Recharting the Course of Customer Discovery

Helen von den Steinen put some new touches on a key mpd² class to help students make customer-driven decisions in product development.

Helen von den Steinen had just finished an intense three-hour studio class for Northwestern Engineering's Master of Product Design and Development Management (mpd²) program when students began approaching her with requests.  

Some asked to audit additional classes she teaches. Others wanted to work on research projects with her.  

“I didn't even say anything about a research project,” said von den Steinen, who worked for Procter & Gamble for more than 30 years before starting her own innovation coaching and consultancy career in 2023. "So I took that as a really good sign.”

The workshop was part of her first week teaching Customer Driven Opportunities in mpd², and the energy was unmistakable. Von den Steinen felt energized and used the students' enthusiasm to help them reimagine how future product managers can best learn to understand their customers. 

The source of that excitement was also von den Steinen's biggest challenge: Teaching students with vastly different backgrounds and skill levels is complicated. Some of von den Steinen’s students had PhD-level design research experience, while others never previously conducted customer interviews. 

It’s a challenge von den Steinen met by rethinking the course.  

She restructured the class to link the customer discovery work directly to the students’ capstone projects, creating immediate application opportunities. Instead of one research touchpoint, students now conduct two rounds of virtual interviews – first for problem definition, then for a solution. 

This research helped them explore conceptual solutions throughout the quarter that amplified their capstone project.   

The real innovation came with the integration of AI through four specialized “Jetpack” workshops led by mpd² adjunct lecturer John Renaldi. These weren't technology tutorials. They were strategically timed interventions that taught students when and how to use AI tools effectively in a way that could be applied to their capstone projects. 

“I always use the analogy of a calculator,” von den Steinen said. “If you haven’t done basic math, it's very easy to do something wrong on a calculator.” 

This calculator principle drove her entire approach. Students must master manual research skills and theory – creating discussion guides, recruiting participants, synthesizing insights – before evaluating what AI tools could potentially augment their work. 

The goal was to give students the best of both worlds – solid foundational skills augmented by advanced technology.  

The AI workshops covered a variety of topics, including prompt engineering and interview-coaching agents that provide feedback on student research skills. AI provided a solution to a persistent academic challenge: giving meaningful feedback to every student in a time-constrained environment. 

Von den Steinen used AI herself to efficiently analyze student reflections before class, identifying themes and questions to address. But she is careful to distinguish between workplace efficiency and educational effectiveness. 

“Customer discovery is first and foremost about defining the problem before you jump to the solution and then framing the opportunity for innovation,” von den Steinen said. “Just because we can doesn't mean we should, and just because a problem is out there doesn't mean we need to go address it.” 

This critical thinking – knowing which problems are worth solving – requires human judgment that AI cannot replace, she said.  

The proof of initial success with this approach was in that first classroom experience, where her blend of foundational skills and cutting-edge technology created exactly the kind of learning environment she envisioned. 

"There was no tuning out,” von den Steinen said. “It was a three-hour class, which is a long time for anybody to stay engaged, but it really felt like there was good energy, good engagement, good discussion, and that the students were genuinely excited to learn.”