A Trio of Innovators Collaborating Together
June 2025 Dave Norberg (mpd² ‘07), Laura Schreiner (mpd² ‘13), and Emily Zarefsky (mpd² ‘24) share how their educational experience prepared them for career success at chemical manufacturer Stepan Company.
Inside Our Program
5 Lessons in Product Management
May 2025 Dani Salonen (mpd2 '24) shares what it takes to be an effective product manager.
Tinder for Your Wallet
April 2025 Christine Devane (mpd² ‘19) and Aren Thompson (mpd² ‘19) are tackling financial avoidance with an innovative budgeting app targeted at the young middle class.
Witnessing Physical Product Design
April 2025 Ariel Javelin (mpd2 '25) looks back at the highlights of touring the nation's leading hardtech and manufacturing innovation center.
The Marketing Mission
March 2025 Kelly Cutler’s goal is to teach mpd² students the go-to-market principles that keep good ideas from falling into the wasteland of failed products.
Finding User Empathy in Unique Places
March 2025 Cecelia Myers (mpd2 ‘17) shares how her undergraduate degree in literature inspires how she leads product management for one of the world’s leading industrial supply companies.
Building Better Leaders
February 2025 Caroline Vial brings nearly a decade of industry experience plus executive coaching into the classroom to teach mpd2 students how to organize teams and create cultures where employees can thrive.
Helping Develop High-Performing Teams
February 2025 The mpd2 program places a strong emphasis on teamwork so that students can become valued team members and leaders after they graduate.
Experiencing Product Design in Chicago
January 2025 Joanne Yang (mpd2 '26) shares highlights from a recent trip with her classmates to the Chicago offices of Accenture and Motorola Solutions.
Talking Teamwork at Orientation
January 2025 New mpd2 students heard from students, faculty, and alumni about what it takes to be a good team member and how to make the most of their time in the program.
Landing a New Job While Balancing School and Life
November 2024 Rishie Narula (mpd2 '25) talks about his new role at Pinterest and why his desire to continue growing led him to the mpd2 part-time program.
Finding a Future Amid Fright
November 2024 John Renaldi shares unique anecdotes in his mpd² courses from his life as a startup founder and tech executive, including the heart-stopping 30 minutes that changed his life.
Simplifying the International Student Housing Process
October 2024 mpd² students used their capstone experience to create Tenny, a dual-purpose co-pilot that assists students and leasing agents.
Pivoting to Find a Care Companion
October 2024 Three recent mpd² students reflect on their capstone experience and the journey they took to create a healthcare app geared toward caregiver communication.
Creating a Breadth of Business Opportunities
September 2024 mpd² students applied lessons learned in the classroom as they tried to use their capstone projects to solve an array of societal challenges.
mpd² Graduate Reflections
September 2024 Three recent graduates look back on their time in the program and offer advice to future mpd² students.
Leading Sustainable Design at Google
August 2024 Katie Morgenroth leverages lessons learned in mpd² to her work with Google Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest products. Now she's sharing those same lessons with mpd² students as a member of the program's Industry Advisory Board.
Focusing on Growth
July 2024 Brea Dumbacher found confidence and knowledge during her mpd² experience that she now applies to her work as a senior product designer at Sprout Social.
The Importance of Authenticity
July 2024 Suzanne Ginsburg brings the people-first leadership style she employs at Uber Freight to her new role on mpd²’s Industry Advisory Board.
Gamifying Learning to Type
June 2024 mpd² students Roxy Capron and Patrycja Delcourt are developing a fun way to teach children to type without adding to their screen time.
Aging With Autonomy
June 2024 A team of mpd² students is refining a product concept to detect when an older person falls, initiates the rescue, and provides health insights for their capstone project.
Solving Problems and Nurturing Future Problem Solvers
May 2024 Courtney Welton helps guide curriculum alignment for the mpd² program in addition to her work promoting compliance, ethics, and transformation at Allstate.
