[第一弹]产品狗要读硕士，该读什么项目？[Part 1] A Product Dog Wants a Master's: Which Programs?

If a product dog wants a master’s, which programs should they pick?

Someone asked this question on Zhihu, and the answers were: study psychology, study sociology, etc.. Quite a few people who had been product managers for a few years also went off to study Information Science or HCI.

But wait! Product management is so clearly an integrative job; methodologically speaking, the greatest competitive edge is holding knowledge from multiple industries/disciplines at once, together with the ability to integrate and innovate.

If you spend several years drilling deep into one particular discipline, is the value for money really that high, does it really work that well? If you go study IS, can you really keep a close, ongoing connection with the industry? And besides, how is a product dog supposed to compete at application time with classmates formally trained in that very field? Setting aside those who, after a few years of product work, suddenly develop an interest in some deep specialty, and the kiddos who haven’t yet entered the working world and want a degree whose matching job title is product manager, I think a product dog who keeps studying should keep playing to their own strengths.

Learn business/design/other industries’ knowledge, while continuing to learn how to integrate it all better. For those product folks who want to study to refine their rough methodology and explore more possibilities for their careers, I think a few programs can meet the need. Let me give you a very quick and rough introduction

MIT idm

A program at the legendary school. The program’s goal is to move the world with love (kidding). The goal is to integrate the resources of MIT’s school of engineering and its business school, plus the department head’s own design background, to cultivate people who hold design, engineering, and business skills all at once. The program lives under the ID Lab, so there are an awful lot of machines and resources for students to realize whatever they want to make. The courses, as said above, center on management, engineering, and design; the official site spells them out in detail. And the info sessions update every two or three months like a running TV series, so.. go watch the info sessions!

• The program runs two years (there’s also a 13-month option, but basically everyone picks the two-year, 21-month one), admitting 20-22 people a year. Tuition around 70k bucks
• Every student who ends up admitted has to interview.
• What mainly matters is whether the projects you’ve done are epic enough (their exact words at the info session), plus a minimum of 2 years’ work experience.

Harvard MDE

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/design-engineering/

The GSD’s overall style still leans architectural, and I don’t know whether the MDE program also favors applicants with architecture backgrounds. It pays real attention to social issues; the program’s goal is to try to fuse social problems, environmental problems, and technology, with its sights set (seemingly) fairly wide. The first year is mostly coursework: data analysis, user research methods, plus courses on management skills. The curriculum leans methodological. In the second year you choose a topic and do a project, with fairly close ties to industry.

• 2 years, program size unknown, tuition a little over 100k
• Applicants need at least 2 years of work experience

Stanford Design Impact Engineering

http://designimpact.stanford.edu/

A program that renames itself at the drop of a hat. A program whose deadline is in December. A program that has seemingly never admitted a Chinese student. Since the program’s ideas keep changing, I won’t go into how it used to be. For those aiming at fall 2019, this year the program comes with two themes: energy and health devices. If you’re interested, go look at the official site yourself..

• 2 years, program size unknown, tuition around 60k
• It’s the mighty S; let’s not ask about GRE or TOEFL requirements and such..

Upenn IPD

The official site is ugly. It splits into M:IPD and MSE:IPD, the difference being whether the applicant has an engineering background. Likewise Engineer+Design+Business. It leans very hard toward industrial design, with a lot of emphasis on design.

• A dozen or so people per cohort; a very small program
• There’s very little information, and I didn’t apply. Anyone who knows it is welcome to add more.

Northwestern University EDI

http://design.northwestern.edu/engineering-design-innovation/

A super small, super warm program! It was originally meant to cultivate Design thinking in students from engineering backgrounds, but the official site says people without engineering backgrounds may apply too. The program runs on a Studio system. Across the program you’ll learn design thinking, design strategy, and other fun things, and you’ll produce products along the way; what you learn leans a bit toward industrial design. Since the program is 15 months, there’s time for an internship, which is good news for those hoping to stay on in the US. And because the program is small, things like Career Service actually look after every single person. Also, on the program’s two Co-founders: Amy and Jim are amazing! Amy and Jim are amazing! Amy and Jim are amazing!

• 15 months, admitting a bit under 20 people a year. Total program cost around 70k bucks
• The official site says a TOEFL above 90 will do; the GRE bar on the site looks high, but in practice students with 320+3.5 have gotten offers
• An interview isn’t always required, and there’s no work experience requirement

CMU MIIPS

https://www.cmu.edu/iii/degrees/miips/Miips

Also Engineer+Design+Business; it gets discussed plenty on Zhihu, so I’ll say no more. The program does put some weight on design fundamentals, and its positioning is fairly industrial-design.

• Relatively short: the 9-month track is 46k, the 16-month one 70k

UW MSTI

https://www.techinnovationdegree.uw.edu/

The moment the name UW comes out, this one suddenly stands a head shorter. But that says nothing about whether MSTI is a good program. Unlike the programs above, MSTI doesn’t stand on design to look at this integration question. Instead it tries to stand at a point of balance and combine design, technology, and business. It states outright that the people it wants to cultivate are entrepreneurs and product managers. The coursework is hardcore, with a heavy load of hardware courses: sensors, image processing, that sort of thing. The design requirements aren’t as heavy as in the programs above; the discussion is more about design methodology. Extremely rich!! The little videos sent back by friends who went to visit day left everyone with one feeling: rich! Rich! Extremely rich! Twenty-odd 3D printers lined up in a single row in the lab.

• There are programming-related prerequisite requirements
• 15 months, roughly 70-100 people; total cost for the 15-month track around 50k