Stanford University tour
It was a sunny afternoon. We arrived early at the Stanford site. We were able to enjoy walking around and exploring the surroundings and enjoying the sunshine. A short hop to the shop and it was already time for the guided tour. It was a very nice and positive girl who welcomed us for this visit of one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She led us for more than an hour backwards through the campus, telling us about the history of this university. Yeah… yeah… We were impressed by the serenity and calm that prevailed at the site. The buildings looked brand new and typical American comedy. Yeah… yeah… yeah… The grass was perfect, the streets were clean, not a pothole, everything was perfect. They can afford it at Stanford, though. With over 16,000 students paying over $70,000 a year… At that price, everything better be perfect! The total budget of one of the top 3 universities in the world is over 50 million dollars. Yeah… Yeah… The site is huge and the buildings are innumerable. It’s simple. We spent an hour and a half wondering about it. We felt so good that we wanted to stay and enjoy the sunny day… But the next visit was waiting!
Facebook HQ
During the second week of our trip in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to visit several Silicon Valley companies. Facebook HQ was for me the most memorable! Let me tell you a little more about it! So, on the 19th of February 2020, we went to Menlo Park, where Facebook’s headquarters are located. As soon as we arrived on the campus, we were hosted by Russell Blank, who is a Business Integrity Associate at Facebook. Right from the start we were impressed by the Facebook headquarters, it feels like we’re in a city. Everything was so cool, there’s everything employees need to find on a daily basis without leaving the campus. They can get massages, get their hair done and even go to the doctor. There is also a pop-up store that changes regularly, a souvenir shop, an arcade and, above all, a large number of restaurants. And you know what? Everything is free! For the little anecdote every Facebook offices around the world has a red element, here, in Menlo Park, it’s the bridge, in Zurich for example, it’s a slide. At the end of our visit, after a good meal, we had a small question and answer session, it was really interesting. We saw that the people who work at Facebook are passionate about what they do. This HQ made us feel like we were walking around Disneyland instead of an office. It was awesome!
Berkeley, a funny story…
Have you ever been so tired when you were in Lausanne because of the hills? It’s nothing compare to Berkeley… Don’t worry, it was hard but worth it! Berkeley is a huge University and you get easily lost if you are alone. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to be guided by a student from Berkeley. Did you know about the statue of Pappy? Yeah, me neither. He was the football coach of US Berkeley, named the bears. Our excellent guide told us a funny story about him and her. Let me explain to you: when she had her interview for this job, they asked her what was her favorite statue of the campus and she answered “Pappy”, and when they asked her why, she had no idea who was Pappy. Yeah, funny story… There are a lot of rules on Berkeley’s campus. For example, you can’t step on their Berkeley sign that’s on the sidewalk. You have to go around it. But the most surprising thing is that she as a guide couldn’t have accepted tips. Weird, right? Because we all know that’s the U.S policy. Last thing, if you ever complained about the tuition of University in Switzerland, keep in mind that’s 70x less than Berkeley. 😉
The Product Innovation Unconference
We had the opportunity to attend the Product Innovation Unconference during our second week here in San Francisco. This event brings together product, marketing and technology professionals from many disciplines and industries to teach and learn from each other in a 3-hour impromptu conference format. Attendees include anyone involved in designing, building and growing new technology products and companies. So it was the perfect occasion to meet people coming from a wide range of backgrounds such as product managers, marketers, startup founders, designers, user researchers, sales professionals and people involved in innovation projects. How an unconference works An unconference is a conference that has a predefined structure but no predefined topics. Indeed, the topics are decided upon by the attendees after they arrive. People can propose topics by writing them down on a sheet of paper and adding them to the dedicated wall where they will vote for their favourite topics with sticker dots right afterwards. The unconference typically has three concurrent tracks and there is always something for everyone. The vast majority of sessions are round-table discussions, meaning that they are a discussion amongst every in the room. People can submit their most challenging problem they are facing in business right now and try to find innovative solutions together. 1st session – How to define effective product goals for an MVP? The first session was dedicated to the following challenge: How to define effective product goals for an MVP? Several interesting challenges were discussed, including a cosmetic company founder who was wondering what data to collect and how to leverage the available data. One point that came out was to take away the unnecessary in order to assess only the most critical business assumptions of your product. 2nd session – Choosing the right startup cofounder The second session was about choosing the right cofounder when you are starting your own business. This time, there were fewer people but some were able to contribute with their experience while other were actively listening to the wise advices. Three points stood out: That’s essential to gather complementary skills Founders shouldn’t have too high egos That’s extremely hard to make it solo So surround yourself with smart, skilled and like-minded people in your entrepreneurship journey! 3rd session – Demo prototype, how much is enough? The final session we attended was focused on determining how much is enough for a demonstration prototype. We were only a few people for this round-table but it was captivating to listen to other people’s stories, experiences and insights in product development and innovation. Two cofounders were sharing the main challenge they encountered while developing a business intelligence software destined to financial companies. Everyone agreed on a single and simple advice: focus on what you are trying to prove, such as getting investors or testing business models) and choose only one pain point to solve for your customers. To conclude, if you are around San Francisco and interested in product, marketing or innovation, I strongly recommend you to spend some time in a Product Innovation Unconference! You will undoubtedly meet some great people coming from a wide range of backgrounds with a lot of things to share.
