The White Space Product Development Challenge is a midwest inter-university competition created to strengthen students’ knowledge of design methodologies in product development and provide opportunities to interact with companies and industry professionals
The White Space Product Development Challenge prioritizes the voice of customer research for unmet or unarticulated needs. The criteria for the competition are as follows:
Validated need from in-depth exploratory research, analysis, synthesis and a proof of concept product, service or technology solution.
A team should consist of 3 to 6 students enrolled as either full-time, graduate, or undergraduate students from a midwest university. Teams with preconceived notions of products are not advantaged. Each team must follow a path from discovery through learning to devise a product that meets the needs of its customers unmet needs.
Each team needs a sponsoring professor to help the team and vouch for their student status. The team must designate a team leader. The team leader should be the primary contact with whom the White Space Product Development Challenge leadership staff will communicate.
White Space Product Development Challenge submission requirements are as follows.
First, all students must sign up with a team. We do offer to help you connect with students from your same university through the Individual Interest Form. On January 28, 2023, all teams are invited to Northwestern University for a Kickoff Design Day Workshop hosted by the Segal Design Center. Teams will receive training from Northwestern professors and participate in design methodologies demo activities. Following the workshop, teams will have nearly 5 weeks to submit a product idea report that includes the following information:
Research:
methods used to frame and reframe a problem
deep understanding of existing user and business solutions
intellectual-property opportunity and requirements
Analysis:
collection and organization of quantitative and qualitative data
Synthesis:
identified insight(s) on unmet or unarticulated market
level of certainty for commercial viability and demand understanding
iteration journey from prototype testing
Proof of concept:
innovative or unique offering
PDMA judges will evaluate the ideas and select finalists to continue to Phase II.
Once finalists have been notified, they will receive a budget for prototypes and a PDMA mentor to help them build a prototype of their design. Teams will have another five weeks to begin and finalize their prototypes to present at the final presentation in April.
Phase II written submissions are due April 8, 2023, at 7:00pm.
On Friday, April 14, 2022, PDMA Chicago will host a conference at mHub where teams will provide a brief pitch (10 mins presentation and 5 mins Q&A) for their project and answer questions from judges. The audience will be made up of judges, professional practitioners and other students. Students will have the opportunity to meet professionals from the Chicagoland area.
Winners will also be announced at the event.
Given uncertain public health concerns, PDMA Chicago reserves the right to make a determination if the presentations will be live in-person or over a video conference.
The winning teams will receive recognition from the product development community and will also be able to secure cash prizes. There will be four winning teams and the cash prize will be as follows:
Top Place Awards (At least $5,500 total) :
1st Prize - $ 2,500
2nd Prize - $ 1,500
3rd Prize - $ 1,000
A “People’s Choice” Award. $500 Given to the team not included in the top place awards voted by the attendees as most likely to succeed, based solely on their presentation.
Companies have also offered internships and employment to white space challenge participants in the past.
How do I enter?
Sign up as a team or register as an individual. Links are at the bottom of the page.
We will connect you to other individuals at your university looking for team members. It’s best if you can find friends to do it with. Team sign-ups close on January 24.
What is the judging criteria?
For more details on judging criteria, please review the judging criteria see page named judging criteria.
Do you have an example from last year’s winner?
Yes, check out the example presentations .
I’m not from Northwestern am I eligible to compete?
Yes. We welcome all midwest universities to compete.
Do I need to have a sponsoring professor to enter? What is their role?
Yes, we do require that you have a sponsoring professor from your school. They are there to be a mentor for your team in case you need any advice or assistance throughout the process. It is a fairly hands-off role, but the idea is that if you need a staff member to help with anything, they can be a resource for you. The professor is also there to act on your teams' behalf and be the point of contact for school-sponsored activity. If later in the competition, your team needs to be excused from class for the competition, the professor may be able to add some credibility to a petition to be excused from class conflicts. The professor is also for us to help with recruiting teams for next year. We rely on a lot of our professors to help spread the word about White Space since we can't be at every school.
I am concerned that someone is going to steal my idea/ Intellectual Property (IP)?
Our professionals are interested in supporting from an educational standpoint and they are simply not interested in stealing ideas.
This is a great opportunity to get feedback on your idea from professionals who wouldn’t otherwise have or take the time to look at it. We would encourage you to take advantage of it; but if you are still uncomfortable, we recommend you protect your IP with the advice of an attorney.
Whom can I email to ask more questions about this event?
Please email any questions to studentcomp@pdmachic.com
Who is on the panel?
Judges will be announced in April 2023.
How does the mentorship work?
Selected finalist teams will get assigned mentors to support final submissions.
Can a person be on multiple teams?
No, a person can only enter on one team.
Sign-ups open Mid-October and close January 24, 2023
Sign up as a team of 3-6 students with one sponsoring professor from your university
Join us for a Kickoff Design Workshop at Northwestern on Saturday January 28, 2023
Phase I- Teams will then have five weeks to conduct research on their white space and develop a proof of concept for their design
Submissions are due March 5, 2023, 6:00 PM CST.
Finalists will be selected and notified on March 11, 2023 to continue onto Phase II
Phase II- Teams will receive a mentor through PDMA Chicago to develop a prototype for their project and obtain user feedback over five weeks
Written submissions are due April 08, 2023.
Friday, April 14, 2023- Join us in-person for the presentation and to answer questions from judges and winners will be announced!
