MBAP 400. Probability, Statistics, and Quantitative Methods. 1.5 Unit.

This course is the no-cost, online program that helps students acquire and/or refresh the following probability, statistics, mathematics, and computer skills that are essential for success in the MBA program. Topics include: - Statistics: Descriptive Statistics (summarizing and explaining data). Probability (modelling randomness and variability using probability ideas). Sampling (mean, standard deviation, and the role of the Central Limit Theorem). -Algebra and Math: a self-guided review is provided of functions and their graphical representations, linear equations, and exponentials and logarithms. -Computer Skills: the basic use of SPSS and EXCEL for statistical analysis. This course is designed for incoming MBA students who have not taken a formal course in probability and statistics, have taken such a course long ago and need to refresh this knowledge, or are not confident with basic probability, statistics and mathematics. This course is a required prerequisite for the first-year Statistics course. It is also assumed that you have the knowledge of the material in MBAP 400 for the core courses (especially Finance, Marketing, and Accounting) and is not reviewed in any of those courses. Recommended Preparation: Knowledge of high school mathematics and the basics of using EXCEL (such as writing formulas, copying cells and formulas, and so on). Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 400H. Probability, Statistics, and Quantitative Methods. 1.5 Unit.

This course helps students squire and/or refresh the following probability, statistics, mathematics, and computer skills that are essential for effectives managers in a healthcare system. Topics include: Descriptive Statistics (summarizing and explaining data), Probability (modeling randomness and variability using probability ideas) Sampling (mean, standard deviation, and the role of the Central Limit Theorem), Linear equations and exponentials. Prereq: Students enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 401. Leadership Assessment and Development. 3 Units.

This main objective of this course is to help students deepen their self-awareness and to prepare them to be effective leaders and life-long learners. The course is based on a model of self-directed learning and development, which encourages students to discover and expand their emotional intelligence and leadership potential. Students are encouraged to reflect and learn through a series of activities, assessment exercises, and small and large group discussions. Students will complete a personal vision, receive 360-degree feedback on their emotional and social competence and create a personalized learning plan to guide their development throughout the MBA program. Leadership development coaches will meet with each student twice throughout the semester. Fundamentally, this course is about developing the leader within each person so that he or she can lead and manage others effectively. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 401H. Leadership Assessment and Development. 3 Units.

This main objective of this course is to help students deepen their self-awareness and to prepare them to be effective leaders and life-long learners. The course is based on a model of self-directed learning and development, which encourages students to discover and expand their emotional intelligence and leadership potential. Students are encouraged to reflect and learn through a series of activities, assessment exercises, and small and large group discussions. Students will complete a personal vision, receive 360-degree feedback on their emotional and social competence and create a personalized learning plan to guide their development throughout the MBA program. Leadership development coaches will meet with each student during the semester. Fundamentally, this course is about developing the leader within each person so that he or she can lead and manage others effectively within a healthcare setting.

MBAP 402. Financial and Managerial Accountancy. 3 Units.

This course will cover the use and application of basic financial statements, the basic cost structures in a firm, and decision making using accounting information. We will discuss usage and analysis of information from the annual report, focusing on the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and related notes. The course will also cover internally generated accounting information about the cost structure of the firm. We will discuss use of this information in decision making. You are expected to be comfortable with definitions of basic accounting terms, and you should be familiar with the accounting structure and the financial statements. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 402H. Accounting for Managers. 3 Units.

The course introduces graduate management students to accounting's role in business administration. Students learn that accounting is not math, truth, or putting numbers in to boxes. Instead, accounting is an imprecise language used to send and receive information about economic performance. Every language has its quirks, and accounting is no exception. Any communication problem that arises from use of English may reveal itself when one uses accounting. This course sensitizes students to common communication problems and suggests ways that they may be mitigated. A metaphor for the class is taking a one-semester introductory course in a foreign language. A semester's worth of study does not make one fluent. However, successful completion of the course allows motivated students, over the balance of their careers, to cultivate the ability to read, write, speak, and listen to that language. Time invested lays a foundation for accelerated learning. Highly motivated students eventually become fluent, while others are better able to use the language in everyday life

MBAP 403. Statistics and Decision Modeling. 3 Units.

