Twenty-eight graduating members of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business MBA class toured Daedalus last week (4/7/15) and met with president Matt Beale. The students were part of the graduate school's entrepreneurial track, participating in a project course Designing and Leading a Business led by professors of business and design.
Each of the visiting students is involved in getting a start-up business off the ground. Increasingly the business school, which is known for its quantitative approach to business education, has recognized the need for a combination of Design Thinking and qualitative methods to support the success of start-ups and business ventures in general. In response to student questions, Matt was able to discuss how Daedalus participates with clients in the product development process. When and how to engage a design firm, what kind of services are available, and best practices were covered in the conversation. The breadth and kind of completed projects on display informed the students' understanding. In addition, trends in design were covered, including the increasing emphasis on User Experience (UX) and User Interface design (UXi) for all products. The professors commented that visits like this are a great learning experience for the class; giving students a better sense of the combination of thinking and skills needed for starting a successful business.