https://hes.am/ Recent content on Hesam Panahi Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/make-your-own-mixtape/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/make-your-own-mixtape/ I made a bot that helps you make your own mixtape. Inspired by the first session in my New Enterprises: Discovery course, I share more about the make your own mixtape activity in issue #19 of 4 bits, my biweekly newsletter on experience design. The bot will ask you a series of questions about songs in your life and generate a mixtape based on your interests. Try it out below. https://hes.am/for-student-founders/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/for-student-founders/ Starting a company while you’re in university is hard. On the site Three Guides for Student Founders, Jamie Jones (former Liu Idea Lab colleague and now Director at Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and I share what we’ve written for student founders to help guide them during their entrepreneurial journey. From getting started to holding yourself accountable to working on your startup in the summer, these short reads are based on our experiences with student founders. https://hes.am/start-here/ Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/start-here/ 👋 Hi, I’m Hesam. 30 second bio: Nearly two decades of experience teaching university courses and workshops. I’ve taught courses in management information systems, entrepreneurship, industrial design, and engineering. Former DJ during my years studying in grad school. I was (and continue to be) obsessed with the art of DJ’ing and crafting memorable experiences. I’m a former software startup founder. Currently, I build and launch new courses and programs as part of my work at the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) at Rice University. https://hes.am/essays/a-bike-ride-through-the-largest-forest/ Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/a-bike-ride-through-the-largest-forest/ Last summer, I led a two week study abroad design course in Amsterdam with 12 students from Rice. Much like any study abroad course, there’s a mix of curriculum, site visits to companies, and free time in the schedule to become familiar with the city we’re visiting. Out of all the activities in a study abroad, site visits to companies in particular are a good way to see the topic we’re exploring within the context of the country and culture. https://hes.am/essays/i-leave-the-details-up-to-you/ Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/i-leave-the-details-up-to-you/ January 2008, a cold winter night in New York City I’m sitting at the counter of Sushi Yasuda in the middle of an omakase meal. My girlfriend and I are in New York together for the first time. As part of this trip, we decided we would go to some nice restaurants. Sushi Yasuda was arguably one of the best places in New York to experience omakase. Omakase, translated literally from Japanese means “I leave the details up to you. https://hes.am/essays/dreaming-of-tokyo/ Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/dreaming-of-tokyo/ Tokyo Narita Airport, August 2nd, 2:30 pm I’m not sure what to expect as I step onto the shiny gray high speed train. I’m in Japan for the first time. Struggling to keep my eyes open after a sleepless 13 hour flight, I’m exhausted but excited for the unknown. Sitting down in my assigned seat waiting for the train to leave, I notice how spacious and clean the train is. It’s different from the grimy surroundings one might expect from a train that serves thousands of airport passengers a day. https://hes.am/essays/the-perfect-turn/ Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/the-perfect-turn/ An imperfect experience In a city with no zoning laws, you’ll often find million dollar homes next to industrial warehouses next to railroad tracks. On this particular evening, we’re nestled in a nondescript shopping center for dinner at a former washateria that’s been transformed into a nice restaurant. The building to the left of us is a now defunct auto shop. There’s a Houston Astros mural on the wall and a for lease sign outside. https://hes.am/essays/start-at-the-extreme/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:42 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/start-at-the-extreme/ “Cultivate an allergy to average." – Kevin Kelly in his book Excellent Advice for Living A question we often come across in our design class1 is: When starting to design a new product, service, or experience, who do you design for first? You might have an idea about a product, service, or experience you can create. Or maybe an existing one you can make better. Faced with the difficult leap from the initial spark that’s in our head to an idea or concept we can bring into action, we often try to build something that we think everyone wants or needs. https://hes.am/essays/the-allure-of-artisanal-goods/ Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/the-allure-of-artisanal-goods/ Every Monday morning, I get a text from my dealer letting me know it’s time to buy. I know I have to quickly respond or they’ll run out of inventory. The selection varies depending on what they’ve sourced. There’s usually the “everyday”. Sometimes they have a seed variety or the “twists”. Knowing that other people received the text too and are placing orders, I scramble to decide. What can I use it for? https://hes.am/essays/what-does-a-space-whisper/ Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/what-does-a-space-whisper/ There’s something that’s been stuck in my head the last few months, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It started off with a quote from an essay I read a few years ago, but has recently been on my mind. Paul Graham, a prolific writer, entrepreneur, and investor, once wrote: Every city whispers something. In his essay, Cities and Ambition, Paul suggests that cities subtly communicate messages to residents about their ambitions and lifestyles. https://hes.am/essays/write-more-cold-emails/ Wed, 03 May 2023 14:40:08 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/write-more-cold-emails/ “Meet me at the radio station on Friday.” I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the message. On a whim, I had emailed my favorite local DJ. I never expected they’d respond. It was the early 2000s and with the rare exception of a one-hit wonder, you didn’t hear dance music on the radio in Houston. But every Friday, one of the best DJs in the city, Mike Anthony, was shuttling boxes of records and CDs to a local music station, 104 KRBE, to play four hours of sonic bliss. https://hes.am/essays/from-tiki-birds-to-baseball-moves/ Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/from-tiki-birds-to-baseball-moves/ Marcus and Sydney from The Bear. Image credit: FX/HULU I know it’s unusual, but I don’t watch TV or movies. When co-workers or friends rave about the newest show or movie, I sit idly to the side, listening and nodding my head. I find more comfort in reading a book than watching a show. I don’t know what it is about video as a medium - I just can’t get into it. https://hes.am/essays/ambient-delight/ Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/ambient-delight/ The first Nest prototypes had a problem I have a confession to make. I used to be an early adopter. Most people have at least one early adopter in their life. The person who eagerly awaits a new product launch. The person who buys the first version of an unproven product, sight unseen, without waiting for reviews or to hear about bugs. It’s no surprise that early adopters were excited when Tony Fadell, the person who designed the first iPod, started Nest Labs in 2010. https://hes.am/essays/exploring-a-city-like-a-video-game/ Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/exploring-a-city-like-a-video-game/ Last summer, my family and I went on an adventure that, in hindsight, was a little crazy. We decided to travel overseas for six weeks with our children. On most days, I felt like a puppet, doing whatever trick I could to keep the children entertained. The highlight of the trip? We reconnected with what it was like to travel. We revisited familiar cities and explored new cities we hadn’t been to before. https://hes.am/essays/craft-your-classroom-experience-like-a-dj/ Wed, 02 Nov 2022 20:40:02 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/craft-your-classroom-experience-like-a-dj/ When I was in college in Atlanta, I was obsessed with dance music. I collected vinyls. I bought turntables. I would practice DJ’ing at home and make mixes for my friends. When I came back to Houston, I became a DJ at what could be best described as a “clubby rock bar”. On nights off, I’d help my friends with lighting sequences as they DJ’ed at clubs in the city. I loved curating a musical experience for an audience. https://hes.am/essays/seeing-what-you-eat-with-a-sharper-lens/ Wed, 26 Oct 2022 15:50:05 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/seeing-what-you-eat-with-a-sharper-lens/ I remember how shocked I was when I logged my first score of 1. I was at my parent’s house, having a home cooked meal. A usual Sunday dinner, we had ground beef kabob with basmati rice. Grilled over charcoal, and with only a few simple ingredients, the kabob tastes delicious and has a light smokiness to it you can’t get from a gas grill or oven. The rice, topped with saffron, was a perfect compliment, soaking all the juices and fat from the kabob. https://hes.am/essays/is-this-a-good-idea--or-a-good-startup-idea/ Wed, 12 Oct 2022 12:35:09 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/is-this-a-good-idea--or-a-good-startup-idea/ As an entrepreneurship professor, I often get asked by students: “How do I come up with good ideas?” Here’s the challenge: not all good ideas are good startup ideas. I’m not the first person to address how to come up with good ideas. A quick online search will give you insights from serial entrepreneurs like Paul Graham and countless others. Nor am I the expert. But where I can offer a different perspective is what I’ve noticed in thousands of students that struggle with this question. https://hes.am/essays/4-key-parts-to-a-playbook-for-your-course/ Thu, 25 Aug 2022 13:28:42 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/4-key-parts-to-a-playbook-for-your-course/ I can still remember walking into the classroom to teach for the first time. I