Maven

Become a Top 1% Growth Designer

Walmart

Siva Sabaretnam

VP of Design @Atlassian (previously at Meta, SAP, Walmart)

Learn more about Growth Design skills, mindsets, and how to approach day-to-day work and collaboration.

The most important competencies for growth designers

How to identify opportunities to practice growth design skills in your job today - even if that's not your area of focus

How you can build or strengthen your skills immediately

Having hired hundreds of designers in my career, I'll share more about what sets a Growth designer apart

What I've noticed about the best growth designers I’ve hired

UPDATEFebruary is no longer available. March is open for enrollment. Why Take This TrainingAs product leaders advance in their careers, three critical challenges emerge: Challenge 1: Measuring and communicating design success beyond design thinking and aesthetics.Challenge 2: Getting stakeholder buy-in for strategic decisions that impact business growth.Challenge 3: Balancing user needs with business objectives while considering broader systemic impacts. This course empowers technologists to become strategic leaders who can:⚡️ Connect design decisions directly to business outcomes and growth metrics⚡️ Build influence with stakeholders through data-driven design processes⚡️ Lead responsible growth initiatives that consider users, business, and ecosystem impact⚡️ Measure and demonstrate the ROI of design work in their portfolio Transform from a user-centered designer into a strategic design leader who can drive product led growth, influence decisions, align teams, and create measurable business impact while maintaining conscious design practices. Why Learn With SeraAs a Principal Product Designer turned Founder, Sera has led successful products from zero-to-one startups to public companies across Webflow, BetterUp, Hired, Zendesk, and Y Combinator. Her unique approach to growth design has driven remarkable results, including a 200% increase in acquisition. She has given talks and workshops at Uber, Ikea, Design X, the University of Hawaii, the University of Waterloo, and more. As an advisor and investor, Sera brings a decade of hands-on experience leveraging design for conscious business growth —a perspective she's distilled into actionable frameworks through workshops and talks that have helped thousands of designers step into strategic leadership roles. She has spent 1 year condensing everything she's learned about growth into this 2 week training. Her frameworks from this course have been adopted by teams at Instacart, Ikea, Turo, Zendesk, Walmart, and more. Continue LearningGraduates will receive a private invite to a growth design slack channel with peers who are navigating similar challenges.Participants will have ongoing access to course materials, frameworks, and templates (this includes updates). Training your team? Email for bulk pricing and private training: hi@the-craft.io.

Bridge the Gap Between Design Impact and Business Growth 📈

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

Thursday & Friday 

Learn at the pace that feels right for you! Every week, you'll have access to recorded modules focused on various topics to help you go deeper on the content we cover live.

Self Paced Courses

Go through practical case studies and brain storm solutions to get a hang of the techniques you learn.

Case Studies

Course schedule

Mid-Level Designerswho want to become more strategic with their work going beyond end-users.

Senior &amp; Staff Designerswho want to lead, participate in business strategy discussions, and facilitate product led growth outcomes.

Design Teamswho want to align their processes with growth principles and/or create a growth team (e.g. acquisition, retention, etc.)

UX Researchers who want to expand their impact by combining user insights with growth metrics.

Technologistslooking to leverage design and integrate growth thinking into your product development process.

Early Stage Founderswho want to create a design driven company with product led growth.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Master the principles of sustainable growth through AARRR and the growth loop. Transform your approach to product building and measure impact; measure acquisition, activation, retention, monetization, and more.

A Strategic Framework for Growth Design at Every Level of Product Building 

Learn to leverage data effectively in your design process, speak the language of business stakeholders, and make decisions that drive measurable outcomes using quantitative and qualitative data that speaks for itself.

Holistic Data-Driven Design Leadership Skills 

Gain concrete techniques for building influence, documentation practices, presenting design work to business leaders, and getting buy-in for strategic initiatives. Turn stakeholder relationships from challenging to collaborative.

Practical Tools for Stakeholder Management & Executive Buy-in

Learn from successful growth initiatives at companies like Webflow. Go beyond theory with hands-on application of growth frameworks. Work alongside a team of designers, receive targeted feedback on your project, and leave each session with actionable strategies you can implement.

4 Workshops on Real World Scenarios to Exercise Growth Thinking 

Understand the limits to growth, how to growth sustainably, and how to think about systemic change through lenses that go beyond end-users and business goals. Use Sera's Sustainable Futures Prism and the Triple Piko from indigenous Hawaiians to apply systems thinking.

