Curriculum & Courses

This course provides a foundational understanding of technology's role in modern organizations, exploring its evolution, strategic implementation, and governance. Students will examine leadership, ethics, financial considerations, and risk management in a technology-driven environment. The course emphasizes the integration of technology with organizational culture, communications, and compliance, preparing students to navigate complex technological landscapes effectively.

Everything we encounter in society (products, services, brands, processes, events, spaces, systems, even politics) was designed to a lesser or greater degree to optimize a particular quality and create a specific experience. Design can be applied to any offering and the design process can be applied to the evaluation, development, and delivery of offerings within any industry or in response to many challenges. This makes it particularly critical and integral for most kinds of innovation.

This course will explore a broad range of design topics, including the design process, nearly always in a business context. It will be hands-on, learning by building design solutions. We will look at procedural issues that describe how to integrate the design process into other business operations as well as contemporary and future challenges facing design and strengths of design as a user-based process and perspective.

Participants in this semester-long elective will emerge with a proficient understanding of the design process, how it relates to business on many levels, what to expect of design work products, and how to evaluate design solutions in larger contexts. Participants won’t necessarily become design experts or expert designers, but will be capable of critiquing design and evaluating how it can add value to their own endeavors.

This course explores the principles, strategies, and challenges of technology-driven transformation in organizations. Students will examine emerging technologies, digital disruption, and frameworks for implementing large-scale change. This course provides a comprehensive understanding of digital transformation, focusing on how businesses leverage technology to drive transformation based on various drivers including efficiency, productivity, competitive advantage, and compliance. Students will explore key topics such as product development, systems development lifecycle, enterprise architecture, IT capabilities, and automation. Through case studies, research, and hands-on projects, students will develop the skills needed to lead strategic and technical skills necessary to lead and manage digital transformation initiatives.

This required course in the M.S. in Technology Management program examines the rapidly evolving landscape of transformative technologies and their implications for organizations and society. Students will explore the concepts, applications, value creation, and risks associated with areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity, blockchain, and edge computing, etc. Through case studies, critical analysis, and applied projects, the course equips students to assess the opportunities and challenges these innovations present, and to develop informed strategies for managing their adoption and impact in complex, real-world environments.

The Technology Management Capstone is the culmination of your graduate program and challenges you to bring together what you've learned. The focus of the course is, therefore, highly practical and oriented towards application in the real world. Working in assigned teams, you will propose a product solution that addresses a problem space on a real client project.

In this course, students will comprehend the fundamental principles of these new technologies and how to strategically apply them to drive innovation, create efficiencies, and generate new opportunities in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. It offers students the opportunity to understand the factors fueling the adoption of these technologies including the exponential growth of data, the decline in trust post-financial crisis, the desire for data ownership, growing regulatory transparency requirements, the need for greater efficiencies, and the required protection of sensitive data. The evolution goes beyond the implementation of new processes, decentralized business models and technologies. The convergence of new technologies and interdisciplinary innovation drive the requirement for changes in regulatory processes, governance, and ethics. 

This course is designed for graduate students who aspire to lead in the era of digital transformation. It is ideal for those who seek to understand the strategic applications of blockchain, AI, and Web 3.0 technologies to drive innovation within their organizations. Whether planning to advance in a career in technology management or a professional in data and knowledge-driven industries, this course will enable the acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary to navigate and leverage the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This course provides a comprehensive examination of modern software product development, focusing on creating solutions that address clear user needs and challenges. A “product” in this context refers to a software program that instructs computer hardware to operate, solve problems, and manage tasks effectively.

Modern product development benefits from systematic practices that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and continuity. These practices, including flexibility, iterative development, customer feedback, and efficient project management, are essential for adapting quickly to rapidly evolving market and technology landscapes.

