In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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Introduction to Product Strategy

Introduction to Product Strategy

A review of core concepts and techniques involved in planning sets of products.

Objective & Outcomes

In today’s developed marketplaces, organizations rarely survive producing a single offering, with many delivering interrelated sets of ever more compelling products and services. It’s equally rare that designers have the experience of simultaneously developing multiple, even competing, offerings within limited resources and an organization’s strategic objectives. This course will introduce students to the techniques and processes involved in product planning: the mindset and act of developing multiple products, services, and associated offerings to optimize a company’s investment against constraints and strategy. 

Upon completing the course, students will be familiar with typical business planning concepts and able to combine them with their design skills to create an effective and compelling product strategy.

Typical Schedule

  • Session 1: Introduction & Company Assessments
  • Session 2: Consumers & Customers
  • Session 3: Competition & Market Forces
  • Session 4: Planning Simulation/Exercise
  • Session 5: Opportunity Identification
  • Session 6: Portfolio Evaluation & Strategic Planning
  • Session 7: Storytelling & Leadership

See all MDes Courses