Master of Science in Product Management

New product development is a continuum of activities starting with the initial conceptualization of a new product through to successful product launch. This course introduces students to the range of activities along the new product development pathway, including ideation and concept development, concept refinement, detailed product design and engineering, design for manufacturability, design for usability, prototyping, scale-up and launch. It introduces multiple tools (used in different industries) to manage product development activities, including phase gate systems, agile development for software, lean development for products, etc. It also introduces scheduling, budgeting and monitoring tools to project and measure new product programs. Credits: 4

A product manager sits at the center of a complex web of interconnections and relationships that define successful products. This course introduces students to the various skills a product manager must deploy for product success including product definition, positioning, pricing, placement and promotion. It also introduces the relationship skills needed to manage cross-functional interactions and indirect and virtual teams. The course also includes an overview of the financial tools used to guide product realization and financial metrics used to measure product success. Credits: 4

This course involves participation in weekly seminars presented by faculty, invited guests, and graduate students in sciences and engineering and supporting disciplines. Topics will focus on professional integrity. Students are required to review the writing and presentations of other graduate students and offer presentations of their own. Credits: 1

Leaders today face highly dynamic business environments characterized by numerous disruptive forces and complex challenges. To be an effective leader in this environment necessitates a new set of skills. In this highly interactive course, students will explore leadership theories and will practice applying various leadership frameworks, approaches and tools to develop a holistic understanding of leadership at the individual, team and organizational levels. Students will also gain valuable insights into their own personal leadership style, how to collaborate with internal and external constituents in a manner that benefits all stakeholders, and learn communication strategies, principles and methods that are essential for business success. Credits: 4

This course explores the nuances of negotiation and conflict resolution in organizational settings. Students will study the theory and research on effective negotiating strategies to build their understanding of, and skills for, managing differences and negotiation situations. The course considers, among other topics, the issues of negotiating across functions, between levels, across national and cultural differences, over race and gender differences and between organizations. Students will also master conflict-handling styles and response alternatives along with various modes of resolution, including alternative dispute resolution, third-party intervention, mediation and arbitration. Credits: 2

This course explores a variety of topics relevant to diversity in organizations. Students will learn cultural and psychological processes that influence the manner in which people deal with one another. Students will apply them to discussions of specific dimensions of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and physical and mental ability. Students will also learn ways in which organizations can and do manage diversity toward the development of inclusive workplaces. Credits: 2

Designing, building, and sustaining high-performing teams is essential to the success of an organization and can only happen as a result of intentional, strategic work on the part of the team leader. Based on micro- and macro- management theories and concepts, students gain advanced insight and develop skills to design effective work teams and both motivate and facilitate teams to achieve high performance. Topics that will be covered include team composition, diversity management, task design, team development, team competence, team leadership and inter-team relationships. Credits: 4

Leaders must address the continuing challenges of change and organizational adaptation. This course provides students with practical skills and tools for planning, managing, evaluating and surviving small and large-scale organizational change with applications to emerging business issues, including knowledge management, “learning organizations” and network management. Additionally, students will explore the determinants of creativity and innovation at the individual, group, organizational and inter-organizational levels and will become skilled at how to generate novel and useful ideas, how to implement their ideas and how to maximize organization performance through psychological and sociological perspectives on management. Credits: 4

Marketing is continually evolving. This course represents the leading edge of marketing by covering the most innovative and modern marketing practices. Topics included in this iteration of the course are branding, experiential marketing, interactive marketing and holistic marketing. This course not only covers contemporary marketing practices but reveals the psychological mechanisms that drive their success. — each week the students will learn a new psychological tool. Students first create a brand for any type of product/service/person they want. Then throughout the course, they will develop that brand through weekly assignments and synchronous sessions related to modern marketing practices. Students will use a mix of theory and brainstorming within synchronous sessions to develop an optimal brand strategy. By the course conclusion, students will have a rich understanding of the most innovative marketing practices and how to leverage them through the creation and development of a brand. Credits: 2