This course provides the foundations of statistical and operations research methodologies for managerial decision-making. Business statistics focuses on statistical thinking as one of the fundamentals of effective management. Topics covered include sampling and the normal distribution, making inferences from data via confidence intervals and hypothesis tests, and analyzing relationships between samples. Decision modeling of organizational systems uses mathematical and computer models to provide a quantitative perspective on identifying, analyzing and solving complex decision problems. This course includes an introduction to linear programming models and applications, simulation techniques in decision-making, and project management. Prereq: MBAP 400 and enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 403H. Statistics and Decision Modeling. 3 Units.

The primary objective of this course, and a goal of the part-time MBA Program, is to make you a competent analyst by providing you with the ability to use, and to communicate with those who use, certain quantitative approaches to help make informed decisions for your organizations. A secondary objective is to provide you with the quantitative knowledge and skills that are needed in other MBA courses. The two groups of quantitative techniques are statistics and decision modeling. The objective of statistics is to summarize and present information contained in data sets, to draw conclusions about large populations based only on information obtained from samples, and, using these conclusions, to obtain reliable forecasts of quantities of interest. Among other things, statistical analysis provides many of the data needed in decision modeling. At the end of this part of the course you will be able to: 1) Summarize data sets using either graphical techniques (histograms, pie charts, and so on) or descriptive statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, and so on). 2) Use computer software to develop estimates and confidence intervals for means and proportions, and analyze the tradeoff between sample size and estimation risk. 3) Use sample data either to support or reject claims about a large population; understand the concepts and consequences of type-1 and type-2 errors. 4) Analyze relationships between two or more quantities of interest and use these relationships to make intelligent forecasts. Prereq: MBAP 400H and enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 404. Managing People and Organizations. 3 Units.

Examines the behavioral sciences relevant to the effective management of people and the effective design of human resources system, structure and policies. Topics include leadership, change management, motivation and pay systems, team dynamics, staffing, decision making, organizational communications, employee participation, performance appraisal, conflict management, negotiation, work design, organizational design, and organizations culture. A variety of methods, including experiential and interactive learning methods, are used to study these topics. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 404H. Managing People and Organizations. 3 Units.

In today's increasingly complex and fast-paced environment, it is critical to understand how to maximize organizational performance. All organizations (corporations, non-profits, government) aim to achieve some goal or objective (e.g., increase shareholder value, make a profit, provide a service). People and systems are the vehicles by which an organization accomplishes its goals and objectives. This course is designed to enhance your ability to make well-reasoned decisions about human capital in organizations and to help you understand organizations as complex systems. Being able to apply systems thinking is critical in order to maximize individual, team and organizational performance.

MBAP 405. Financial Management I. 3 Units.

This is a Corporate Finance course that deals with investment theory and financial value. The course materials cover discounted cash flows, bond and stock valuation, capital budgeting, applications of real options in investment analysis, asset's risk and return, cost of capital, market efficiency and capital structure. The tools, problem solving techniques, and ways of thinking that you develop in this course have broad applicability to all areas of business. They also form the basis for sensible personal decisions in the areas of investments, borrowing, and financial planning. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 405H. Financial Management. 3 Units.

The purpose of this class is to introduce you to multiple concepts in Corporate Finance with the aim of providing principles and tools that enable you to make managerial decisions that increase the firm's value. The course will begin by building a foundation in understand the time value of money and its many applications, and then move on to various tools used to evaluate sound investment decision making. Students will also gain an understanding of how securities (different claims on the business) are evaluated and valued, including an in-depth treatment of risk vs. expected return, i.e., the notion that a more risky investment requires a higher expected return. We will then revisit corporate financial analysis first taught in financial accounting. The course will conclude with fundamental corporate valuation techniques. This portion of the class integrate topics learned earlier in the course, will build linkages to other courses (especially financial accounting) and reinforce what drives value as a manager within the enterprise. Prereq: Students enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 406. Economics for Managers. 3 Units.

