Each xLab student project team includes a project coach who is an industry professional, to help mentor and guide through the different stages of a client project. Lauren Nelson has been a project coach with xLab since the fall semester of 2021. This spring semester, she is serving as a coach on two xLab projects鈥擯hase 2 of a project with Hyland Software involving blockchain, as well as the robotics project.
An alumna of Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management, Nelson (MGT '18) earned her MBA with a focus on design and innovation. She is a product strategist at , Progressive's incubator for new digital non-insurance businesses, and has previously worked developing digital products in new mobility for the New Ventures group at Goodyear.
Having past experience as a teacher with Teach For America, Nelson was excited about the opportunity to coach students on company-sponsored digital innovation projects with xLab, and thought it felt like a natural "best of both worlds" fit.
鈥淚 love seeing students learn through doing,鈥� said Nelson. 鈥淚t's impressive to see how far they can take xLab projects and to see the delight that the companies experience at the end of a semester, especially when they're used to a certain pace within a corporate innovation space.鈥