I taught Product Studio at Cornell Tech's NYC campus, where I worked with hundreds of Master's students on building companies from scratch.
Product Studio is Cornell Tech's signature course where students work in cross-functional teams to build real products for real users. They experience the full journey from identifying problems worth solving to shipping working software.
What I Taught
My focus was on helping students develop the judgment needed to build great products. This included understanding when to build versus when to validate, how to prioritize ruthlessly, and how to maintain focus on the problems that actually matter.
Students learned to navigate the tension between moving fast and building things that last. They shipped real products to real users and learned from the feedback—both the successes and the failures.
Approach
I emphasized frameworks over rules. Every startup is different, but the fundamental patterns of building—customer discovery, rapid iteration, focus—remain consistent. Students left with mental models they can apply across any venture they pursue.