Carnegie Mellon University

Integrated Innovation Institute

Engineering + Design + Business

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Online Student Resources

Welcome, online certificate and MIIPS students!

You may have signed up for our complete online degree, one certificate, or even one course. Regardless of your engagement, we want you to have a community of resources at your fingertips.

Refer to this page to find information about academic policies, technology resources, the rotational certificate schedule, and advising resources. These resources and guidelines are relevant and essential to your success as an online student.

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Spring 2024 Certificates

Course 1: 49-604 - Innovation Processes & Tools

Professor: TBD
Every other Wednesday from 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

Course Highlights:

  • Learn and use an innovation process: identifying, understanding, and conceptualizing
  • Gain knowledge to assess trends, identify opportunities, and uncover value propositions
  • Focus on communication skills — both verbal and visual
  • Implement an innovation process, leading to the final deliverable of a product concept

Course Description:

This course covers early stages of a product innovation process: identifying, understanding, and then conceptualizing a product opportunity. The course presents fundamental tools to assess trends, identify opportunities, identify and uncover the value proposition of key stakeholders, articulate the value proposition, define product requirements, and conceptualize solutions. Because innovation insights and ideas are new and can be abstract without additional effort, it is important that students learn how to make ideas more concrete via visual communication techniques. As such, communication of work and findings are core to this course. 

We will cover the following: 

  • Industrial design sketching
  • Information visualization & dashboards
  • Graphic user interface design
  • Executive summary and pitch decks
  • Visual brand language, templates and styling
  • Visual explanations
  • Storyboarding and making simple videos

 

Course 2: 49-605 - User Experience Research for Digital and Physical Products


Professor: TBD
Every other Thursday from 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

Course Highlights:

  • Learn methods of user research, from interviewing to ethnographic techniques
  • Use ethnography in a project, both in digital and traditional settings
  • Plan research, collect data, analyze, and synthesize data into a research report that identifies specific opportunities to innovate with new offerings.

Course Description:

This course will teach the basic methods of user research, including one-on-one interviewing and ethnographic techniques. To master certain skills, students will dive deeper into one method. Students apply the basic principles of ethnography in a project as participant observers in both digital and traditional settings. 

Students will plan the research, collect data, analyze, and synthesize what was learned, and present a research report that identifies not only what was observed, but also interprets its meaning and indicates opportunities to innovate with new offerings. Although the course will focus on qualitative and primary research, the benefits of quantitative and secondary research will also be addressed. The course includes lectures and discussions, along with readings and research assignments.

Course 1: 49-606 - Understanding Markets, Products & Services

Professor Dave Lamont
Every other Monday, 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

Course Highlights:

  • Study the actions required to bring a product to market
  • Learn strategies to build, leverage, defend, and sustain new products
  • Gain business management knowledge
  • Focus on pricing strategies and tactics
  • Discuss the span of products — consumer and B2B, products and services, digital and physical

Course Description:

This course focuses on the strategies and methods for building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining inspired new products and brands. A successful new product has many similarities to a successful new business, so this class will cover a broad set of business management concepts from various functional business areas, positioned within the context of successful product development and launch. The course also emphasizes pricing strategies and tactics, recognizing  the importance of pricing but also recognizing the close link of pricing to fundamental business principles. We will discuss the actions required to bring a product to market, including understanding your target audiences' needs, values and lifestyles and the key elements of a launch plan. We will apply concepts and discuss the span of products: consumer and B2B, products and services, digital and physical.

