Experimental class connects business and engineering students

First-time collaboration creates a uniquely valuable experience

Each year, exciting new courses are offered at the Ivy College of Business, working to keep education opportunities up to speed with what is occurring in the modern business world. Some of these experimental courses stray from the typical class design of lectures and exams, opting instead to incorporate more of a real-world experience into the class.

A great example of this is Ivy’s MKT458X: New Product Marketing course, which fosters a thrilling learning environment based in creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

Introduced in fall 2023, the course is a hands-on, project-driven course focused on the knowledge and skills needed to successfully launch product or digital service innovations in today’s competitive marketplace. In the business world, new product work is a collaborative process, which this new course works to imitate in a unique way – a first-time collaboration with Iowa State University’s College of Engineering.

The course is taught by Gwen Friedow, lecturer in marketing, who has been interested in the new product marketing space for some time.

“I love how innovative new products can make the world a better place – whether that’s solving a serious problem or just bringing a little joy,” said Friedow. “In the work world, new product development is a team sport. And I want our Ivy students to have the kind of interactive, collaborative learning experiences that allow them to lead those teams successfully.”

Friedow’s interest in the space aligned perfectly with the vision of Sekar Raju, chair of the Ivy Department of Marketing, who hoped to add a product-focused class to the curriculum. After brainstorming with Judi Eyles, director of CyBIZ Lab and the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, they decided to bring Dave Sly, teaching professor in engineering, to the table.

The College of Engineering has been offering ENGR/IE430: Entrepreneurial Product Development Engineering since spring 2018, a class that Sly helped design the curriculum for and has been teaching since its inception. In the class, students work in teams to develop solutions for product development problems.

The ongoing engineering course was seen as the perfect opportunity for collaboration between the two colleges, for which both Sly and Friedow were happily on board.

“This course allowed for collaboration on the complete development of a product from conception to introduction into the market. It was very rewarding to experience this whole process, similar to how a marketing professional would navigate new product marketing in the real world. The hands-on nature made for one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had at ISU.”

— Grace Estenson, senior in industrial design and marketing

Throughout the spring 2023 semester, Friedow worked with Sly to learn his course while providing marketing support to the engineering students. Over the following summer, they built the concurrent course schedules and were ready to launch for fall 2023.

“Having our engineering students work directly with the marketing students has helped them understand the importance of both mindsets and skillsets,” said Sly.

The concurrent course design presented the opportunity for cross-functional teams, bringing the benefits of diverse skill sets and collaboration to product development. It has also molded the students’ project work to more closely resemble what takes place in the real world.

“This class provided a great experience for us as engineers, to understand how to communicate and collaborate better with the business side of project work,” said Jenna Leggat, an engineering student from Swisher, Iowa. “The real-world experiences gained have significantly boosted our confidence for future jobs and projects that will require collaboration across different perspectives.”

In the course, marketing students work on product concepts, research planning and execution, branding development, and launch planning. Through collaborative work sessions, marketing students learn what is important to the engineers and how to support their efforts, while the engineers do the same for the marketers.

Throughout the first offering of the course, there were lots of discussions, disagreements, and changes in direction. While this made for a challenging experience, the collaboration resulted in more well-defined products and better-crafted final pitches.

“The collaboration aspect of the class allowed my teammates and I to experience all the planning, time and effort that goes into starting a potential business,” said Emma Coburn, an engineering student from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. “It was a great learning experience that I value very much!”

Collaborating with engineers allows business students to apply their marketing knowledge to real-world problems, providing valuable preparation for the professional world. The course’s unique class design and approach to learning creates the opportunity for professional development in the classroom.

“This course allowed for collaboration on the complete development of a product from conception to introduction into the market,” said Grace Estenson, senior in industrial design and marketing from Ely, Iowa. “It was very rewarding to experience this whole process, similar to how a marketing professional would navigate new product marketing in the real world. The hands-on nature made for one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had at ISU.”

Learn more about Ivy’s marketing program

April 25, 2024