Class is in session

Product Strategy for Designers

4.3 (105)

·

6 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Advocate for your ideas, influence product and step up your design career.

Experience designing at

Uber
Uber Eats
Wealthsimple
Gusto

Course overview

Advocate for your ideas, influence product and step up your design career

For coaching options, visit www.femke.design/course


Learn to build strategic influence, have more impact and deliver more value to your team.


Are you working in a low design maturity organization? Do others understand the value of design? Are you given space to have influence and impact in your role?


This course takes you through 6 modules in 6 weeks. Together, we'll discuss how to make sense of ambiguous product challenges, make design decisions based in strong rationale, build confidence through communication, storytelling and design principles.


I know what it's like to have a great idea that you spend hours working on, only to have it fall flat on stakeholders who don't share your vision.


I know what it's like to work at a company with low design maturity where you struggle to get heard, let alone even considered by the product team.


I know what it's like to be nervous presenting and communicating with senior leaders, where you feel like you're winging it and hoping for the best.


I've worked through these and more challenges with resilience, which I believe has helped me grow from Junior Designer to Design Manager in just six years.

Who is this course for?

01

Junior - Mid-level designers


You're confident in your craft – now you're looking to level up design strategy and influence

02

In-house designers


You work in-house (not an agency) and within a design team (not recommended for teams of one).

03

Challenge-driven individuals


You're looking to move beyond being handed solutions in briefs – you want to influence the roadmap.

04

Career climbers


You have a strong visual design background and are interested in levelling up – you want to showcase the value of design.

What you'll get

Specific frameworks for getting stakeholders bought into your work

Develop the skills needed to strategically influence product strategy, feel empowered to make a difference on your team and present with confidence.

Hands on learning through video and live sessions

Learn alongside an engaged community, join live working sessions with Femke and course alumni mentors every week, PLUS gain templates, resources, and worksheets you can repurpose for later.

Learn hands-on with Femke in weekly live sessions

Unlock the tools needed to turn an ambiguous project into an articulated plan while gaining cross-functional alignment along the way.

All-new lesson videos to help you build conviction in your design decisions

Develop the skills needed to strategically influence product strategy and feel empowered to make a difference in your team with all-new exclusive content from Femke - not available anywhere else!

Learn from leading industry guests

Hear from product and design leaders at leading tech companies. You'll get an insider look into how they work with stakeholders.

This course includes

9 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

70 in-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

7 projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Nov 4—Nov 10

    Welcome to the course!

    7 items

    1: Introduction to Product

    • Nov

      8

      1️⃣ Write your own PRD / working session

      Fri 11/86:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    8 more items

Week 2

Nov 11—Nov 17

    2: Developing a product strategy

    • Nov

      15

      2️⃣ Work on your vision / working session

      Fri 11/156:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    9 more items

    Nov

    13

    📌 Q&A with Ross Hatton

    Wed 11/134:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

Week 3

Nov 18—Nov 24

    3: Crafting Principles

    • Nov

      22

      3️⃣ Craft your principles / working session

      Fri 11/226:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    9 more items

Week 4

Nov 25—Dec 1

    4: Leading through communication

    • Nov

      29

      4️⃣ Write a communication strategy / working session

      Fri 11/296:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    9 more items

    Nov

    27

    📌 Q&A with Angelina Lu

    Wed 11/276:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

Week 5

Dec 2—Dec 8

    5: Become an engaging storyteller

    • Dec

      6

      5️⃣ Create a storytelling plan / working session

      Fri 12/66:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    8 more items

Week 6

Dec 9—Dec 13

    6: Influencing design culture

    • Dec

      13

      6️⃣ Work on your design initiative proposal / working session

      Fri 12/136:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    10 more items

    Dec

    11

    📌 Q&A with Steven Steiner!

    Wed 12/116:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)
    Optional

    Wrap up

    3 items

Bonus

    Recording Library

    9 items

    Evergreen resources

    5 items

4.3 (105 ratings)

What students are saying

A pattern of wavy dots

Be the first to know about upcoming cohorts

Product Strategy for Designers

Meet your instructor

Femke

Femke

Lead product designer, podcaster, educator and mentor.

I'm Femke, a design manager at Gusto who started her career at Uber.


Here's a rundown of some of my career highlights 👇


  • I pitched my design ideas to Product Leaders at Uber and got the stakeholder buy-in I needed to move forward


  • I've shipped global products to millions of users and generated millions of dollars in business value


  • I participated in major redesigns at Wealthsimple, Canada's leading fin-tech – influencing the platform experience for millions of Canadians


  • I lived the pain of working at a company with low design maturity where Product was King


  • I grew my career by working in companies of different sizes and stages – From growth-stage companies with 1,000 employees to mature market leaders with 30,000 employees


  • I've worked in North America, Europe, and Oceania – with roots in New Zealand, I spent 5 years working in Amsterdam before moving to Canada


  • I've had over 600+ 1:1 mentoring sessions with more than 500 designers


  • I have a degree in business, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Visual Communication Design


  • My videos about product design on YouTube have reached over 3.5 million plays, helping designers across the world grow in their design career ​

Taken by designers at some of the worlds leading design teams

Taken by designers at some of the worlds leading design teams

Course schedule

3-4 hours per week

  • Live class sessions

    Weekly

    Join Femke and teaching assistance once a week to discuss module topics, interact with peers and get insight. Sessions run at 10am PST and are recorded.

  • Live Guest Q&A's

    Biweekly

    Special guest calls with experts in the field where you can ask questions

  • Self-paced modules

    Weekly

    Self pace yourself through one module each week, packed with lesson videos, optional exercises and templates to grow your skills.

Hear directly from leaders

Hear directly from leaders
A pattern of wavy dots

Be the first to know about upcoming cohorts

Product Strategy for Designers

Step up your design career

Step up your design career

Turn an ambiguous project into an articulated plan

Learn to make sense of ambiguous product challenges while gaining cross-functional alignment. Femke will help you navigate becoming a strategic partner to product.

Interactive and resource-based

Get access to valuable resources, templates, and worksheets that you can use to gain influence in your teams.

Learn with a cohort of peers

You'll interact and learn from Femke, course alumni mods, and meet like-minded individuals in our weekly live sessions.

FAQ

Access a growing recording library of special guest Q&A's

Access a growing recording library of special guest Q&A's

Can’t make it this round? Be the first to hear about the next cohort.

Are you thinking, "This is great - but I'm not ready yet!" Be the first to hear about the next exclusive cohort before it sells out.