UCLA Anderson’s Field Study Capstones Continue to Evolve

In 1967, UCLA’s Graduate School of Management became the first business school to introduce a required field study as its capstone project in lieu of a comprehensive exam or thesis. The idea was for MBA students to provide “real world” consultation for large and small companies under the supervision of GSM faculty, utilizing the skills they cultivated and developed in their core and elective courses. Over time, each of the school’s MBA programs incorporated their own version of field study as a graduation requirement. Anderson also offers budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to create startups under the auspices of what is now called the Business Creation Program.

The evolution of such capstone projects continues at Anderson. With the new strategic plan as a guide, full-time students have a new set of faculty-developed options available for their final projects. Up to 25 students enroll in focused seminars led by specially chosen faculty who design a capstone project based on their own areas of interest. According to Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs Sanford DeVoe, who was part of the group of faculty and administrators at the forefront of this Anderson innovation, “The capstone is the culmination of what our students are doing at Anderson. We wanted to make sure that we had some of our best faculty really trying to bridge the gap between what happens in the classroom and actually applying it to the real world.”

DeVoe says the new capstones far exceeded the high expectations for the premise of bringing together faculty and students around a common passion. DeVoe says the small team format over two terms makes for a truly transformational experience. “While it was a lot of work for faculty and students, both raved about how much fun it was,” DeVoe says. “That’s really how you know it’s doing something meaningful.

“The success of these pilots highlighted the value of experimenting with different formats to achieve a capstone experience. In all honesty, I thought these faculty-led passion projects might be too academic to resonate with a broad set of students, but I was dead wrong on that,” DeVoe says. “The key was putting the students in the driver’s seat to bring together what they have learned in the MBA core. We continue to have a great set of other capstone options that are successful in their learning objectives, but I think we need to find more ways for the students to have more agency and take greater responsibility for making it a similar peak experience.”

With the initial courses recently completed, we asked the faculty who led the projects how they felt things went and what they learned for future editions of the courses. Each was asked to weigh in on these questions:

1. How did the MBA curriculum — core courses and electives — inform your capstone course, and how did the capstone bring together what they’d learned as MBA students? What might be some specific applications?
2. How was the class experience for you as a professor? What did you learn from the students that might influence future iterations of the course?

The FEiSty capstone drew on lots of courses, both core and electives. For example (and this list is not comprehensive): Leadership and Negotiation for the teamwork and management of field partner collaborations; Business Strategy for the joint work with the partner organizations in identifying relevant problems for the A/B test to focus on, developing solutions and communicating the results back to the partner in a way that informs their strategic decision-making; Data and Decisions for working with the data and interpreting results; and Marketing and Choice Architecture for some of the interventions that were tested.

Working with our students was tremendously enriching on many dimensions — interpersonally, but also substantively. I have gotten to learn in an unprecedented way about the students’ backgrounds, interests and experience going through their MBA journey. I have put much emphasis in the past on creating opportunities for exchange outside the classroom. I think it was the continuity of meeting with the same small cohort over two quarters that made this unique. I had not used A/B testing infrastructures offered by platforms like Facebook or Instagram before. It was interesting to learn more about this. It was also great to learn more about our field partners, and see how our students added value for them on dimensions that go beyond the focal A/B test; for example, helping them set up data infrastructures, providing input on ongoing data collection initiatives.

“Professor Long’s Entertainment and Sports Analytics capstone course felt like an applied version of Data and Decision Making from our first year. Serving as a refresher to R Studio, the course also enabled us to discover practical applications for this type of data analysis. We learned how to scrape, clean and synthesize data, and present a cohesive argument on a topic that interested us. It was a great mix of applied learning, teamwork and critical thinking. The course challenged us to dig in to the intricacies of in-depth data analyses, and it made me appreciate this sort of work in industry and academia. Surprisingly, my biggest takeaway was how important it is to scrutinize the methodology of any public study because of the predisposition of confirmation bias.”

— Peter Gilson (’24)

My capstone, Entertainment and Sports Analytics, builds on the core Data and Decisions course, which I also developed. In the capstone, we discuss how various analytics tools learned in the core could be applied to the entertainment and sports industries. For example, students look at baseball player stats to develop a predictive model of performance (similar to Moneyball), using linear regression and other tools. In the capstone, we push farther into machine learning, so students see an application of classification algorithms, like random forests. We compare model performance to predict NBA game outcomes, and then find undervalued sports bets using Vegas money lines.

We also complement the hands-on analytics exercises with several guest speakers, who discuss investing in sports franchises, using analytics at Netflix, and how the NFL uses data to build team rosters. Although the capstone most closely aligns with our strategic aims of analytical adeptness and strong industry acumen, I encourage students to develop their presentation and public speaking skills, which are critical skills in any career.

I had a lot of fun developing this course, and teaching to a smaller group of students over two quarters is really rewarding. It was wonderful to see students become so engaged with challenging material, especially since sports and entertainment are so relatable. One thing I hope to do in future iterations is draw out more connections with other core classes. Since I teach Data and Decisions, I am most familiar with that material. But it was interesting to see how some teams connected their final project to concepts from core marketing, for instance. I would like to formalize that a bit more, so they can see how these concepts really integrate.

