A Passion for Curiosity
Aneta Gola and Jeff Eschbach teach a core tech product management course in the MBAi program that emphasizes why success in product development relies on interacting with potential customers.
Aneta Gola has always loved a particular Albert Einstein quote:
"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
The curiosity Einstein mentioned continues to be fundamental to Gola, who is a director of product management for Robertshaw, a global design, engineering, and manufacturing company. It's also the key lesson she strives to instill in students in Northwestern's MBAi Program, a joint-degree program offered between the Kellogg School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering.
Gola co-teaches the program's Tech Product Management course with Jeff Eschbach, who developed technology products throughout his career, including the core software products at Page Vault, a startup company he managed from inception to acquisition.
While they enjoy interacting with their students, Gola's and Eschbach's favorite saying is to "get out of the building."
“The answers are out there in your market with your customers,” Eschbach said. “We can be smart and we can brainstorm all we want, but to get answers we have to go out there and talk to our market.”
And so the class they teach emphasizes just that.
The 10-week course is structured so students work as product managers to solve a particular problem. The class is highly interactive and encourages teamwork. Students are put in groups to study the full journey of product development.
“They are really taking a product idea all the way from market requirements, product requirements, through a product pitch,” Gola said. “What we're hoping to bring to the classroom is a real-world example where they are learning all the skills by actually implementing a real-world project.”
The problems those projects attempt to address are as varied as the students.
A team of recent international students worked on a solution to a conundrum they witnessed themselves. Friends of theirs flew home for dental care because it was the same quality and cost less than having the work done in the United States – even factoring in the plane ticket expense.
"The fun was then really digging in and finding out what's the pain point on the customer side here in the US,” Eschbach said. “Is it a function of trust? Is it price? It’s about really understanding the customer persona and what's driving them, and then building a potential solution around that problem.”
Gola and Eschbach provide a unique, complimentary teaching blend for the course. Gola's two decades of marketing experience includes a deep understanding of product management for hardware, software, and service products across industries in large corporate environments.
Eschbach's 20-plus-year career is built on engineering and technology innovation, with an emphasis on software product development and early customer discovery.
“If I was a student, I would think of that as a big advantage,” Eschbach said. “You're not just getting a standard software or marketing perspective. We're trying to bring a breadth of perspectives into the classroom, from early-stage to enterprise companies, including hardware, software, and services. I think it's a lot of fun.”
Though their course is aimed at empowering future product managers, the lessons apply for a broad spectrum of careers, Gola and Eschbach said. The goal isn’t to create great technical students — it’s to create students who are great at applying technological solutions to business problems.
“When students come out of the course, I feel they are much more equipped to navigate the business environment of a tech company,” Eschbach said. “They now feel more comfortable knowing how to talk the talk and walk the walk when they have to interact with technologists throughout their careers.”