10 Days
·Cohort-based Course
Utilize proven creative thinking techniques with GenAI as a catalyst to overcome mental blocks and constraints to build robust product plans
10 Days
·Cohort-based Course
Utilize proven creative thinking techniques with GenAI as a catalyst to overcome mental blocks and constraints to build robust product plans
Previously at
Course overview
WHY TAKE THIS COURSE?
Although prompt engineering is suitable for personalized productivity tasks, such as writing PRDs, and clearly defined problems, like conducting a competitive analysis, it isn't the path to thinking big. Structured creative thinking techniques, like the ones we'll focus on, work best for generating product concepts, exploring ambiguous problem spaces, building resilient strategic plans, and navigating future uncertainty. Students gain proficiency in applying six discrete, structured creative thinking techniques with Generative AI as a collaborative partner.
After more than 25 years leading product teams across different industries, I know that product management fundamentally requires non-linear thinking to navigate complex market dynamics and user needs. Breakthrough thinking requires unconventional approaches.
This interactive course, based on my award-winning new book CREATIVE VELOCITY: PROPELLING BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS IN THE AGE OF GENERATIVE AI (WILEY, MAY 2025), demonstrates the power and immediate actionability of frameworks like SCAMPER, Generic Parts Technique, and Contradictory Thinking, to uncover unexpected approaches, manage risk, and overcome functional fixations to effectively address major business challenges and improve strategic thinking.
We will use our live sessions to workshop your application of these frameworks to a real-world problem you'll be presented. And, in our last session, I'll offer coaching on how to apply them to a current problem you may be facing.
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF YOU FACE THESE CHALLENGES:
➡️ Revenue challenges – you need to refine or reinvent value capture.
➡️ Information gaps – making critical product decisions without sufficient data or precedent
➡️ Growth plateaus – needing to discover untapped market segments or expansion opportunities
➡️ Market disruption – responding to aggressive competitors or emerging threats in your space
➡️ Operating constraints – working within tight budgets, regulatory requirements, or resource limitations
➡️ Leadership expectations – demonstrating strategic thinking skills to advance your product management career
THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR YOU IF YOU WANT TO:
❌ Learn to automate processes and offload tasks to AI
❌ Engineer better prompts
❌ Automate content creation
WHAT MAKES THIS COURSE UNIQUE? IT OFFERS A PLAYBOOK YOU CAN ACTION IMMEDIATELY TO ACCELERATE BETTER OUTCOMES.
By the end of this course, you will learn how to apply six discrete, structured techniques in partnership with Gen AI to tackle challenges at every stage of the product lifecycle.
01
Product leaders who need practical, repeatable techniques to tackle operational constraints, market disruption, or growth challenges.
02
Startup Founders looking to build resilient plans while navigating limited resources and funding, information gaps, and product-market fit.
03
Senior leaders who want to empower employees to leverage AI to imagine innovative solutions, accelerate growth, & improve customer outcomes
Apply frameworks immediately to problems you face at various stages of the product lifecycle.
Choose the best techniques for discovery and ideation in early stages, strategic pivots and optimizations during growth phases, and competitive responses in mature markets.
Use GenAI to overcome hurdles like lack of data, resources, and time that stall creative thinking.
Navigate ambiguous problem spaces, constraints, and future uncertainty to discover novel approaches.
Create resilient plans by revealing hidden or faulty assumptions that could undermine success, especially in dynamic markets.
Apply contradictory thinking to stress-test strategies, run pre-mortems, and identify potential failure points before they become costly mistakes.
Discover unseen patterns and connections while exploring unexpected sources for solutions to demonstrate strategic thinking.
Utilize Generative AI to find analogic solutions from other industries and domains that can transform your product approach.
Ideate like a zero gravity thinker to build a pipeline of innovative ideas.
Break free from the anchor of existing data, conventional wisdom, and stakeholder consensus to generate breakthrough product concepts.
Leverage AI as a strategic thinking partner to broaden your field of vision.
Generate dozens of creative options quickly, explore multiple perspectives simultaneously, and push beyond your initial thinking patterns.
Live sessions
Learn directly from Leslie Grandy in a real-time, interactive format.
A copy of my award-winning new book
Creative Velocity: Propelling Breakthrough Ideas in the Age of Generative AI (Wiley, May 2025), winner of five awards for non-fiction
Discount on the Product Management Leadership Accelerator
Get a discount code for an upcoming cohort of the University of Washington Foster School Product Management Leadership Accelerator
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.
4 live sessions • 7 lessons • 6 projects
Sep
10
Sep
12
Sep
17
Sep
19
Gina Jeancharles
Brent Van Wieringen
Robert Neer
Sacha Weinberg
Leslie Grandy is a global, first-to-market product executive, award-winning author, and board advisor with a 25+ year career delivering game-changing products for top brands - Best Buy, Discovery, T-Mobile, Apple, and Amazon. Throughout her career, Leslie has been at the front end of innovation launching the first paid video streaming service, RealOne SuperPass with over 1 million subscribers after co-authoring a patent (currently owned by Intel) for a system that provides integrated media; delivering the first Android mobile device, the T-Mobile G1; and leading Best Buy’s Digital Innovation Lab. Leslie co-created and serves as the Lead Executive in Residence for the Product Management Leadership Accelerator at the University of Washington Foster School of Business.
Leslie's book, Creative Velocity: Propelling Breakthrough Ideas in the Age of Generative AI, was released by Wiley in May 2025.
Leslie is the founder of The Product Guild, a Product and Innovation Advisory Services company through which she has advised early-stage ventures and numerous publicly traded companies on innovation and new product development, including Starbucks, Oracle Power, and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. A sought-after keynote, featured speaker, and lecturer on creative leadership, product and service design, and digital transformation, Leslie is an adjunct instructor at the Regis College Sloan School of Business and Communication, and the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts. Leslie is also an IDEO-trained leader in Design Thinking who inspires audiences to achieve their creative potential.
Fun Fact: Leslie worked for 13 years in Hollywood and became a member of the Directors Guild of America, before getting an MBA and pivoting to technology product management.
Join an upcoming cohort
Cohort 1
$899
Dates
Payment Deadline
Four ninety-minute live events
Tuesday & Thursday
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm PST
Asynchronous lessons support project assignments which are discussed in the live sessions. Live events will recap the lesson, but will primarily focus on takeaways from the assigned project and the application of each of the frameworks to the same customer problem.
Deep Dive on Supermind Ideator
Looking for an AI tool to help you explore problem schemas and uncover novel solutions? Listen to this short audio clip to learn more about an innovative AI-assisted tool designed to enhance creative problem-solving using structured methodologies.
The Supermind Ideator was developed by researchers at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT.
Get this free resource
Immediately actionable tools
You'll be able to apply the techniques before the course is over!
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Group and Individual Exercises
Take this course with teammates and practice these techniques as group or go it alone and build creative self-efficacy.
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you
Join an upcoming cohort
Cohort 1
$899
Dates
Payment Deadline