was lost. I was a graduate student teaching one section of the introductory course for management information systems majors. I was handed a textbook, a syllabus, and slides and told “to teach”. I knew very little about my students, what other sections of the class were doing, and what the point of all of it was. https://hes.am/essays/inspiration-from-the-top-restaurants-in-the-world-how-to-make-your-course-a-michelin-star-experience/ Sun, 06 Feb 2022 04:24:05 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/inspiration-from-the-top-restaurants-in-the-world-how-to-make-your-course-a-michelin-star-experience/ Nearly 100 years ago, a tire company launched a travel guide that would forever change the restaurant industry’s ambitions. Introduced in 1931, the Michelin guide’s original intent was to get motorists to explore France (and use more tires). Restaurants were scored on a zero to three star rating. Today, the Michelin star is one of the most coveted awards in the restaurant industry. How do you get a Michelin star? By providing consistent, high quality food with a world-class experience. https://hes.am/essays/5-product-management-skills-to-help-course-creators-design-and-iterate-their-courses/ Sat, 29 Jan 2022 02:41:28 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/5-product-management-skills-to-help-course-creators-design-and-iterate-their-courses/ Whether it’s getting fit or learning how to basket weave, learners use your course to achieve an outcome that will improve their lives. Your course is a product that helps them get there, so it’s time to start managing it like one. After interviewing over 50 product managers for a new set of courses we are launching at Rice, here are 5 skills I learned from them that help me design and iterate my courses. https://hes.am/essays/5-lessons-for-educators-that-want-to-turn-the-email-inbox-into-a-classroom/ Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:20:55 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/5-lessons-for-educators-that-want-to-turn-the-email-inbox-into-a-classroom/ What if you could turn the inbox into an extension of your classroom? As educators, we often question what should happen inside the classroom and what should be done asynchronously. Last semester, I experimented with launching an email-based course (EBC). The outcome of an EBC is that the reader will have picked up a skill or be educated about a topic. In my case, I wanted entrepreneurship students to know how to look for good problems to solve, and to transform those problems into an actionable problem statement. https://hes.am/essays/email-based-courses/ Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/essays/email-based-courses/ Email based courses turn the inbox into a classroom. – Will Steiner, founder of Big Later I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of online learning the last few months. From taking my university courses online due to COVID-19 to taking online courses on my own, I’ve started to understand where there’s value in online learning. Unlike many in higher ed, I’m optimistic. Those of us who teach courses or manage student-facing educational programs have much to be inspired by from the tools, frameworks, and ways of thinking in online learning. https://hes.am/courses-and-workshops/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/courses-and-workshops/ Below is a sampling of courses and workshops that I’ve collaborated with others to create over the last decade. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2026 Design Build Ship Rice University, Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship For undergraduate students. The course runs in two-week sprints. Each sprint, people pick an idea, build it, and ship it to real users. If it works, keep going. https://hes.am/misc/courses-and-workshops/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/misc/courses-and-workshops/ Below are a sampling of courses and workshops that I’ve put together over the last 10 years. In most courses, especially the most recent ones, there’s a heavy emphasis on team-based experiential learning projects. 2026 New Enterprise v. 2.0 (Rice University Online) For MBA students in Rice University’s online program. A redesign of the original New Enterprise course, now focused on opportunity identification. Teams form around a problem, go talk to real people, and figure out whether it’s actually worth solving. https://hes.am/pretotyping/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/pretotyping/ June 11, 2024 Slides Pretotyping Exercise Pretotyping Quick Overview Pretotype It, 10th Anniversary Edition The Right It https://hes.am/the-search-for-good-ideas/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://hes.am/the-search-for-good-ideas/ Email 1: Why you start with a problem, not an idea A quick story: In the 1960s, Russia and the United States were in a space race to get a man to the moon. Among all the challenges they would face in this competition, there was one that was particularly surprising in its mundanity: They soon discovered that ballpoint pens don’t work in zero gravity. NASA spent years and millions of dollars to develop a pen that could work in space.