BAEP 571 - Social Innovation Design

This course would've been much better in person, first and foremost. I'm sure the professor would've been able to deliver a much better experience. You should know that the course feels like an intro course to human-centered design and so it's slow and geared towards MSSEs who are in their first semester of grad school, but also comes with a lot of coursework that you really can't avoid doing or find shortcuts for. I would suggest this course if you are TRULY interested in social entrepreneurship and social impact and you have the time in the rest of your schedule to take this on.

This is a great class and the learnings are different from our typical MBA classes. I have enjoyed being able to learn the human centered design approach. However, it is a LOT of work. You need to conduct 30 interviews in the first few weeks. The class is also mostly comprised of MSSE students who tend to be much younger than MBA students (some are still in undergrad and completing their graduate coursework at the same time) and are very unorganized and inefficient (at least that was my experience with my team). The pace of class time itself is slow and the professor has to hand-hold a lot. Overall I've learned a lot in the class but wouldn't recommend taking during a time you want to be recruiting or have other competing priorities.

I think this course would have been so much more dyanmic in person. The virtual space I think hindered this course. The course is mainly made up of Masters of Social Entrepreneurship students and the course takes you through the entire Human-Centered Design process. You work in teams to bring a product to market. Workload is front-load heavy. Students need to conduct 30 meaningful conversations and have to distill findings from there.

This may be one of the most valuable classes I take at Marshall. We learn design thinking methodology and apply it in real life to create solutions for challenges faced by an identified target population in the field. Abby is also a skilled instructor and makes a 3 hour class engaging, which is impressive. I will say this class will ask A LOT of you, so only pursue if you are serious and willing to put in some genuine time and thought work. Also keep in mind this class is almost entirely filled with MSSE students. I am the only MBA in my class.

I honestly think this should be a required course for MBA students. It focuses on user empathy and user design in innovation, but allows students to experience all that goes into designing and producing a prototype of a product (including the intensive feedback process, high pressure, and emotional roller coasters/investment). This course is by far the most rewarding and most painful class I've taken in the program thus far. Take it as a fair warning: this class requires a lot of time, work, and effort, but well worth it. I wish I could have dedicated a whole semester to this class alone. Abby cares so dearly for her students and for the contents of this course.