MKT 530 - New Product Development

The course material is extremely relevant and interesting but the amount of work for this class can be quite overwhelming some times. Who is this class for? Anyone interested in learning how to properly develop new products from research through launch. Final Thoughts: The class is very informative but it does have a very slow pace and this professor assigns quite a lot of homework and projects.

Regarding Course Workload -- there are both individual assignments and group assignments. If the assignments felt more directly tied to learning product development, I would find more value and motivation in completing them. The individual assignments involve a lot of work, but they haven't felt particularly effective in helping us learn how to do product development. For group assignment, we have to develop a new product by the end of semester, which feels more aligned with practical learning and has been relatively more useful. Regarding Grading Toughness -- my rating has more to do with the lack of clarity in the grading criteria. For example, in Individual Assignment #1, we were instructed to use AI to generate a list of 20 product successes and 20 product failures. Then, we were asked to use our own thinking to discuss which product succeeded/failed. The professor deducted major points when he thought I used AI to answer the analysis/self-thinking part of the question. While resubmission is an option, I'm not really sure what I can change regarding the analysis/self-thinking part of the answers as it is my own analysis to begin with. It is unclear what criteria the professor uses to determine whether AI was used or not. For example, I use double dashes "--" in my writing style, and I wonder if that was the reason he chose to believe AI was involved in the analysis/self-thinking portion. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to understand expectations and frustrating to have to rewrite my own words/thinking and resubmit assignments in order to receive a higher grade. Additionally, for the questions where the professor want us to use AI, he asks us to highlight the outputs in red, and paste the prompts in blue. If you prompted AI to give you "one paragraph of the list without description," instead of giving the whole list where there is a "title + description of the title," he also deducts point on it. With another AI-based assignment coming up, I still don't feel confident in how to meet the grading expectations. If there are strong concerns about AI use, it might be worth reconsidering whether AI-focused assignments are the best fit, or at least providing clearer guidelines on how the assignments will be evaluated to begin with. I wish that the lack of grading clarity in Schorr's class was something clear in previous elective surveys. I would have taken into consideration before selecting a class with unclear grading criteria. Who is this class for? If you are interested in CPG. This class is not great for tech. Final Thoughts: If you are interested in CPG, I suggest taking this class with another professor if possible. Otherwise, you may find more value in other product-related electives. Beyond the grading concerns, it is worth noting that classroom expectations are quite strict. For instance, if you arrive 15-20 minutes late, the professor may pull you aside and question you about your tardiness. This didn't happen to me peresonally, but I observed it happen with several classmates. If you miss a class, you are required to submit mutliple pages of memo to demonstrate that you have watched the lecture recording. You are to type out answers of class discussions on the memo and write out five takeaways from each class. In class, you will be expected to engage in discussion via: traditional participation (raising hands and answering questions), Slack, and collaborating with your group via Google Doc during class (which can be done through traditional participation in class). All of these are experiences to be aware of in advance as they shape the classroom experience.

Who is this class for? New Product Development is not really optimized for tech product development - most useful for students interested in CPG

I find class materials interesting. You need to spend a lot of time on individual assignments and group project. Some people think the lectures are boring, but you learn a lot from lectures and assignments/project.

Heavy homework, a lot of indivisual assignments along with group project. Professor goes with a quite slow pace. not recommended for MBA students

Amazing professor, but the class is okay, it felt like an extension of the marketing core class. I wish the professor focused more on go-to-market/actually launching the product vs focusing mostly on the beginning process/customer needs.

The best course I have taken at Marshall so far, it's so relevant to the skillsets I need. The professor is very knowledgeable and puts a lot of efforts. The course is very heavy on cases/assignments. There is a submission before every class, and a group project aspect too. The class discussions are very interesting, and he follows the case discussions with his own learning material every class.

Great class and great professor who may also be a work-in-progress. The class is a lot of work, but is an incredible learning opportunity. The prof has a background in both marketing and finance so he teaches lots of market sizing, forecasting, etc. Marketing meets finance meets product. If you take this class, be mindful of your workload in other classes as well. This class is probably best paired with classes that teach complementary material.

