Tips

Tip for students on how to do well in this course:

• Do not assume that the direction the company or your Company Champion want to go is the right solution. Be curious, open-minded, and practice the product design and development skills you are learning.

• Over-communicate with your instructors. Be completely open and honest about your status and any challenges hindering your progress.

• If you are stuck, let your instructors know immediately: there is no time to waste. Look for workarounds and keep moving. Finding less-than-perfect solutions is part of making consistent forward progress.

• Expect to change plans as progress is made. As you learn more about your challenge and test your product, many of your initial assumptions and ideas will be proven wrong. Your instructors expect this and expect you to adapt and redirect as required.

• Make progress every week. You will have many demands on your time from your coursework, etc. Use your development process and the weekly status report as a forcing function to accomplish something meaningful every week.

• Peer feedback and professionalism can make or break your grade in this course. Over-communicate with your teammates, set clear expectations with each other, don't be flakey, and enjoy the challenge of the course as a united team.