The Influence Playbook: Leading Without Authority in the AI Age

New
·

10 Days

·

Cohort-based Course

A Lift Up Collective Cohort for PMs, UXers, and Senior ICs $349 Early Bird Pricing until Sept 30th

Course overview

Influence Is the New Currency of Leadership

In today’s AI-driven, fast-shifting organizations, having the right answers isn’t enough. The leaders who create impact are the ones who can rally teams, align executives, and build trust even without formal authority.


PMs, UX practitioners, and senior ICs are facing the same challenges again and again:


• Your strategy gets watered down because executives aren’t aligned.

• Your team is stuck in output mode instead of driving outcomes.

• You know the right path forward but struggle to get buy-in.

• You’re leading through uncertainty, but without the authority to make final calls.


Being right isn’t enough. To succeed, you need a playbook for influence.


This Lift Up Collective Cohort is designed for product and UX leaders who want to master the art of influence: selling vision, managing up, and creating resilient, outcome-focused teams grounded in trust.


What Makes This Cohort Different


• Collective learning, not one voice. You’ll learn from four powerhouse leaders each building on the other to create a journey from Vision → Alignment → Resilience → Trust.

• Hands-on, real-world practice. Each session includes scripts, frameworks, and applied exercises you’ll use on your own high-stakes challenges.

• Beyond persuasion. Influence here isn’t about politics or spin. it’s about clarity, confidence, and building environments where people thrive.

• Hosted by Lift Up Connections. Our mission is to amplify women leaders and share their collective wisdom with the field.


What You Will Experience Over the Two Weeks


Across four interactive sessions, you’ll develop the clarity, tools, and confidence to move ideas forward without waiting for authority.


You’ll learn how to:

• Craft a Strategic Rallying Narrative that gets teams and leaders moving in the same direction.

• Distill complex strategies into executive-ready stories that gain buy-in from the top down.

• Shift teams from output to outcome and keep them resilient in times of uncertainty.

• Build psychological safety and trust so influence lasts.


The Four Session Journey:


The Four-Session Journey

Session 1 – Vision: Strategic Rallying and Organizational Alignment

Led by Christine Perfetti

Learn how to create clarity and excitement around your product and experience vision, ensuring executives and cross-functional teams are aligned and inspired.


Session 2 - Alignment: Executive Buy-in and Product Strategy

Led by Tamara Adlin

Distill messy challenges into sharp, executive-ready narratives. Learn persona-driven pitching and techniques to navigate pushback with confidence.


Session 3 - Resilience: Building Outcome-Focused Teams

Led by Malini Rao

Shift your teams from output to outcomes. Build resilience through change and use data + storytelling to keep people focused on business impact.


Session 4 - Trust: Psychological Safety as an Influence Multiplier

Led by Alla Weinberg

Learn how to build environments of safety and trust, where influence sticks, ideas thrive, and courageous conversations move the work forward.


Early Registration Pricing Ends on Sept 30th

Early registration: $349 until Sept 30

Regular registration: $449 until October 20

Final registration: $549


Who is this course for

01

Product managers who know the right direction but can't get buy-in at the right level.

02

UX leaders who need to demonstrate the business impact of their work and looking for a seat at the table.

03

Senior product and UX ICs who is an expert in the room but hitting a ceiling with their level of strategic influence.

What you’ll take away from this collective cohort

Your Strategic Rallying Narrative

Christine Perfetti will share a repeatable process for creating clarity and excitement around your vision. You’ll practice scripts and framing techniques to align cross-functional teams, influence priorities, and say no without losing credibility.

Executive Communication and Persona-Driven Alignment

Tamara Adlin will help you structure high-stakes conversations with leadership. You’ll learn how to turn messy product challenges into sharp, executive-ready narratives, anticipate pushback, and focus on what executives actually care about.

Outcome Mapping Frameworks

Malini Rao will outline a set of practices to to shift your team’s mindset from outputs to business outcomes. You’ll leave with methods for resilience through uncertainty, and strategies to keep teams engaged when the path forward is uncertain.

The Psychological Safety Toolkit 

Alla Weinberg will share methods for building trust and credibility: diagnosing trust gaps, fostering risk-taking without fear, addressing conflict constructively, and creating an environment where courageous conversations can thrive.

What’s included

Live sessions

Learn directly from your instructors in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Community of peers

Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Maven Guarantee

This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Nov 5—Nov 9

    Nov

    5

    Session 1: Vision - Strategic Rallying & Organizational Alignment

    Wed 11/56:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    7

    Session 2: Alignment - Executive Buy-in and Product Strategy

    Fri 11/76:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Week 2

Nov 10—Nov 14

    Nov

    12

    Session 3: Resilience - Building Outcome-Focused Teams

    Wed 11/126:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    14

    Session 4: Trust - Psychological Safety as an Influence Multiplier

    Fri 11/149:00 PM—9:30 PM (UTC)

Meet your instructors

Christine Perfetti

Christine Perfetti

CEO, Lift Up Connections

Christine Perfetti is CEO of Lift Up Connections, a product and UX strategy consultancy bringing together a collective of powerhouse leaders in tech.


Christine built the product discovery programs at GoFundMe, Carbonite, Acquia, and TuneIn, and has led collaborative product visioning workshops for Harvard Business School, WeSpire, HubSpot, Curriculum Associates, and Penn Medicine, among others.

Tamara Adlin

Tamara Adlin

Founder, Adlin Inc. and co-author of the Persona Lifecycle books

Tamara Adlin has 20+ years of experience in product strategy, executive alignment, and user-centered design (including early Amazon). She is co-author of the groundbreaking Persona Lifecycle books. Tamara specializes in untangling complex challenges, aligning leadership around shared vision, and guiding teams to execute with clarity and purpose. Whether you're navigating a major transformation, redesigning customer experience at scale, or aligning leadership on strategic direction, she bring a structured-yet-human approach that results in traction—and transformation.

Malini Rao

Malini Rao

UX Executive (Ex- Red Hat, Oracle, UKG, Acquia)

Malini Rao is a results-oriented UX Executive with a proven track record of scaling UX functions, driving innovation, and delivering exceptional user experiences for enterprise B2B applications. She's been a UX leader and led teams at UKG, Acquia, Oracle, and Red Hat. Malini's passionate about aligning design strategy with both business objectives and customer outcomes, while defining and tracking concrete experience metrics to measure success.

Alla Weinberg

Alla Weinberg

CEO, Four Percent and author of the book, A Culture of Safety

Alla Weinberg is a psychological safety consultant and coach who has incorporated 20 years of product, service, and experience design with the principles of neuroscience, positive psychology, and relationship research to help establish safe workplaces. In her book, of 𝘈 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺: 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬, 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦, Alla delves into the tools, practices, and rituals that help leaders create physical, emotional, and psychological safety.

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Join an upcoming cohort

The Influence Playbook: Leading Without Authority in the AI Age

Nov 2025

$349

Dates

Nov 5—14, 2025

Payment Deadline

Nov 4, 2025
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Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Interactive and project-based

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

Learn with a cohort of peers

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

$349

USD

10 Days