In my particular case, students had to generate a behavioral change app, which incorporated many principles from the core classes, including segmentation, targeting and analysis of competitors, as well as what they learn in their communications work — like how best to pitch their project to others.

One thing that I will change in future iterations is to make the app development process something that happens throughout both quarters. Last year, the first quarter was spent on learning foundational knowledge in behavioral science and the second quarter was spent on building the app. I think it will be advantageous to layer the two on top of each other throughout the whole experience.

“Professor Hershfield did a great job of tying in to Business of Behavior Change what we learned in our core marketing and other MBA classes. We were given the opportunity to conduct thoughtful research and then were taught different frameworks to analyze the results. Since we worked on an app from start to finish, we were forced to look at our idea from a broader perspective and really assess the demand for our product — not only from a marketing perspective, but also from a consumer perspective. I would highly recommend this class to anyone entering their second year at Anderson. Professor Hershfield was incredible to work with and took the time to give useful feedback and listen to our priorities for the class. One main takeaway that I’ll use in my future career is thinking about what aspects of a product make consumers want to use it and use it repeatedly. This class was very collaborative, and I now have a deeper understanding of my work and communication style.”

— Margot Kessler (’24)

The core finance class teaches key concepts of firm valuation, and the Early-Stage Investment Fund capstone gives students an opportunity to put that theoretical framework into practice. The course also builds on electives with an early-stage firm perspective such as Venture Capital and Private Equity and Venture Capital Strategy. These electives provide students with a deep understanding of entrepreneurial financing and strategy. Using that knowledge, ESIF students can ask entrepreneurs seeking out investment thoughtful questions about their comparative advantages and potential market size. ESIF also allows students to negotiate contract terms and set the investment price, thereby applying their knowledge of valuation and early-stage contracting trade-offs.

It was an outstanding experience for me and it gave me a chance to really get to know the students over the course of two quarters. The students had several suggestions for formalizing the investment search process and dividing up fund-level responsibilities across the various teams that we implemented in real time and that I will maintain in the next version of the class. The students exhibited great energy and creativity in seeking out opportunities. Several outside organizations (e.g., ventures and entrepreneurial organizations) commented to me on the professionalism and excellence of our students. I was proud of our students’ work in preparing attractive investment proposals for our investment committee.

Since my capstone curriculum integrates concepts related to consulting, social impact and international development, the content requires students to draw on learnings from core courses in strategy, marketing and, certainly, Leadership Foundations. They also draw from experience in electives like social entrepreneurship, leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, and sustainability. During the capstone, the students were able to put into practice the MBA experience they’ve gained conducting research, analyzing data, communicating effectively, synthesizing complex ideas and preparing coherent, compelling presentations and client-facing deliverables.

The real-world consulting experience the students gained through the course can be applied in a variety of future career paths and opportunities, including consulting, international business, project management, social entrepreneurship and just about any role requiring strategic analysis, collaboration and teamwork, cultural sensitivity and humility, and perseverance.

“When I learned about Global Social Impact Consulting led by Professor Gayle Northrop, the capstone choice was easy for me — there was no doubt I wanted to challenge myself, work with NGOs, and visit Kenya and Ethiopia. It was deeply human, above everything else I could ask for. We learned from two great NGOs, SHOFCO and Project Mercy Inc., and as part of the curriculum, we visited their headquarters, had several meetings with their leadership teams, walked and connected with people in the streets of Kibera, slept in tukuls in rural Ethiopia, ate great local food and, most important, we were there to create a positive impact and build a bridge between the privileged U.S. business school world and the real world, with its most pressing problems: health, education, agriculture, nutrition, violence, sexism. The 10 intense days we spent in-country profoundly changed our perspective. It not only refined the viable solutions we could propose but also deepened our understanding of the problems and context of the community we were working with. It is evident how limited the business world and its vocabulary can be, especially when we push it to fully embrace humanity and its challenges. An academic requirement transformed into one of the most enriching experiences of my past two years.”

— Nina Maravalhas Leal (’24)

My experience planning and teaching this capstone course was a highlight of my year and, in fact, my academic career. I loved the process of designing and implementing a new approach to introducing students to consulting and social impact in a global context. I loved watching the students gain critical consulting skills by using them real-time with our client organizations. And I loved giving the students a unique international experience — visiting Kenya and Ethiopia — and immersing themselves in the local culture and context.

I learned a lot from the students that I plan to incorporate in future iterations of the course. Some things were confirmed, like the value of working with multiple organizations and visiting multiple countries; how vital client engagement and commitment to the students’ learning journey are; pre-travel research and context setting is key to a successful experience in country; and deep listening and curiosity during travel help ensure teams deliver value to their clients.

Some things I learned from the students will lead to course adjustments, such as: identifying interrelated projects for the teams, while still differentiating the scopes of work from one another; providing teams even more guidance around client management; and making sure students are ready for early morning client meetings, open to experiencing some discomfort and ambiguity, and eager to participate in a capstone that will provide real value and impact to the organizations we’re working with in East Africa.

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