Course Highlights

• An innovative learning experience inspired by the sprint cycle approach used in Agile product development.
• Asynchronous and on-demand course work to be completed in approximately six hours over 30 days.
• A practical framework to help break down business challenges into a series of smaller questions and reassembled as a solution to your selected challenge.
• Can be completed individually or as a team.

Advanced technologies have the power to transform the way we do business and the value we can offer clients. These tools also have a lot to teach us about the way we can tackle challenges across all business functions.

In the Algorithmic Business Thinking Sprint (ABTS) a new on-demand, asynchronous learning experience from MIT Sloan Executive Education, Faculty Director Paul McDonagh-Smith introduces the concept of Algorithmic Business Thinking—a framework for understanding the key principles of algorithms, code, and data and a methodology for applying those principles across role and departments, from products and service to business functions like finance, sales, and marketing. The ABT framework marks a radical rethinking of how technology, people, and processes combine to create and deliver value.

Inspired by Agile product development sprints, this self-directed course is an opportunity to apply this cutting-edge concept directly to a challenge you are facing in your own organization. You’ll engage in four core components of the sprint cycle—goal setting, relays, review, and retrospective—and use them to understand and apply the cornerstones of computer science as a transformational problem-solving technique. The reading materials, videos by faculty and industry experts, podcasts, and sprint workbook supplied will walk you through each of these cornerstones—decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithms—enabling you to you crack the code on your business challenge in record time.

How is this course different from Accelerating Digital Transformation with Algorithmic Business Thinking?

Our other Executive Education course on this topic Accelerating Digital Transformation with Algorithmic Business Thinking (ABT), is broader in scope and includes hands-on activities reading, writing, and improving algorithms. Delivered asynchronously over six weeks, the course presents content in weekly modules and includes assignments that must be completed before the release of the subsequent module. During the six weeks, there are opportunities to collaborate and network with peers and meet with faculty in a dedicated, virtual classroom. The course also includes office hours and opening and keynote sessions which are synchronous with faculty. There will also be an in-person offering of this course coming soon to the MIT campus!

The ABTS drills into the four key aspects of this problem-solving model, showing participants how to apply them to a specific challenge of their choosing. The course is available on demand and can be completed over any 30-day period. Participants are supported by reading materials, video content, tools, real-world examples, and an interactive workbook. The singular assignment is the submission of the participants’ final executive summary. 

If you have already completed the ABT program, this Sprint provides an opportunity for you and your colleagues to learn how to apply ABT principles to key challenges and opportunities you currently face in your organization. 

Both courses confer a certificate of course completion.

What are Sprints from MIT Sloan Executive Education?

Sprints are six-hour courses you can complete any time over a 30-day period. This on-demand learning “box set” can be completed as an individual or as a team and spread out over a month to fit in with your personal and professional life. Our first Business Sprint offering is focused on Algorithmic Business Thinking, a framework developed here at MIT by Paul McDonagh-Smith. We anticipate releasing other sprints in 2023 and beyond on topics including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, Web 3.0, and more .

You may be familiar with sprints as a term used in Agile product development, defined as a set duration of time during which specific work must be completed and made ready for review. With these new on-demand courses from MIT Sloan Executive Education, we are 
inviting you to think of your business sprint in a similarly, as a set time period in which to work, experiment, solve a challenge, and share your results.

When you participate in a business sprint, whether individually or in a team, you may also recognize research and development patterns from product development domains. We are translating these concepts into a business context where we can employ key elements of a sprint cycle to help solve complex business challenges and turn them into opportunities. 

Your business sprint will begin by defining a sprint goal—the business challenge or opportunity you will break down, work on, and then reassemble in the four stages of our sprint relay. During these relays you will be provided with course content in the form of written content, videos, and podcasts that present the specific course frameworks and share examples of how these frameworks have been applied to solve real-world business challenges. 

After you have completed the four stages in your course workbook, you'll submit your sprint review, which will capture the insights and the progress that you've made. As a final step, we'll provide you with a sprint retrospective in the form of an audio podcast that captures and reinforces the key inputs and outputs of an MIT Sloan business sprint. 

At MIT, our motto of Mens et Manus (mind and hand) means that applicable education is our objective—and we think it's yours, too. We hope this learning experience will give you key foundational insights and frameworks that can be applied in your teams and organizations today. This sprint and potentially those to follow you will help you accelerate digital transformation in your company by building the capability to resolve complex business challenges and the confidence to do so. 

Applying to the Course

Apply by using the red "Enroll Now" bar at the bottom of the screen, selecting the "I will choose dates later" option. Sign up as soon as you would like to begin the course; the 30-day access window will start once payment is received. You will be sent log in information and further directions. Please do not enroll in and pay for your Sprint until you are ready to begin the course.

Business Sprints are completely asynchronous, and you will have access to the on-demand course work once you have enrolled and submitted payment for the course. Please allow up 20 minutes for processing before accessing. You should enroll when you are ready to start the 30-day access period.