Professor is amazing. It's a totally case-based class so be prepared for discussing and even debating! You'll learn a lot and the optional readings are really valuable.

One of the best classes I've taken here. If you want to do Product Management this is the class to take. Professor is amazing and the content is amazing!

Very relevant topics ranging from market sizing, break-even analysis, qualitative research, design thinking, learning from extreme customers, segmentation and targeting, brand strategy, prototyping, and more. It's a lot of work but worthwhile work that gets you thinking. The class itself can feel stressful at times because everyone is trying to get participation points. This was all online and with 70 or so students it's just not possible to hear from everyone each time. Communication is a bit all over the place: slack, blackboard, emails... I wish there was just one platform we used instead of seaching all over.

I love Larry and I think he's great. He is one of the few Professors at Marshall that are extremely engaging and from whom you'll learn a lot. The cases are really interesting as well. BUT, as much as I love him and would recommend his class, he gives you a LOT of busy work that we could have gone without. The workload for this class feels like a 6 unit course, which should be adjusted for next year. So, overall, if you can, you should take this class because it's one of the few classes you'll actually learn a lot, but expect to be BUSY.

As others have mentioned this class is very heavily case-based, which I wasn't expecting. The cases and discussions get old after a while. I wish there was more hands-on exposure to NPD through the group project. The project feels pretty rushed and like we aren't really gaining experience through it. Larry is great and super knowledgable. He occasionally presents real world case examples that he's done, which I wish there was more of. Also guest speakers so far have not been super interesting.

The class is very organized, and covers interesting topics. The first half of the class is a review of the case (in a battle of attrition to get called on through a sea of hands), and the second half is lecture. Larry has amazing experience, and his stories add a ton of value. I wish Larry would spend more time talking about examples from his rich work history. Students come to class very prepared, because there is a poll about the case before each class. Larry is actively teaching students to NOT think critically, but I still believe the class is a really good one. The project itself is pretty unorganized, but could be fun if you are committed.

Class is entirely case based. Cases are generally interesting and present a diverse set of strategies, problems, founders, etc. Overall the workload is managable. This class is NOT an incubator to launch a new product or workshop a new business idea, as one might presume from the title. Professor could do a better job of moderating class discussions. There are some valuable hard skills that can be learned from this class, such as sizing a market and caculating a break-even point, but the Prof spends no time teaching this and expects you to watch his pre-recorded lecture videos on your own time or do supplemental readings.

VERY discussion heavy. The class is long and the first half is only discussion where everyone has their hand up for the whole period. Second half is guest speakers sometimes or meetings for a group project. He then has lecture videos posted where you teach yourself the content for the assignments not in class. Definetly a good guy and means well, but not a lot of of information shared for the projects or assignments so have to teach yourself.

This is one of the best classes I've taken at Marshall. The professor is fantastic at facilitating case discussions and at bringing in real world examples from his work into the lectures. He's also the only professor I've had that's successfully integrated the final project into his classes - for example we brainstormed concept ideas for the final project in the first class. I'd highly recommend this class for anyone who's interested in marketing or enterpreneurship.

I swore I'd never take a Thursday night class again, but I'm so glad I took this one. The professor is really engaging and how I wish more professors would be - great lecture slides, great at facilitating discussions, great at explaining concepts in an easily understandable way. It is a case-based class and there are surveys due the day before, which can sometimes take a while if there are calculations. TBD on how the main group project will turn out since we're moving online, but would highly recommend this class for anyone going into marketing.

Excellent class, excellent professor. Thursday nights can be rough, but if you have any intention on ever being a part of a new product launch, it is worth it. This is also an excellent class to take if you're interested in branding - it is way better and more relevant to MBAs than Sasha's branding strategy class.

Badame is a great professor - she puts in so much effort into her classes, bringing in multiple great guest speakers and making sure content/cases are relevant and fresh. The project/case write up are a lot of work, but she is very organized and helpful.