The Independent Study course provides a dynamic platform for our top students, who are as ambitious as the Technology Management program itself. This course offers a special opportunity to engage deeply with a topic of personal or professional interest under the expert guidance of a faculty mentor. Designed to foster self-directed learning, the Independent Study allows students to explore new areas, deepen existing knowledge, or intersect different fields that are not covered in the standard curriculum.

Enrollment in this course is selective and intended for self-motivated students who demonstrate exceptional ability and initiative. Access to the course requires approval from the Program Director’s Office and endorsement from a faculty advisor who will work closely with the student throughout the study.
 

Design is at the core of every innovation. It’s the visual, experiential, and strategic medium through which ideas transform into tangible and digital products, service platforms, experiences, and consequences. This course is a comprehensive exploration of the methods, vocabulary, challenges, and opportunities of design-led innovation. It demystifies how business and design intersect through the lens of innovation, and is foundational for anyone seeking to generate positive social and economic outcomes.

Students experience the course through interconnected paths—interrogating contemporary issues in design and business while simultaneously moving a chosen project through a sequence of hands-on design sprints. These sprints cover everything from ideation and visualization to journey mapping, prototyping, user testing, and branding of their unique ideas. Participants will emerge with a critical and reusable toolkit for both understanding the innovation process and effectively leading creative teams.

Topics include: Design Thinking; User-Centered Design; Business Value of Design; Problem Framing; Systems Mapping; User Journey Mapping; Ambiguity and Complexity; Liberatory Design Practices; The Impact of AI; Design Ethics; Sustainability, Wicked Problems; Design Futuring and speculative design.

This course teaches students how to get through to any audience for any reason. Technology leaders, more than in any other industry, must be equally comfortable as public speakers for vastly different audiences, from software developers and sales teams to politicians and the general public. Through exercises in speaker and audience analysis, studies in public speaking techniques, and an exploration of behavioral psychology principles influencing audience receptivity, students will gain tangible skills to increase their impact as public speakers. Specifically, this course will equip students to: 1. identify how impactful speakers prepare for, present to, and pivot for maximum impact according to audience type, size, and receptivity; 2. learn strategies on how to “read the room” and adapt both verbal and nonverbal communication techniques in real-time; and 3. gain hands-on experience in public speaking through exercises designed to develop public speaking skills across a range of tech-sector specific experiences, circumstances, audiences.

This one-semester onsite course explores how social entrepreneurs use technology innovation to achieve social impact and help achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in collaboration with corporations and governments. Social entrepreneurs are defined as organizations who develop and implement solutions to social and environmental problems while striving for financial sustainability. 

This course explores technology’s role as a tool of power for and impact on individuals, communities, and societies. These topics are examined across three discrete units: 1. Infrastructure: how geography and physical resources serve as resources and/or obstacles to the control of critical internet architecture; 2. Society & Culture: how historical social and cultural norms influence adoption, usage, and perceptions of technology in modern life; and 3. Geopolitics & Economics: how diplomacy, defense, and governance influence technology innovation, development and diffusion. The goal of the course is to prepare students with the skills needed to assess the potential risks and benefits of technologies across various contexts both at present and for future development. As such, assignments mirror what’s found in professional policy development, including one-pagers, briefing memos, and persuasive presentations.

This course equips the next generation of technologists with the skills, strategies, and savvy needed to secure systemic and lasting change for social good. These topics are examined in three units: 1. Intrapreneurship: how to guide responsible technology within and by multinationals and other large-scale, risk-averse institutions; 2. Entrepreneurship & Nonprofits: how to balance market pressures with values-based missions within startups, nonprofits, and other social-good tech enterprises; and 3. Civic Tech: how to navigate policy, politics, and bureaucracies in delivering citizen-facing technologies within local, regional, and national government bodies.

Technology’s complexity becomes intricately detailed and beautiful when viewed as a system —its components, though diverse, work in symbiosis underpinned by shared communication protocols and governance structures. This system enables machines to operate with increasingly minimal human intervention. 

