Curriculum
To earn the Master of Science in Product in Design and Development Management degree, students must complete 24 required courses and a capstone project. Each of the courses run five weeks, and the capstone is completed during the final three quarters. Courses are designed for and attended exclusively by mpd² students, and the students progress through the curriculum together as a cohort.
Overview
The courses range from a wide array of subjects typical of both a) a professional design and development curriculum (product management, understanding through design, obtaining meaning from data, protecting intellectual property, creativity, leading design sprints, design research, and managing innovation), and b) a business curriculum (marketing, finance, accounting, organizational behavior, leadership, negotiation, decision making, and business modeling).
The mpd² curriculum incorporates a final Capstone project during the last three quarters of the program. Students research a topic of interest and design a product or service that addresses a customer’s need. This project serves as a practical application of their learning, demonstrating their proficiency through a formal presentation to faculty, venture capitalists and industry experts. Students work with industry mentors and our consumer research platforms on these projects to gain real-world experience and valuable networking opportunities. This hands-on project reinforces the concepts learned throughout the program and gives the students an opportunity to produce a tangible outcome that can have impact on their area of focus.
See the 2024-2025 class schedule here.
Attend an info session / open house
*Course supports the Capstone requirement.
Fall 1
MPD 400-0: Introduction to Product Design and Development
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Sept. 27, Oct. 5, 11, 19, 25
- Instructor: Will Hubbard, Martin Ringlein
Understanding the overall process of the design and development of products and services from opportunity identification to realization.
MPD 450-0: Effective Communication
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Sept. 27, Oct. 5, 11, 19, 25
- Instructor: Beth Bennett
Communication within the corporate environment: public speaking, live presentations, reports, and emails. External communication: interaction with clients/partners, domestic and foreign, crisis communication. Interpersonal and team communication, navigating difficult conversations.
MPD 430-0: Sustainability in the Product Development Process
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Nov. 2, 8, 16, 22, Dec. 7
- Instructor: Craig Arnold
Exploring the choices made in product and service development, and their impact on performance, cost and sustainability strategies.
MPD 442-0: Team Building and Organizational Behavior
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Nov. 2, 8, 16, 22 Dec. 7
- Instructor: Caroline Vial
Living with and exploring corporate culture(s), team building, motivation, managing change, feedback and mentoring. Cross-cultural issues in the global marketplace. Applying proven concepts in an organizational environment.
Winter 1
MPD 420-0: Accounting Issues for Product Development
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Jan. 10, 18, 24, Feb. 1, 7
- Instructor: Robin Soffer
Understand the financial statements with emphasis on the Income Statement and Balance Sheet. Understanding, analyzing and explaining the financial performance of a company for managerial decision making. Additional focus on areas of importance to new product teams including variable costing, cost analysis, cost allocations and development of projections for new products.
MPD 410-0: Understanding through Design
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Jan. 10, 18, 24, Feb. 1, 7
- Instructor: Greg Holderfield
Strong emphasis on right brain creative thinking for service design. Study will include: ethnography, consumer empathy, creative collaboration, brainstorming, design language, brand, storytelling, and the culture of innovation within business.
MPD 424-0: Financial Issues for Product Development
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Feb. 15, 21, March 1, 7, 15
- Instructor: Leo Brubaker
Financial skills for product development: valuation, capital structure, corporate governance, risk management, financial modeling and product cost analysis.
MPD 444-0: Negotiation/Conflict Resolution
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Feb. 15, 21, March 1, 7, 15
- Instructor: Connie Meyer
Win-win negotiation, power in negotiation, planning and conduct of negotiation. Minimizing and resolving conflicts, tactics and ethics in negotiation. Objective standards in disputes.
Spring 1
MPD 432-0: Leading with Data Analytics
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: April 4, 12, 18, 26, May 2
- Instructor: Anthony Orzechowski
This course is focused on providing leaders in product development the methods to drive more effective decisions and actions through data analytics. The course will emphasize the use of simple effective visual methods to achieve this.
