Savvy Avi

I have been working on EVOCAM a low cost endoscopy system with my partners at Evolving Technologies. Using frugal innovation techniques we developed a light, portable endoscopy prototype for a fraction of the price of existing solutions. Recently Medicine for Humanity physicians used our system to operate in Uganda. To allow training to continue from afar, after volunteer physicians returned home, we are planning to add a tele-medical feature to our device. I joined the team after they already had a working prototype and focused on market research, creating a concise massage and preparing a parametric engineering evaluation that exemplifies how EVOTECH is positioned in the market place. Basically everything it takes to turn a good idea into a good business plan. I am currently working rendering another EVOCAM out of MIT’s hobby machine shop. Together we took EVOTECH into MIT’s $100K business plan semi-finals (still competing) and to a bunch of other competitions in MIT and out...

A Product Manager’s key responsibility is focusing the product direction. It is always the case that there is more work than resources especially in startups. Hence a good way to prioritize work can really be useful. Using SaaS, software typically resides on vendors’ servers, it is easier for vendors to release updates at more frequent intervals, and with agile development practices, applications are updated almost continuously without traditional version control. Software hosting also allows vendors to collect valuable information about customers’ usage patterns. The available information is unprecedented in scope and immediate in availability. With a continuous deployment model and immediate customer response, the feedback loop between development and customers has never been faster. However, in order to fully leverage the fast feedback loop, companies must use the right performance metrics. This is what my research is about and I’ll speak about it in CE2011 conference this Jul...

When HubSpot’s development team started working it was clear to them that they are going to work agile. It was equally clear to Raytheon’s air traffic control development team that they should use traditional methods like waterfall (and CMMI). And if Raytheon would have decided on agile I would never fly again. However, these projects are in two ends of the spectrum for many in the middle the answer isn’t obvious. I recently went on a business trip to San-Jose California to help establish MIT’s product realization lab. I met with managers in Cisco software and E-bay and learned that this is an important issue. In fact, E-bay uses both methodologies depending on the project. To come at the right conclusions development teams should consider organizational, product and industry characteristics. I developed this questionnaire with 8 questions. By filling it out and summing the points, one can arrive at the most suitable method for a given project. Questionnaire Rank each question ...

Is Quora going to make it? They have got a good chance. Many Silicon Valley executives think they will. Is Quora going to contribute to the body of global knowledge? I am doubtful. Like Wikipedia, Quora is a crowd sourcing platform that leverages users to do the work. Unlike Wikipedia, Quora is for profit. Its users work, not for the benefit of human knowledge but for the benefit of Benchmark Capital . It has a smart business model. Users answer questions to promote their online reputation as experts on a topic (guilty as charged, I do it too). Users also write questions because it is an easier way to show online presence than answering, it only takes a sentence or two. People write questions to join the online clatter; usually they are not looking for answers. Also, in other search and answer websites like Answer.com or ehow.com the questions are simple, like “What is the best way to get from Philadelphia to NY?” Google “How”, “Philadelphia”, “NY”, and “travel” and you are likel...

Piles of business and policy books are published every year. While almost any book has something worthwhile in it, only a small fraction are good. And for every profound idea there is a load of simplifications, unbiased assertions, after the fact reasoning and hype. When considering what to read I know what to avoid. For starters, I’d avoid anything with a title similar to this blog title – anything with a number in it: “365 days of success”, “8 new roles of money” (from the Kiyosaki who brought us rich dad poor dad) or “101 ways to turn your business around”. I also avoid biographies and autobiographies. They tend to present a simplified view where the fortunes of companies and nations are over attributed to one person. This view is misleading and even dangerous when people start believing in saviors and messiahs . Autobiographies have all the flaws of biographies and they are also biased and are too often just pure narcissism. Finally, I won’t read a book about a company written f...

Engineering System D ivision (ESD) at MIT hosted a talk this Tuesday about the financial crises with Charles Ferguson, director of Insider Job . Ferguson identified the securitization chain as a major cause of the 2008 meltdown. A while back, the issuer of a loan held it to maturity and bore the risk. More recently, risk bearing moved downstream from the issuer to the investment bank and on to investors and insurers. Faculty members in ESD deal more with fighter jets and supply chains than finance. However, system thinking and system engineering methods are great tools for investigating financial systems. The securitization chain acts like a physical supply chain and the meltdown happens to be a bullwhip effect just like in any supply chain. Using System Dynamics is also a powerful tool. Risk assessments of mortgage backed securities were faulty because the risk models had narrowly-defined boundaries. Cash incentives for short term gains, deregulation, shorting on one’s ...

TNS, a market research firm, conducted an extensive research on the use of mobile, internet applications and social media around the world. What's really cool about it, more than the findings themselves, is the way the findings are presented. Sometimes, visualization is what matters most. http://discoverdigitallife.com/