Eventyr

Mentoring

After much thinking I have accepted the mentoring that is available to me as a CommercialiSE Fellow. 

Recently my old boss pointed out that I would gain a lot more focus on, and complete more quickly, my PhD if I had some clarity about what I was going to do with myself afterwards.  It is apparently a  great motivator, and can help with that little problem I have with trying to appease too many groups at once.

There were three clear options:

• Go out get a job, make money
  • Appealing.  I have been a student or employed researcher for many years now, and money is suddenly something that I am aware I would like...
• Do consultancy and/or build a business from the consultancy and any output from my PhD
  • Risky but potentially rewarding.  I lack a clear idea of how to develop a business from what I am currently doing, but have some entrepreneurship training.
• Stay in academia
  • My original plan.  A relaxed and varied work environment that will tax me, and never bore me, for the rest of my career if I chose.  Academia is one of the few  true 'career' paths remaining these days.  I already have experience in research and teaching (even if I don't love the latter I know I am more than adequate at it).

I'm still not decided, but on meeting my potential mentor I realised that she was someone who would challenge me.  This is something I have been lacking recently, and the idea of someone who is capable of keeping me in check was fascinating.  As it stands any business I could build would not be scalable, but it may be that something could be productised over the next year and a half from my work.  We shall explore and by the end I will know whether this option is a workable one.

Our agreement stands: as long as I do the work.

Next I'll be venturing into the heady world of market analysis.

Intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurism is working from within; "internalising the mission of an organization, absorbing your customer's problem, and driving a creative solution that matters."

• Organisations rely on intrapreneurism and always have.
• No one tells you to do it but they appreciate the results.
• Create an energy and feeling that it will happen and it will.
• When you hear people articulate the mission then momentum has caught on.
• Sell, sell, sell.
  

Her advice was to show that you are competent and deliver so that people trust you. Do this above all.  She ran through a further series of lessons:

Lesson 1: Understand the organisational landscape and politics.
Lesson 2: You can make something GREAT happen.
Lesson 3: Don't assume anything... what appears obvious may not be.
Lesson 4: Make your stakeholders look good.
Lesson 5: Don't be intimidated... and don't give up.
Lesson 6: Bigger effects require teams... but with bigger results.
Lesson 7: Be fearless and keep the faith.

Nina gave a really interesting talk about her work at HP developing a way to use mms camera phone pictures to help girls select the right shades of make-up.  I was fascinated to learn about image processing and colour correction and calibration on camera phones for this project, and the work -arounds that they created to get this to work as a fully functioning prototype.

In her case, being a girl helped her to innovate and push for a project that the male engineers just did not understand.

It was a lovely, interesting, relevant and stimulating talk with which to end my time at GHC.

---

Johanna Hunt
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum

CommercialiSE

As a CommercialiSE Fellow I have been having to think harder and harder about the potential market for a business I could set up.  I’ve been having to think about the marketing plan that would be written.

Marketing plan:

• Who are the customers?
• What do they want from you?
• What is your marketing strategy?
• How will you sell to your customers?

The more I think about this document the more I feel in my gut that I am not an entrepreneur.  I’m not looking to set up and develop a clear product to bring to market, I have no interest in ever entering discussions with business angels or potential investors. 

While I enjoy the freedom of a lifestyle company through which I can occasionally consult, teach or train, I am more and more sure that I am not, by nature, a business owner.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have a passion for teaching, training and leading in industry.

It just leaves me with the vital consideration of whether I am the career academic I thought or, after all these years, really just a potential industry employee. 

Looking at practice, looking at industry cannot help but lead me towards it.  Industry beckons with the mythical grail outcome of a decent salary.  I love the freedom in academia, and I have no problems teaching, but I fear never being able to afford to pay my own way.

Where am I going with the work I am doing?  If I am my customer what do I want?

As a friend said to me in San Francisco: “You do know that the streets are paved with gold for people like you here?” 

I worry not that he was right but that I am tempted.

CommecialiSE

Thursday and Friday last week were spent working at a lovely hotel outside Portsmouth. 

I managed to get myself a place on the first round of the SEEDA-funded CommercialiSE Fellow Scheme:

"CommercialiSE Fellows Training offers a free package of support to enable academics, university staff, students, alumni, SME's and entrepreneurs based in the South East region to develop business ideas i nto a fully worked, realisable business plan. The training will last 6 months, and will focus on developing your business potential. The CommercialiSE programme includes possible access to the South East sector consortia, SEEDA Enterprise Hub Networks and the CommercialiSE Mentoring Scheme."

I spent two busy but enjoyable days working alongside a people from Portsmouth, Brighton and Sussex Universities - after I made it there*  - on the training course run by Hi Consulting, and I am greatly looking forward to the next one!

---

* The Shoreham tunnel was shut due to a peacock (or was it pheasant?) in the tunnel.  Either way I way very glad to have my radio warn me to detour at exactly the right moment.

Rehired

I wonder if I am too nice in allowing my old employers to recontract me for five hours a week (of which I am expected to work four).  They seemed to miss me.   

I should have suggested they find an administrator instead as anyone can do the work - editing security protocols transcripts in LaTeX for publication by Springer is fairly mindless work - and I fear I will prioritise them badly.

But then, I am a student still, and I need the pennies.  It is all about the pennies really.

Revisiting Agile Fun

Ran another Agile Fun session for the folks at FP at the Pitcher and Piano - this time on office space. 

It was interesting to see what people came out with as the main features of an office to be developed.  I wasn't convinced by the idea of a giant fax machine in the middle of the office that would get in everyone's way, but that was what the customer requested.

I think a different venue to the Pitcher and Piano may need to be found.  The table, and table service, is spot on but the noise levels can be problematic - and would cause problems for me explaining some concepts to novices.

More photos here.

---

I have since received my packs of XP Playing Cards in the post, which I hope to put into practice soon.

Working not Leaving

So at the start of January I left my work at the University of Hertfordshire, thus ending my employ as a researcher in algorithms and adaptive systems to concentrate instead on my research.  At the end of January I reminded them that my notice had been for the start of January and that I'd actually left.  That reminder resulted in more work being passed my way.

I have just agreed to work some more contracted hours for them, but have managed to get out of organising a conference on automatic differentiation this summer.  I am proud, and feel that I have proved myself not to be a workaholic (as my taxi driver the other night insisted).

I will properly leave them at some point I am sure.

On a separate note I am setting up Eventyr Ltd. as a vehicle for me to do some contract consultancy arising from my research on communication in Agile Software Development.  I’m still finalising what I need to know and do to put this in place, but I shall speak about this more soon.

Contracting

It has been pointed out to me more than once now that I could be making money from what I do.  As a poor student I admit this is appealing...

I am looking into options.  More on this soon.

Agile Fun Night

My 'Agile Fun Night' appeared to manage to be true to its name, and generally seemed appreciated by the people I ran it for. 

I facilitated a version of 'Extreme Hour', with a warm up of 'pair drawing'.    Photos here. 

Tom summarises it very well.  I certainly enjoyed myself.  I wish that there had been more time for reflection on the process, interaction and achievements for both activities, but hopefully I will draw that out next time I run the session.

Of course, it just makes me increasingly tempted to set myself up as a consultant to help pay for my existence as a student...