Course PM – 2026

 

Idea Evaluation 2026 (TEK219)

In Swedish: Idéutvärdering

160 hours (80 for LP3, 80 for LP4).

The course is offered by the department of Technology Management and Economics

Block B – Tuesday, Thursday EM(13 – 17); Fridays EM(13-15).

 

Examiner: Karen Williams Middleton (karen.williams@chalmers.se)

Additional primary teachers: Tobias Fredberg (tobias.fredberg@chalmers.se), Christoffer Hermansson (chrihe@chalmers.se)

TECH: Kristina Hejdenberg Sedström (kristina.hejdenberg.sedstrom@chalmers.se);

CORP: Anna White (anna.white@chalmers.se)

Course Administrator: Carina Jogevik (carina.jogevik@chalmers.se)

Additional guest lecturers announced in the calendar/at sessions

Course Schedule

The course has a TimeEdit schedule block B, which has time allocations on Tuesdays 13-17 (academic quarter), Thursdays 13-17 (academic quarter), and Fridays 13-15 (academic quarter).  Exceptions are specific dates stated by Chalmers centrally on the academic year calendar schedule (ex. CHARM). The schedule for the course will be provided in TimeEdit with more specific details provided through the Canvas course page and calendar.  For example, specific schedules for presentations will be posted through Canvas.

Purpose

The aim of the course is to provide students with skills to prepare and conduct idea evaluations of early-stage entrepreneurial and innovative developments. Development can occur independent of existing organizational structures or embedded within established organizations. All content provided has relevance to both contexts, though the utility of content may be both immediate, to the current idea case at hand, or for future use, such as the project work in the second year of MPBDP and beyond.  The course includes an EDI perspective, including a view on entrepreneurship as value creation, including not only economic, but also social and environmental value. The course will balance raising awareness of current normative space, for example operating within complex existing organizations and ecosystems, while also addressing means to enact change in or through these systems.

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 evaluation content and methodology
2. Demonstrate developed skills in describing, analyzing and making substantiated decisions about an idea in regard to e.g. the artifact, the innovative and positional landscape, stakeholders, and contextual aspects
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 and regulatory requirements, and positioning, including consideration of potential trade-offs
5. Demonstrate ability to elaborate upon ethical as well as sustainable development aspects of idea 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 feasibility and substantiation including academic communication.

Content

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

Themes dealt with include the following:

• Framework for idea evaluation, including project planning
• Framework for collaboration
• Evaluation mechanisms (sustainability, brand, technology)
• Patent innovation
• Sustainable innovation and compliance
• Scenario planning
• Brand management
• Impact investment
• Relationship management and work dynamics
• Stakeholder awareness and analysis
• Competence requirements
• Criteria development for decision making
• Verification and reflective assessment of decisions

Organization

Part 1 (LP3): Team-based idea evaluation – tools and frameworks

Criteria for evaluating ideas build upon previous knowledge gained through the Business Creation Lab fall (LP 1 & 2). This includes, for example, TEVA, degunkification, freedom to operate, etc. as well as methodologies such as effectuation. These, and new evaluation criteria, such as sustainability analysis, patent innovation, scenario planning, impact investment, etc. are used to position idea cases 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 situated position in a technical university entrepreneurial ecosystem. This includes consideration of conceptual trade-offs relative to temporal and scale aspects of the developing innovation, as well as relational considerations in regard to associated regional actors (taking into account benefits, expectations, governance, constituents, compliance, etc.).

For the CORP-track, an additional perspective addressed is to consider how established organizations’ work with internal and external ventures in relation to the core activities of the respective organization. For the TECH-track, an additional perspective addressed is the different path trajectories of university researchers. Ideas are evaluated through workshops, tool application, and presentation/feedback sessions.

Team dynamics are observed and evaluated to facilitate team development, including venture/corporate project team formation. Additional emphasis on testing different roles and responsibilities in an embedded team setting prepares students for future project work. Groups cooperate through combined peer-team to peer-team constellations to observe and provide feedback on the ideas being evaluated as well as team process and dynamics, including gaining insight into own working methodology within a team.

Part 2* (LP4): Track specific evaluation processes:

This will be provided in proximity to the LP4 timeline.

