Winner of the "Pluto is Not a Planet Award"

1. The right way to kick a
dead horse
Team Awesome
David Koston, Brian Soward, Julia Roytman
Sunday, July 31, 11

2. The horse enters
2 teams, 1 idea: Help increase almuni donation
Sunday, July 31, 11

3. The Hypothesis
Non-donor alumni would give $$ to student projects
Sunday, July 31, 11

4. Assumptions
Students had projects to post
Alumni would donate
Donating alumni were worth $ to the school
Sunday, July 31, 11

5. And now, the testing
Students want to post projects for money.
Sunday, July 31, 11

6. Spread the word
Hundreds of Facebook invites
15 in person interviews
20+ texts
Sunday, July 31, 11

7. Let the responses trickle...
5 online submissions
2 in person
Sunday, July 31, 11

8. Confirmation?
Students want to post projects. Well, some do
Sunday, July 31, 11

9. Next Weakest Assumption
Alumni want to donate to student projects
Duh, right?
Sunday, July 31, 11

10. The Test
Survey of 15 alumni
Donation History
Donation Influence
Sunday, July 31, 11

11. The Result
No affinity shown to school
Sunday, July 31, 11

12. Spinning our wheels
Idea generation
Sunday, July 31, 11

13. Test what we can
Let’s test our peers, and trick them to
Sunday, July 31, 11

14. Uncertain results
2 of 3 were not distracted. What next?
Sunday, July 31, 11

15. When in doubt
Go back to your core mission
Sunday, July 31, 11

16. Why aren’t students prepared?
No real world experience?
Sunday, July 31, 11

17. Why weren’t we prepared?
No lean experience?
Sunday, July 31, 11

18. Aha!
Student Bootcamp?
Sunday, July 31, 11

19. Assumption
Hiring offices have trouble finding superstar interns
Sunday, July 31, 11

20. Test
Ask hiring managers and recruiters
Sunday, July 31, 11

21. Spinning Again?
What next?
Sunday, July 31, 11

22. Back to testing
Get valid data
Sunday, July 31, 11

23. Yay, we can iterate
Found a pain, is it a pain?
Sunday, July 31, 11

24. Will they pay?
???
Sunday, July 31, 11

25. Yes!
What’s next?
Sunday, July 31, 11