Plenty
Plenty is an indoor vertical farming that is doing salads for the moment. Their objectives are to do the best delicious salads with an intense flavor, improving the life of plants and protect the planet. This method of farming use 99% less land and 95% less water to grow. We had the opportunity to visit this company and it was really interesting to have all explanations about the manufacture and to see all the process for creation indoor vertical farming. We had also the chance to try different types of salads and it was awesome. One of them had the taste of mustard and there was one that we felt a lot of water inside. It was amazing to see that with less land and less water we can have salads with excellent flavor and it was also impressive that the salad was so juicy.
Visit at B8ta Palo Alto
During our second week in San Francisco, we had the chance to visit the B8ta store in Palo Alto. The concept of the B8ta stores are really inspiring! They are showcase rooms for innovative products and also allow some European brands to enter the American market and promote products through these different places all around the United States. This visit was short but really interesting because it allowed us to discover new innovative products which, for some, have been created to make our daily life easier, to live healthier, to have more fun and this even before these products enter the European market. Here are some pictures of this visit with some innovative products :
Apple’s massive HQ: Apple Park
Summary and cool stories about our time at Apple in Cupertino.
Thinking outside the Box
No foul play on words. That’s exactly what we felt when we visited Box, a cloud content management company based in Redwood City, CA. This company was founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith. Levie wasn’t even of legal age at the time. They now have more than 1,800 employees. Thanks to Vincenzo’s contacts, we had the opportunity to spend an hour and a half with Claudio Bartolini, a software architect at Box. He gave us some time to talk about his background, his experience, and the added value that a company like Box brings. We had the chance to know more about the company and how they could deal with a security breach for example. As everyone knows, there is no such thing as zero risks. However, they do everything they can in order to be as secure as possible. In a nutshell, they don’t have big CEO offices, with a top-down hierarchy and fixed schedules. You come to work when you want as long as the job’s done. Coffee and frozen yogurts are free and you can play basketball or PlayStation in the recreation area. The company does everything to make you feel like you’re at home, in order to make you work in an effective way. Thank Claudio, our time at Box was amazing and we really could embody the spirit of Silicon Valley and its new management style.
Autodesk gallery
When Professor Pallotta asked us if we wanted to go to Autodesk Gallery, I had close to no expectations going there. I did not know what was Autodesk, neither what they do. So, I decided to be a little curious and go out of my confort zone. I cannot say that I was disapointed by the end result. I discovered a company that creates a lot, for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. From 3D printing for a stadium to visual effects in a mass production movie, Autodesk does it all. I was amazed by such a diversity from one company and they are crushing it. They helped producing the movie Avatar and Terminator Genesys. They built some king of smart sandbox that analyses the level of the field and adds colors regarding of said level. They helped creating a more immersive experience for a racing game. They built 3D models for a church and a stadium. They are most known for creating the software AutoCAD. All of these accomplishments can be seen in the gallery that showcases a fraction of what they do. The headquarter of the company is located in San Rafael, California where they run most of the operations. The gallery is located near the Embarcadero station, at One Market Street in San Francisco, California. We went with my group and we all loved the time spent there. It was an amazing experience for all of us seeing this amazing gallery. In conclusion, we can say that Autodesk is one of the best place to be fulfilled if you to be challenged and do a lot of different things in the modelling industry.