Five Frequently Asked Questions About mpd²
April 2024 The program's leadership team provides answers about the application process, the course structure, and the capstone course.
Protecting the Power of the Creator
April 2024 James Conley’s mpd² class focuses on the importance for product designers to legally safeguard the thoughts and plans that lead to profitable goods and services.
Leader of the Bike Lane Uprising
March 2024 Christina Whitehouse leaned on her mpd² education to create the app that allows cyclists to report bike-lane hazards and has prompted city action to promote a safer environment for bikers.
Leveraging AI in Healthcare
March 2024 Ayla Commet is applying the lessons she learned in the mpd² program to her new job as a senior product manager at Digital Diagnostics, where she is using artificial intelligence to help diagnose eye and skin diseases.
Keeping an Eye on AI
February 2024 Oleg Evdokimov uses the lessons he learned from the mpd² program to teach the pros and cons of artificial intelligence to Northwestern students — and his children.
The Tone-Setters
February 2024 Will Hubbard and Marty Ringlein teach the introductory course in the mpd² program and sharpen the entrepreneurial focus for the new students.
Teaching About Customer-Driven Opportunities
January 2024 Elisa Vargas and JoEllen Kames are leading mpd²’s Customer-Driven Opportunities course for the first time, but the duo have a long-standing professional connection outside the classroom.
From the Research Lab to CEO
January 2024 New Industry Advisory Board Member Garry Cooper shares the Northwestern roots of his company Rheaply and why he’s excited to be a part of the mpd² program.
mpd² Welcomes Eight New Alumni Board Members
December 2023 The program's Alumni Group helps cultivate deeper engagement between former students and those currently in the program.
The Changing World of Product Development
December 2023 Chris Rowe is the newest member of the mpd² Industry Advisory Board. He shares his insights on how creating new offerings is changing and how the mpd² program is successful at producing graduates who make a difference.
The New and Improved Capstone
November 2023 mpd²’s culminating class was updated for this school year. Learn why the change was made and what it will look like for students.
New Video Highlights Strengths of mpd²
November 2023 Discover how alumni benefited from the program's emphasis on design, product management, and business.
Getting Ready for a Challenge
October 2023 Connie Meyer discusses why she finds excitement in negotiating and conflict resolution and how she will approach teaching those skills for the first time to mpd² students.
Capping Off the Capstone Experience
September 2023 mpd² students presented their final projects to classmates, faculty, and venture capitalists.
Lessons From Special Education
August 2023 Samantha Soloway talks about her road from teacher to product innovator and how she saw the need for human-centered design well before she started her mpd² journey.
Putting mpd²’s Future in Focus
August 2023 The program’s Industry Advisory Board met in person for the first time to sharpen strategies to attract the best students and develop them for post-graduation career success.
A Course in Transformative Thinking
July 2023 Students in Birju Shah’s product management class are challenged to think about big problems and the goods and services that could help solve them.
Battling Through Uncertainty
July 2023 mpd² students talk about their ongoing capstone project experience and the journey from ambiguity to a well-defined goal of creating an app to help parents of children with food allergies.
Unfuzzying the Fuzzy
June 2023 Wilson Beebe (mpd² '22), talks about how the mpd² program helped accelerate his career and prepared him for his current role as manager of design for the disruptive innovation incubator at SC Johnson.
Making Bike Lanes Safer
May 2023 A new app from Christina Whitehouse is making bike lanes safer in urban settings.
from Northwestern Magazine
Focusing on the ‘Why’
May 2023 Nicolas Vivas realized customers needed to be the focus when it comes to developing new products. He learned how to make that happen thanks to mpd².
Finding Empathy for Bike Riders
April 2023 mpd² students’ bicycle-safety capstone project highlights the importance of following where the research leads when developing new products.
Betting on a Better Bean
April 2023 Leigh Hamp talks about how the mpd² program helped her pivot careers and become a human-centered product creator at Banza, a company bringing more chickpeas to the public's diet.
