Product Development & Operations Strategy

The management layer engineers rarely get: development process, innovation management, operations strategy, and project economics.

Private cohorts & on-site
Format: 3-day (8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.)
Level: Intermediate
Location: Scheduled on demand · on-site at your facility or a regional venue
Date(s): Not yet scheduled for open enrollment. Get notified when it is, or book it privately for your team.
Includes: Certificate of Completion · printed slide binder · take-home reference text

Get notified when this course is scheduled

One email when dates are set. Or skip the wait: run it as a private cohort, on-site at your plant.

Talk to us about a private cohort
  • One email, no sequence
  • Never shared
  • Reply within one business day

Faculty

Faculty details for this seminar will be announced with the full schedule.

Fees

Early: $1,895 (payment 4+ weeks ahead)
Standard: $2,095 (check/ACH) · $2,165 (card)

Group discount: $200 off per attendee for 3+ from the same organization.

Also Available

  • Corporate on-site delivery at your facility
  • Private cohort sessions
  • Digital curriculum licensing

Seminar Overview

Engineering excellence doesn't ship products by itself — it needs development process, operations strategy, and innovation management. Built from MIT OpenCourseWare's business and management curriculum (the 15.xxx operations, strategy, and innovation series), this seminar teaches the management layer engineers rarely get: product development processes, managing innovation, operations and supply-chain strategy, and project economics. It is the course that turns your senior technical staff into leaders who run programs and businesses, not just parts.

Ideal Learner

  • Senior engineers and technical leaders stepping into management
  • Engineering managers running development programs
  • Product and program managers coordinating engineering teams
  • NPI and operations leaders on manufacturing programs
  • Technical directors building innovation capability

Learning Objectives

  • Structure product development from concept to launch
  • Apply operations and supply-chain strategy to manufacturing
  • Manage innovation, uncertainty, and portfolio decisions
  • Use project economics and metrics to steer programs
  • Lead technical teams as an engineering manager

Consulting Sessions

Seminar attendees can sign up for individual consulting sessions with the instructor. Sessions are free for registered attendees, first-come first-served — sign up when registering by calling 248-539-0473 or during the seminar.

Seminar Outline

  • Staged development, gates, and risk
  • Cross-functional product development
  • From design intent to a shipped program
  • Innovation types and uncertainty
  • Portfolio management and stage-gate under ambiguity
  • Experiment-driven development
  • Process choice and operations design
  • Supply chain, sourcing, and resilience
  • Connecting operations to product decisions
  • Cost, schedule, and value modeling
  • Metrics that steer programs honestly
  • The engineering manager's dashboard
  • Leading cross-functional teams
  • Decision rights, communication, and accountability
  • Building a high-trust engineering culture
  • Finding an organization's edge
  • Capability building and workforce (incl. retention)
  • Connecting engineering to business strategy
  • Attendees plan a product-development program end-to-end
  • Frame process, economics, and operations
  • Present the management plan

More in Track I — Systems, Program & Product Engineering

Full Course Catalog