2 Frameworks that go Beyond End-Users and Business Goals

Learn from industry leading growth experts on how teams operate, core principles, and a behind the scenes look at projects and measurable outcomes. 3 recorded talks and 1 live session.

4 Guest Speakers From Top Companies on How to Apply Growth (Netflix, Miro, Webflow, Growthmates) 

The playbook includes guides to sustainable growth, metrics, case studies, and more. It's your cheat sheet to get more done in less time.

[BONUS $120 value] Growth Playbook, 1 Year Membership to Conscious Technology, & Private Slack Access

<ul><li>Complete beginners</li><li>Designers experienced with growth hacking</li><li>Technologists comfortable with using metrics and tracking success</li><li>People looking for a quick fix</li><li>Technologists looking to achieve goals at the expense of people &amp; climate</li></ul>

Who is this course NOT for? 

Elevate your design leadership: connect creativity to business growth, measure your impact, and transform stakeholder relationships. 📈⭐️🌎

Sera Tajima

Cohort 3

Cohort 4

Product, UX &amp; Content Design folks seeking to grow and enhance their leadership practice, welcome home! This course, community and live coaching sessions are your guide to stepping into the Leader you aspire to be. Leading teams is a "what got you here" (craft, leading the work) "won't get you there" (leading through others, business results, visionary leadership) moment for many – especially as you scale. It's my mission to demystify what is needed to be seen as a business leader and be known for excellence in craft AND in leadership. From imposter syndrome → confidenceFrom overwhelmed → organized focusFrom tactical work → strategic influenceFrom feeling stuck → career plan Shift from feeling isolated and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and centered in this supportive environment led by sought after coach Alison Gretz. The course lasts 8 weeks, with one self-paced module and a live cohort call weekly. We'll will dig into the 4 common sticking points that hold Design Leaders back as they step up to management and then evolve to Director+. It's by building key muscles and overcoming these sticking points, while also grounding in your own authentic leadership style that will further you as a leader.

Unblock your Growth in Design Leadership

Brief rapid assessment of where you are now and where you want to go through live coaching and a personal workbook.

Discovery & Goals

Alison will demystify the top things that hold UX Managers back, or from reaching their full potential.

Key Unknown Essentials

You'll create your plan for becoming the leader you want, with stakeholder influence, team cohesion and advocacy.

Your Leadership Excellence

We'll have live group coaching sessions to dig in on REAL topics and transform as a group.

Coaching & Support

You can go at your own pace and jump into topics that are most relevant to your growth ahead of the cohort.

Self-paced videos & workbook

Each week, Alison will host a live cohort coaching call where we'll dig into REAL WORLD scenarios and transformation.

Weekly Group Coaching

Alison will host an intimate community where we can tackle more Q&amp;A, weekly AMA topics, and peer mentorship.

Community Q&A

Flexible Course schedule

I'm ready to scale up to Director, but I'm feeling stuck and blocked from receiving the opportunities to promote up. How do I grow?

I'm a Director of Content Design, but I'm feeling out of my depth and need to up-level my soft skills expertise.

I want to lead in Design with authenticity and impact – is this possible while still being a respected boss?

I'm struggling with imposter syndrome, and my tough stakeholder relationships are causing burnout.

Does this sound familiar?

Walk away with the soft skills needed to grow in Design Leadership

Direct and frequent access to accredited coach + executive Design Leader Alison Gretz alongside a supportive peer group.

Coaching and advice on your leadership journey

Learn about common pitfalls to avoid, in a space where you can ask questions and identify key blockers or bumps that are in your way.

Ability to overcome the top 4 pitfalls of design leadership

Define and explore how you will show up as a human-centered leader.

Leading in alignment to your values

Each week, Alison will share a value-packed workbook and video/audio recording. Since you get life-time access, many students utilize our frameworks for months and years!

Expand your Toolkit with Workbooks, Frameworks & Tools

You'll leave the course with a clear path forward, broken down into actionable steps.

Design Your Next roadmapping and goals

Rise in your Design Career: Build your confidence & skills, then create your path from craft leader to business leader.

