Program Designer — Launch a New Professional Program at Bayfront

A four-round, intermediate professional-education design simulation set inside Bayfront Professional Education, the self-funded continuing-education unit of a large public university in Miami, Florida (~6,000 learners/year, ~40 active programs, ~$14M net revenue at ~30% margin). The Dean has greenlit a new applied-data-and-AI program for non-technical managers but set three hard guardrails: a development-cost cap of $180,000 (inclusive of a marketing reserve), a mandated break-even of 60 paid enrollments across the first two cohorts, and a Summer 2026 launch at a 75-day gate. Playing the Director of Professional Education, you must design the offering end-to-end and prove it clears break-even without breaching the cap. Round 1 — diagnose three candidate learner segments (price-sensitive mid-managers at $1,800–2,400, employer-paid corporate cohorts at $3,500–4,500 but only ~40 feasible seats, and outcome-driven career-changers at $2,800–3,200) and pick a primary segment, learning that segment choice is the upstream decision that constrains everything downstream. Round 2 — choose a delivery format (self-paced ~$90k/45% completion, live-cohort ~$150k/70%, in-person ~$175k/85% — which breaches the cap once marketing is funded) and build a line-item development budget under $180k. Round 3 — set the learner price (and an optional corporate tier) and build the break-even model: contribution margin per learner = price − variable cost, enrollments required = development cost ÷ margin, and the marketing funnel to reach 60 paid seats. Round 4 — pitch the design to the Dean's gate, defend it against the cheap self-paced alternative, and name a contingency for under-enrollment. The math rewards segment-first, value-based design that fits format to segment and clears break-even at a fillable price, and punishes the five classic errors: a course for everyone, pedagogy over the cap, margin over completion, cost-plus pricing, and an unfillable high price. Final KPIs track Design Fit, Projected Enrollments vs. 60-seat break-even, Margin Health, and the Renewal Engine (completion and learner NPS).