Examination (LP3)

General criteria for passing:

• Pass on the case evaluation assignment (including oral presentation)
• Pass on individual contribution report
• Pass on the action plan deliverables
• Pass on the IAM assignment
• Pass on individual assignment (survey)
• Participation in peer to peer sessions
• Presence on mandatory scheduled events

NB!  Attendance will be monitored and may be included towards examination as relates to contribution reporting. 

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 a team in the different presentation assignments).

Examination (LP4)

This will be provided in proximity to the LP4 timeline.

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 a team in the different presentation assignments).

 

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 online 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

Building upon comments from previous years, more framing of how project work should be prepared and organized is provided through required and iterated action planning deliverables.  More specific sustainability analysis will be emphasized as current generations of student are more sustainably competent when entering the course.

Course literature

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

Dumont, G. (2024). Evaluating the Credibility of Entrepreneurs’ Impact Promises in Early-Stage Impact Investing. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 1-31.

Keller, K. L., Brexendorf, T. O., and Bayus, B. (2015). Understanding the interplay between brand and innovation management. Journal of the Acad. Marketing Science, Vol. 43:548–557

Keller, K. L. (1993) Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57(1) pg. 1

Petrusson, U. (2016) Research and Utilization. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

EDI Workshop material (provided through Canvas)

Sustainability Atlas

Additional literature provided on canvas.

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

 

Contact information

For questions regarding the course please use canvas.

Schedule 2026 LP3

 

DATE	TIME	FORMAT	SUBJECT	Place
20/1 2026 [M]	13-17	Information	Course Introduction & Peer to Peer Development	Vasa 7
22/1 2026 [M]	13-17	Lecture and Case Work	Case Introduction & Dialogics	Vasa 7
23/1 2026	13-15	Workshop	Market segmentation method intro AND case work	Vasa 7
27/1 2026	13-17	Lecture	Segmentation	Vasa 7
29/1 2026	13-17	Lecture	Project planning	Kemi L42
29/1 2026	See Assignment	Deliverable	Action plan based on the case
30/1 2026 [M]	13-15	Workshop	Evaluating through a sustainability lens: Icebug Case	Kemi L42
3/2 2026 [M]	13-17	Lecture	Positive Solution Space, Planet as a Stakeholder (Green Compliance)	Vasa 7
5/2 2026 [M]	13-17	Lecture	IA Management part 1	Vasa 7
6/2 2026	13-15	Lecture	IAM part 2	Vasa 7
10/2 2026	13-17	Lecture	IAM part 3	Vasa 7
12/2 2026	13-17	Lecture	IAM part 4	Vasa 7
13/2 2026	13-15	Lecture	Brand Management Part 1	Kemi L42
19/2 2026	13-17	Lecture	Green Models	Vasa 7
20/2 2026	13-15	Consultations	Case Consultations	Vasa 1 & 2
20/2 2026	See Assignment	Deliverable	IAM evaluation
24/2 2026	13-17	Lecture	Impact Cost/Benefit analysis	Vasa 7
26/2 2026 [M]	13-17	Workshop	Scenario Planning	Vasa 7
27/2 2026 [M]	13-15	Track Specific	Information session	Vasa 1 & 2
27/2 2026	See assignment	Deliverable	Project plan Update (Action plan v. 2)
3/3 2026	13-17	Lecture	BCL Tool Application and Analysis	Vasa 7
5/3 2026	13-17	Lecture	Finance: What good looks like	Vasa 7
6/3 2026	13-15	Peer to peer	Track specific	Vasa 1 & 2
10/3 2026	See assignments	Deliverable	Executive Summary, Pres. doc and Contribution Report
10/3 2026 [M]	13-17	Deliverable	TECH Case Presentations	Vasa 7
12/3 2026 [M]	13-17	Deliverable	CORP Case Presentations	Vasa 7
6/3 2026	LUNCH	QREC Venture Challenge Info session
13/3 2026	13-15	Feedback session	Track specific - cases	Vasa 1 & 2
		Exam period	14-21 March
17/3 2026	12:00	Deliverable	Team Formation Survey
20/3 2025 [M]		Workshop	Track specific

 

 

KWM Karen Williams Middleton, lecturer, examiner                  

CH     Christoffer Hermansson, lecturer

TF     Tobias Fredberg, lecturer

AW    Anna White, track coordinator CORP

KHS   Kristina Hejdenberg Sedström, track coordinator TECH

 

Additional Guest Lecturers