Cohort 7

Alison Gretz

Cohort 6

Cohort 8

Growth leaders and teams are expected to bring impactful results at high speed. However, in that high-paced environment, it's easy to get into a trap of constant local optimization. 👉 What is good for USER is good for BUSINESS. The biggest changes that drove product Growth for companies like Miro, Notion, Figma didn't happen due to local changes. These products combined both components: high-quality user experience and ethical PLG strategies. 📌 Growth teams face many challenges like: — Getting caught in a trap of local optimization and constant A/B testing with no impact?— How do we uncover new growth opportunities to impact Activation, Habit-forming, and Upgrades?— What behavioral principles can help create the most user-friendly and ethical solutions?— Finally, how do we receive a buy-in to implement meaningful product changes and drive Product-led Growth? I've been facing these challenges myself and collecting knowledge for years to address them. 📌 What prepared me to share this knowledge with you: 1.&nbsp;For 6+ years at Miro, I covered all parts of the Growth funnel holistically&nbsp;(Activation, Engagement, Monetisation, Community-led Growth).2. As a part of Growth Leadership at Miro, scaled from 1 Growth team (5 people) to a stream of 15 teams (170+ people).3. As a founder of Growthmates, collected knowledge directly from 20+ leaders from Notion, Canva, Dropbox, and4. As a Growth advisor, helped 10+ B2B and B2C companies in SaaS, Collaboration, Education, AI, and other sectors. 📌 What to expect on this course: ✦ Take an end-to-end look at 3 key Growth flows: Activation, Habit-forming, Upgrades ✦ Apply Behavioural science methods and uncover new opportunities through a user-centric approach ✦ Turn your ideas into roadmap by applying 5-step Growth Flow review and prioritisation framework 🎯 As a result — you will create a diverse roadmap that will translate your ideas into Quick Wins, Meaningful shifts, and Big bets that you can present and get a buy-in. 📕 Resources that you'll get as a part of the course:— 30+ product flows for Onboarding, Adoption, and Upgrade experience from Notion, Canva, Dropbox, and more— User Research Pack for Growth initiatives (Survey templates, Interview guides, and more)— Live time with Kate Syuma on sessions to receive feedback ——— ❗️ This course is NOT about abstract growth strategies. It's about real product examples, behavioral science knowledge, and PRACTICE that you can combine with your real work project. — Products that use only Sales-led model (course is about Product-led Growth)&nbsp;— Too early-stage products in the development phase (course is about your flows to analyse and improve).&nbsp;&nbsp;— If you want t learn deep Data analytics&nbsp;(course is more about Qualitative user-centric approach)

Create your Product-led growth roadmap — from Quick wins to Big bets.

📅 Join on Tuesdays for Live sessions

Bring your real growth challenge with Activation, Habit-forming, or Upgrades, and work on it by applying the frameworks shared in the course.

✏️ Work on your work-related projects during the week

Get feedback directly from me on Q&amp;A parts of live sessions, as well as from a small group of peers who are solving similar challenges — let's learn from each other!

🙌  Get feedback on your work

PMs and Product Designers working on Growth — apply frameworks and feedback to produce a roadmap to immediately take into work

"Growth team of one" — Product and Design Leaders who drive several parts of growth simultaneously (like Activation, Habit-forming, Upgrades

Growth Marketers, User Researchers, and other Product members who want to deepen their knowledge of PLG practices and Behavioural psychology

You will create a draft of the roadmap and will apply the "3 types of initiatives" framework to articulate the value of Product-led Growth and get stakeholders' buy-in.

Create a diverse growth roadmap to get buy-in

You will get feedback from me directly and like-minded peers on the growth flow you're working on.

Get direct feedback on Growth flows improvements

User-centricity requires understanding how people behave and make decisions. You'll get access to 30 main behavioral principles; we'll practice 3 Behavioral methods — all of which are complemented with real SaaS examples.

Practice key Behavioral psychology principles

You'll practice using my 5-step Growth Framework to take a helicopter view of one of the flows you'd like to excel in —activation, Habit-forming, or paths to Upgrade. After the course, you'll learn how to incorporate this approach into your work.

Take an end-to-end look at 3 key Growth flows: Activation, Habit forming, Upgrade

For your Project work, you will apply this knowledge on 3-5 critical steps of the flows by combining Growth frameworks and Behavioural science.

Uncover new changes to impact Activation, Habit-forming, Upgrades

To inform your roadmap, you'll get 30+ flows of Onboarding, Habit forming, and Upgrade examples from the best B2B and B2C SaaS, learning how they address Activation, Habit-forming, and Upgrade experience.

🎁 Access to 30+ Growth flows visual base with best practices

Combine behavioral science and proven growth strategies to create a diverse roadmap, get buy-in, and drive impact with high quality.