This course is designed to give you an overview and a basic understanding of modern economics. The course will cover the microeconomic topics of consumer choice, business decision making, and market equilibrium; as well as the macroeconomic topics of economic growth, inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates. In the process of achieving these specific content objectives, this course is taught in a way that will support the MBA program goals of having students become competent analysts and a critical, creative thinkers. Prereq: (MBAP 403 or MBAP 403H) and enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 406H. Economics for Managers. 3 Units.

This course offers an introduction to the theories, principles, and applications of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Topics include supply and demand, elasticity, market structure analysis, business cycles, taxation, and monetary policy. Prereq: MBAP 403 or MBAP 403H.

MBAP 407. Managerial Marketing. 3 Units.

Through lecture, discussion, cases, projects and/or simulations you will learn theory and practice of how firms develop processes to understand, create and deliver "triple bottom line" value (i.e., economic, social and environmental) to business and/or consumer markets. Specifically in this course, we take the perspective that marketing is a process of creating value for firms, customers, and other stakeholders through mutually desirable exchanges. This is the foundation of a customer orientation and a central theme of market-driven management. Methods for strategic marketing planning, understanding buyer behavior, market analysis, segmentation and devising integrated marketing programs are introduced. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 407H. Managerial Marketing. 3 Units.

This course will focus on Marketing Strategy in business organizations. We will use case studies and discussions as the primary mode of learning. To get the most out of this course, it is important that you come to class well prepared with your case analysis. The course objectives emphasize MBA program-level goals aimed at: 1. Creative and critical thinking and action in the face of ambiguity 2. Development and implementation of strategies to secure sustainable competitive advantage, and 3. Rigorous analytics

MBAP 408. Operations Management. 3 Units.

Operations management deals with the design of products and processes, the acquisition of resources, the conversion of inputs to outputs, and the distribution of goods and services. It is central to a firm's ability to compete effectively. As global competition in both goods and services increases, the management of operations is becoming more and more important. This course provides a broad overview of the managerial issues associated with production and delivery of goods and services. It includes the use of quantitative modeling using computers as a central methodology. Prereq: Students enrolled in the Part-time MBA or online MBA programs.

MBAP 408H. Operations and Supply Chain Management. 3 Units.

Operations managers, ranging from supervisors to vice presidents, are concerned with the production of goods and services. More specifically, they are responsible for designing, running, controlling and improving the systems that accomplish production. This course is a broad-spectrum course with emphasis on techniques and information that are helpful to the practice of management in general and at any level. We will discuss commonly occurring application problems such as capacity planning, production scheduling, line balancing, inventory control, quality management, just-in-time concepts, etc. The field of operations management was originally concerned with manufacturing systems. But many of the same ideas apply, and the same trade-offs are present, in service organizations like health care, insurance, hotel-management, airlines and government related operations. Several manufacturing and non-manufacturing environments will be discussed explicitly, and the emphasis will be on the fundamentals of the operations function in an organization. Also we will explore the interface of operations management with other functional areas such as marketing, finance, accounting, etc. This course is not oriented toward specialists in operations management. Its goal is to introduce you to the environments and help you appreciate the problems that operations managers are confronted with. Then, we will typically discuss some system specifics and emphasize the principles and issues that play key role in their management. Prereq: Students enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 409. Sustainable Value Innovation. 3 Units.

This course creates a foundational platform featuring key models and managerial tools for building sustainable value and "turning the social and global issues of our day into business opportunities." Case studies of leading mainstream companies are used to analyze how business value is created for a range of social and environmental initiatives. Students will look at sustainability business strategies that reduce risks, drive down costs, create new revenue streams, serve new markets, and position companies to take advantage of changing societal expectations. Environmental issues such as climate change are covered along with social issues such as global poverty. Students acquire the competencies required to make effective business decisions based on integrating sustainability into the core of a company's value added activities. Prereq: This course is for students in the Part-time Cohort MBA Program.

MBAP 410. Strategic Issues and Applications. 3 Units.

This course helps students understand the nature of strategic competitiveness and helps them develop the ability to analyze the competitive environment facing any organization, assess the attractiveness of the industry or sector and isolate potential sources of competitive advantage which will aid in developing a positioning strategy for the organization.