The Lifelong Student
March 2023 Elizabeth Jacobsen (mpd² ‘20) took advantage of a unique alumni opportunity to continue developing her skills while working as a global technical sustainability director for the health and wellness platform at Mars.
From Punchline to AWS Product Manager
March 2023 Jayadev Kalla talks about how the mpd² program helped him find the type of job he once thought was beyond his reach.
Spreading the Science of Sustainability
February 2023 The Sustainability in the Product Development Process course helps mpd² students understand how to make environmentally responsible product design a priority throughout organizations.
Applying mpd² Lessons to Watson and IBM
February 2023 Erik Didriksen talks about how mpd² helped him rethink product management and how he grew during his time in the program.
Mastering the Art of Negotiations
January 2023 Thomas Gibbons helps fill mpd² students’ conflict-resolution toolbox with a variety of skills he, himself, has needed during his career as a journalist, lawyer, and arbiter.
Producing Profitable Products
January 2023 The mpd² Business Model Design course gives students a toolkit to create and manage the things consumers want – and are willing to pay for.
MPD2 Celebrates 20 Years
December 2022 Alumni returned to campus this fall to interact with current students and share how the program made a difference in their lives and their careers.
Shopify’s ‘Benevolent Spider’
November 2022 Anna Mollenkopf (MPD2 ‘17) weaves a web connecting the ecommerce company's R&D teams to help create and launch products.
Developing the Mindset of a CEO
October 2022 Dahlia Haynes’ credits her time in Northwestern Engineering's MPD2 program with helping get her where she is today — which happens to be working in Malaysia for SC Johnson.
Unboxing User Experience
October 2022 Soudy Khan (MPD2 '20) has spent three decades focused on user experience, but it was his experience in MPD2 that helped him find a new appreciation for the field.
When Work and School Collide
August 2022 Kelli Palm (MPD2 ‘19) talks about how her career and graduate school lessons intersected to help make her more effective at Zimmer Biomet.
MPD2 Welcomes New Advisory Board
August 2022 Director Jim Wicks explained what excites him about the program's new board and how he hopes they can help students differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
Laundry Down to a Science
July 2022 Sammy Wang (MPD2 '17) leans on her MPD2 experiences to help communicate the high-tech innovation behind some of P&G’s most popular brands.
Getting Unstuck Thanks to MPD2
June 2022 Joshua Childs (MPD2 '20) talks about how Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development (MPD2) program helped him kick start his career and grow as a leader with Validity Inc.
Riding His Own Wonkavator
June 2022 The MPD2 program helped Justin Zupnick (MPD2 '18) find new direction for his career and prepared him for his current innovative role at a progressive health benefits provider.
Alumni Mentorship a Key Part of MPD2 Experience
May 2022 Three graduates from Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development Management (MPD2) program explain why it's important for them to help current and future students.
Designing Products People Love
April 2022 Bridget McMullan (MPD2 '17) is using her MPD2 knowledge to meet member needs as director of product strategy at Anthem, America’s largest for-profit health insurer.
A Capstone Culmination
April 2022 MPD2 students spend almost a year creating a product they think can impact the public and attract customer interest.
Modernizing and Expanding the MPD2 Program
April 2022 Director Jim Wicks talks about changes to the Master of Product Design and Development Management (MPD2) program curriculum and how they will help students thrive now and in the future.
Teaching the Value of Accounting
March 2022 Robin Soffer helps students in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development Management (mpd²) program understand that 'accounting is the language of business.'
Looking Forward to the Future of mpd²
February 2022 Jim Wicks, mpd² program director, shares what inspires him about Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development Management (mpd²) program and what has him excited for the future.
Envisioning a Smarter Bathroom
February 2022 Amber Hall (mpd² ‘20) is changing how we interact with our home, starting with the bath. She shares how Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development Management (mpd²) program gave her the product development skills to inspire the future.