COURSE NUMBER: MBA247A.1

COURSE TITLE: Design and Development of Web Based Products and Services

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Thomas Lee

E-MAIL ADDRESS: thomasyl@haas.berkeley.edu<mailto:thomasyl@haas.berkeley.edu>

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 AM—12:30PM

PREREQUISITE(S): NONE- Students should not have taken Prof. Beckman's NPD course.

CLASS FORMAT: Mixture of lectures and in-class exercises

REQUIRED READINGS: Readings are drawn from one textbook and various online readings.

The texts are:

Ulrich and Eppinger, Product Design and Development

Although the text is in its fifth edition, any used copy from the 2nd through the 5th edition is acceptable. Other readings will be posted on the bspace and/or directly available on Google Books.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Attendance, participation, project milestones and final project

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This is an introductory course on innovation and new product development with a focus on the design and development of Web-based desktop and mobile consumer products and services. This course focuses on design and testing rather than architecture and implementation. Students will learn a process for Web-based product and service development and relate that process to the more general problem of product design. In addition, students will use tools, methods and concepts specific to the Web-based design environment including wireframing tools, Google Content Experiments (concept and A/B and testing), AdWords, and Google Analytics. This is not a course aimed at mobile services development although mobile access to Web-based services are part of the discussion. The course is aimed at students who have not been through a full product development cycle and assumes no prior knowledge in Web design or software development.

This is a project-oriented course where student teams will begin with idea generation and selection, extend through customer needs identification, product specification, and prototype development. Product design is an inherently interdisciplinary enterprise; ideally, project teams will includes students not only from Haas but the Information School and the Engineering School as well. For purposes of the course, the product or service should be aimed at consumers, and specifically at students and/or professionals age 25-45. (We define this target audience so that we can use classmates as preliminary subjects of interviews, testing, and surveys.) For the purposes of this course, the product or service need not have a compelling business model. The focus is on creating a product or service that users love, not necessarily creating a new business. Of course, products with solid business models are always nice. For our purposes, you could also pursue a "product/service" that is not-for profit. The definition of "web-based product or service" is broad and could include retailing, financial services, information services, social networking, etc.

The course will culminate in a virtual design fair. Projects will be marketed to the broader Internet community for the purpose of soliciting and analyzing customer feedback. In general, the insights you will get from this exposure dramatically outweigh any risks of leaking proprietary information. However, if you are anxious about this publicity for one or more of the opportunities that interest you, then you should not consider those opportunities as potential course projects. We encourage you to pursue some of the course projects beyond the course. However, please do not do so without explicitly discussing your plans with the other members of your team.

MODIFICATIONS TO COURSE FROM ITS MOST RECENT OFFERING: Classroom rather than lab setting to address background noise issues; more in-class team exercises directly related to project work; less time on idea selection and team formation; faster prototyping cycle to allow additional opportunities to iterate within the semester.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Thomas Lee is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Technology Management and Research Scientist at the Institute for Business Innovation. He was most recently assistant professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School where he co-taught a similar course on Web-based products and services. His research includes applications of information technology to innovation, marketing, and new product development.