The Pitt Innovation Institute has established the Panther Innovation Network to involve Pitt alumni and others in the University's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. In this guest blog, Pitt alum Denny Wist (Katz), discusses his experience as a mentor to Pitt faculty and students.
As I approached the “last chapter“ of my business career I, like many of many colleagues, confronted the question, “What do I do next”? The thought of endless days of golf and leisure just didn’t seem fulfilling for me.
This sent me on a journey of self-examination. I concluded that over 40 years of experience in engineering, sales, marketing, operations management, product management and executive management, both in large, medium and small organizations — including my own electronics company — should have some value. Not doing something with that hard-earned experience seemed to be waste.
As I discussed my conundrum with one of my colleagues, he directed me to Pitt’s Innovation Institute. A short discussion with the Innovation Institute revealed how I could stay involved in the regional entrepreneurship community and leverage my experience to a useful purpose in helping to translate the incredible discoveries coming from Pitt research into commercially viable opportunities.
I got involved with the Innovation Institute’s “First Gear” program, which is for Pitt students and professors with ideas that they think may have commercial potential. In First Gear, they go through a process of customer discovery and value proposition definition that allows them to make a knowledgeable decision on pursuing the opportunity.
One of my past positions was the Director for Product and Market Development for a specialized steel products company. I experienced firsthand the difficulty of evaluating the technical feasibility, the commercial potential of new ideas, and then translating them into a real product that the market wants and will pay for. It seemed like we were getting “surprises” all too frequently. The customers did not like the features of the products that were developed, the price was too high or they found another alternative that fit their needs better. We continually struggled to develop a process that would evaluate an idea from concept through to launch that gave a realistic assessment of its potential and which would allow us to focus on the higher probably of success and high return ideas.
The Innovation Institute employs the “Lean Launchpad” model which I wish I had access to in my past position. It is a structured process that helps a team develop their idea using real world input to assess the commercial practicality and potential. Since the process is strongly aligned with real customer input, teams get a good view of their potential markets and customers and can accurately assess the business potential of their projects in a timely manner.
What keeps me coming back to volunteer at the Innovation Institute is the self-satisfaction of contributing to others within a process that provides quality input and guidance to the teams. When we get a “winner” that successfully launches, it reinforces the feeling that something special is going on at my alma mater.
If you are someone like me with a trove of technical, business, product development and entrepreneurship experience who would like to assist innovative faculty and students at Pitt in changing the world, I would encourage you to reach out and get involved.
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