Experience of studying in the MIPT Master's program “IT Product Management”. Review of the first semester and the emergence of the ZNATNO startup

I, Dmitry Pelik, an entrepreneur from Krasnodar, will tell you about my experience studying in the MIPT Master's program “IT Product Management”. This program led to the creation of our startup ZNATNO.

Admission

Last summer I decided to take some good courses in product management. I felt that I lacked relevant knowledge, despite the fact that I have been in marketing for more than 15 years. At some point in my search, I came across a joint program of Skillfactory and MIPT “IT Product Management”. The program was convincing and I decided to try to pass the exams. In addition to the motivation letter, it was necessary to solve an industrial case on several situations from the life of an IT project. I managed to successfully pass the exam, then signed the contract and waited for the order of enrollment. This is how I became a student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

It was also interesting to learn about the motivation of my classmates. I conducted a small survey about admission in one general chat. The results were as follows:

First semester (fall 2023)

In October 2023, my studies started. This is a fully online full-time Master's degree program organized by the Pusk Center at MIPT. I immediately started keeping a diary and recording the number of hours I invest in my studies. I am sharing it with you.

The working environment is organized as follows: online webinars in Zoom (later switched to other services), corporate messenger Pachka for communication with coordinators, Yandex Wiki, LMS Skillfactory and LMS MIPT.

In the first semester there was 5 disciplines and practice with an industrial partner. The table below shows other activities within the training.

The LMS Skillfactory platform had modules with videos and notes. At the end of some steps, self-assessment tests were given, and at the end of the module, homework had to be done, which was checked and assessed by the mentor. The grade was entered into the university report, and during the semester, we accumulated points. MIPT has adopted a 10-point assessment system, where 1 and 2 are “unsatisfactory”, 3 and 4 are “satisfactory”, 5-7 are “good”, and 8-10 are “excellent”. At the end of the semester, as expected, there is a session. You can increase your accumulated score during exams and tests.

Market research and value proposition formation

The course was taught by our academic director of the program Mikhail Voitko (Sber) and Ksenia Gnatovskaya (VK). The course covered types of research, target audience definition, competitive analysis, quantitative and qualitative research, market analysis, Customer Discovery and CustDev stages, and hypothesis testing.

Creating a product concept and testing the product

We learned what a product concept is, why it is needed, what it consists of, and what frameworks exist for describing it. We talked about the types of hypotheses, how to generate and formulate them. And also about methods of prioritization and hypothesis testing.

There were 2 homework assignments. One was to fill out the product vision framework for a given case, and the second was to prepare hypotheses and prioritize using the RICE method.

This discipline had a strong overlap with the previous one about Market Research. They, in general, complemented each other. And together they took me 70 hours.

Methodology of scientific research

The course had an academic focus. It was taught by 4 teachers from MIPT. They talked about the history of research from Ancient China to the Scientific Revolution of the New Age. They touched on the specific features of the scientific picture of the world and modern problems of scientific methodology.

We covered a large block on the theory and methods of applied research and finished with a search for scientific information and verification of the data used. In some places it was difficult to understand.

Product economics

Teacher Pavel Usachev (Miro) presented material on monetization models and their application in business. We tried the group homework format.

Students independently formed teams to solve the case. That's when I saw the power of teamwork from a new angle.

The study of product economics continued with Mikhail Morozov (a qualified economist with IT expertise). He gave very useful material on unit economics, business metrics and the basics of financial modeling. I remember the difficult seminars, there was a real “brain explosion” (in a good way).

Technical foundations of product management

This course was a journey. Daniil Pilipenko (SimbioWay) is a strong teacher who communicates the material very clearly. He also masterfully conducted the seminars, which had the highest student engagement of the entire semester. This is essentially an introductory course in systems analytics.

We delved into the architecture of IT products (databases, HTTP protocol, REST, web applications, mobile applications). We studied software design: interfaces, API, DB, UML, MVP. We created a prototype of a landing page in Figma and a website on Tilda.

All this with feedback from the teacher!

Practice

This is a hackathon format from Skillfactory. We solved cases for industrial partners. I chose the Weeek task tracker. Students had to unite in groups of 5-6 people and conduct research on a given topic in about 3 weeks.

I can't voice the task statement, but we conducted 21 in-depth interviews, a quantitative survey of 54 respondents, and a competitive analysis of 20 companies. We collected insights and packaged them into a presentation with conclusions. In the end, we defended our work to the customer.

I invested 49 hours of my time into this workshop and realized that it was too much

It would have been possible to do it in fewer hours, but I did it not so much for them as for myself. Thoughtful transcription took 3 times longer than the interview itself. So, for the 10 interviews I conducted, it took about 20 hours.

VKR (Final Qualification Work)

In November, the coordinators sent information that I had to choose one of three tracks for my diploma thesis: a classic dissertation, a corporate startup (with an industrial partner, for example, Beeline was there) or a student startup. We will work on my diploma thesis for the next 3 semesters. I didn’t think long and decided to take the student startup. Am I an entrepreneur after all or not? Of course, I’m going for the “startup as a diploma” format!

Am I an entrepreneur after all or not? Of course I'm going for the “startup as a diploma” format!

I worked on the idea, put together a pitch deck and after validation by the university, it was put on the showcase of student startups. Then a scientific supervisor Anton Ilyushin (mentor, entrepreneur) was appointed and a team of classmates was assembled (Ekaterina Kiseleva and Vladislav Dizhenin joined in). This is how we started the ZNATNO project about expert reviews.

Additional load

MIPT regularly hosts meetings with invited guests from various industries. I remember a lecture with Arthur Consulting CEO Alexander Ovanesov as part of the MIPT Case Club.

I also took a gift course on Soft Skills from Skillfactory. I can say that it was useful! Almost immediately after admission, I took a tutor in English. I wanted to refresh my knowledge and pick up the pace, since in the second semester there will be Business English. So I invested 28 hours in preparation (and not in vain).

Results of the first semester

It worked without any additional load 292 hours.

• 123 hours (42%) – Lectures, webinars, seminars, tests and exams.

• 169 hours (58%) – Individual and group practice, homework, case studies.

Average, I spent 17 hours a week.

The most important result: the ZNATNO startup was born within the walls of Phystech!

This was the first half of the year in the online master's program at MIPT. Interesting things are yet to come! A review of the second semester program, the formation of a startup team, the stage of market and audience research, an accelerator, a grant competition, and how much time it took us from the idea to the prototype are in the plans for the following articles. Stay in touch!