My answer, originally published on Quora.

Q: What Kellogg MBA classes have students found to be the most useful and why?

My Answer

From the vantage point of someone who has been out of Kellogg for over a decade, here are the classes that have proven the most useful in my career as high tech product management professional and as founder of a product management consulting firm.

(Sorry, I can't remember the exact names of the classes.)

  • High Tech Product Strategy (Sawhney's class)
  • Introduction to Marketing
  • Business Law
  • Market Research
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Financial Accounting
  • Financial Decisions (the one with the massive spreadsheet model due each week)

I've never worked in finance, but the analytic process and model-building skills from the Fin Decisions class have been essential to me in my career. Financial Accounting proved important because I knew nothing about accounting before Kellogg, but as an owner of a small business it has proven surprisingly important.