MPD 408-0: Global Product Design and Supply Chains
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: May 10, 16, 24, 30, June 7
- Instructor: Achal Bassamboo
The challenges and opportunities of global product development. Recent history, economic conditions and the techniques pursued by companies competing in the global economy. Leveraging the global supply and design chains across a variety of industries and contexts.
MPD 445-0: Product Management
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 1
- Dates: April 4, 12, 18, 26, May 2, 10, 16, 24, 30, June 7
- Instructors: Birju Shah
PMs define a product's requirements and then lead a team responsible for its development, launch, and ongoing improvement. Practices in Product Management aims to understand the PM role and develop skills required to perform the role.
Fall 2
MPD 406-0: Human Factors
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Sept. 28, Oct. 4, 12, 18, 26
- Instructor: Russ Branaghan
Human cognitive and physical capabilities and limitations applied to the design of products, processes and services. The design of controls, displays, and human-computer interaction. Design for differing abilities.
MPD 416-0-20 and MPD 416-0-21: Customer Driven Opportunities
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 1
- Dates: Sept. 28, Oct. 4, 12, 18, 26, Nov. 1, 9, 15, 23, Dec. 6
- Instructors: JoEllen Kames and Elisa Vargas
Integration project starting point, exploring ‘new to the world’ opportunity. Integrates all aspects of product development in a hands-on team project for identifying unmet, under met and unarticulated needs supported by using various research techniques with quantifiable results.
MPD 458-0: Intellectual Capital Strategy
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Nov. 1, 9, 15, 23, Dec. 6
- Instructor: James Conley
Management of innovations and intellectual property. Understanding patents, copyrights, secrets, trademarks. Value translations, value transference. Regulatory and international issues. Using intellectual property as corporate strategy.
Winter 2
MPD 402-0: Management of Product Innovation
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Jan. 11, 17, 25, 31, Feb. 8
- Instructor: John Renaldi, Mike Edmonds
Planning, organizing and creating a product innovation culture. Innovation roadmaps, resource deployment, competencies, partnerships and alliances for sustained innovation productivity.
*MPD 403-0: Creativity and Understanding through Design Sprints
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 1
- Dates: Jan. 11, 17, 25, 31, Feb. 8, 14, 22, 28, March 8, 14
- Instructor: Josh Campbell, Jim Wicks
In this course students will learn how to evolve and further their understanding of their product concepts. The class will teach how to diverge and converge on ideas in the product design process through iterative design and prototyping. They will learn how to create product questions and prioritize what to solve for. Students will learn to create minimum viable prototypes with low-fidelity tools for digital, hardware, or service product concepts. They will use user research as a method to evaluate their product concepts using their prototypes. As a team they will hone their ability to give and receive critique to augment their research. Throughout this course students will evolve their product based on its desirability, viability and feasibility, culminating in a presentation of product concepts and associated value proposition
MPD 405-0: Agile Management of Software Product Design & Development
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: Feb. 14, 22, 28, March 8, 14
- Instructor: Chris Riesbeck
Project Management for software: requirements, work breakdown structure, time/cost estimation. Risk management, development methodologies, scope creep. Motivating and maintaining productive teams. Understanding MVP (minimal viable product).
Spring 2
MPD 401-1: Principles of Marketing
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: April 5, 11, 19, 25, May 3
- Instructor: Candy Lee
Understanding and integration of key marketing principles into the management of product development. Identification and application of audience centric goal setting, segmentation, branding, positioning, and promotion techniques to ensure growth of products and services.
MPD 449-0: Global Leadership in a Smart and Connected World
Course Description
- Class time: PM
- Credits: 0.5
- Dates: May 9, 17, 23,31, June 6*
- *June 6th class will be in the AM
- Instructor: Robert Schwartz
The challenges of leadership of product development teams in a corporate or entrepreneurial environment including how to nurture talent; how to consider growth in a complex, global world; how to lead ethically; how to be a financially literate leader.
*MPD 409-2: Business Model Design
Course Description
- Class time: AM
- Credits: 1
- Dates: April 5, 11, 19, 25, May 3, 9, 17, 23, 31, June 6*
- *June 6th class will be in the PM
- Instructors: John Renaldi and Mike Edmonds
Culmination of capstone project integrating all aspects of product development. Iterative development of the capstone business model.
