College workshop
Design thinking bootcamp for MBA product management cohort
Two-day workshop on Empathize and Define using a live product scenario. Students left with problem statements and empathy interview guides.
MBA product management elective · 2 days · Empathize · Define · 29 May 2026
“Students finally understood why we keep saying 'fall in love with the problem' - they had done the interviews and written the statements themselves.”
- ~60 students
- 12 teams
- 12 problem statements
- 2 EDIDI phases
Challenge
An MBA program wanted students in a product management elective to move beyond case-study analysis and practice structured problem discovery. The cohort had strong business fundamentals but limited hands-on experience with user research and problem framing.
Approach
We ran a two-day bootcamp structured around the Growth Diamond Model's Empathize and Define phases:
- Day 1 - Empathize: Introduction to empathy interviews, live practice in pairs, journey mapping on a consumer product scenario chosen with faculty
- Day 2 - Define: Clustering pain points, stakeholder mapping, converging on problem statements and success criteria
Students worked in teams of five. Each team produced an interview guide, a simplified journey map, and a problem statement aligned to the scenario.
Outcome
Students left with artifacts they could reference for course projects - not just slides. Faculty reported stronger problem statements in subsequent assignments, with fewer teams jumping straight to solution pitches.
Roughly 80% of teams used their bootcamp problem statement as the starting point for the semester project. The session aligned with the program's product management module and referenced Academy chapters students could revisit asynchronously.
What made it work
- A single live scenario across both days so learning compounded
- Time-boxed practice - interviews and synthesis in the room, not homework-only
- Clear handoff from pain points to problem statements using the same template used in consulting work