Managing Technology Ventures - Module Teaching Note (TN)

Alan D. MacCormack

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | April 2002

Managing Technology Ventures - Module Teaching Note (TN)

Abstract

Describes the conceptual foundations for a module on venture design, which forms part of an MBA course called Managing Technology Ventures. The objective of the course is to teach students how to think critically about the design of a technology venture, using cases that span a spectrum of different technological contexts. The premise for the course is that many technology ventures fail, not because they are based on bad ideas per se (although many are) but because they are poorly designed and executed. This module develops a number of concepts underlying a more evolutionary approach to venture design, geared to overcoming the fact that technology ventures typically face great uncertainty with respect to the opportunities they face.

Keywords: Business Education; Business or Company Management; Organizational Design; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Technology;

Format: Print

35 pages

Purchase

Citation:

MacCormack, Alan D. "Managing Technology Ventures - Module Teaching Note (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 602-139, April 2002.

This case describes the operations of a fictitious company that processes Cranberries. The case contains data that allows students to calculate the bottleneck stage in production, and to evaluate alternative investment options for increasing cranberry processing capacity.

Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised February 2020)

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

Chiara Farronato, Alan MacCormack and Sarah Mehta

Set in March 2018, the case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. This product offers a reduced price to riders willing to carpool, walk a short distance to/from their pick-up and drop-off points, and wait a few minutes before being matched to a driver. Two weeks after the launch of Express POOL in six U.S. cities, Uber’s product managers discover that if riders are made to wait five minutes to be matched to a driver—rather than the standard two minutes—rider cancellation rates increase, but Uber’s costs per ride are reduced. Together with data scientists, engineers, and product operations specialists, the product managers must decide whether to keep rider wait times at two minutes or increase wait times to five minutes in the six newly launched cities. The decision is complicated by the fact that Uber’s data science team normally places a five-week moratorium on changes to any new product, to allow robust data to be collected on its performance. This case is paired with a supplementary dataset from Uber (HBS No. 619-702). In advance of the class discussion, students can analyze the data and draw their own conclusions about the trade-offs of maintaining the standard wait times or increasing them.

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Technology; Mobile Technology; Software; Technology Platform; Decision Making; Technology Industry; California; San Francisco;

Citation:

Farronato, Chiara, Alan MacCormack, and Sarah Mehta. "Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL." Harvard Business School Case 619-003, October 2018. (Revised February 2020.) View Details

Cite View Details Educators Purchase

Faculty & Research

Managing Technology Ventures - Module Teaching Note (TN)

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author