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 3-5 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 Sandbox, room 3092.
| Checkpoint 1 | 13.02.2025 | Introduction, process overview and method exercises |
| Checkpoint 2 | 27.02.2025 | Partner problem statements; team formation |
| Checkpoint 3 | 13.03.2025 | Problem, market & user research |
| Checkpoint 4 | 27.03.2025 | Product vision: design opportunities |
| Checkpoint 5 | 10.04.2025 | Ideation & solution sketching |
| Checkpoint 6 | 24.04.2025 | Prototyping |
| Checkpoint 7 | 08.05.2025 | User testing and iterating 1 |
| Checkpoint 8 | 22.05.2025 | User testing and iterating 2 |
| Checkpoint 9 | 05.06.2025 | Final presentations |
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will able to:
- Conduct market and user research.
- Turn a problem statement into a product vision.
- Create and test product prototypes.
- Present the prototype to potential customers.
- Understand how to manage a product innovation project in a real-life setting.
Credits: 6 ECTS
Teaching Team: Yana Halas, Antti Ainamo
Recommended: MTAT.03.325 Software Product Management, LTAT.05.007: Human Computer Interaction
Assessment criteria
This is non-differentiated (pass, fail, not present) course. The course will be assessed on a team basis with the final project presentation serving as the main assessment item. Each presentation will be jointly assessed by the course instructor and supporting industry representative(s). For a passing grade the presentation will have to include the following:
- Clear presentation of the product idea and vision
- Explanation of and reasoning for approach used
- Milestones reached during the project
- Future plans and lessons learned
Additionally, a student must submit a self-reflection document to pass the course (individually).
Attendance is checked: at least 7 out of 9 checkpoints should be attended.
Other information
The sessions will be held in Sandbox (Delta, room nr 3092). Communication channels for this course: Slack, Moodle, emails.
Students have the possibility of doing this course multiple times since the problem statements are new every semester and the courses themselves are evolving from semester to semester.
This course is part of Sandbox. Learn more about Sandbox on https://sandbox.cs.ut.ee/