Capstone course info Iiris Saittakari September 18, 2019 Today - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Capstone course info

Iiris Saittakari September 18, 2019

15.15 – 16.15 What is Capstone about? Course practicalities Expand your network Changes from last Spring 16.15 – 16.30 Break 16.30 – 18.00 Client company presentations Q & A

Today

Teacher-in-charge: Iiris Saittakari

• Email: iiris.saittakari@aalto.fi
• Phone: 045 673 4631

Teaching assistant: Priit Tinits

Faculty

Faculty Facilitators

Marja Luukkonen Business Law Pekka Pälli Corporate Communication Ranajoy Choudhury Entrepreneurship and Innovation Mgmt Perttu Kähäri Management & IB

Presentations coach

Christa Uusi-Rauva Corporate Communication

• Presentation skills seminar
• Presentation coaching session

Capstone?

From: http://www.capstonebranding.com/about/capstone.php

• Each team works with one case

company on a current, multidisciplinary business problem / task

• Together with your team, you will be

independently responsible for all aspects of the project

• Provide a well-designed and effectively

communicated solution for the identified core problem

Capstone = extensive team project

Course learning outcomes

After completing the course, you will be able to

• identify, analyze and solve real-life business problems from a

multi-disciplinary viewpoint

• apply the knowledge and skills gained during your studies to

real-life business tasks and challenges

• manage complex projects and work in diverse teams
• handle uncertainty associated with real life projects
• present a case report both orally and in writing
• critically reflect on your learning process and outcomes

• listen to the client and identify their problem
• manage a multi-stakeholder project
• work at the limits or outside your comfort zone
• manage tensions and challenges in a team
• identify and utilize different skill sets
• expand your network

“The most important issue I learned during the course was that not every project would go the way we expected. It was a repetition of revising the problem statement, adjusting our research and analysis, altering our methods and deriving our solution to better serve our primary customer - the company.”

What will I Iearn?

CHALLENGES!

• lack of time
• colleagues you can’t choose
• problems unclear; limits and definitions need

to be negotiated

• work outside your own comfort zone or specific

interests All these are common in business projects!

What can I expect?

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

Mark Twain

COURSE PRACTICALITIES

Almamedia Elisa Finavia Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) HMD Global KPMG Posti PwC S Group Soprano Transmeri

Clients in Fall 2019

Three key deliverables

Task Weight Deadline

• A. 1

Written team case report Team 50%

• 1a. Progress report 1

Oct 9

• 1b. Progress report 2

Nov 11

• 1c. Final report

Dec 2

• A. 2

Case presentation (10-13 min) Team 30% Nov 27 Summary slide (1-2 min) Nov 26 Presentation skills seminar Oct 30, 9.00-12.00 Presentation coaching session Nov 20-22, one hour per team

• A. 3

Individual student portfolio= 3A: reflection paper 3B: creative product Ind. 20% Dec 4

Based on insights from the first project meeting with the case company Its purpose is to ensure that you have a) started working on your project b) put together a project plan with your team You should thus include at least the following items in your report:

• problem statement
• identification of the actual targets of the project
• project plan (you are expected to read about project management to know

how to put together a project plan) Create a Power Point report and upload it to MyCourses by midnight, Oct 9

Progress report 1

The purpose of the second progress report is to help the Faculty Facilitator give you feedback on your overall approach to the problem, analysis and recommendations The more you have ready at this stage, the better the facilitator will be able to help you, so ideally, you have a draft of the full report put together. You should cover the following issues:

• problem statement (updated)
• project plan (updated)
• (preliminary) analysis
• (preliminary) recommendations

Produce the first draft of your written final report and upload it to MyCourses by midnight, Nov 11

Progress report 2

Business report where you present the problem, your analysis, and recommendations Although you are writing a business report, your academic expertise as soon-to- be MSc graduates should show! (research methods to some degree and refer to theories, research reports and academic articles to back up your plan and implementation) Include:

• Executive summary
• Brief statement (one paragraph) to clarify how the work was divided and tasks

allocated in your team, i.e. who contributed what data/knowledge/information and how you put the report together

• 5,000 words + appendices and references

Upload to MyCourses by midnight, Dec 2

Final report (50% of the grade)

• 1. Presentation coaching session on November 20-22 (one hour per team)

– each team will attend a one-hour presentation coaching session with Christa to get feedback on their presentation before the final session – The presentation needs to be completed (does not have to be perfect yet) for the coaching session so that the feedback will be meaningful – Your team is responsible for booking the presentation coaching session via MyCourses.

• 2. Final case presentation

– Your presentation should be engaging, credible and persuasive! – 10-13 min (not shorter or longer!) followed by 7-10 min Q&A

• 3. Case presentation slides

– Upload to MyCourses by midnight, Nov 27

• 4. One slide summary

– Upload to MyCourses by midnight, Nov 26

Case presentation (30% of the grade)

Presentation session Nov 27, 15:00-18:00

Session 1 presentations 15.00-17.00 Session 2 presentations 15.00-17.00 1 slide summary presentations & networking 17.00-18.00

a) Reflection paper 1. Reflection on learnings in the Master’s program 2. Reflection on learning in the Capstone course 3. Reflection on the teamwork in the Capstone project – approximately 2,500 words b) Creative presentation of your learnings

• express your key learnings and take-aways from both

the Master’s program and the Capstone course in a more out-of-the-box way (in the Aalto spirit!)

