Course syllabus

Jump to today

Course-PM

TEK218 Idea evaluation lp3 (4 hp) lp4 (3.5 hp) VT22  [NB! 7.5 hp reported in lp4]

Course is offered by the department of Technology Management and Economics

Contact details

Course Schedule

The course has a TimeEdit schedule block B, but as the course extends across two LPs, the time allocations utilized will be Tues. 13 - 15 and Thurs. 13 - 15 unless otherwise specified in the schedule provided in the Calendar. 

Purpose

The aim of the course is to provide students with skills to prepare and conduct idea/project evaluations of early-stage entrepreneurial and innovative developments, incorporating social, economic, environmental and sustainable perspectives, while learning in complex organizational dynamics.

Only students who are admitted to the Entrepreneurship and Business Design program are qualified to take the course, due to the strong integration with the laboratory-based pedagogy of the program.

Learning outcomes

  1. Demonstrate knowledge and terminology about idea/project evaluation content and methodology
  2. Demonstrate developed skills in describing, analyzing and making decisions about an idea/project in regards to e.g. artifact, stakeholders, and context
  3. Develop demonstrated skills in determining value visions around future areas of use, including customer, societal, business utility and potential.
  4. Develop demonstrated skills in formulating needs for further verification, including resource analysis, competence requirements, and potential trade-offs
  5. Demonstrate ability to elaborate upon ethical as well as sustainable development aspects of idea/project evaluations, including how to relate professionally to different stakeholders in the entrepreneurial and innovative development process
  6. Demonstrate ability to teamwork on multiple levels, incorporating perspectives and motivations of engaged stakeholders
  7. Develop demonstrated skills in communication and presentation of idea/project feasibility and substantiation including academic communication.

Content

The course is structured around the components of the team and idea/project evaluation process with a special emphasis on sustainably framed entrepreneurial and innovative developments.

Themes dealt with include the following:

  • Framework for idea/project evaluation
  • Framework for collaboration
  • Relationship management and work dynamics
  • Stakeholder awareness and analysis
  • Competence requirements
  • Criteria development for decision making
  • Scenario planning, back-casting and other forms of analysis
  • Verification and reflective assessment of decisions

Organization

Part 1 (LP3): Team formation, idea evaluation & stakeholder assessment

Criteria for evaluating ideas build upon previous knowledge gained through Business Creation Lab fall (lp1&2).  This includes, for example, TEVA, degunkification, freedom to operate, etc.  These, and new evaluation criteria, such as SDG associated sustainability analysis and scenario planning are used to position ideas in a positive solution space, and present recommendation for next steps through a packaging approach. 

Contextual analysis is conducted on ideas to raise awareness of the specific situation position in a technical university entrepreneurial ecosystem with associated regional actors (taking into account benefits, expectations, governance, constituents, etc.). For CORP students, an additional focus is given to large organizations' work with internal and external ventures in relation to the core activities of the respective organization.  Ideas are evaluated through peer to peer presentation/feedback sessions, with additional assessment panels for comprehensive feedback.  Feedback must be incorporated into the evaluation criteria and stakeholder assessment in the second half of the course, for the TECH students; for the CORP students the examination events on March 8th and 10th function as interim presentations of the cases, which will continue through lp4.

Team dynamics are observed and evaluated to facilitate team formation and development.  Groups cooperate through combined peer to peer group constellations as a means to observe and provide feedback on team process and dynamics, as well as gain insight into one's own workings in a team format.

Part 2 (LP4): For this period, the course organization is specifically aligned to the associated track process as follows:

CORP: Continuation of idea/project evaluation work in groups, with further deepening of knowledge in different idea evaluation tools, especially focused on how ideas are evaluated in large corporate settings. The groups will present their findings in the end of LP4. During this period, students will also be introduced to the corporate entrepreneurship settings/initiatives that they will be working with during the final year of the masters program.

TECH: LP4 focuses upon the idea evaluation for project matching with venture teams. Following developing of idea evaluation criteria, the newly matched student teams enter into a period of idea presentations. Pre-vetted ideas are introduced in 30 to 45 minute sessions to student teams for evaluation and constructive development, and potential on-boarding.  For each idea, one or two student teams will be responsible for organizing initial questions and constructive comments; as well as summarization of information and answers presented. Question formulation builds from general criteria established through a course exercise at the beginning of the LP.  Once all ideas are presented, teams assess and rank their preferences in written documentation.  Once teams and ideas are matched, teams evaluate next steps in preparation for incubation year.

Specific schedules will be provided on Canvas for CORP and TECH respectively, 2 weeks prior to the start of LP4.

Examination

General criteria for passing:

  • Pass on the idea/project evaluation assignments (includes participating in the oral presentation)
  • Pass on the group-based assignments including presentations and associated documentation
  • Pass on individual reflective assignment
  • Presence on mandatory scheduled events

The course is pass/fail.

For presentations, everyone in the team should be prepared to present upon request of the course leader (to assure proper integration and involvement of everyone in the group in the different presentation assignments).

Course literature

Alänge and Lundqvist (eds.) (2016) Sustainable Business Development, compendium Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg Sweden.

Additional literature provided on canvas.

Useful information: https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/library  (ex. FAQ, Fact Sheets)

Course Evaluation

The course will have several student course representative(s) for the TECH and CORP respectively. They act as eyes and ears of the student group and communicate with the course faculty. During and after the course they will participate in meetings with the faculty. Notes from these meetings will be published on canvas.

At the end of the course an on-line questionnaire will be sent out to all course participants. In order to have useful course feedback it is important that everyone respond to the questionnaire, and direct feedback relative to their specific track.

Course Development from previous year

An idea evaluation course existed in a previous format, but was more focused specifically on early-stage idea case evaluation, and concentrated into one LP, with an associated graded exam and report.  The course was paused and redesigned in a new format to fit the specific trajectory of the team and project formation and development of the TECH and CORP tracks of the MPBDP.  This is the second iteration of the new design, but now without grading, but rather in a pass/fail format to mirror the experiential lab nature of the course.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due