© 2009 IBM Corporation

So You Want to Marry an Industrial?

Peri TarrIBM Thomas J. Watson Research Centertarr@us.ibm.com

© 2009 IBM Corporation

A Tale of Two Transfers

Over the past 4 years, my research team has transferred research results into–Rational Team Concert (Schedule Risk Assessment Tool)–Rational Focal Point (Investment Analyzer)–More results are in the pipeline

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…”

Success comes at a high price. Are you willing to pay it?–Huge time commitment, opportunity cost

• You become a development resource. For better and for worse.–Revising results, technologies to bridge gaps with products, customer needs–Overcoming industrial perceptions of researchers to establish trust

• What you do matters for the rest of us!

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Does the Problem Matter? Is the Solution Useful? Know the Business Case.

“Industry” = business. Businesses invest money to obtain benefits.– Businesses have less money to invest than opportunities– Businesses succeed with good long-term goals and strategies across portfolios– What is the best investment to balance risk with ROI across portfolio?

“Industry” = practitioners. Practitioners are focused on today’s problems.– Change = Risk– Will your solution solve problems they care about, or just cause everyone more pain?

What is the business case for the solution/problem you’re trying to sell?– What ROI does it offer? For how much risk? How much risk do YOU add?– How does it fit their goals, strategies, strengths, weaknesses, portfolio, technologies?– What real evidence exists that customers can use it, want it, are willing to pay for it?

Academic/research studies are not convincingInternal pilots are somewhat convincingCustomer/real-world pilots can be very convincing

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Good Solutions Still Drown in the Gap

You are here

What sells a research result to the bleeding edge is NOT what sells it to the mainstream, and hence, NOT what sells it to your practitioner friends

Mind the gap

Innovators EarlyAdopters

EarlyMajority

LateMajority

Laggards

Most businesses, customers, and practitioners are somewhere in here

The big,scary

chasm

From Geoffrey Moore, “Crossing the Chasm”

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Build a Long-Term, Win-Win Relationship

You are asking practitioner partners to bet on you–What can you do to make them feel it is as close to a sure thing as possible?

Success starts with a strong relationship (not with research results!)–Find someone(s) with a more forward-looking perspective–Make it a partnership. Everyone has to win OR lose equally.–Be open and willing to swallow very hard and compromise, especially early

• They know their customers/colleagues better than you do• Stage it in small, consumable pieces

Your first goal is NOT to transfer your research results. It is to establish trust.–Show ability to work with practitioner/industrial problems, goals, constraints–Demonstrate commitment to mutual success or mutual failure

“If it fails, you can always write a paper.We’ll be hung out to dry.”

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Summary

Work on problems, solutions, validation that matter to practitioners, businesses

–Understand the business case–Make solutions fit the “portfolio”–Validate in real-world settings only

Establish, care for, and feed the relationship–Learn from them, and they will learn from you

Start small, provide incremental value: “crawl, walk, run”