MBAP 410H. Strategic Issues and Applications. 3 Units.

Strategic Management deals fundamentally with the ways firms build and sustain superior competitive positions and profitability. Successful strategy design and implementation requires an understanding of a firm's external environment, its internal resources and capabilities. It also requires an integrative view of the firm that spans functional areas such as operations, marketing and finance. Strategic analysis draws on a number of academic disciplines including economics, psychology, political and management science.

MBAP 411. Identifying Design Opportunities. 3 Units.

Designing is giving form to an idea for a more desirable product, service, process or organization, and refining the idea into something that can be delivered reliably and efficiently. Good design integrates these evolving ideas with the day-to-day realities of a firms' operations, systems, marketing, economics, finance and human resources. Designing is thus a unique managerial activity that brings together changing technologies, capabilities, relationships, activities and materials to shape an organization's plans and strategies. It combines analysis and synthesis to create opportunities for improvement and means of attaining them. Viewed this way, designing is a core competence of a successful entrepreneur or innovative leader. Design analysis is the systematic review of the four orders of design found in every firm--namely, the firm's communications, products, interactions and environments--and the creation of opportunities to increase firm value by improving each. Students will identify ill-defined, ill-structured problems within organizations. Such problems are ones for which there are no definitive formulations and for which the formulation chosen affects the solutions available. For such problems, there is no explicit way of knowing when you have reached a solution, and solutions cannot necessarily be considered correct or incorrect. But finding innovative solutions to such problems can provide unique opportunities to create exceptional value. A major outcome of the semester's inquiry is a presentation of the design problem and proposed design solution. Prereq: This course is for students in the Part-time Cohort MBA Program.

MBAP 420H. Regulatory Issues in Healthcare Management. 1.5 Unit.

This course provides and overview of key areas health law at level important to managers in healthcare related organizations. The topical areas covered include (1) the history, structure, financing, and operation of the U.S. medical system; (2) legal and ethical rules and regulations governing physicians and other health care professionals; the patient-physician relationship; institutional providers of care such as hospitals, nursing homes, and laboratories; and drug and device manufacturers; (3) regulation of health insurers and managed care organization; (4) medical malpractice law; (5) confidentiality and electronic medical records; (6) fraud and abuse; (7) antitrust law; (8) employer health plans; (9) medical research; and (10) public health.

MBAP 421H. Organizational Culture in Healthcare Management. 1.5 Unit.

In this residency course, students will analyze corporate culture using the Burke-Litwin model. Culture in relation to other factors of organizational functioning and change. Prior to the on campus residency students will be introduced to factors that influence organizational culture such the external environment, vision & mission, leadership style, organizational structure, systems (HR such as recruiting and reward and IT such as administrative records keeping), management practices & climate, and power, politics and influence. During the on campus residency, students will visit two major hospital systems to examine how culture influences operational decision making. Prereq: Students enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 422H. Digital Innovation in Healthcare. 1.5 Unit.

In this course, students will learn the role of digital technology in creating new digitally enabled services in the healthcare market. Industry experts will be engaged throughout the course to provide the latest information on developments and application being used.

MBAP 423H. Engineering in Healthcare Management. 1.5 Unit.

The course focuses on the creation, funding, and management of digital health, biotech, medtech, and other health services enterprises. The course is will focus on special issues surrounding the conceptualization, planning, diligence, and capitalization of these ventures and also includes management and compensation practices. In addition, course offers methods for self-assessment & development of business models and plans, techniques for technology assessment and strategy, develops foundation for capitalization and partnering strategies, and creates a basis for best practices in company launch and plan execution.

MBAP 424H. Economic Issues and Applications in Healthcare. 1.5 Unit.

The purpose of this course is to develop the analytical skills necessary for understanding how the U.S. health care sector operates, how it has evolved, the forces at work behind perceived deficiencies (in quality and cost control), and the impact of alternative policy proposals. Special attention is giving to recent developments in the healthcare marketplace, and the strategic considerations they create for providers and insurers. These issues are addressed through the lens of microeconomic theory. Under this framework, outcomes result from the interaction of decisions made by participants in the healthcare economy (e.g. patients, providers, insurers, government), with those decisions governed by the preferences, incentives and resource constraints facing each decision-maker. Principles of microeconomics will be reviewed as necessary to ensure consistent understanding of basic concepts. The course is designed to appeal to a broad audience, particularly students interested in healthcare management, public health, medical innovation, health law, and public policymaking. Prereq: MBAP 406 or MBAP 406H.

