Northwestern Design Innovation, Segal Design Institute at the McCormick School of Engineering
Master of Product Design and Development Management

MPD-400

Your course, inside your AI assistant.

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Cursor or any tool that speaks the Model Context Protocol, and it can read the syllabus, the core-concepts doc and the lecture slides while you work, or tell you what Will or Marty would say. Content is pulled live from the course Google Docs and Slides, so it is never out of date.

MCP endpoint
https://mpd400.com/api/mcp

No account, no API key. Paste it into your assistant and go.

01 / connect

Add it to your assistant

Pick your tool. It takes about a minute, and you only do it once.

  1. Open Customize → Connectors → + → Add custom connector. Works on claude.ai and the desktop app.
  2. Name it MPD-400 and paste the endpoint below. No authentication.
https://mpd400.com/api/mcp
02 / use

How to use it

New to MCP? Just chat. The assistant checks the course docs when it needs to.

  1. Switch it on

    In a new chat, open the connectors menu and make sure MPD-400 is on.

  2. Start with “Use MPD-400”

    Naming the connector makes the assistant read the course docs instead of answering from memory.

  3. Ask in plain English

    No commands to learn. The assistant picks the right tool for your question.

  4. Allow the tool call

    It asks permission the first time. Every tool is read-only, so always allow is safe.

03 / capabilities

What your assistant can do

Once connected, it calls these on its own whenever you ask about the course.

get_schedule

Every session's date, topics and assignment, with the next class marked.

get_module

One class session in full, with the reading behind each topic.

get_assignment

An assignment prompt plus the full text of every framework it names.

get_final_project

The class project brief: deliverables, milestones and the PRD guide.

get_syllabus_section

One part of the syllabus, or all of it: grading, attendance, materials, integrity.

get_concept

Any single framework or concept from The Rabbit Hole, by name. Matching is forgiving.

get_lecture_slides

A class session's slide deck, slide by slide.

search_course_materials

Keyword search across the syllabus, the concepts doc and the lecture slides.

ask_will · ask_marty

Put a question to either professor and get the answer they would give in class, in their own words.

04 / fallback

No MCP support? Use the plain URLs

Any assistant that can read a web page can use these directly. Paste one into your chat.

Syllabus

The full syllabus as Markdown.

https://mpd400.com/syllabus.md
Open ↗

Core concepts

The Rabbit Hole, every framework in one file.

https://mpd400.com/concepts.md
Open ↗
05 / professors

Your (human) professors

Want our take right now? Ask your assistant what Will or Marty would say; it answers from what we have said in class. For anything it can’t answer, email is the fastest way to reach either of us.

Will Hubbard

Will Hubbard

Professor · MPD²

Co-founder and COO of Agree.com, the AI-native platform for e-signatures, invoicing and payments. General Partner at Adventure Fund, backing companies like Anthropic, SpaceX, Mercury, Plaid and beehiiv. Previously founded ChemiSense (acquired by Kaiterra) and was a longevity biotech fellow at On Deck.

will.hubbard@northwestern.edu
LinkedIn@wbhubwillhubbard.comFaculty
Marty Ringlein

Marty Ringlein

Professor · MPD²

Co-founder and CEO of Agree.com. Three prior startups, three exits: nclud to Twitter, where he built the Research & Design team; nvite to Eventbrite, where he ran Global R&D through its IPO; and Gather to Brex. General Partner at Adventure Fund (Anthropic, SpaceX, Chime) and a former White House Presidential Innovation Fellow.

martin.ringlein@northwestern.edu
LinkedIn@martymadridmarty.comFaculty