This survey course offers a broad and holistic exploration of technology as an integrated system, emphasizing the seamless integration that characterizes modern technological frameworks. Students will delve into the core components that constitute digital environments—such as the Internet, networks, hardware, and software—and understand how these elements collectively drive and shape today’s IT infrastructure.

Finance for Technology Leaders is designed to empower future tech leaders with essential financial acumen. Rooted in core accounting and finance concepts, this course bridges theory with practice, ensuring students grasp the unique challenges and opportunities for technology leaders. Finance for Technology Leaders is an elective course that builds a foundation for analytic and financial analysis for the Technology Management Program, blending academic rigor with real-world tech applications, and positioning students for impactful career advancements.

Law is infused into every part of business, especially through the lens of technology. Fluency in business and legal frameworks, and risk/benefit principles, from idea to exit, is essential for any innovation leader. This course offers a deep dive into the critical phases of technology companies and their journey through growth, scaling, and eventual market exit. Topics include capital formation, contracts, intellectual property, human capital, and business transactions.

Today, leaders must confront a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It demands that we strengthen how we lead change. We are all being stretched to learn, unlearn, relearn, and this is especially true for technology leaders – who operate in the ‘eye of the storm’ of relentless change. 

In this context, strategic advocacy -- achieving support for change to address the challenges that confront an organization and the opportunities they provide – requires knowing and applying useful skills, behavior, and practices to win commitment to new, even unanticipated directions.

This is a full-semester core course in the MS in Technology Management executive program designed to expose students to practices, tools, frameworks, concepts, and real-world examples that will help you move from a technical/functional role to a senior executive orientation. Everyone’s journey is unique. As you apply the course content in real life you will be expected to choose, experiment with, and adapt the relevant approaches most meaningful to your situation.

This class is a journey into the “fat edge” of technological innovations that could transform our economy and society over the coming years. We will tackle big questions: How do innovations redefine jobs and industries? What is the real impact of these changes from the C-suite to citizens? This course is about igniting a passion for change, a realization of its risks, and equipping you to lead with vision and principle.

Design-based Innovation is a set of perspectives and processes that organizations of all kinds, in any kind of industry or context, can use to navigate ambiguity to find the best possible opportunities for creating change. It is also a well-developed set of practices to devise and deliver solutions for those potential audiences that result in valuable products, services, and other experiences that customers, consistent, and others respond to with satisfaction, delight, and a sense of value.

This onsite course takes students on a virtual journey through the world’s leading innovation hubs across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Africa. Students will analyze the structures, dynamics, and key stakeholders that shape entrepreneurial ecosystems worldwide, including entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, policymakers, universities, accelerators, incubators, and industry associations.

The Internship in Industry course offers students the preparation to excel in the marketplace with hands-on experience within an organization. The ideal internship will provide students an opportunity to gain tangible and practical knowledge in their chosen field by taking on a position that is closely aligned with their coursework and professional interests.

This course is structured around the internship experience. In the first assignment, students will author learning objectives to complete in their internship and review these learning objectives with their site supervisor. Students should also expect that after completing this course they will be able to:

• Discuss the application of program content and theory in a professional context (LO1)
• Define a plan for assessing and building their professional competencies (LO2)
• Describe an organization’s culture and assess their cultural “fit” (LO3)
• Make recommendations for the types of behaviors, structure, and culture they would want to see in a future workplace setting (LO4)

Before registering for this course, students must secure an appropriate graduate-level internship, complete the Internship Application Form and receive approval from the academic program. It is highly recommended that domestic students complete at least 12 points (credits) prior to completing an internship. International students must have completed at least two terms before completing an internship and apply for & receive CPT approval through the ISSO Office unless they completed their undergraduate degree in the U.S. and enrolled in graduate school immediately after obtaining their undergraduate degree.

