customer behaviors, so that they could direct their efforts most efficiently. 

Summary: 

So far this book is proving useful.   I've heard about various web services doing similar experiments where different user interfaces or price offerings are made to different users to gauge response behavior.  It does, in some respects seem unethical at times, where certain incentives or prices are offered 'randomly' to some site visitors and not to others. 

The basic premise does seem to be most applicable to cases where you have a reasonable large customer pool (or potential customer pool) so that you can have statistically significant results. And the product that is not 'mission critical' also helps.   I can't see it working at my company, where our customers spend very big bucks and bet their business on our software working whenever they call on it, otherwise, they are unable to run their business until the problem is resolved. 

With respect to CyBears, in addition to possible applications to building the bot, we could use some of these techniques for fundraising.   We could develop alternative ways of approaching donors (whether single persons, or companies) and measure effectiveness in terms of donations, volunteering, etc.) 







Tim LS1

Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management. How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses? How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?
The challenges are the same because each have similar pitfalls. Direction, communication, focus and vision - getting them in alignment. The group is like entrepreneurs because we'll have to take a situation, develop a strategy and find a new way to do something that is also new.

Chapter 1: What is productivity? When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity? Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
Productivity is a measurement of how much of what you are doing. The important part of productivity is accuracy - if you're not making something that fits the need or situation then it becomes counterproductive. I wasn't here for last season but from things I heard we could have kept on task better and managed our focus. 

Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product? How did customers actually behave? Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?
They assumed that people would want it because of the popularity of both IM's and games. Customers at first didn't understand it or even know about it so there was little to no customer base. Yes, they could have started with listening to their customers and making changes to the product. With management it's important to remember to listen to your front line people - they have the answers.

Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated? Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
I was not here for last season but there is always room for improvement in any scenario. 

Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study. What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business? How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
The assumption made was that there was a need for an online outlet. Instead of just diving in and making something they started small, really not having any inventory - no overhead - and partnered up with an established base - the store. IMVU thought they knew what people wanted and chased that assumption where Zappos confirmed and molded the idea based on demand, feedback and other data. This made their time spent more productive because their energy went into something that would impact the end product to match the vision. 

Chad LS1

LS1

  • Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?
Running a FRC team has many aspects of a modern business, especially a startup.  During all but 6 weeks of the year, the product of the team is uncertain.  The funding sources are not always adequate for the plans.   Many of the modern business techniques can be applied to to running a FRC team.  Just last year the FRC team "planned and forecasted", "just did it" and "built-measured-learned."

If the FRC team is a start up then by Eric Ries's definition "entrepreneurship includes anyone who works within my definition of a startup."   The team depends on innovation for to grow.  The innovation is product (robot) related or more importantly it includes less direct activities such pit layout, scouting techniques and selling yourself and your team.  For this innovation to flourish, the entire team is and needs to think like entrepreneurs.

  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
Productivity is the effectiveness of effort.  Productivity for an FRC team should focus on getting hardware built early.  Modeling common components in the off season helps a design team be more productive during the modeling of the robot in the season, reuse of code increases the productivity of programmers.  Tools such as visualization software or drawings increase the productivity during the assembly of the robot.  

The team had missed levels of productivity.  Making a wood base was an activity that lead to productivity as it allowed the other sub teams to start their work.  In other areas, a build-measure-learn approach has the potential to increase productivity.  

  • Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?
IMVU's base assumption was that IM users wanted an application that could work across all their different social networks.  The customers acted negatively to crossing their different social networks.  It is easy in hind site so suggest launching a low quality prototype early but that would have reduced the cost and increased the cycle time of learning.

  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
The design of the robot has many unknown aspects.  The team did some great things like using aluminum rods to get a feeling if the towers would be strong enough.  Once a need for a tower was determined, experiments to determine how strong the vertical structure needed to be could have been performed prior to any CAD modeling.  Separating into a lift and power train design team may have reduced the rework of the drive system as the lifting system was designed.

  • Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
Zappos's hypothesis was that customers would purchase shoes online.  In a very clever idea, Zappos kept their test of the hypothesis extremely simple by procuring shoes from a local show store.  Simplifying the procurement of the shoes allowed Zappos to focus on the customer experience while minimizing the initial capital cost of procuring product and decreased the cycle time of performing tests due to eliminating the procurement lead time.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Avery LS1

  • Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs
Running a team comes into the same challenges as a modern business with managing money and trying to get out a new product that will be able to compete in the associated market. Building a robot/product have challenges of trying to have the robot/product control and operate easily and provide a useful task that is needed and will not be overridden by a robot/product that does the same job plus more. 
  • Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?
Productivity is working on progressing towards a  goal or accomplishing a goal. Productivity for building an FRC robot is cading up models,testing prototypes, brainstorming ideas, finding useful information that will help with brainstorming or collecting materials needed to assembly a prototype/ final build. Yes, we where productive but we were not as productive as we could be and we did not go into the testing faze fast enough to see if any more than one of are ideas would work and just set are mind on one of the ideas. We should have finished brainstorming early on and then moved to prototyping and came to a solid idea within the fist two weeks, then make the robot and innovate on it so get it polished up and in the highest tier we could get it into.
  • Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?
They assumed that the customers  would no what their product was and that they would be willing to get their friends to join before they new if it was cool or not. The customers would want to see if it was a good enough game/product before inviting their friends to join. They wanted to add and talk to people they did not know with security and not go though their IM where they did not have anonymous  security. There was a better way of finding out the information they learned by not supporting all the IM and just starting to get feedback as soon as possible.
  • Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?
I cant think of anything but we probably could have done it faster from what i remember we weren't that efficient.
  • Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?
Zappos assumed that people would like it more if a wider section of shoes all in one place and not have to go around multiply stores or websites to find all the right pair of shoes. They got permission to take pictures of shoes, then went and sold them online and bought them once he had an order for them. 

