Description
During this course, the students will be tasked with producing high fidelity prototypes that could solve the problem statements provided by industry partner. Students will work in teams of 3-6 people. The companies provide important feedback, and coach the students along the course of the project. Companies like SEB, Bolt, Pipedrive, City of Tartu, Telia etc were partner companies in the previous offerings of the course.
The course will consist of 9 coaching sessions (Checkpoints) which will be jointly held by the course instructor and industry partners. The sessions will serve as means for the course instructor and industry partners to assess the current state of the project and provide input and support to the teams.
Schedule
Sessions are held biweekly on Thursdays from 10:15 to 14:00 in room 3092 (Sandbox).
| Checkpoint 1 | 11.09.2025 | Introduction, process overview and method exercises |
| Checkpoint 2 | 25.09.2025 | Partner problem statements; team formation |
| Checkpoint 3 | 09.10.2025 | Problem, market & user research |
| Checkpoint 4 | 23.10.2025 | Product vision: design opportunities |
| Checkpoint 5 | 06.11.2025 | Ideation & solution sketching |
| Checkpoint 6 | 20.11.2025 | Prototyping |
| Checkpoint 7 | 04.12.2025 | User testing and iterating 1 |
| Checkpoint 8 | 18.12.2025 | User testing and iterating 2 |
| Checkpoint 9 | 08.01.2026 | Final presentations |
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will able to:
- Turn a problem statement into a validated solution using the Design Thinking framework.
- Apply a variety of techniques for user and problem space research, ideation, prototyping, and user testing.
- Create and test digital product prototypes.
- Effectively present their solution to stakeholders.
- Understand how to manage a product innovation project in a real-world setting.
Credits: 6 ECTS
Teaching Team: Yana Halas, Grace Eden
Recommended: MTAT.03.325 Software Product Management, LTAT.05.007: Human Computer Interaction
Assessment criteria
This is non-differentiated (pass, fail, not present) course. To pass the course, students must fulfil the following requirements:
- Attend at least 7 out of 9 sessions.
- Actively participate in sessions throughout the semester – present your interim results and take part in discussions with mentors and fellow students.
- In a team, prepare a final presentation that clearly communicates the solution, the development process, the reasoning behind key decisions, and outlines future plans for the project.
- Complete and submit the final presentation and project documentation as a team effort.
- Write and submit an individual self-reflection document.
Other information
The sessions will be held in Sandbox (Delta, room 3092). Communication channels for this course: Moodle, emails.
Students have the possibility of taking this course twice since the problem statements are new every semester.