Summer Business Strategist - 2026 MBA Internship

Applications for this position will be accepted until January 4, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.; candidates should expect to hear back by mid January regarding first-round interviews, to be conducted before the end of the month.

Summer Business Strategist

IA Collaborative is seeking a Summer Business Strategist to join the Business Strategy practice for 10 weeks in Summer 2026. This individual will play a key role in shaping client engagements by applying an analytical, strategic, and operational view to assess market opportunities, define business concepts, and convey compelling market entry strategies for executive audiences.

As a Summer Business Strategist you will:

• Own market/industry assessments using secondary and primary research on markets, trends, and competitors.

• Provide a business lens in the user research and synthesis process, contributing to innovation insights, business concept designs, and strategic/operational analysis.

• Develop market entry strategies, partner/acquisition recommendations, and go-to-market strategies for new products and services.

• Apply a strong analytical skill set to help structure analytical approaches and lead analysis ranging from market sizing to profit model design.

• Develop product roadmaps, define product KPIs and OKRs, and conduct agile product development for digital products.

• Partner with clients and IA team members throughout an engagement, including helping to design and facilitate client workshops.

• Build your interdisciplinary design and strategy skills serving on versatile and diverse project teams.

• Perform additional job duties as assigned (may require travel for consecutive days, if necessary and with respect to current CDC health guidelines)

• Know the Business of the Business: Act as a steward of IA Collaborative’s overall business by exploring future possibilities for the organization including new offerings and capabilities, talent acquisition, thought leadership, and other business growth-oriented activities.

Required qualifications include:

• Minimum level education: currently within the first or second year in MBA or applicable master’s program

• At least two to three years of experience within business strategy, management consulting, innovation roles, or experience in developing new products, services, and go to market strategies.

• Direct business strategy experience, ideally including: business growth strategies, market assessments and sizing, business/operational model analysis and design, and/or roadmap development.

• Demonstrated analytical and/or financial modeling skills.

• Product strategy experience is an added benefit, ideally including: digital product development, product pricing, product KPI and OKR definition, roadmapping, go-to-market strategy development or agile product development

• Comfort working in cross-functional teams and working on ambiguous problems.

• Exceptional written and oral communication skills.

• Clear interest in design and user-centered design philosophy.

• Ability to participate in activities as needed in-office at our Chicago HQ for the duration of the internship

Preferred qualifications include:

• Ability to travel consecutive days

• Experience with building and deploying AI tools within organizations or commercially.

In the application or as part of the hiring process, candidates may be asked to submit work samples. These should be anonymized as needed to protect current employer and/or client confidentiality agreements.

We expect that the 2026 summer internship program will take place between ~06/08/26 - 08/14/26. Availability will be confirmed with candidates prior to finalizing program details and schedule. Want to learn more about the renowned internship experience at IA Collaborative? Hear firsthand from previous interns.

About the Business Strategy Team

Business strategists at IA Collaborative work at the intersection of design and business; turning bold ideas into measurable business impact through competitive analysis, strategy creation, business model innovation, and prototype and pilot development. Working closely with our research and design strategy team, we prototype new business model elements in context to assess their viability and de-risk new ventures.

Our team members have traditional strategy and consulting backgrounds but understand the