Product Strategy for Designers
Advocate for your ideas, influence product and step up your design career.
This course is no longer available.
Explore other coursesExperience designing at
Course overview
Gain the skills needed to have more influence and impact in your design career
Rated 9.38/10 in the last cohort!
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.
For coaching options, visit www.femke.design/course and add a coach to your course experience for an additional USD$500.
Who is this course for?
01
For designers of all levels with a positive mindset and can-do attitude, eager to grow influence, impact, and drive meaningful change.
02
In-house designers operating within a design team and working daily with product and engineering peers.
03
Challenge-driven individuals looking to move beyond being handed solutions in briefs – you want to influence the roadmap.
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.
Learn hands-on with Femke in weekly live sessions
Join live working sessions with Femke and course alumni mentors every week, PLUS gain templates, resources, and worksheets you can repurpose for later.
Hours of 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!
Live Q&A's to learn from industry leaders
Hear from product and design leaders at leading tech companies in live Q&A's as well as through pre-recorded expert clips. You'll get an insider look into how they work with stakeholders.
Free access to the Level Up Kit ($150 of value)
Get FREE access to the Level up Kit, a comprehensive bundle designed to help you grow as a designer while connecting with a supportive community. Includes Discord server, monthly live events and design resource perks and discounts.
What’s included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Femke 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
9 live sessions • 70 lessons • 7 projects
Week 1
- 📼
Welcome to the course!
Complete by Sep 10 - 📼
Course walkthrough
Complete by Sep 10 - 📼
Your first task – Introduce yourself!
Complete by Sep 10 - ✍️
Share what you came here to learn
Submit by Sep 10 - 🎯
Pre-course Check In
Complete by Sep 10 - 🪁
Your access to Level up Club
Complete by Sep 10 - 📣
Get ready for next week's Q&A
Complete by Sep 10 - 📼
Introduction
Complete by Sep 12 - 📼
The role of a PM
Complete by Sep 12 - 📼
The “product” thinking designer
Complete by Sep 12 - 📼
Influencing the product
Complete by Sep 12 - ✍️
Write your Problem or Opportunity statement
Submit by Sep 12 - 🖍️
Homework – Write your own PRD
Complete by Sep 12 - 💿
Expert Clips
Complete by Sep 12 - 📚
Further Reading
Welcome to the course!
Welcome to the course! The course is broken up into 6 modules. We'll go through 1x module a week. Take your time to get familiar with the course platform and have a look around. You'll see some videos below to watch that will tell you more about how the course works.
Let's go!
1: Introduction to Product
Sep
12
1️⃣ Introduction to product
Week 2
- 📼
Introduction
Complete by Sep 19 - 📼
Creating a product vision
Complete by Sep 19 - 📼
Choosing your product strategy
Complete by Sep 19 - 📼
Building your roadmap
Complete by Sep 19 - 📼
A designers role in product strategy
Complete by Sep 19 - ✍️
Identify your why, how and what
Submit by Sep 19 - 🖍️
Homework – Craft your team's vision
Complete by Sep 19 - 💿
Expert Clips
Complete by Sep 19 - 📚
Further reading
Complete by Sep 19
2: Developing a product strategy
Sep
15
📌 Q&A with Angelina Lu
Sep
19
2️⃣ Developing a product strategy
Week 3
- 📼
Introduction
Complete by Sep 26 - 📼
Building conviction
Complete by Sep 26 - 📼
Altitudes of principles
Complete by Sep 26 - 📼
Writing principles
Complete by Sep 26 - ✍️
Share one of your principles
Submit by Sep 26 - 🖍️
Homework – Crafting Principles
Complete by Sep 26 - 💿
Expert Clips
Complete by Sep 26 - 📚
Further reading
Complete by Sep 26 - 📣
Get ready for next week's Q&A
Complete by Sep 27
3: Crafting Principles
Sep
26
3️⃣ Crafting Principles
Week 4
- 📼
Introduction
Complete by Oct 3 - 📼
Writing & documenting
Complete by Oct 3 - 📼
Managing stakeholders
Complete by Oct 3 - 📼
Facilitating meetings
Complete by Oct 3 - 📼
Rationale & Feedback
Complete by Oct 3 - ✍️
Identify your collaborators and stakeholders
Submit by Oct 3 - 🖍️
Homework – Your communication strategy
Complete by Oct 3 - 💿
Expert Clips
Complete by Oct 3 - 📚
Further reading
Complete by Oct 3
4: Leading through communication
Oct
1
📌 Q&A with Steven Steiner
Oct
3
4️⃣ Lead through communication
Week 5
- 📼
Introduction
Complete by Oct 10 - 📼
What makes a good story?
Complete by Oct 10 - 📼
Creating your story
Complete by Oct 10 - ✍️
Prepare for your next presentation
Submit by Oct 10 - 🖍️
Homework – Planning your story
Complete by Oct 10 - 💿
Expert Clips
Complete by Oct 10 - 📚
Further reading
Complete by Oct 10 - 📣
Get ready for next week's Q&A
Complete by Oct 11
5: Become an engaging storyteller
Oct
10
5️⃣ Become and engaging storyteller
Week 6
- 📼
Introduction
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
Design team update
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
Team newsletter
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
Templates
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
Design team brand
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
How to pitch
Complete by Oct 17 - ✍️
Prepare your pitch
Submit by Oct 17 - 💿
Expert clips
Complete by Oct 17 - 🖍️
Homework – Preparing your pitch
Complete by Oct 17 - 📚
Further reading
Complete by Oct 17 - 📼
Goodbye!
- 👟
Next steps
- 🎯
Post-course Check In
6: Influencing design culture
Wrap up
Oct
15
📌 Q&A with Miranda Slayter
Oct
17
6️⃣ Influencing design culture
Bonus
- 📼
1️⃣ Introduction to product
- 📼
2️⃣ Work on your vision
- 📼
3️⃣ Craft your principles
- 📼
4️⃣ Write a communication strategy
- 📼
5️⃣ Create a storytelling plan
- 📼
6️⃣ Work on your design initiative proposal
- 📌
Q&A with Angelina Lu
- 📌
Q&A with Steven Steiner
- 📌
Q&A with Miranda Slayter
- 📕
PM Diaries
- 🛝
Course slides & Figma's
- 📓
The Course in Notion
- 🎤
Past Guest Q&A's
- ❓
FAQ's
Recording Library
Recordings of live sessions will be added here throughout the duration of the course.
Evergreen resources
Resources for all of the course
What students are saying
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
Course schedule
3-4 hours per week
1 hr live session with Femke
Weekly
Join Femke once a week to discuss module topics, interact with peers and get insight. Sessions run at 10am PST and are recorded.
1 hr live Q&A with special guests
Biweekly
Join live Q&A's with industry leading guests who are experts in the field and get all your questions answered.
Self-paced modules
Weekly
Packed with lesson videos, exercises and templates to grow your skills. A module takes about 1-2 hours to complete each week. No worries if you fall behind – modules are available on demand and you can complete them in your own time.
Hear directly from leaders
Step up your design career
.png&w=1536&q=75)
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.