MBAP 425H. Action Learning in Healthcare. 3 Units.

In this residency based course students will have an opportunity to apply their learning to real world projects in collaboration with a major hospital system in the Cleveland area. Students will learn how to conduct an action research project including problem identification, stakeholder engagement, needs assessment, intervention design, data collection, data analysis, and the presentation of recommendations/findings. Prereq: Students enrolled in the online MBA program.

MBAP 426H. Finance Issues and Applications in Healthcare. 1.5 Unit.

Exploration of economic, medical, financial and payment factors in the U.S. healthcare system sets the framework for the study of decisions by providers, insurers, and purchasers in this course. The mix of students from various programs and professions allows wide discussion from multiple viewpoints. Prereq: MBAP 406 or MBAP 406H.

MBAP 427H. Introduction to Population Health. 1.5 Unit.

This course ntroduces graduate students to the multiple determinants of health including the social, economic and physical environment, health services, individual behavior, genetics and their interactions. It aims to provide students with the broad understanding of the research development and design for studying population health, the prevention and intervention strategies for improving population health and the disparities that exist in morbidity, mortality, functional and quality of life. Format is primarily group discussion around current readings in the field.

MBAP 428H. Healthcare Decision Making and Analytics. 3 Units.

This course is designed to introduce the students to a wide range of methods and applications of decision science and analytics in healthcare management and medical decision making. The primary objective of the course is to provide the students with the necessary technical knowledge and skills to understand mathematical and statistical models used in health decision making. Further, the course aims to provide the students with hands-on experience required to leverage such methods for evaluating clinical interventions, choosing the best treatment, and informing public health policy. Course topics include decision trees, Markov decision models, Monte Carlo simulation, cost-effectiveness analysis, sensitivity analysis, utility theory, bootstrapping and subgroup analysis, prediction and classification methods, and using computer software to build and analyze health decision analysis models. Prereq: MBAP 403 or MBAP 403H.

MBAP 429H. Artificial Intelligence Applications in Healthcare Management. 1.5 Unit.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of methods and algorithms that enable computers to mimic human behavior. Deep learning is a subfield of machine learning that builds large neural networks to extract subtle patterns from data and is currently the state-of-the-art method of achieving artificial intelligence. Healthcare is undoubtedly one of the most promising and influential application areas of AI. The unprecedented increase in data availability and computer power over the past decade has enabled neural network models to parse massive clinical datasets, learn incredibly subtle patterns, and in some cases, augment clinicians' performance. This course covers the basic concepts and theoretical foundations of deep learning as they relate to healthcare management. We will discuss several successful applications of AI in healthcare as well as opportunities for AI across a variety of healthcare contexts. Limitations, challenges, key debates, and considerations surrounding AI models and their adoption in healthcare will also be highlighted. Prereq: MBAP 403H or MBAP 403.

MBAP 430H. Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare. 1.5 Unit.

The course will include the following topics: 1) Service Process Blueprints, 2) Managing Capacity in Service Systems, 3) Mapping the Value Stream (current and future state), and 4) Inventory Management in Service Systems. The topics considered are viewed in the context of healthcare management, financial services, insurance firms, call centers, back-office operations, and other applications. Through these topics, the participants will be trained in tools that help them understand customers' expectations and needs and to identify service system characteristics that can meet these needs. We will learn how to identify errors in service and troubleshoot these problems by identifying the root causes of errors. Subsequently, we will discuss how one can modify the product or service design so as to prevent defects from occurring. Finally, we will establish performance metrics that help evaluate the effectiveness of the Lean system in place. These efforts will result to improved quality. This course is not oriented toward specialists in service management. Its goal is to introduce you to the environments and help you appreciate the problems that operations managers are confronted with. Then, we will typically discuss some system specifics and emphasize the principles and issues that play key roles in their management. Prereq: MBAP 408 or MBAP 408H.