Digital Marketing Implementation & Optimization (DMIO) is the heart of marketing and communication between companies and consumers in the new digital era. With the prevalence of online marketing and various media promotion strategies such as email marketing, e-commerce sites, social media marketing, and podcast and live streaming, the knowledge hands-on practice of DMIO best practices has become for business success.necessary and urgent for current marketing and business students to learn and practice before joining the professional world. Specifically, students will gain exposure to concepts and practices of digital content creation, digital and social media marketing, inbound and outbound marketing, and CRMs and marketing terms. Students will learn how to measure SEO, KPIs and ROI, affiliate and sponsored marketing, e-commerce via website and APPs, and digital privacy. These DMIO concepts and skills are helpful for students who: (1) plan to pursue a marketing and communication-related career; (2) want to create content and conduct digital marketing for their own startups; and (3) have the desire to enjoy the process of developing marketing content and thinking creatively. Credits: 2

The objective of this course is to provide a strong foundation in the principles of both financial and managerial accounting and their impact on the business decisions of managers and other users of financial information. The first portion of the course focuses on financial accounting concepts, the accounting cycle, and the preparation, analysis, and interpretation of the primary financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows). The second portion of the course will focus on fundamental managerial accounting concepts, including cost allocation, cost-volume-profit analysis, operational budgeting, and financial planning.

A solid understanding of accounting principles and financial statements is essential for managerial decision-making. This course provides students with a strong foundation in the principles of both financial and managerial accounting and their impact on business decisions. In addition to developing an understanding of financial accounting concepts and the accounting cycle, students will prepare, analyze, and interpret primary financial statements (i.e. balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows). The course also exposes students to fundamental managerial accounting concepts, including cost allocation, cost-volume-profit analysis, operational budgeting and financial planning. Credits: 4

Businesses are increasingly turning to data to evaluate and improve the efficacy of decisions. The ability to use data to inform the decision-making process is a critical skill for successful business professionals. This course introduces students to the growing role of evidence-based management and the manner in which data is used to answer high-level business questions. Students are exposed to real-world applications of analytics to solve problems in a variety of industries. Credits: 4

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the basic principles and fundamental techniques in the context of financial analysis. The course introduces students to the basic principles of finance, critical financial terminology, and key financial management indicators. Emphasis is placed on building a foundational knowledge of financial statement analysis, and assessing your organization’s financial health with a focus on practical application and real-world situational analyses. It is a great overview for students to familiarize themselves with relevant finance concepts and provides a structured approach to facilitating the identification of future financing needs and measuring the impact and sustainability of growth. Credits: 4

This course explores expertise, perspectives and the statistical foundation that data scientists apply to projects during four phases of data science: problem foundation, data acquisition, statistical modeling and analysis, and presentation of results. This course intends to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to all the major aspects of data science. Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts capturing legal rights and responsibilities associated with data capture, storage and leveraging data for decision-making. Given the very diverse mix of topics falling under this broad umbrella, the aim of the course is to provide a general overview of the applicable aspects of the US regulatory and legislative framework, and then to offer a more topically-focused overview of the key notions falling within the following areas: operational and experiential aspects of data governance and differential privacy, data-capture related rights and responsibilities, data governance design and management, data security and privacy, information quality, and the ethical aspects of data access, usage, and sharing. Prerequisites: DSE 5001 and DSE 5002 (or competency in R or Python). Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of exploratory data analyses and data visualization, allowing students to turn data into insights, pictures, and stories. The following topics will be covered:

• Transforming data into information and subsequent actionable insights and knowledge.
• Exploring the basics of graphic design and making a “good” graph.
• Undertaking data due diligence.
• Descriptive and inferential data analytical framework.
• Examples and practice of exploratory data analysis and using data for segmentation and classification.
• Exploring why some data visualizations present information effectively and others do not.
• Considering visualization as a component of the data analytics systems.