To receive approval, the internship must:

• Provide an appropriate opportunity for students to apply course concepts
• Fit into the planned future program-related career path of the student
• Provide a minimum of 210 hours over the semester
• Internship dates must coincide with the start and end of the term you are enrolling in the course. You may not complete this course for a previous internship or for an internship you plan to take in the future. The internship and course must be done at the same time. 

This class provides students with a deep dive into marketing and communication strategies and channels for tech company, product, and service launches. Students will work on customer personas for B2B and B2C technologies and reflect upon sustainability guidelines to shape their marketing strategy. They will analyze the different elements that make a soft and hard launch successful, such as customer testimonials and industry analyst relations. The course will also discuss how AI is changing the marketing of companies, products, and services. 

This course is designed to provide a fundamental understanding of the capital raise process for early-stage founders and technology leaders who are seeking seed and growth capital for their innovative solutions. The course will begin with a survey of the state of the current fund-raising market and the types of capital available in the market along with their relevant terms. The course will then dive deeper into the various aspects of the fund-raising process including 1) fund-raising strategy development, 2) engagement tactics with the fund-raising community, and 3) understanding term sheets and financing agreements Students will also develop their pitch materials as they progress through the course and be expected to present or submit their pitch materials along the way.

Generative AI represents a pivotal technological evolution with profound implications for the global economy and modern society. This course delves into the decades-long development of AI and machine learning, emphasizing its emergence as a critical economic and strategic force. As we explore this technology, we will assess its potential to revolutionize industries, enhance capabilities, and introduce complex challenges related to security, identity, and ethical considerations.

In this dynamic landscape, both incumbent businesses and governmental bodies face the urgent need to adapt to this disruption and the transformative changes it heralds. This course seeks to unpack the catalysts of this technological surge, its foundational principles, and the critical knowledge required for modern leadership in the AI era.

With the advent of generative AI and the impending arrival of quantum computing, risks to organizations and individuals have grown exponentially. Innovation in offensive and defensive tools and technologies continues to increase. How does a leader keep up? Leaders must know how to work with internal experts and to manage these issues internally, with Boards, and for the public. Proficiency in strategies and principles, some of which date back to the ancient Greeks and Chinese, prevail over tools.

This course offers students a strategic and applied framework for understanding the transformative impact of financial technology (FinTech) on the global banking and financial services industry. Through case studies, industry analysis, and collaborative projects, students will explore how traditional banks, fintech unicorns, big tech firms, and non-bank financial players are reshaping the competitive landscape.

The course traces the evolution of fintech across core sectors, including payments, lending, and capital markets, while examining the rise of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, open banking, and digital currencies, including CBDCs, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance. Students will also analyze the regulatory and governance challenges emerging from rapid innovation in financial services.

Emphasizing strategic thinking, leadership, and applied analysis over technical specialization, the course culminates in an individual research paper and a team-based final project. It is designed for students aspiring to leadership roles in the evolving global digital financial ecosystem.

Delivered in person over seven weeks, this 1.5-elective course is open to graduate students across the School of Professional Studies and other Columbia University programs. There are no specific competencies, prerequisite knowledge, or prior coursework in the discipline required to enroll.

This 1.5-credit onsite graduate course examines the ethical dynamics shaping contemporary technology management as innovation, regulation, and societal expectations rapidly evolve. Drawing on globally recognized perspectives and frameworks in responsible AI leadership and governance, the course explores how ethical considerations inform strategic decision-making across the technology lifecycle, from human-centered design to enterprise-scale digital transformation. Students critically analyze emerging challenges in artificial intelligence, data stewardship, collective decision-making systems, and value alignment, with attention to governance models, institutional accountability, and evolving regulatory frameworks. An emphasis is placed on evaluating the economic, social, and sustainable implications of technologies to strengthen ethical leadership discernment and strategic risk evaluation. The course equips students to critically navigate the ethical complexities of technological progress while aligning innovation with institutional values, societal responsibility, and long-term organizational integrity in a rapidly evolving global landscape.