MBAP 450P. Foundations of Product Management. 1.5 Unit.

The growth and continued success of companies depend on their ability to manage the lifecycle of their products effectively and comprehensively -- from ideation, design and launch to scaling, growth, and evolution. Product managers are critical players in this -- they own the product vision (from cradle to grave), craft the product roadmap, strategize and lead product development and growth initiatives, and serve as the connective tissue between the company, its partners, and the market. More broadly, product managers champion and evangelize for their products, with both internal and external stakeholders. This course will serve as the introduction to the Product Management track in the Online MBA degree. As such, the focus will be on providing a broad overview of the product management function as well as the roles and responsibilities of a product manager. We will examine some of the key concepts and frameworks that underlie product visioning and product strategy, product road mapping, product design and development, product marketing, and product growth management, and product ecosystem leadership. We will also consider leadership, communication, negotiation, problem-solving and decision-making skills that product managers need to be effective in their role. Artificial intelligence has become an important tool in product management. We will consider some of the emerging applications of AI in product management and the associated risks and benefits. In discussing the different topics in this course, we will draw on examples and case studies from a wide range of industries and markets -- for example, digital and non-digital products, B2C and B2B products, and regional/national and global markets.

MBAP 451P. Product Strategy & Leadership. 1.5 Unit.

A critical job of any product manager is to provide leadership to the extended product team. This involves crafting a product vision, developing an associated product strategy, and aligning the product team to execute on that strategy. This course will focus on these key elements of a product manager's role. We will also emphasize the need for product managers to bring together diverse functional experts -- engineering, design, marketing, etc. -- and resolve conflicts that may emerge from their differing perspectives and roles in the organization. Increasingly, product managers' leadership also needs to extend to external partners and the broader ecosystem that is critical for the product success. Prereq: MBAP 450P.

MBAP 452P. Product Discovery, Analytics, & Customer Insights. 1.5 Unit.

In the product development journey, the first (and the most important) step is product discovery, i.e., acquiring a clear understanding of a product opportunity. This requires product managers to not just identify the potential customer (market) but also derive non-obvious insights on customer needs or the 'job-to-be-done'. Such insights could then be used to build a first-level product concept that matches with the market opportunity. This course will focus on key frameworks and techniques that product managers (and product development teams) can employ to (a) analyze and define the broad market problem, (b) conduct an in-depth customer needs analysis, and (c) formulate and test an initial product concept. The course will emphasize a diverse range of data sources to study customer needs -- from qualitative techniques to quantitative techniques. For example, social media and other digital platforms form an important venue to gather and analyze data on customer desires, behaviors, and needs. Similarly, analysis of user behaviors on existing products (product analytics) forms another important vehicle to acquire insights on future customer needs. Thus, in this course, we will consider how different data analytic techniques (relating to both small data and big data) afford deriving rich insights on customer behaviors and needs and how such insights could be converted into an effective product concept.

MBAP 453P. Business Model Design. 1.5 Unit.

Designing and articulating a unique value proposition (VP) forms a critical task for the product team. In this course, we will use a business model framework to examine the key elements of a product's value proposition and their interrelationships -- and the implications for both value creation and value capture. While Product Discovery provides the product team with a deeper understanding of the customers' problem (or pain points), to address it they have to come up with a unique value proposition as well as the resources, activities, and relationships needed to realize it in the marketplace. Using tools such as business model canvas, we will examine how a product team can answer the 'what' and the 'how' questions related to addressing a market opportunity. We will also examine how the product team can validate the VP and the associated business model. The course will emphasize digital platforms and digital components as key parts of the business model. We will identify and discuss different types of digital business models and the important underlying concepts such as disintermediation, network effects, and data-based learning that shape their success. We will also discuss how the adaptability, malleability and portability of a digital business model allows a firm to be more responsive to market dynamics as well as pursue faster internationalization of the underlying business.

MBAP 454P. Product Management in Startups. 1.5 Unit.