Kate Syuma

Founder @Growthmates • Ex-Miro Head of Growth Design

Cohort 1

Soft skills are often viewed as something you either have or don't. This common misconception holds back countless talented designers from reaching their full potential. You can significantly improve your influence and impact by understanding and practicing key principles of relationship building, strategic thinking, and organizational dynamics. These skills aren't just "nice to have" - they're the critical differentiator between designers who contribute and designers who lead. Through this intensive 3-week experience, you'll join a cohort of designers to master the foundational skills that accelerate design careers. Every session combines frameworks, hands-on practice, and real-world implementation. What Makes This Course UniqueThis course teaches soft skills and career development strategies specific to product design that aren't available elsewhere: not in books, not on YouTube, not in podcasts, not in typical design education. You'll get:• Real-world scenarios and practical solutions• Hands-on workshops practicing key skills• Frameworks specifically designed for UX careers• Direct feedback on your implementation• A concrete action plan for career acceleration Who This Course Is ForYou'll get the most value if you're:• A Senior Designer looking to expand influence (3+ years experience)• A Design Lead preparing for broader impact• A Design Manager building effective teams• An IC designer ready for the next level Most importantly, you should be:• Currently practicing UX/product design• Ready to examine and improve your approach• Open to new perspectives and strategies• Committed to long-term career growth The Catalyst ExperienceOver three intensive weeks, you'll work alongside up to 40 ambitious designers to:• Master relationship building across organizations• Develop strategic communication skills• Create personal evaluation frameworks• Build concrete career acceleration plans• Practice real-world scenarios• Construct implementation strategies Each week builds on previous learning:Week 1: Foundation for Impact* Understanding key soft skills* Building relationship frameworks* Mastering strategic communication Week 2: Assessment &amp; Growth• Understanding competency frameworks• Creating personal scorecards• Developing growth strategies Week 3: Implementation &amp; Action• Practicing with real scenarios• Creating action plans• Building accountability systems The TransformationBy the end of this course, you'll:• Build more influential relationships across your organization• Get deeper buy-in for your design decisions• Navigate complex organizational dynamics with confidence• Develop solutions to challenging team dynamics• Better influence executives, peers and team members• Create frameworks for continuous career growth Join our next cohort of catalyst designers ready to accelerate their impact and advance their careers.

Amplifying your impact.

Foundation-building sessions where you'll learn key concepts and frameworks through: <ul><li>Interactive lectures on core concepts</li><li>Guided exercises to practice new skills</li><li>Real-world case study analysis</li><li>Framework introduction and application</li></ul> NOTE: All sessions are recorded.

Tuesday Live Sessions

45-minute drop-in sessions for:<ul><li>Questions about weekly content</li><li>Project guidance</li><li>Personal scenarios</li><li>Implementation support</li></ul>

Optional Thursday Q&A Sessions

Hands-on workshops where you'll apply what you learned that week through:<ul><li>Structured practice with real scenarios</li><li>Direct peer feedback on your work</li><li>Framework refinement and customization</li><li>Action plan development and review</li></ul>

Saturday Implementation Workshops

<ul><li>Read assigned book chapters</li><li>Complete module exercises</li><li>Work on projects</li><li>Review supplemental resources</li></ul>

Self-Paced Weekly Projects
 

Mid to Senior-level design professionals with 3+ years of experience who want to amplify their impact beyond technical design skills.

You've mastered the craft of design, but stakeholders ignore your ideas. Your technical skills have outpaced your career growth.

You want to turn design expertise into influence by mastering strategic relationships, stakeholder management, and development frameworks.

Create a personal influence map and develop communication strategies that get stakeholders on board. Learn to navigate complex team dynamics and build allies across your organization.

Master Relationship Building & Strategic Communication

Develop a personalized career scorecard using proven evaluation frameworks. Learn to identify growth opportunities, set meaningful goals, and create actionable development plans.

Build Your Professional Assessment Framework

Learn to translate design decisions into business outcomes. Practice presenting to leadership, managing up effectively, and positioning yourself as a strategic partner.

Transform Design Skills into Organizational Impact

Walk away with a concrete action plan for your next career move. Include specific milestones, accountability measures, and strategies for continuous growth and influence.

Create Your Career Acceleration Roadmap

Master strategies for thriving in VUCA environments. Learn to identify hidden influencers, manage competing priorities, and turn challenging situations into opportunities.

Navigate Complex Organizational Dynamics

Learn to lead without authority. Master stakeholder management techniques, build social capital, and create networks that amplify your organizational impact.

Develop Leadership Through Influence 

Equipping talented designers with the strategic relationship skills and leadership frameworks needed to amplify their career trajectory.

Lightning Lessons

Become a Top 1% Growth Designer