The course will address data exploration utilizing classical statistical techniques, as well as topics of statistical inference, statistical significance, and outcome validity and reliability. Additionally, this course will introduce students to the foundations of constructing plots with the grammar of graphics and utilizing packages such as ggplot2 and Shiny. Prerequisites: DSE 5001 and DSE 5002 (or competency in R). Credits: 4

Innovation is at the very core of life sciences, which are based heavily on cutting-edge science and technology. At the same time, innovation is very challenging in life sciences settings, due to the heavily regulated environment. This course introduces students to the tools and techniques used in life sciences settings to allow for innovation to flourish while maintaining the tight controls necessary in a critical-to-life industry. Topics include general innovation tools like ideation and design thinking as well as more specific tools such as open innovation and design contests. Additional topics include product lifecycle management and regulated product utilization management. Credits: 2

This course will introduce students to the regulatory aspects of product development in life sciences, such as Quality System Regulation 21 CFR Part 820 and Design Controls. It also introduces the premarket approval process with the FDA, including 510K, PMA, etc. Also addressed are the regulatory aspects of marketing claims, including evidence-based claims, approved indications and off-label usage. The arcane process of reimbursement (getting paid) for life sciences products is also introduced. Also covered are the unique aspects of intellectual property (IP) in life sciences. Credits: 2

This course is the culmination of students’ learning — its intent is to offer students opportunities to apply the knowledge acquired in the program, in a directed, team-based setting. As such, the course is a practicum built around solving applied life sciences industry product realization problems, using available resources. While substantial product management guidance is offered throughout the course, the course does not encompass formal lectures, pre-determined assignments or examinations; instead, student’’ performance in the Capstone course is based solely on the successful completion of an assigned, student-specific project. Credits: 4

Innovation is the lifeblood of software, web and mobile applications. These industries evolve at an unparalleled pace. This course introduces students to the tools and techniques that allow firms to innovate successfully in this fast-paced environment. There is a special focus on software and online-specific development methods like Agile Software Development and hackathons, as well as user-driven innovation and design. Additional topics include available online business models, product lifecycle management, and privacy and data security implications. Credits: 2

Design Thinking is a systematic approach to innovation and creative problem-solving that can be used in many disciplines. This course will introduce the tools and methods that underpin Design Thinking, providing students “…the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context” [David Kelley, founder IDEO]. Included are techniques to understand users’ motivations and to gather deep insights, as well as ways to learn from failure: innovation entails taking risks and trying new things. Also included are introductions to communication methods central to innovation including visual storytelling and video prototyping. Credits: 2

This course is the culmination of students’ learning — its intent is to offer students opportunities to apply the knowledge acquired in the program, in a directed, team-based setting. As such, the course is a practicum built around solving applied software, web and mobile industry product realization problems, using available resources. While substantial product management guidance is offered throughout the course, the course does not encompass formal lectures, pre-determined assignments or examinations; instead, students’ performance in the Capstone course is based solely on the successful completion of an assigned, student-specific project. Credits: 4

Innovation is the lifeblood of many business domains. The Agile methodology was developed to help manage projects and innovation in fast-paced environments. Originally deployed in software development, the Agile approach is beneficial in many project and innovation management situations. This course covers the many facets of Agile projects and innovation including user-driven innovation and design, as well as software and online-specific development methods. Additional topics include Scrums and Sprints, Innovation IdeaScrums, Kanban, Social Workflows, and Product Lifecycles. Credits: 2

Design Thinking is a systematic approach to innovation and creative problem-solving that can be used in many disciplines. This course will introduce the tools and methods that underpin Design Thinking, providing students “…the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context” [David Kelley, founder IDEO]. Included are techniques to understand users’ motivations and to gather deep insights, as well as ways to learn from failure: innovation entails taking risks and trying new things. Also included are introductions to communication methods central to innovation including visual storytelling and video prototyping. Credits: 2

This course is the culmination of students’ learning — its intent is to offer students opportunities to apply the knowledge acquired in the program, in a directed, team-based setting. As such, the course is a practicum built around solving applied technological product realization problems, using available resources. While substantial product management guidance is offered throughout the course, the course does not encompass formal lectures, pre-determined assignments or examinations; instead, students’ performance in the Capstone course is based solely on the successful completion of an assigned, student-specific project. Credits: 4