Course 2: 49-607 - Product Strategy & Planning

Professor Dave Lamont
Every other Tuesday, 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

Course Highlights:

  • Learn the concepts, roles, and responsibilities of product and brand management
  • Study how strategy and business models work together to shape a business
  • Gain knowledge of planning, development, and marketing tools that work to differentiate a product
  • Use a business simulation to understand how functional areas of a business tie together
  • Gain an overview of multiple business types: corporate, entrepreneurial, for-profit, and nonprofit

Course Description:

This course explores the concepts, roles, and responsibilities associated with both product management and brand management, also covering how strategy and business models intertwine to shape the nature and success of a product and business. Tools and methods will be introduced that allow a business to better understand and define itself and recognize its position in the market environment. The course will also cover planning, development, and marketing tools that product and brand managers use to make decisions on how to deliver the expected value to customers and stakeholders and differentiate from the competition. These tools will help you address common strategic, as well as tactical, challenges across the product lifecycle to make a product or service successful. In addition to covering theory and applications, the course will use a business simulation to help students understand how the functional areas tie together. The course will cover a variety of contexts: corporate and entrepreneurial, for-profit and not-for-profit, products and services, business-to-business and consumer products, digital and physical products. Further, the course will build on your knowledge of marketing, engineering, accounting, and manufacturing, showing how product managers and brand managers work cross-functionally and play critical leadership functions to make products and services successful.

Upcoming Certificate Schedule

Important Dates:

  • Registration Form Opens: 10/24/2023
  • SIO Registration Begins: 11/14/2023
  • Classes Begin: 1/16/2024

Methods and Tools for Product Innovation Certificate

Course Name

Faculty

Day & Time

49-604 - Innovation Processes & Tools

TBD

Every other Wednesday
from 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

49-605 - User Experience Research for Digital and Physical Products

TBD

Every other Thursday
from 8:00 - 9:30pm ET

New Product Mgmt Certificate  

Course Name Faculty Day & Time
49-606 - Understanding Markets, Products & Services Dave Lamont Every other Monday, 8:00 - 9:30pm ET
49-607 - Product Strategy & Planning Dave Lamont Every other Tuesday,
8:00 - 9:30pm ET

Capstone

Course Name Faculty Day & Time
49-608 - Professional Practices TBD TBD

 

 

Important Dates:

Instructors, Days & Times are all TBD at the moment for Summer 2024

Register for Upcoming Courses

Spring 2024

iii Online Program Registration Form

  • Registration Form Opens: 10/24/2023
  • SIO Registration Begins: 11/14/2023

 

Stories from the Community

Meet Susanna Zlotnikov,
iii Online Program Director

Susanna is a qualitative design researcher and educator with expertise in analyzing and designing for complex workflows. Currently, she is an assistant teaching professor with the Integrated Innovation Institute and director for the iii Online Program at Carnegie Mellon University.

She has taught diverse students a variety of subjects for over a decade (Hebrew, math, Pilates, design).

At the Integrated Innovation Institute, Susanna teaches courses focused on using service design frameworks and tools to innovate offerings to customers. 

Susanna earned her Master’s degree in design from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design in 2015 and BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. 

With this background, Susanna is uniquely positioned to navigate the social and technical contexts that shape services and experiences.

Email Susanna:
susannaz@andrew.cmu.edu 
Schedule a 1:1 Appointment
Schedule an Appointment with Susanna
25-Minute appointment slots for discussions that require more time

In-Person and Zoom appointments available

Meet Kristin Lavery,
iii Online Program Manager

Kristin supports the Master of Integrated Innovation for Products and Services (MIIPS) Online and the Stackable Online Certificates programs as Online Program Manager. She coordinates multiple aspects of online education needs, including program development and logistics, communications, and faculty support, along with student engagement and registration. In her role she works closely with the CMUiii team, campus partners and external vendors.

Prior to joining the CMUiii in October of 2022, Kristin served as the Assistant Director and Business Manager for the CMU Leonard Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach where she focused her time on operations, program and project management, and educational outreach. Over the past few years, she’s been pursuing coursework in programming, design, and UX.

Kristin has been a Pittsburgher since 2003 and in her free time enjoys walking her dogs, dabbling in crafts, working on renovation projects, singing karaoke, bowling or playing PSL kickball.

Email Kristin:
klavery@andrew.cmu.edu 
Schedule a 1:1 Appointment
Schedule an Appointment with Kristin
25-Minute appointment slots for discussions that require more time
Zoom appointments available