Where Product Management Meets AI

Teams & Co. faced a significant challenge at this year’s Case Competition from the Kilts Center for Marketing: The surveys their project hinged on struggled to collect sufficient responses. Yet, their creative crunch-time solution—leveraging AI to quickly gather data—helped them cinch the win.

For nine years, the annual competition has given Booth students the opportunity to work on a real-world challenge for a sponsoring company and build marketing skills important to jobs in product, brand, and general management. Microsoft sponsored this year’s event, presenting eleven Booth teams with a unique business challenge: Help the company better understand how its small- and medium-business customers were using the Microsoft Teams Phone—which leverages AI—and pitch new features that would enhance the product to better meet customer needs. Booth students had one week to prepare before they would present their solutions to Microsoft executives. 

“I’m an aspiring product manager, and I absolutely love thinking about customers, their pain points, and solutions to solve those pain points, including new technology like AI,” says Shwetha Krishnamurthy, a member of Teams & Co. and a Full-Time MBA student. “During the competition, I was able to exercise all of those muscles.”

A Crash Course in Product Development

The team’s AI-generated survey responses mirrored the handful of results they received from people in their own professional networks. They found that a major pain point for business owners was that after their company interacted with a customer via the Teams Phone system, someone had to manually update the company’s internal database with the customer’s information or request.

Business owners wanted to automate that process to help them reduce errors and time spent on mundane tasks. During peak call times especially, owners said, updates often slipped through the cracks, which in certain cases could lead to lost sales. “That guided our value proposition and solutions,” Krishnamurthy says. Teams & Co. used concepts such as design-thinking methodology that they learned in Booth’s New Products and Services  course to help them craft their solutions. 

On the event’s final day, Teams & Co. presented short- and long-term solutions to Microsoft executives that centered around using AI to make the Teams Phone more seamless for business owners interacting with customers. 

Shim says that seeing the judges nod in agreement during their presentation was especially rewarding. “It showed we were on the right track,” she says.

“The students had clearly invested significant effort into their analysis and presentations, despite having only a week to do so,” says competition judge Christopher E. Krohn, ’97, adjunct professor of marketing. “Their dedication to data-driven approaches and thoughtful, innovative solutions speaks volumes about the commitment and passion of Booth students.”

Microsoft principal product manager and Booth alumnus Michael Harbut, ’10, described the case competition as an energizing experience that not only allowed him to give back to Booth, but also to provide students with a real-world crash course in both product development and product marketing.

“I was blown away by the quality of the content and the presentations,” Harbut says. “From a Microsoft point of view, it was extremely valuable to gather fresh and diverse perspectives, and the students’ findings will influence real product strategy and features. I look forward to partnering with Booth again.”

As part of the competition prize, Teams & Co. members received Microsoft Surface Go laptops and were invited to a mentoring session with Microsoft’s corporate vice president, hosted by Harbut. They had the opportunity to get his tips for incoming product managers, insights how AI might impact these roles, and more. They also walked away from the competition with a deeper appreciation for product management and design thinking, which they’ll carry into the workplace after graduation. Gupta, Krishnamurthy, and Shim all aspire to product management roles in tech companies, while Akabane will embark on a career in consulting.

Mie Akabane and Gupta both believe that the chance to put their academic knowledge into practice made their Booth experience more complete. “Classroom learning is one thing, but getting an opportunity to apply the concepts we learned to solve a challenging problem felt like a full-circle moment,” Gupta says. 

Shim highly recommends the Kilts Case Competition to any student who might be interested in product management. 

“This competition is a unique opportunity to dive into real-world problems and think creatively,” she says. “The feedback you receive is incredibly insightful and gives you a glimpse into how product managers and marketers tackle challenges. It’s a fun and enriching experience, so just go for it.”