SEMESTER: Spring 2020

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 290T-2

This course is dual-listed with the Full-time MBA Program.

COURSE TITLE: Hands-on Rapid Prototyping

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 Unit (course duration: 5 weeks)

INSTRUCTOR: Chris McCoy

E-MAIL ADDRESS: chrisdmccoy@berkeley.edu

MEETING DATES: The course will meet over 5 Mondays: 3/30, 4/6, 4/13, 4/20 and 4/27 from 6pm to 9:30pm.

PREREQUISITE(S): No pre-requisites needed. However, sound understanding of the Customer Discovery and Problem Finding Problem Solving (PFPS) are helpful.  

CLASS FORMAT: Mix of lectures, hands-on activities and a weekly prototype submission.  No case studies.  Course will culminate in a final PROTOTYPATHON. Class duration is 5 weeks.

REQUIRED READINGS: Currently, no required reading or text books. However a strongly-recommended reading list can be found here: https://prototype.berkeley.edu/resources/

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: 

30% In-class hands-on activities / Class participation

70% Prototype Submission and PROTOTYPATHON final performance

CAREER FIELD: Entrepreneurs / Intrapreneurs / Product Managers

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Many people have great ideas but seldom act on them. This Hands-on Rapid Prototyping course aims to equip students with the tools and insights to quickly test their ideas with prototypes and capturing feedback. To realize these objectives, students will take part in hands-on activities, become familiar with the latest prototyping tools and leverage the Rapid Innovation Cycle (RIC), an iterative process that innovates on new or pre-existing, product or service concepts.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. Empower students to rapidly transcend from “I have a great idea” to “I have a great and growing product that has real customer data.” 

2. By the end of the course, students should have a robust product development toolkit and 

3. A strong understanding of how to measure the market potential of a vast array of business opportunities.

DISCLAIMER: This class is hard.  It’s a 1.0 unit class, but it should be treated like a 3.0 unit workload for just 5 weeks.  If you’re serious about entrepreneurship / intrapreneurship, this class is for you. The activities and learnings are pulled from real-world entrepreneurial experiences and map to the joy, pain and hard-work experienced by successful startup founders.  If you immerse yourself in the class, the content and most importantly your weekly prototyping submissions, you will leave with a high-value experience that will either change your career trajectory OR simply give you a meaningful story about how you built something...giving ample discussion worthy content in your job interviews, networking events, etc.  

The only prerequisite to this class is your relentless motivation to uncover the truth about your market opportunities via the scientific method and prototyping in a business context.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Chris earned his PhD degree in mechanical engineering in 2013 from UC Berkeley alongside a Management of Technology certificate from the Haas School of Business in 2009. In 2010 he went to Madrid, Spain on a Fulbright grant where, in addition to his research commitments, he taught the first edition of Hands-on Rapid Prototyping (then called Hands-on Rapid Innovation) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2011. The course content has since been adopted at IE Business School, UC Berkeley and adapted even for the corporate environment and is consistently rated as one of the best electives available in top-ranked MBA programs. After completing his Ph.D., Chris consulted for a large California utility company where he was responsible for managing and developing internal work management software for SAP and leading management and executive teams through technical governance processes to ensure safe, reliable, and coordinated changes to these digital systems. Putting all of his skills and experience into practice, Chris left consulting to build a company called You3Dit Inc. which helps people bring their ideas to life via a global network of designers and fabricators. You3Dit Inc. has now worked with larger companies such as Cisco Systems, Analog Devices and Startups alike and is a SkyDeck Accelerator company.