Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE
7 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Are your proposed AI solutions high-risk, impractical, or outside of today’s AI capabilities? Learn the right way to select AI projects.
Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE
7 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Are your proposed AI solutions high-risk, impractical, or outside of today’s AI capabilities? Learn the right way to select AI projects.
Attendees who loved this course work at:
Course overview
Flip your old project selection process on its head.
Every project team must answer two questions:
- What's the right thing to make?
- How do we make that thing right?
This course answers that first and most critical question for AI initiatives. Customer experience pioneer Kerry Bodine and Carnegie Mellon University professor Dan Saffer will pull back the curtain on all the AI hype — and share a powerful combination of research-driven methodologies so you can select successful AI-driven projects that advance your products, services, and experiences.
Please note:
This course will take you on an extensive AI project selection journey over 6 weeks. (We'll take a week off for the July 4th holiday in the US.) You’ll complete the videos and readings on your own time, then join Kerry and Dan for weekly 90-minute Q&A sessions and interactive exercises. You’ll also complete weekly homework assignments that are focused on a real-world challenge for your organization — culminating in a capstone project that combines all of your learnings from the course.
This cohort has limited spaces to ensure an engaging and interactive learning environment. It’s ideal for those who want to practice applying the key course concepts to the specific needs and constraints of their business — or who seek a more individualized experience.
If you're looking to build your strategic AI toolbox in a shorter time or with a limited budget, please check out our jumpstart cohort, which covers the same topics. https://maven.com/bodine/ai-project-selection-jumpstart
Who is this course for
01
Business leaders who want to understand the technical AI landscape and leverage AI to meet the accelerating needs of their organizations.
02
Product managers who want to include AI features in their roadmaps and avoid common pitfalls that lead to AI failures.
03
Customer experience & employee experience professionals who want to leverage AI to increase revenue, decease costs, and bolster brand image.
04
Designers who want to lead and collaborate with business and technical teams to develop AI products, services, and experiences.
05
Creative agency owners who are being asked by clients to recommend AI solutions — and need a solid foundation of AI technology & concepts.
What you’ll get out of this course
Distinguish reality from hype
Gartner predicts that we're just about at the top of the AI hype cycle — which means we're heading down into the trough of disillusionment. We'll cut through the hype so that you can approach your AI initiatives strategically and with clear, actionable steps.
Broaden your AI toolkit
With all the hype, it’s easy to assume that GenAI is the only type of AI that exists today. But "generation" is just one of eight AI capabilities that you have at your disposal. You'll explore how the full suite of AI capabilities can come to life to add value to your business.
Establish — and practice — a strategic AI project selection methodology
Throughout the course, you'll learn a set of new tools — and an end-to-end methodology — to find AI opportunities, de-risk your AI solutions, explore data requirements, and identify potential harms.
De-risk your AI initiatives
Research shows that traditional human-centered design methods for solution brainstorming lead to high-risk, low-value AI initiatives. The methods you'll learn will weed out these ideas early in your process.
Identify potential AI harms
We’ll take you through a two-part method to first identify unforeseen consequences (both the good and bad) and then resolve negative consequences where possible.
Build effective AI design teams
Design teams for AI include functional roles and expertise that designers and product managers don't normally interact with. Through course projects and discussions, you'll identify the key players.
This course includes
6 interactive live sessions
Lifetime access to course materials
53 in-depth lessons
Direct access to instructor
1 projects to apply learning
Guided feedback & reflection
Private community of peers
Course certificate upon completion
Maven Satisfaction Guarantee
This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.
Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE
Course syllabus
Week 1
VIDEOS: AI Models & Data for Non-Technical Folks
VIDEOS: Why Most AI Projects Fail
VIDEOS: The 8 Great AI Capabilities
READINGS & REFERENCES 📖
Jun
6
Live discussion & exercises
Homework ✍️
Week 2
VIDEOS: Generating AI concepts
Jun
13
Live discussion & exercises
Homework ✍️
Week 3
VIDEOS: Rapid Evaluation of AI Concepts
VIDEOS: Value to Users and the Business
Jun
20
Live discussion & exercises
Homework ✍️
Week 4
VIDEOS: Identifying Unexpected AI Outcomes
READINGS & REFERENCES 📖
Jun
27
Live discussion & exercises
Homework ✍️
Week 5
No class this week!
Week 6
VIDEOS: Ranking Your Top AI Concepts
READINGS 📖
Jul
11
Live discussion & exercisess
Homework ✍️
Week 7
Jul
18
Capstone project delivery
Bonus
Bonus #1
Bonus #2
Bonus #3
Bonus #4: Newsletters & Podcasts
Hire us to spark and guide your AI initiatives
What people are saying
Erin Eisinger
Manqian Qian
Meet your instructors
Kerry Bodine
CEO & Co-author of Outside In
Kerry Bodine took her first AI coding class in 1996. (Lisp, anyone?)
Kerry is the co-author of Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, a seminal book in the CX space that helps business leaders understand the financial benefits of great customer experiences — and how their organizations must change in order to deliver them.
Her ideas, analysis, and expert opinions have appeared on sites like The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and USA Today.
She holds a master’s degree in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dan Saffer
Dan is an Assistant Professor of The Practice at Carnegie Mellon University, connecting HCI and Design academia with professional work and vice versa. He was a professional designer for over 20 years, 12+ years of that managing UX teams for everything from robots to Twitter.
He's written four books on design, including the best-seller Microinteractions. He has a Master’s degree in Design from Carnegie Mellon, and has been honored with ten nominations for the National Design Award.
Join an upcoming cohort
Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE
June 2025
$1,499
Dates
Payment Deadline
Course schedule
3 – 4 hours per week
Videos & readings
20 min - 2 hours on your own schedule
We know you're busy! We assume that you'll have watched all of the videos (20-ish minutes) before each live session. You may also wish to spend more time on the additional reading.
Mondays: 90-minute live discussion & exercises
12:30 - 2:00pm ET
Weekly homework assignments
15 min - 2 hours per week
After week 1, your homework will be tailored to a real-world challenge for your organization. Assignments will build on each other, culminating in a proposal for a low-risk AI initiative that drives value for your business. Your homework time commitment will increase each week.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you
Frequently Asked Questions
Join an upcoming cohort
Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE
June 2025
$1,499
Dates
Payment Deadline