MBA and Engineering Students Design Real Products for Real Companies

That experience is by design. The New Product Design and Business Development (NPDBD) course — a collaboration between Minnesota Carlson and the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) — pairs graduate engineering students and MBA students on teams that work with sponsoring companies for a nine-month product development cycle. Under the guidance of a faculty mentor, teams conduct background research, build a working prototype and develop a business plan that their client can carry to launch. 

A Real Client, a Real Product

Shrivastava and her team worked with Clarus Medical, a Twin Cities-based, family-owned medical device company founded by Scott Sundet, ’78 BSB. The students’ primary client contact was Clarus President Kristin Sundet Pavek, who is pursuing her MBA and previously took NPDBD as part of the Part-Time MBA program.

The student team was tasked with designing a new product to complement Clarus’s line of medical-grade borescopes — the thin, flexible scopes used to inspect and clean medical instruments after procedures. 

“We always talk about neurosurgeons,” Pavek says. “But really, just as important are the sterile processing staff who are in the basement working on cleaning devices. Without the devices, surgeons can’t do their jobs.” 

Over two semesters, the students conducted customer research with hospital staff, going into hospitals to observe workflows and record conversations with the people who would use the tool. They considered three go-to-market models and recommended a path forward to Clarus, complete with risk analysis and next steps.

“They delivered prototypes, research, and even validated designs with the voice of the customer,” says Pavek, who was impressed with the team’s final presentation. “Real, actionable deliverables.”

Different Ways of Thinking

For Abby Johnson, a graduate student studying Mechanical Engineering, the class introduced a kind of cognitive diversity she hadn’t encountered before.

“Just because I’m an engineer doesn’t mean I know everything that needs to happen to the product,” she says. “Being able to present to people who don’t necessarily have the technical knowledge has been really important. The opportunity to collaborate with people from different areas in an academic setting is super valuable before you get into industry.”

Prasad Achanta, a security analyst at Schwan’s Company who joined the Part-Time MBA program after 15 years in IT, says the mix of professionals with different backgrounds was its own form of education, with business students and engineers learning each other’s languages. 

“The business folks can understand better from the engineering folks — I need to be thinking with my engineers as we’re developing,” he says. “Likewise, the engineers can ask better questions about value propositions. Everybody comes out better educated on a holistic level.”

The respect went both ways. Johnson came away awed by her business teammates. 

“They have great ideas, but they also ground us and remind us what’s feasible,” she says. 

Shrivastava, in turn, was floored by the engineers. 

“Their skills are so valuable,” she says. “The fact that they’re able to create a functional product in such a short amount of time is impressive.”

Beyond the Case Study

Unlike traditional case studies, which Achanta compares to autopsies, the NPDBD course was something live and unfolding.

“This is in real time, you’re doing the design today,” he says. “You’re learning from your own mistakes. Case studies are something that have already happened.”

Johnson agrees: “You don’t get the experience of having actual failures in your hand.”

Her contribution was deep in the build: looking for parts online, figuring out how everything fit together, developing content, sketching and prototyping. 

“I love the hands-on prototyping,” Johnson says, “getting down and dirty with the product.”

What kept the intensity of real-time work manageable was the structure supporting the students. Each team was assigned its own faculty mentor — what Achanta calls “white glove treatment” —  and project work was paired with lectures from working medical device professionals. 

Bringing it Back to Work

All three students say the course offers a transferable experience they can carry into their next career move. 

“What if I want to build a product on my own?” Achanta says. “It doesn’t have to be a spaceship; it could be as simple as a tool we could use in the kitchen. Now I know what the drawings look like. I can sketch from what I’ve learned.”

The experience reshaped Shrivastava’s sense of what’s possible in her career. 

“I want a role that combines engineering and marketing,” she says. “This will help me get my foot in the door.”

Pavek sees the same value from the hiring side. 

“Having students that have been through something like this — you’re not coming into work thinking, if I apply this framework, it’s going to go A-B-C-D,” she says. “You’re expecting, okay, I know there’s going to be something that isn’t written in the book that’s going to affect us. And I have the wherewithal to deal with that, or to know how to work with my team members to ask the right questions.”

A Lasting Takeaway

Pavek has been on both sides of NPDBD — first as a student, now as a client. She still takes Carlson classes; she calls herself a lifelong learner. Watching this year’s team, she reflected on what makes the course stand out. 

“Their excitement is the most memorable thing,” she says. “They’re learning a lot of theory, reading a lot of case studies, but they’re also seeing a product and how it would impact society. They’re able to say, ‘Hey, I made this.’”

For Shrivastava, knowing that her client had once sat in her seat opened a door she hadn't known was there. The experience has already started to shape what she wants next in her career — and what she'll bring with her when she gets there.

"It's just so real-world and so applicable to my environment in med devices,” she says. “ It's actually so relevant and very representative of what the field actually looks like. 

"It makes me think that maybe in a couple of years, I might have a project I want to pose to the class," she continues. "Working with a real client makes you feel like you're actually having a real impact. This is an actual device that can help people. Having an impact on patients is so valuable.”