Often, the context for product management is a new venture or startup. As such, product managers need to have a foundational understanding of their role in the venturing context and the product management processes therein. This course will focus on providing such an understanding. Specifically, we will consider the key activities that comprise the entrepreneurial journey -- from how entrepreneurial opportunities are formed/shaped to how a business model is crafted and executed. We will also consider some of the key issues and challenges that product managers working in a startup will face and the skill set they will need to address those challenges. The first residency of the Product Management program will be part of this course. The 3.5-day residency will be the first opportunity for the students to meet with each other and tour the Case campus. In addition to networking events and guest speaker talks, the residency will also include site visit to startups and other entrepreneurial entities (e.g., incubators) in Cleveland.

MBAP 455P. Product Architecture and UX Design. 1.5 Unit.

The success of a product is critically shaped by its ability to attract users by its features that address visible and latent user needs and how smooth and effective the users' interactions are the product. A product needs to address cognitively the tasks it is supposed to support, be easy to use and learn, intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. Product managers also need to understand how product architecture can be designed so as to be responsive to market changes (customer needs) and at the same time offer superior capabilities and features. This course will serve as the introduction to product architecture and interface design and discuss related design principles and techniques. We will draw on ideas and concepts from a wide range of contexts including industrial design, software design, and service design. The focus will be on providing a broad overview of the product design functions and related interfaces as well as the roles and responsibilities of a product manager in this. We will examine key frameworks and principles that underlie product architecture design, product interaction design, cognitive aspects of design, user experience design and approaches that help develop and evaluate user's interactions with the products as part of the design process.

MBAP 456P. Product Development & Delivery. 1.5 Unit.

The success of product development depends on product manager's ability to engage with and learn from diverse types of stakeholders (including customers and end users) during the development process and to integrate that knowledge in converting evolving product ideas into tangible features and capabilities. At the same time, the PM needs to execute the product development process efficiently so that the product is delivered in time, cost, and quality. These two are in many situations in tension and product manager's role is to successfully manage this tension so as to deliver a viable product. This course will serve as the introduction to contemporary product development processes called commonly as agile development. We will discuss the idea and motivation for agile development, key agile development principles, and associated techniques. We will focus on providing a broad overview of the roles and responsibilities of different developer and user categories as part of the agile development to cater for how such features can be developed as part of the product design process. We will also examine principles agile organization and management, project management principles, and approaches that help product managers evaluate development processes and related outcomes.

MBAP 457P. Building AI-based Products. 1.5 Unit.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies become more ubiquitous in products and services across industries -- in both industrial and consumer settings -- product teams will be required to understand the unique aspects of the design and development of AI-based products including the fundamentals of machine/deep learning algorithms and large language models. This course will start with an overview of AI technologies and their varied applications in different industries. The course will then focus on the different stages of the building of AI-based products including the selection of appropriate AI technologies and the technical and operational requirements to build AI models. We will also consider the design of intelligent human-machine interfaces in different organizational settings including customer service. The course will also focus on the varied risks associated with AI products -- at individual, firm and societal levels -- and the strategies that product teams can adopt to mitigate them.

MBAP 458P. Sustainable Product Management. 1.5 Unit.

This course covers the theory and practice of Sustainable Product Management (SPM) -- why it is becoming a priority for businesses in every sector, what leading companies are doing about it, and how they are doing it. Global issues such as climate change, inequality, and DE&I to concerns about privacy and cybersecurity are introducing greater levels of complexity into business strategy and operations, with far-reaching implications for how products are designed, developed, produced, and scaled. Effective handling of these issues can lead to new sources of revenue generation and resource productivity, as well as reputational value, while failure to do so can lead to financial and competitive risk.

MBAP 459P. Digital Marketing & Customer Analytics. 1.5 Unit.

Digital marketing and customer analytics is foundational to marketing insight in the digital era because it is the language used to optimize and connect results across all digital marketing tactics (search, social media, email, display, video, etc.). An effective digital marketing analyst is a vital data translator for a business. The cultivation of both technical and soft skills is important in product management and, these skills are taught through this course. The course material will be taught within a discussion-based, experiential learning environment. Various aspects of digital marketing analytics will be covered with clear examples. Students will develop skills in translating strategic questions of firms into actionable data analysis using different kinds of data.

