Integrated Product Development Course (IPD)

The IPD course at Carnegie Mellon pioneered the field of integrated product development, setting the standard for courses of it's kind. Originating 20 years ago, the course continues to grow and meet the evolving needs of students and industry. Through their extensive research and teaching, the core IPD faculty have created unique tools and methodologies that have become key to the course including the text Creating Breakthrough Products written by Jonathan Cagan and Craig Vogel which is the cornerstone of the course.

The IPD course focuses on team-based integrated product development among the engineering, business and design disciplines and is co-taught by faculty from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Design and the Tepper School of Business. Students in the course are primarily MPD and MBA students.

The emphasis of the course is on the early, "fuzzy front end" stage of product development. The course gives structure and clarity to this stage as well as to the ones that follow and helps direct the product development process to be more efficient downstream.

The course consists of four modules: identifying, understanding, conceptualizing and realizing new product opportunities. Through the course, interdisciplinary student teams partner with industry sponsors to bring these new opportunities to life. Some even result in patent applications.

Student teams are expected to produce written and oral reports throughout the course. At the end of the semester each team develops a form model, function model, marketing plan and manufacturing plan for the product.