COURSE NUMBER: MBA290N.1

This course is cross-listed with Mechanical Engineering

COURSE TITLE: Managing the New Product Development Process

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3

INSTRUCTORS: Alice Agogino and Jonathan Propp

E-MAIL ADDRESSES: Agogino@haas.berkeley.edu; jonathan@redhouseinnovation.com

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATIONS: https://bspace.berkeley.edu/

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday/Wednesday, 4:30 – 6:00PM

***Please note the first class meeting will be Wednesday, August 28***

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT: This class entails the execution of a major project -- developing a product or service from idea through first pass prototype in a cross-disciplinary team of business and engineering students. Teams are coached by faculty and by designers from local firms. In-class time entails a mixture of lectures, case discussions, guest speakers and group project work.

Some of the companies that have taken advantage of this class to more deeply understand their customers and users and to further develop their products and services include Revolution Foods (class of ’06) and PACTApparel (class of ’08). Alumni of the class cite the opportunity to work in a fully cross-functional team as a major benefit of this class.

The project requires a significant commitment to meet with one’s project team, but regular lab sessions in class provide some amount of time for team work.

REQUIRED READINGS:

Textbook

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

Class participation, a set of small assignments and the design project will form the basis for the class grade. A panel of local design experts will be invited to judge your final projects.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

The course is a Management of Technology course offered jointly by the College of Engineering and the Haas School. We aim to have half MBA students and half Engineering students in the class, and facilitate students to form mixed teams for the development of their products. The course is introductory in nature, aimed at those who have not experienced a full product development cycle on a cross-disciplinary team in the past.

The focus of the course is management of new product or service development processes, from product definition through first-pass prototype. Using a project in which students will be asked to design and develop a product or service of their choosing, we will teach processes for collecting customer and user needs data, prioritizing that data, developing a product specification, sketching and building product prototypes, and interacting with the customer during product development. The course is intended as a very hands-on experience in the product development process.

(Note for those of you thinking about products or services you would like to develop you must be willing to share what you are doing on your project with the class, and you must be able to complete a first pass prototype within the 15-week semester).