MBAP 460P. Managing Product Growth. 1.5 Unit.

The product management function does not end with the development and launch of a new product. It is critical for a product manager to ensure that the product (a) scales and grows profitably (in terms of volume and market reach) and (b) evolves to address changing market conditions. This course will focus on the post-launch activities in product lifecycle management -- scaling, growth, evolution, and sunsetting. We will start with product scaling and consider how product scaling strategies may vary for digital and non-digital products. We will also examine platform-based strategies for product scaling. Following that we will focus on diverse types of strategies for driving product growth -- for example, from the niche to the masses, from domestic to international, and from product to platform. We will then consider product evolution strategies -- how to 'read' changing market trends and develop plans to transform existing products to stay relevant for the future. In some instances, such assessments may reveal the need for sunsetting the product. The broader focus of the course will be on imparting a deep understanding of the product manager's role in ensuring product growth and profitability as well as its continued relevance vis-a-vis changing markets.

MBAP 461P. Experiential Project in Product Management I. 1.5 Unit.

Students must gain hands-on experience in various aspects of product management. The objective of these two project-based courses (1.5 credits each) is to offer a venue for students to engage with real-world problems in product management and to develop approaches to address them. Note that the nature of the projects would vary -- for example, while some projects may involve identifying and assessing new product opportunities or designing and developing new products, others may involve developing feasible pathways to enhance the growth of existing products. The projects will be sponsored by a wide range of companies (from across industries and geographies). Instructors will help student teams pick projects that fit with their career goals so as to enhance the long-term value they derive from the project work. It is expected that student teams will require 14 weeks to complete a project (i.e., they will continue their work across the two courses/two semesters). However, at the end of each course, students will get an opportunity to present their work and engage with the sponsors. Also, there will be a residency associated with the second course. Specifically, toward the end of the second course, students will visit the campus for a 3-day residency. They will present their final project recommendations to the sponsors and engage with them on broader range of PM-related topics. Additionally, the residency will also include a networking event involving all sponsor companies, guest speakers, and other senior executives from regional companies. The synchronous online class meetings (across the 14 weeks of the two courses) will be structured with dual purposes. First, it will allow for periodic reporting by student teams on their project work. Second, we will use some of the class meetings to host guest speakers to focus on specific product management -related topics that are not covered in the rest of the curriculum.

MBAP 462P. Experiential Learning in Product Management II. 1.5 Unit.

Students must gain hands-on experience in various aspects of product management. The objective of these two project-based courses (1.5 credits each) is to offer a venue for students to engage with real-world problems in product management and to develop approaches to address them. Note that the nature of the projects would vary -- for example, while some projects may involve identifying and assessing new product opportunities or designing and developing new products, others may involve developing feasible pathways to enhance the growth of existing products. The projects will be sponsored by a wide range of companies (from across industries and geographies). Instructors will help student teams pick projects that fit with their career goals so as to enhance the long-term value they derive from the project work. It is expected that student teams will require 14 weeks to complete a project (i.e., they will continue their work across the two courses/two semesters). However, at the end of each course, students will get an opportunity to present their work and engage with the sponsors. Also, there will be a residency associated with the second course. Specifically, toward the end of the second course, students will visit the campus for a 3-day residency. They will present their final project recommendations to the sponsors and engage with them on broader range of PM-related topics. Additionally, the residency will also include a networking event involving all sponsor companies, guest speakers, and other senior executives from regional companies. The synchronous online class meetings (across the 14 weeks of the two courses) will be structured with dual purposes. First, it will allow for periodic reporting by student teams on their project work. Second, we will use some of the class meetings to host guest speakers to focus on specific product management -related topics that are not covered in the rest of the curriculum.

MBAP 499. Introduction to Learning Skills. 0 Unit.

Whether you are an online student, a student attending classes on campus, or a mix of both this course will equip you with the skills necessary to become a successful graduate student. Throughout this course you will learn more about yourself as a learner, how to apply universal standards for critical thinking to the evaluation of professional literature, and how to effectively balance your competing responsibilities as you begin your journey toward your degree.