Kaitlyn LS1

1.)Intro: The Lean Startup is a book about 21st century management.  How does building a FRC robot and running a FRC team run into the same challenges Eric Ries identified in modern businesses?  How is our FRC team a group of entrepreneurs?

Answers:They both have successful ones but also for every successful one there are quite a few failure ones, too. So the same challenges that they both have is that starting a business is like building a robot, you both need ideas to start and then once you have ideas you need to pick the ones that will fit or work the best. After picking an idea you will start experimenting, like you start building it but then you find stuff that would work or stuff that would. But if that idea doesn't really work then you have to start over until you got it right and how you might want it. But finding the right thing can be hard.
 We each have a job but that job helps other jobs to help us work together and it can help us be better. Like when we are getting ready for our next game there are scouts and then when they have info about teams we will be teaming with or against to the drivers so then they can make strategies. It is like a business there are people that help others and then they give them info which could help the company.

2.)Chapter 1: What is productivity?  When building a FRC robot, what specifically is productivity?  Based on this definition, was our team productive during the last build season?

Answers: The rate at which goods and services having exchange value are brought forth or produced.
Getting parts that work and don't break right away. I would think so but I think we could do a little better. We could get an idea and build a proto-type and then let the programmers use it then if we test it and it doesn't work or it would work but then build the real one or start a different idea.

3.)Chapter 3: What did IMVU assume to be true when they designed their product?  How did customers actually behave?  Was there a faster and cheaper way to learn the lesson they learned?

Answers:The thought it was essential and it would be useful, and customers would have to use it with their existing friends. And it would support as many of the existing IM networks as possible and work on all kinds of computers. Nothing happened, because no one was trying their product. Yes, they could of done experimentation or make the product easier to understand. When they were talking to some of their customers they asked a 17 year old if they wanted to try IMVU, and that is was similar to IM. They did and even engaged with them, but when they said it's time to download the instant messaging add-on. They did not know what it was and their friends didn't either.  But what is important is that you have to make it some what simple so people can understand and if people haven't heard of it let them tyr for free or make it seem cool cause they will likely try it.

4.)Chapter 3: What is something that we were unsure of last build season that we experimentally validated?  Was there a faster way to learn what we learned?

Answers:Some of the parts that we would cad then send to McNeilus. Another when we worked on something that we probably could of done faster but we didn't because we might of not know how to do it or we got distracted or helped others with something that they needed help with. Have maybe a few people experiment on one thing and have another few people do a different one but also have some do the main one we think we want.

5.)Chapter 4: Choose the Zappos, HP, Kodak, or Proctor & Gamble case study.  What assumptions did the Zappos founders make when they started their business?  How did they test their assumptions more efficiently than the IMVU team?

Answers: Instead of testing and going through a process before releasing it. He instead started it by running an experiment. He began by asking local show stores if he could take pictures of their inventory. He made an agreement with them for in exchange for permission to take the pictures, he would post the pictures online and come back to buy the shoes at full price if a customer bought them online. They went a head and put itself in a position to interact with real customers and learn about their needs. So instead of waiting for what people want or asking hypothetical questions they were able to get the company started.

What I learned was that there are different ways you can run a business. Not only that but there are things that are similar to a business. Like a few of the question it asked about our robotics team and tasks. Also just a few chapter from this book has probably given me a few ideas for next year.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Aren LS1

1.   Our team has run into the problem of trying to get a final product the first time.  We had multiple  valid hypotheses, that were easy to test, and instead of testing them we debated.  Also there are people who just want to build according to plan.  When in reality all of our initial plans get scraped because we find a better way.  On the other hand we didn't prioritize what needed to be figured out first.  For example, we planed the drive train before designing the lifters.  This made shoot feeding hard.  Overall we should have planned what to do better and how to do it less.  Finally we should have debated less and tested more.

2.  I would define productivity as doing useful tasks efficiently.  Productivity in terms of a robot would be utilizing resources (humans) to maximum efficiency on relevant tasks.  Using this definition the team could definitely improve efficiency by using modular assemblies, and having groups test designs and theories, while others design more.

3.  IMVU assumed that costumers wanted to minimize the number of IM softwares they used and that they didn't want to leave friends behind if they switched.  Costumers actually used many IM programs so one more wasn't a problem.  Also they wanted to meet new people online, and bringing friends was a fun challenge not a set back.  IMVU could have failed faster and on a smaller scale by only making their software integrated with one other IM program.

4.  Last year we tested to see if extensions were necessary for balance.  We could have found this faster if we decided to test it right away, but instead of just sending in the parts for both designs we debated.

5.  Procter & Gamble (P&G) assumed people would hand over laundry to have it cleaned and that they would pay more to get it back sooner.  P&G tested these by making a janky laundry station to prove people would part with their laundry.  Then they offered different prices for different speeds to test if people would pay more to get their laundry faster.

Summary:
This book emphasizes not making assumptions and doing as little unnecessary work as possible.  These to topics go hand in hand.  If you test something and know it works you do way less work than if you assume and build it then it doesn't work and you have to start over.  Through the many examples the author showed how this could be applied to many starts ups and businesses.  The concept of doing only productive work is very important for our team because we only have 6 weeks to build a robot we need all the time we can get.