Problem statement + research question + hypothesis. Team submission due October 1.
Short questionnaire or qualitative discussion guide. Team submission due October 15.
A 15-minute quantitative research-plan presentation. Due October 24 at noon.
Your path through the course
Readings, team work, quiz availability, and class milestones on one shared calendar.
Bars for reading and team work are suggested work periods, not instructor-assigned start dates or effort estimates. Quiz bars are published availability windows. Diamonds show class dates or submission deadlines; see the inventory above for exact times. Readings should be complete before class. Bars do not imply completion. Peer review and the optional book remain undated below the chart.
Undated: peer review (required by PDF, details TBD); additional discussion-board tasks (none published beyond introduction); optional Innovation Is Ugly recommendation.
Recommended internal checkpoints, not course requirements: choose the decision and assign team ownership by September 26; finish Assignment 1 and Quiz 1 by September 30; draft Assignment 2 by October 11; finish Assignment 2 and Quiz 2 by October 14; freeze the final deck October 22 and rehearse October 23. The October 15 deadline is followed by an 8:30 AM class, so avoid using the full late-night submission window.
Timing: October 1 and 15 submissions are due at 11:59 PM. Be ready to present at 9 AM on October 24; upload is due at noon. Bar endpoints mark the next day for full-day windows; diamonds mark the actual deadline date. Exact times and exceptions appear below.
What this course adds
The course connects a business decision to a research question, appropriate data collection, analysis, and a persuasive recommendation. The capstone work builds across three team deliverables: a research question and hypothesis; an exploratory questionnaire or discussion guide; and a 15-minute presentation of a quantitative marketing research plan. Start the final plan alongside Assignment 1, rather than treating it as a separate last-week task.
The strongest first-reading insight is decision first, data second. Alan R. Andreasen’s “Backward” Market Research asks managers and researchers to establish the action alternatives and desired report before choosing analyses, data, and instruments. A practical application: sketch the decision table your team hopes to fill in, then identify the evidence required for each cell. If different answers would not change the decision, reconsider the value of that question. Assigned article.
The final rubric emphasizes data insights (40/100), with structure, storytelling, and recommendations each worth 20/100. The brief requests a plan to conduct quantitative research, not explicitly a completed quantitative study. Show the evidence already available, the gaps remaining, and how the proposed study would change a decision; clarify the expected depth of completed analysis with the instructor. Presentation brief.
Preparation and participation matter throughout: the syllabus describes cold-calling; the participation assignment evaluates attendance/punctuality, presence, participation, professionalism, and security/confidentiality. Attend all five sessions; no participation upload is required. The syllabus also identifies improper use of AI-generated content as an academic-integrity violation, without giving a detailed permitted-use policy. Syllabus PDF, participation.
Complete published assignment inventory
Times below are exactly as displayed in Canvas; the account timezone was not independently checked. Plan in Chicago local time provisionally and verify it against your Canvas settings/calendar.
| Item | Published deadline / availability | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Meet & Greet | Before Session 1, September 26; no explicit timestamp found in the roadmap | Introduce yourself to the class. This is a pre-class expectation, not a verified graded due date. Discussion-body access was blocked by automatic approval review; classmates’ posts were not reviewed. |
| Assignment 1 — Write a Research Question | October 1, 11:59 PM; 10 points | Team submission: problem statement, research question about potential customers for the capstone product, and expected hypothesis. Use the chapter 3 research process. Submit DOC, DOCX, or PDF. |
| Reading Quiz 1 | Opens September 27, 12:00 AM; due October 1, 11:59 PM | 10 questions, 10 points, 30-minute time limit. Locked at review time. |
| Assignment 2 — Write a (Short) Questionnaire | October 15, 11:59 PM; 10 points | Team submission: questionnaire or discussion guide for an exploratory qualitative study addressing one key customer issue. Recommended maximum: 10 survey questions or 2–3 focus-group topics. Submit DOC, DOCX, or PDF. |
| Reading Quiz 2 | Opens October 9, 12:00 AM; due October 15, 11:59 PM | 8 questions, 8 points, 30-minute time limit. Locked at review time. |
| Research Plan Presentation | October 24, noon; 100 points | Team presentation, 15 minutes, describing a quantitative marketing research plan for the capstone. Rubric: structure 20; data insights 40; storytelling 20; recommendations 20. Canvas offers text/upload submission. Prepare to present from the 9 AM class start even though upload is due at noon. |
| Class Participation | October 24, 11:59 PM; 100 points | Ongoing across all classes/discussions; no upload. |
| Peer Review | No published assignment or deadline found | PDF syllabus allocates 10%; Canvas weights do not show a separate peer-review category. Keep as an unresolved requirement, not a dated task. |
Sources: Assignments, Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Discussions inventory.
Readings and session preparation
Required text: Alvin Burns and Ann Veeck, Marketing Research, 9th edition. Chapter purposes below come from the course roadmaps; the textbook itself was not available for full-text review.
