April cohort

Connect design to business goals, manage stakeholders with clarity, and lead with a stronger, more strategic voice.

Christopher Kai Wong

Senior Product Designer at Nanthealth. Top Design Writer on Medium (52k following). Data-Informed Design Expert. Designed for 1m+ users.

The Strategic Designer: Become a Valuable Asset With Data-Backed Design Choices

Designlab Learning

Northrop Grumman

Social Security

Intuit

National Cancer Institute

Your design ideas are worth a promotion. The problem is that your promotion is probably going to someone else. Why? Because others aren't buying into your ideas. Your designs might be good (or even great), but if you can't convince your stakeholders, it doesn't matter.Great UX will be overlooked, deprioritized, or even dismissed in favor of what's easier in the moment. Sound familiar? It's because you aren't tying your design to business outcomes. If executives don't see the business value, they won't invest in it. If you struggle to communicate the business impact of your designs: &nbsp;• Your best ideas will get deprioritized or shelved, limiting the impact you have to make a difference&nbsp;• You’ll have to constantly justify your role and fight for recognition, while others (who 'speak business') will get promotions and raises&nbsp;• Your career will hit a wall, because businesses only invest in designers that demonstrate measurable outcomes&nbsp;• Your job security becomes uncertain, because your contributions aren't directly tied to business results. With AI tools commoditizing basic design skills and layoffs targeting 'nice-to-have' roles, designers who can't prove business impact are at risk. As one design leader said, "The Difference Between Good and Great Designers is that Great Ones can Use Data to Sell your Ideas." In 2025, top companies aren't hiring Good Designers. They're hiring Great Ones, that know how to communicate how design impacts business outcomes. Design Professionals who can do that jump to the top of the priority list. When you become a designer that communicates how design affects business outcomes, you'll: &nbsp;• Skip building relationships slowly: let data prove your value immediately&nbsp;• Use concrete numbers to bypass office politics and skeptical stakeholders&nbsp;• Consistently secure stakeholder buy-in, making your design initiatives a top priority.&nbsp;• Have Influence with executives and cross-functional partners who value clear ROI and measurable outcomes.&nbsp;• Get the promotions and salary increases you deserve by proving your designs drive measurable business results&nbsp;• Become indispensable to your organization as a leader who can speak clearly to both user and business needs&nbsp;• Transform from overlooked designer to strategic partner who shapes critical business decisions. This intensive program transforms overlooked designers into strategic business partners in just 4 weeks. --Training Your Team?Email kai@datainformeddesign.online for bulk pricing and personalized course options.

Feeling undervalued? Ideas getting ignored? Design presentations falling flat?

Designers who want to use data to bypass office politics and prove their value immediately

Designers tired of watching 'strategic' roles like PMs get promoted while their insights are ignored

Designers in low-UX maturity environments where relationship-building isn't enough

Mid-level designers whose great ideas get dismissed by skeptical executives

Who is this course for

What you'll walk away with 

Have clear frameworks to immediately show your design impact in meetings, presentations, performance reviews, and interviews.

Data-Informed frameworks that make even skeptical stakeholders approve your designs

Stop talking in hypotheticals and opinions. Show experiments that prove your design value in business outcomes

ROI experiments that prove your design value in business outcomes, not opinions

Not sure how to talk about your design work in an effective way? You'll get templates that provide you with step-by-step instructions

Templates to turn any design project into a compelling business case study

Not sure what to say when talking with decision-makers or executives? You'll get scripts to help you in crucial situations

Scripts to present user research that gets immediate executive buy-in

You won't just learn theoretical concepts. You'll learn how to apply it to your work with 1:1 coaching with a Data-Informed Design expert.

Up to 90 minutes of 1:1 Data-Informed Design coaching

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

Learning Experience Design Lead, Data-Driven Design, Designlab

Partner, Design @ Work & Co, Editor of Medium's UX Collective Newsletter

What people are saying

Meet your instructor

I will have live lectures with Q&amp;A, reviewing this week's lessons. These will also be where I review student's exercise and provide live feedback

Mondays and Thursday

In these lectures, I'll dive into the specifics around Data, Narrative, Visuals, and more. This will be a more detailed videos on the stuff I cover live on Mondays and Fridays

Pre-recorded lectures

These exercises, paired with the lecture, will help you practice the concepts you learn from lectures

Weekly projects and exercises

Course schedule

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Active hands-on learning

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Interactive and project-based

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

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About this course

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