Experiential Project in Product Management I

Catalog description

Students must gain hands-on experience in various aspects of product management. The objective of these two project-based courses (1.5 credits each) is to offer a venue for students to engage with real-world problems in product management and to develop approaches to address them. Note that the nature of the projects would vary -- for example, while some projects may involve identifying and assessing new product opportunities or designing and developing new products, others may involve developing feasible pathways to enhance the growth of existing products. The projects will be sponsored by a wide range of companies (from across industries and geographies). Instructors will help student teams pick projects that fit with their career goals so as to enhance the long-term value they derive from the project work. It is expected that student teams will require 14 weeks to complete a project (i.e., they will continue their work across the two courses/two semesters). However, at the end of each course, students will get an opportunity to present their work and engage with the sponsors. Also, there will be a residency associated with the second course. Specifically, toward the end of the second course, students will visit the campus for a 3-day residency. They will present their final project recommendations to the sponsors and engage with them on broader range of PM-related topics. Additionally, the residency will also include a networking event involving all sponsor companies, guest speakers, and other senior executives from regional companies. The synchronous online class meetings (across the 14 weeks of the two courses) will be structured with dual purposes. First, it will allow for periodic reporting by student teams on their project work. Second, we will use some of the class meetings to host guest speakers to focus on specific product management -related topics that are not covered in the rest of the curriculum.