| Session / Canvas time | Required preparation | What to extract / prepare |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Defining the Research Problem. Sat September 26, 9 AM–noon | Marketing Research chapters 2, 3, 4; Andreasen, “Backward” Market Research; introductory discussion | Understand the research process, especially chapter 3. Separate the business decision, problem statement, research question, and hypothesis. Prepare for the research-question workshop. The welcome announcement only lists chapters 2–3; the roadmap additionally requires chapter 4. |
| 2 — Finding Your Audience. Fri October 2, 12:30–3:30 PM | Marketing Research chapters 5, 6, 8; All Nutrition (A); Assignment 1 and Quiz 1 due the preceding night | Evaluate secondary-data sources and why the original collector gathered them; understand focus groups and survey question design. For the case: assess how focus groups were conducted, critique the six management-defined segments, and prepare five questions that could test those segments in a follow-up survey. |
| 3 — Analyzing Research Data. Sat October 10, 9 AM–noon | All Nutrition (B) | Prepare the key quantitative findings, a critique of the sample, and alternative segmentation approaches. Bring/access All Nutrition Data.csv for the in-class analysis workshop. No additional textbook chapter is listed for this session. |
| 4 — Advanced Analytical Techniques. Fri October 16, 8:30–11:30 AM | Marketing Research sections 15.1 and 15.2; Quiz 2; Assignment 2 due the preceding night | Connect clustering to segmentation, modeling to behavior prediction, and factor analysis to perceptual maps; understand data requirements and limitations. Session includes effective presentations, an All Nutrition analysis workshop, and a listed guest lecture. |
| 5 — Putting the Plan Together. Sat October 24, 9 AM–noon | Data Story chapters 1–2, listed in Course Reserves; prepare research plan | Finalize the plan, present, and give constructive feedback to other teams. The roadmap also lists customer prediction and a plan-finalization workshop. |
Session sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Supporting materials, separate from required pre-class reading
- All Nutrition Data.csv: Session 3 workshop dataset, also relevant to the Session 4 workshop. Scheduled for access/preparation, not claimed as analyzed here.
- MPD406 — Session04.pdf: lecture notes linked in Session 4; reserve review time after class.
- Risa Duesing guest lecture PDF: linked in Session 4, filename dated 10.10.25. Treat it as posted supporting material; the filename does not verify a 2026 guest appearance.
- Innovation Is Ugly: optional guest recommendation, not an assigned reading or dated deliverable. No time is required on the critical path.
- Course Q&A is a support forum, not a published homework assignment. Session 3 and 4 roadmaps have empty “Discussion” placeholders; no corresponding separate task was found in the discussion inventory.
Alignment with Many Many Victories and prior coursework
Your Many Many Victories reflection describes a move from executing technical launches toward shaping product strategy. It highlights customer discovery/design work, financial modeling, analytics/DOE, supply chains, and product management. My interpretation: MPD 406 supplies the research discipline linking those capabilities—deciding which customer evidence would justify a product choice. These connections use the site's account of prior coursework, not a review of those courses' Canvas materials.
| Prior capability | MPD 406 connection | Suggested transfer into this course |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding through Design | Qualitative inquiry → measurable customer hypotheses | Translate needs into constructs and neutral questions; distinguish discovery from validation. |
| Leading with Data Analytics | Experimental design and statistical reasoning → market samples and customer relationships | Check whether the sample supports the decision before selecting an analytical technique. |
| Financial Issues for Product Development | Financial sensitivity → research prioritization | Investigate the assumption most likely to change the business recommendation. |
| Product Management | Segmentation and customer behavior → roadmap choices | Make the research plan discriminate between concrete target segments or product alternatives. |
| Effective Communication | Data storytelling → a decision-oriented final presentation | Connect every exhibit to its implication and recommended action. |
| Global Product Design & Supply Chains | Demand uncertainty → customer evidence | Clarify which assumptions research can narrow and which operational uncertainties remain. |
Use your actual team capstone for the graded sequence. A familiar product such as Chi-Muter can be a private practice example, but it should not be substituted for the capstone without confirming fit. As an illustrative exercise, identify one product choice, define the customers whose behavior matters, and specify what evidence would make you choose differently. That is an application suggestion, not an assignment requirement.
Conflicts and questions to resolve
- Grading: PDF = discussions 10%, assignments 20%, quizzes 10%, participation 20%, final 30%, peer review 10%. Canvas = assignments 30%, participation 20%, discussions 10%, quizzes 10%, final 30%, with no separate peer-review category. Do not silently combine them. Confirm the controlling scheme and peer-review instructions.
- Third class: PDF says “Sat, Oct 9”; Canvas says Saturday October 10. October 9, 2026 is Friday. This plan provisionally follows Canvas October 10.
- October 2 time: PDF says “12:30A”; Canvas says 12:30 PM–3:30 PM. The home-page generic Friday time is also inconsistent. This plan uses the event-specific Canvas time.
- First reading: welcome announcement lists chapters 2–3, while the Session 1 roadmap lists 2–4. Prepare chapter 4 as well.
- Data Story access: Course Reserves explicitly reports that this class is not configured for Ares. Request restored access before Session 5.
- Final scope: the final brief calls for a capstone quantitative research plan; Session 4 mentions All Nutrition analysis “for final presentation.” Clarify how case analysis should inform the capstone deliverable and what completed data insights are expected.
- Older content: the syllabus landing-page banner says Fall 2025, the guest-slide filename is dated 2025, and the syllabus's Session 3 link does not load the same roadmap as the home-page link. Use the working 2026 Canvas home-page roadmaps and current assignment timestamps, pending instructor clarification.
Review coverage and limits
Reviewed: course home/welcome announcement, all five session roadmaps, five-page 2026 syllabus PDF, full published assignment inventory and each non-quiz assignment brief, both quiz metadata pages, discussion inventory, “Backward” Market Research, Harvard coursepack listing, Course Reserves access status, and Many Many Victories.
Full text not reviewed: the Burns/Veeck textbook; the two Harvard cases (student sign-in required); Data Story (Ares not configured); supporting lecture decks. Required readings are nevertheless all inventoried and scheduled from the roadmaps. Harvard lists All Nutrition A as 18 pages and B as 10 pages, both by Kamel Jedidi and Robert Morais. Coursepack.
Quiz questions are unavailable until the published opening dates. No quizzes were started, no assignments or messages were submitted, and no course settings were changed. This is a planning review, not confirmation that coursework has been completed. No additional unpublished assignments or later edits can be ruled out.