Individual portfolio

• a visual representation or a model of your key learnings and take-

aways

• a short, 2-minute video clip in which you present yourself and the key

learnings and take-aways to prospective employers

• a song that you have composed in which the lyrics are about the key

learnings and take-aways

Example from Onni Päivänen: MUSICAL SOURCE: own composition, but the riff may be inspired by “Flying Birds (Excellent Birds)” by Laurie Anderson & Peter Gabriel

Some ideas for the creative presentation

• 1. Case Report evaluated by your team’s Faculty Facilitator
• 2. Case Presentation evaluated by the Faculty Facilitators

listening to your presentation at the closing session

• 3. Individual Portfolio evaluated by your Program

Representative All four RUBRICS (see MyCourses/Materials) will be applied in the evaluation.

Evaluation & Rubrics

NETWORKING

Exercise: Expand your network

• 1. Interview a person you don’t know, 2 min
• Name
• Master programme
• Expectations: What would you like to achieve and learn during the

Capstone Course?

• A surprising thing about yourself that you would like to tell e.g. your

hobby

• 2. Present the interviewed student for another pair that you don’t know,

1 min/ person

17.9.2019 24

https://brand.linkedin.com/downloads Company representatives Team members Faculty fasilitators Other students

Expand your network

CHANGES BASED ON STUDENT FEEDBACK FROM SPRING 2019

The teams used to be formed before the pitches but now they will be formed after the pitches

• Select your three most preferred cases (including short

justifications - limited to 300 characters)

• Submit case preferences through MyCourses by tomorrow

midnight

• You can also select the least preferred case (optional)

Pros: You get to list your own preferences Cons: Teams may noy be as heterogenous as before

Forming the teams after the case pitches

“Yes - some of us worked more than others for the project” “Yes I believe very much so. …even if we in the beginning decided on dividing the work pretty "equally" it definitely did not turn out so” “I guess that would be a good idea in order to spot free-riders. But at the same time, those assessments could be sort of biased and give a false impression about the real situation.” “I think this is a difficult question. In general, certainly, when the team works well

• together. But if the relationship between the team members doesn't work (I don't

mean my own team) would the evaluations be objective? Or would the feelings and opinions affect the assessment too much?” “I would say no, since this evaluation is so highly subjective and also dependent

• n peoples 'chemistry'.”

Should individual effort be evaluated through peer assessment and included in the final project grade? The results are mixed

• All team members are expected to contribute evenly to

the project

• Vote in MyCourses whether you want to take individual

participation into account when grades are assigned by midnight, Sept 19

• If the majority of the students vote ‘yes’, the grade for the

written team case report may be decreased up to 2 grade points in case an individual has not been sufficiently contributing to the project according to all the other team members

• The evaluation would be made based on the individual

student portfolio/ Section 3: Reflection on the teamwork in the Capstone project

Peer assessment and grading

Student feedback ”The overall course was great. However, the amount of hours required to complete the course was much less than the hours I had to put on the project. Since is a real project, the amount of hours and resources put into the project exceeded the hours written in the syllabus.”

What would you change in the course and how?

There will be tips for problem framing and project management at MyCourses

Student feedback “I would also guide the teams a bit more by giving a few templates on team-work available, so that students that are less accustomed to working in teams would also have some sort of frameworks.”

What would you change in the course and how?

There will be material related to teamwork at MyCourses during the project

Student feedback ”The presentation coaching session with Christa was very useful and helped in the process of making a clear presentation” “for the last presentations, find some more audience for us pls”

What would you change in the course and how?

Added presentations skills seminar so that the presentation coaching session is to fine-tune your presentation (not to redo it) Invite HR people for the networking event

TIPS

Important dates

by Sept 19 Submit case preferences by Oct 2 Team kick-off meeting with facilitator by Oct 2 First meeting with the client company Oct 9 Progress report 1 by Oct 21 Second meeting with client company (with facilitator) Oct 30 Presentations skills seminar Nov 11 Progress report 2 Nov 20-22 Presentation coaching session Nov 27 Closing session: case presentations and networking Dec 2 Submit written team report Dec 4 Submit individual portfolio

1. Define project scope 2. Break objective into sub-objectives 3. List the tasks, task owners and deadlines 4. Visualize task flow and schedule 5. Work hard to complete the tasks and project by their deadlines

Five steps to successful projects

• Read ”Capstone - course introduction and instructions”

available on MyCourses

• Be active – with your
• team members
• faculty facilitator
• company contacts
• If there are issues, address them immediately

Three pieces of advice

Questions about what you need to do?

WHAT

World-class competition in Montreal Jan 6-10, 2020 Challenge Learn Fun 3 cr Contact christa. uusi-rauva @aalto.fi asap

John Molson MBA Case Competition – Apply by this Friday as team or alone

WHY HOW

More info: mbacasecomp.com