Fall 2026

Consumer Strategy Consulting Practicum

Consumer Strategy Practicum applies design thinking to develop evidence-based client solutions.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Ron Katanick3.5/5Anna SpahnSara Hocking

Summary

1 / 6

The course is entirely group-project based, making the experience difficult if paired with an uncooperative group, though generally doable.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

CNSR SCI 357(or CNSR SCI 657 prior to Fall 2026) and junior standing, or graduate/professional standing

      • take one
      • junior standing
      take all
    • graduate/professional standing
    take one
CNSRSCI 555

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • All of
      • Any of
      • junior standing
    • graduate/professional standing

Professors

Fall 2026
/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.25/5 from 8 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.3/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 3 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Ron Katanick is described as knowledgeable but delivers slow, boring lectures by reading slides verbatim, which confuses students regarding assignment expectations. One reviewer found the presentation style unengaging despite the interesting content.

Conversely, another student found his lectures slow but informative, praising his weekly online office hours as helpful. This review noted the course is group-project based, where group dynamics significantly impact difficulty.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.63 GPA, 88.4% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.63 GPA, 84.3% A/AB (n=70 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.52 GPA, 82.7% A/AB (n=75 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

RON KATANICK is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction51 / 600
LEC 002Classroom Instruction60 / 600
LEC 003Online Only62 / 620

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Ron Katanick's teaching style is polarizing, with some finding lectures boring and others valuing the accessible content and helpful office hours.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.62 GPA, 83.7% A/AB (n=178 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.61 GPA, 82.6% A/AB (n=235 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 70.6% A/AB (n=180 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

The course is entirely group-project based, making the experience difficult if paired with an uncooperative group, though generally doable.

Students appreciate Katanick's knowledge and weekly online office hours, but criticize his verbatim slide reading and unclear assignment expectations.

Topics

  • Design thinking and strategic planning for consumer challenges
  • Client-based solution development and implementation
  • Impact evaluation and future action recommendations

Skills

  • Applying design thinking and strategic planning frameworks
  • Developing and implementing evidence-based solutions with contingency planning
  • Evaluating impact and providing objective recommendations

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
CNSRSCI 555 · Fall 2026

Consumer Strategy Consulting Practicum

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:271:024415",
    "course_id": "CNSRSCI 555",
    "course_uid": "course_8e31aa798c90dfcf4eaa7498",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "024415",
    "source_subject_id": "271",
    "title": "Consumer Strategy Consulting Practicum",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

Download the original dataset
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "0f41e14ac29e9c802f545eb7c88681b4665c9bd88fa749833279a8c9034d6d73",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}