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Technology company Vaisala collaborates with Aalto Design Factory’s popular product development course – this year again. For Vaisala, the collaboration is a two-way learning experience, where students gain real product development experience and Vaisala gains fresh perspectives and concrete development work.

“I see it as a great channel to do projects with students and to understand current technology. You get out-of-the-box ideas!”, says Product Manager Nevon Mansour from Vaisala.

The Product Development Project (PdP) is an approximately eight-month course where master’s students in engineering, design and business work on real product development challenges from industry and the public sector. Multidisciplinary, international teams have a budget of around €10,000.

Vaisala's this year’s project, “No More Connectors”, is a good example of a real-world challenge. The student team is carrying out technology scouting and market mapping that Vaisala’s own R&D would otherwise need to do, with the added benefit of diverse student viewpoints and Design Factory resources.

“This was a timely and suitable topic that you can really deep-dive into in the PdP format. It’s practical and not too broad, and when the result comes, it’s easy for us to continue developing it further. It’s something that could actually become a product one day, not just another project,” Mansour explains.

Low-risk experimentation and new talent

From a company perspective, PdP offers a structured, low-risk way to test new ideas.

“We can start testing things with students and find out if there’s some potential there. It’s a safe setting to play in; you can push yourself a bit out of your comfort zone and learn from that,” says Product and Package Design Specialist Noe Anttonen. The project enables experimentation even when there is not enough internal bandwidth to explore new concepts in-house.

The collaboration also has clear recruitment benefits, Mansour notes.

“We already have two students who got summer jobs with us – through this project they got excited about Vaisala and had a good impression, and wanted to work here. PdP is a way to find the stars of the future,” she says.

A two-way learning experience

At Vaisala, it has been recognized that a well-defined and sufficiently focused topic, as well as open interaction and a good relationship with the student team, are key to project success.

“It’s important that they feel they can ask anything at any time, and don’t feel alone. We’ve managed to create a good atmosphere with the whole team. We’re mentors, but they can still approach us very easily,” Anttonen says.

According to Mansour, the collaboration also develops project leadership and communication skills.

“You have many students and you need to explain things in different ways so that everyone internalizes what the product is and what we want. It’s been inspiring to be involved in mentoring future stars and sparring them.”

She describes the experience as a learning experience both ways: both students and the company learn how product development progresses in practice, including manufacturability and sales perspectives. The collaboration has also introduced new ways of working at Vaisala: the company adopted the Design Factory-developed PD6 workshop, a six-hour product development sprint, last year.

Mansour also sees PdP and Aalto Design Factory as having a broader societal role in the innovation ecosystem.

“You help students get a foot in the door in a job market that’s currently quite challenging. They gain real work experience through this project. I think Design Factory has a big impact in the fact that students still apply to study technology these days,” she says.

What would Vaisala say to a company still considering sponsoring the PdP course?

“It’s been really rewarding – we’ve gained concrete tools, new perspectives, future colleagues and a welcomed spark to everyday work. Definitely worth trying!”, Mansour and Anttonen conclude.