Great teamwork is critical to doing things you have never done before and never thought you could accomplish.

Success in Lean Launchpad depends on quickly establishing an exceptionally high functioning team. The faster that you can get your team set up and establish an operating rhythm that works for you and your teammates the greater your potential for growth and success.

Some things to consider in setting up your team:

  • How will you communicate?
  • How will you make decisions?
  • How will you integrate work from different team member in a timely and efficient manner?
  • How do you best leverage each team member's skill set and work in a way that maximizes everyone's productivity?
  • How do you plan to interact with external stakeholders?

LLP teams build on the type of team work that you have seen in your other MBA classes.

Here are some 'Lessons Learned' and best practices based on feedback from past student teams:

  • Establish a weekly meeting to focus on reflection, integrating data from various team members activities, team decision making and planning. This meeting is probably best in person, particularly early on in the semester, but could also be conducted via something like Google Hangouts if scheduling is an issue. This should probably be at least 90 minutes and scheduled as close to midway through the week (based on the class day) as possible. For example, if class is held on Thursday it would make the most sense to hold a weekly meeting on Sunday or Monday.
  • The group should plan to "huddle" independently at the end of each class period (Some class time may be allocated for this). The focus of the huddle should be incorporating the feedback received in class into the teams plan for the coming week and making sure that each team member understands their part or role, expectations and deadlines.
  • The team should establish an internal deadline prior to team's weekly meeting for each team member to update GLIDR with their work for the week. Everyone should be expected to have reviewed everyone else's work prior to the weekly team meeting so that the meeting can be focused on how to respond to the new data for the week. This also helps in alleviating bias towards data received in one's own interviews/work and should help the group develop insight faster and come to consensus more quickly.
  • Expect instructor and coach feedback (in GLIDR) in between the team meeting (when the previous calendar week's data should be loaded) and the class period; Be prepared to address or respond to this feedback on a short turn around in class. Ignore this feedback at your peril... 😉
  • Establish team roles so that not everyone is doing the same thing at the same time. There are three main buckets of activities for the class: 1) Business Model and Product Development (Moving the actual underlying business forward) 2) Discovery, Hypothesis Design, Outreach and Validation (Interviews) and 3) Interpreting the Data, Responding to Teaching Team Feedback and Preparing the Presentations for Class (Reporting out). LLP teams are generally greater than 5 members so that these activities can be divided up. Pieces of this will still require everyone's input (see team meeting schedule above), but on a well oiled team these roles can also be split out based on skills and interests, schedules, and team need. Roles can also rotate throughout the semester.
  • It is highly recommended that most interview work be conducted in person, and by more than one team member. This allows one person to focus on driving the interview and the other to focus on listening and interpreting the responses. It also for dialog following the interview that will help build faster consensus. Interview work without structures in place to interpret and respond to it is not a great use of anyone's time. Some critical interviews may require all or at least a substantial portion of the team and the faster that you can get the data back to the team and integrated with everyone else's work the more effective your team will be. (Hint: this has to be faster than once per week and is best if happening in real time)
  • In addition to work roles it is important to identify a "team leader." This person will serve as the primary point of contact for the team, will help set up the team structure and call and chair team meetings. The team leader is also charged with building and maintaining the relationship with the inventor and keeping him or her regularly involved in team activities. If the team has a dedicated coach or mentor the team leader would drive this relationship as well. A team leader is not a 'CEO' unless the team also elects him or her to that role. A good team leader is a competent administrator that keeps the trains running on time, makes sure that everyone's voice is heard and guides the group towards decisions in a fair and efficient manner. The team leader serves the team.

You are forming a 'business' with this team. As with any start-up team, it is best to set clear expectations up front and then be prepared to adapt as the semester progresses.

Team Management Resources:

  • GLIDR - Class Platform for Recording Interviews and Driving Development of the Business Model; Primary Tool for Communication with the Teaching Team (Will need to Purchase License for the Class)
  • Slack - Free Work Chat; Highly recommended for remote team communication and real time coordination
  • Google Hangouts - Free Remote Video Conferencing