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MBA Voices
MBA Voices
“Every organization has a really old device that they think they can’t part with. They feel a responsibility to keep it in their network,” said Breen, who graduated from the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences program, jointly offered by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School, in 2020. “What are the solutions available to you to secure it, and increase its functionalities beyond that end of life and end of support?” [...]
Adam Palay (Class of 2021) knows a thing or two about making professional pivots. “After completing my AB and MS in English, and deciding to put a PhD on hold, I spent four months teaching myself how to code,” said Adam. He explained, “At the time, a lot of online learning platforms were launching – Coursera, edX, Udacity – and so I was able to learn to code from these new, high quality resources.” As it turned out, edX hired Adam and he spent the next five years in various engineering roles. Adam credits that “on-the-job experience” with teaching him most of what he knows about engineering. [...]
Eleven student teams were required to run a “design sprint” – a structured and rigorous process for quickly identifying critical questions facing a venture, and rapidly developing multiple answers to these questions to test with stakeholders. Jake Knapp of Google Ventures, who invented the Sprint process, ran the first two days, then handed over to faculty co-chairs Alan MacCormack and Russ Wilcox. The pressure was on the teams to make progress, rapidly building prototypes to a high level to generate insightful feedback on how well the solutions matched real customers’ needs. [...]
Lying in bed each morning, Emily Batt (MS/MBA 2020) yearned to sleep a little longer, but had no way of knowing when her roommate would finish her seemingly endless shower. That frustration inspired a team project in the new MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program, offered jointly by HBS and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). With just three days to complete a prototype, Batt’s team created a connected device and mobile app that delays a smartphone alarm from sounding until the shower is free. [...]
I saw that the program consisted of not only engineering and business classes, but also integrated design classes that incorporate lessons from both engineering and business. Upon realizing that I will learn how to build the product, as well as how to launch a venture based on the product, I knew I wanted to be part of the first cohort of the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program. [...]
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The views and opinions expressed in the MBA Voices blog are those of the authors.
Any political views shared by students are their own; HBS does not endorse a
particular party or candidate.